Exercise therapy is widely used in the conservative treatment of long-standing subacromial pain, but there is still no consensus on recommending any specific treatment schedules. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of a high-dose versus a low-dose of the same repetitive exercise program in patients with long-standing subacromial pain/impingement. Sixty-one patients were randomly assigned either to a high-dose medical exercise therapy group (HD) or to the low-dose exercise therapy group (LD). Both groups received three treatments a week over a 3-month period. The differences between the groups were: number of repetitions, number of sets and time spent on performing global aerobic exercises. Patients in both the LD group and HD group experienced improvements in functional ability, and the HD group had significant better results compared with the LD group with respect to pain, function, range of motion and isometric strength. However, both groups increased functional ability from pretest to post-test.
There is a dose-response effect when using active graded exercises to treat patients with long-standing subacromial pain.