Pain in armpit
 

When I bring my shoulders back I feel a *painful* stretch in the armpit.
I thought I was stretching one of the muscles, but if I reach there, I feel the bundle of nerves tightening, not the muscle.
Same thing happens if I try to do a doorframe stretch (which leaves me with numb fingers).
If I stretch a bit more, the pain radiates up to the top of my scapula.

Asked my wife to do the same and she has a stretch in the bicep muscle as I would expect.
Is this a pec minor syndrome or a TOS symptom?

Some amount of pec minor sx is usually involved with TOS, it may or may not need surgical interventions unless therapy and posture work can't resolve or reduce it to a manageable level..
Also lymph nodes in arm pit can get clogged at times.

maybe you need to use less active treatment first- then increase as tolerated..
like this foam roll or rolled towels passive position - may times a day -
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/al...pictureid=5400

Or

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/al...pictureid=5399

If those increase pain/sx then just lay on floor flat w/ knees up and arms out as tolerated and focus on relax and deep diaphragm breathing. many times a day also..

Did you find the sites & charts on the TRP sticky thread showing trigger points and referred pain. a tennis ball on floor /wall works well if a spouse or friend isn't around to help.

Thanks Jo*mar.
I cannot do foam roll either - my arms go numb.
Even the corpse pose gives me pain in the shoulder.

Does this mean I need to release the pec minor first before trying to stretch?

I get pain in the armpit too --- always did. It did not improve after my pec minor surgery with Dr Sanders. My armpit pain comes from my TOS. When my TOS gets flared up, my armpit pain develops. After my TOS surgery, I was able to release the muscles near the armpit, serratus anterior, teres major/minor, triceps, lat. Once I released those muscles, my armpit pain greatly improved. I rarely have it on the left side anymore and if I get it, I go back to releasing those muscles and it does the trick for me.

Just wondering how u released the muscles in the armpit? I'm having severe outside armpit, scapula, & bicep pain. Doorway stretches dont help. I had tos surgery and now my Dr wants to do Pec minor surgery.
Thanks
Rhonda

Hi Rhonda,
Doorway stretches and stretches in general don't help me either --- in fact they can cause flare-ups sometimes. I firmly press my finger in an area underneath my armpit (not in the armpit, but under it where the ribs and serratus anterior are). This may hurt pretty bad if the area is sore (it does for me when I'm flared up). While you are keeping pressure on the spot, begin to raise your arm up and bring it passed shoulder level -- and then stretch the arm with a doorway stretch or whatever. It only works for me if I pin that area and then do the stretch --- starting with the arm down and raising it up. That is the basics. I found a lot of different areas to pin and different ways to stretch/move the arm once pinned. The different combinations of pinning and stretching have released many muscles for me and greatly improved my function. It works very well on my surgery side. I am not sure it would relax the scalenes and drop the first rib for people who haven't had surgery.
I wish I had a video to show you --- I think it would be so much easier to explain and I could show you the spots that have worked for me. Be careful not to go directly in the armpit --- there are nerves in there and they can get irritated.

[B]
Do. U mean near the outside edge of scapula? Do u use your thumb or 2 fingers?
Ive heard of something called Theracane, its hard with round knobs for trigger points. Ive been having severe pain inside scapula, mid -to upperback area for 3 wks constant and getting worse. Feels like I pulled something. Do u know if this could be sx of Pec minor?
Thanks for info.
Rhonda

/B]

Maybe some of these videos will be helpful-

Pin and Stretch for Pec Minor - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6-XUB0ABWc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNGwIZDE-NI

Pin and stretch technique seems really interesting as I can actually do it without pain in the armpit (like with doorframe stretches).

I came up with a similar idea a few days ago, but haven't yet found a good way to do it myself. I can pin the muscle with my other hand, but doing that activates pec minor on the other side which probably negates the effect.
Tennis ball against the wall seems to have similar effect.

Also, be careful not to press directly on a nerve.

I don't like the doorframe stretch either as putting my arms overhead can flare up my symptoms. But I can do a similar stretch where I lay back on a soft yoga bolster and drop into three different positions: arms down, arms out and arms overhead. I still get some numbness in the arms, but it goes away quickly after I stop.

This is similar to the stretches that @Jo*mar pointed out except that I do three different arm positions. The overhead stretch has the biggest effect on my pec minor.

I pretty much have to do these stretches or eventually I get a pinching sensation in the arm pit and then if I let that go too long, pain.

Also, when I first started, I was so tight that just doing these stretches on the floor, propped up by nothing, gave me an incredible stretch in my left pec major and minor. When I improved, I added the yoga bolster for a deeper stretch. When I improved again, I started putting it on a step aerobics platform to make it deeper again.

I had to build up.

Also, nothing wrong with investigating other techniques like pin and stretch, tennis ball, beastie ball, massage, trigger point treatment, etc.

Good luck.

Dry needling done by a PT of your pec minor and traps might help, if you can find someone.

Deep tissue massage of these muscles might help. Also, muscle relaxants, I take Flexeril or skelaxin. Moist heat is good too. Try to strengthen your rhomboids, thus will improve your posture at the computer.

If you don't have it already, a split key keyboard will help open up the thoracic outlet as will a roller ball mouse help. Try reclining the chair to your work station, take breaks every hour to stretch the scalenes, thoracic area, and pec minor.

Best wishes!

About arm problems
 

My problems started with pain under my arm, pins and needles down the arm to the last two fingers. For me it was the "whole Ulnar" nerve which controls the function of the arm. It was not compressed in one place, but the whole nerve was being squashed somewhat, causing the horrible pain. Has your doctor ruled out anything to do with the ulner nerve? Just a thought as this had not been mentioned. ginnie

For me it is the median nerve that is causing problems (numb thumb and index finger).

Interestingly muscle relaxants seem to make my symptoms worse: numbness increases etc. I also cannot stretch while on muscle relaxant: any stretch stretches the nerves, not the muscle.

Try some nerve gliding exercises for the nerve stretches.


I had a lot of help from wearing carpel tunnel splints, since median nerve is bothering you, this might help. Did they rule out carpel tunnel?

The pec minor has a lot to do with compression of the ulnar nerve when it comes out of the brachial plexus. Try doing some deep tissue massage of the armpit and pec minor.