You're welcome.

My last flare up appeared to be caused by strength training such as wall pushups. I believe it was @kyoune1 that recently posted that shoulder exercises flared him up. So it's definitely tricky.

You don't need weights for postural improvements. Brugger relief doesn't use weights. Neither does the butterfly from the Peggy Brill book (well they're optional). Tell your PT that weights are not working for you and you want to stick with body weight and gravity til you improve.

I haven't had problems with the stretches as long as I follow good guidelines:

-- Hold the stretch for about 30 seconds and never longer than 60.
-- The stretch should not be painful at all.
-- The stretch should not be forceful.
-- Avoid neck stretches until you are comfortable adjusting your first rib through whatever means (strap, ball on a stick, hands on). This is a TOS specific recommendation.

Re: caffeine:

I had problems with chronic muscle tension. I found some sources that said caffeine increased muscle tension (although nothing super definitive) and never found a source saying it reduced it. One massage therapist's web post said that he could tell when his clients started or stopped caffeine as it changed their muscle tension.

According to books like "The Magnesium Miracle", magnesium deficiency is a real problem and a high calcium to low magnesium ratio is associated with harder muscles. Also, caffeine depletes magnesium, or rather your body uses up magnesium when it processes caffeine.

So I quit for awhile and supplemented with magnesium and it seemed to help. But it can be hard to say for sure, because such a thing takes time and concurrently you might be doing other things too like meditation. Other people here said they quit caffeine and it did not help them. Check the threads.

I now drink just one cup of black tea. Compared to two cups of "extra bold" coffee, this is much less.

I've also branched out in my reading which includes "Healing Back Pain Naturally". I haven't gotten to the nutrition chapter yet, but I peeked ahead and it looks like the author recommends cutting out caffeine too.

If you quit, do it gradually or you'll get nasty withdrawal symptoms!

My current plan is to continue supplementing magnesium and keeping the caffeine down. TOS sucks and I'm trying to stack up as many things in my favor as possible.

HTH

My guideline for stretching for 30 seconds minimum was taken from the Joseph Weisberg PT book. But stretching for surgical wounds may be different.

Also, I try to drink some water about 20 mins before I stretch. Dehydration makes me feel tighter.

Many thanks Chroma....... I know that I should up my water intake. I am no way near hydrated enough.
The wrinkles around my eyes tell me so!!!!!!!!!!!!! :0
H2O is the way to go!