Carbonfiberboy I am (independent of your input) coming to the conclusion that the proper treatment in my case is going to involve personal experimentation. However, it is frustrating that in my attempt to improve my back (manifests as hip and/or lower leg pain) I seemed to have injured my shoulder (planks). I have decided that pain that goes away and does not get worse day to day is not necessarily a bad thing - otherwise it is bad. Ultimately that principle ruled out a whole bunch of prescribed PT elastic band stuff and the planks (suggested from outside PT-land).
Hanging is interesting. I will have to try that. I will add that to the range of motion shoulder stuff that I have started trying. Given my experience with planks I am really cautious about anything involving strength. I will be discussing this with my physician in my upcoming annual physical. But strength exercises only work by first breaking things down a bit on the expectation that recovery will make things a big stronger. This is not risk free in my mind.
And I would dearly love to understand why my back issue seems to have almost completely disappeared. I got my second spinal epidural back in Nov. 2021 which was following the same path as the first one - 90-95% relief for a month or two and then slow degradation in the level of relief after that (close to no relief after 6 months). I am now close to 5 months post epidural and my back situation is as good as it has been since before this all started in Jan. 2021. It seemed to have reversed course in the last 6-8 weeks. Maybe it is the crunches that I do - I have no clue and would love to understand. I probably won't get that understanding but I am now religious about crunches. And I have not tried it, but I think that I could walk and carry my golf bag for 18 holes without an issue. Or maybe not ....
dave