Thanks for taking the time to reply.

I probably had a pec strain about 3 years ago, even though I had it all that time ago, if I keep doing pec stretches everyday would it still breakup those old adhesions?

Why would I only get the problem after I lift something heavy? After my hernia surgery recently I didn’t carry anything over a couple of pounds and I had absolutely no problems during that time.

I had been seeing a physio who said I had a “Tethered nerve” and that it felt “sticky” in my armpit. She would massage a spot in my armpit for 20 minutes or so and stretch my arm. Just after it would initially feel like my arm could swing a lot more easily when walking, it felt a lot better, something wasn’t catching in my armpit when walking.

An hour or so after the session though it would feel the same again. I think the physio got fed up of me going back all of the time, although it helped it seemed to be just a temporary fix, so I stopped going.

My chest doesn’t feel particularly tight and the shoulder doesn’t look too rounded, and it looks better than my good side. My back does look week in comparison to my good side though.

I’m only 26 and used to play sport regularly. I have tried to keep playing golf, it seems fine while I’m playing (is this because things become looser?), I just try put up with the pain after. I cant seem to be able to do weights at all, and I used to go a lot to the gym.

I don’t really want to be having surgery for this, I’d like to find out what I have and do whatever stretch / exercise for it. Would you say just keep doing as many pec stretches as possible?

Thanks very much

I found a post on ecentral.com which seems to fit more in with me than anything else I’ve read. I don’t think I have a normal TOS.

These aren’t my symptoms…

The most frequent complaints are numbness and tingling in the fingers; pain in the neck, shoulder, and arm; headaches in the back of the head; weakness of the arm and dropping things from the hand; worsening of the symptoms when elevating the arm to do such things as comb or blow dry one's hair or drive a car; and coldness and color changes in the hand. The symptoms are often worse at night or when using the arm for work or other activities.


Achy shoulder blade and armpit pain are my symptoms…

In 2005 we became aware of a large number of patients who, in addition to these symptoms, also had pain in the anterior chest wall, just below the collar bone along with pain over the shoulder blade and in the arm pit. Until recently it was thought that these symptoms were due to TOS, but now it has been learned that they are due to a condition frequently accompanying TOS, namely pectoralis minor syndrome.

I work on a computer, and the symptoms appeared spontaneously one day, an MRI showed no problem and no extra rib…


Whiplash injuries from auto accidents and repetitive stress in the workplace, are the two most common causes. Some of the occupations that we see causing TOS include working on assembly lines, keyboards, or 10-key pads, as well as filing or stocking shelves overhead. In some people, symptoms develop spontaneously, without an obvious cause. An extra rib in the neck occurs in less than 1% of the population.