I've been doing my intu-flow everyday and I'm really liking it alot. The more of this circular stuff I'd do, the better I seem to feel. I can do almost all of the beginner program now but I've found it's better to break it up into small stretching sessions throughout the day then to do all of it once. That way I don't overdo myself as easy.

I'm realizing now that when I started stretching a little over a year ago, both of my shoulders were frozen and so was my left hip. I was just so used to it I didn't know the difference. Also, all of my muscles were really tight and hard feeling and it hurt to touch them. One Dr. said it was fibromyalgia. Now they're starting to feel softer and looser. I can really notice a big difference.

I'm not pain-free or anything yet but at least I'm making progress.

I've been spending a lot of time studying anatomy to help with my stretching. I just came across this web page that does a good job of explaining what muscle adhesions are. I'm starting to firmly believe that muscle adhesions are a big part of TOS that is getting missed by most people.

Here's the link.http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...KKPQiALdtcTSCQ

I really think so too, it is kind of a use it or lose it syndrome.

If we don't keep gently moving we tend to get more and more adhesions & restrictions.

The long winter and cool damp spring weather here is really putting a crimp in my activities and I am feeling the results or not moving around as much.

Funny how much better I feel when we do get a warm day.


One of the links on that site is this one -
http://saveyourself.ca/articles.php

I hear ya on the weather, Jomar. It's been raining here for the past two days and I'm really feeling it in my muscles and joints. It's not supposed to rain this much in June around here. Crazy weather.

All of the stretching I do lately involves movement. The reason for this is simple, holding a stretch flare's me up, even after more than a year of stretching. Not just my upper body, but my legs will flare up just the way my arms do. Things like the doorway stretch, where you press your arms against the doorway, I don't do. I never try to stretch against a solid object like that, it just doesn't work for me.

I do some stretches standing, some sitting, and some lying down. All of the intu-flow exercises are done standing. I just move the area I'm stretching to the edge of the pain 3 or 4 times, never to far. I go to the pain, not through the pain. I'm just trying to shave off small areas of tension. It's much better to stretch an area many times throughout the day gently, then to push too hard and cause a flare up. I also try to stretch the tight area from as many different angles as possible. The circular movements I've learned from intu-flow are great for this.

Coop: I've been reading your story with this program and I'm impressed. Good for you at keeping this up and trying to make a change. I can only stretch slightly as there is a thin line between good and muscle recoil. I do have ROM, but pay the price if I do to much. I've done different programs and moving your body in all dimensions is foreign to me, but so important. Most programs suggest you make one movement with your spine (ie arching), but not arching when you're turned at various angles.

I played sports all my life and never stretched. I believe I'm paying for it now.

Cheering you on -
Anne

Thanks Anne I was actually a little hesitant to start posting this for fear I might jinx myself. After this many years I've tried a lot of things that I was excited about at first, but then I kind of hit dead ends, and got discouraged and gave up.

On one of my posts I mentioned that I had some bruising on my knee. Now I'm noticing that I have some bruising in my forearms. I've been doing a lot of circles with my elbows and wrists and I think the torque is breaking up the adhesions and tight tissues, causing the bruising. So in my opinion, it's a good thing. I have no nerve pain or tingling, so it's not hurting the nerves any. My elbows and wrists are actually starting to feel better than they have in quite a while.

It's good to hear you figured that bruising out, it sounds logical to me.
If it was a bad thing you probably would have had some pain with it.

During the last couple of months I've started using Indian clubs in a few of my exercises. Indian clubs look like baseball bats, but they're smaller, and the end of the handle is round like a ball, so you can rotate them more easily in your hands. They come in different sizes and weights. The ones I have are 16 inches long and weigh 1 pound. I bought the smallest ones because I was afraid of hurting myself.

Indian clubs are another part of circular strength training. I've been using them to do a lot of circles with my wrists and a few things for my shoulders. Holding the club creates a little more torque and traction when you're doing an exercise, to help stretch the muscles, and open up the joints a little bit more. In the beginning, my hands would usually swell, and get tight and inflamed after using them, but this seems to be getting better as things gradually loosen up.

I know it sounds crazy for someone with the TOS to be swinging things around but it seems to be helping me. A year ago, if someone told me I'd be doing this, I would have said, "That's ridiculous, there's no way I could ever do that," but here I am. The key is, everything I've done has been gradual and incremental, one baby step after another. It's taken tons of patience and creativity.