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Originally Posted by NerPain4
Hi Hello There,
That is great, congratulations that you are no longer having symptoms of TOS!! Since you did P.T. for 14 months with a skilled therapist, you must be very familiar with the specific exercise!
Could you describe "lower trap activation"~ what kind of movement did you do?
Thank you!
I have heard some doctors say that neurogenic TOS can resolve with rest and "appropriate physical therapy". I had p.t. for TOS with a special program called the Edgelow Protocol and it was mostly special breathing training, lying on my back with my knees up and doing pelvic tilts training my diaphragm to relax. Even now if I have a flare up I can get in that position and do pelvic tilt breathing and it helps. Somehow it makes the sympathetic nerves relax.
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I may be able to shed some light on this one. One of my many surgeries was a rhomboid muscle and lower trap reattachment by a doctor named Ben Kibler. You can google him but he is considered a guru on the scapula. Doctors at Mayo, Cleveland etc. all know and learn from him. Anyway, activating the lower trap is essential to getting the scapula moving correctly but it is a difficult muscle to train. I do remember one specific exercise that I will try to explain.
Stand beside a kitchen table or something a little lower where your affected side is beside the table. Your arm is hanging on your side with palm facing backward. Your hand then pushes the table with an open faced hand but try to push from the lower trap versus your arm. You really have to try it and feel it in the low trap to understand what I mean. I think the exercise is called a low row or something like that.
Hope that helps.