Someone asked me in a private message:
I ended up writing a novel and thought I might as well post it here in the public forum for everyone's benefit.

But first, rapid fire disclaimers: I am not a doctor or even a health practitioner. I am not cured. I don't know your specific issues. Your mileage may vary. You may have TOS plus something else that also has to be addressed. Different things work for different people. As a TOS person, you may actually need surgery and will have to determine that with your doctor. You will likely experience flare ups as part of exploring things. Easy does it.

Now then:

Yes, I have posted about Egoscue. The book I used was "Pain Free At Your PC" and I chose Chp 9 which was the exercise set for power PC users (I develop software for a living).

I found it helpful for my postural problems and for neural type symptoms. I think I observed progress after about two weeks (it's been awhile, so it's hard to recall). I did my exercises in the morning before the day's demands could interfere. For me and many others, this is a way to guarantee that something always gets done: do it first and early.

Including a few other stretches and some reading, I spent 120 minutes every morning for weeks, whether it was Egoscue or other programs. More on that below.

However, it was not helpful enough for my circulation symptoms (ATOS) or my TMJD symptoms (which I didn't know I had at the time). But I did receive benefits and I'm glad I did it. I think it was necessary for me to improve my back and shoulders.

If I had to do it over again, I would try to go to an Egoscue clinic from the start so they could individually evaluate me, prescribe specific exercises and give corrections on how I did them. My experience with my chiro and PT is that the people who do this kind of work for a living will notice things about me that I am not aware of.

Regarding my ongoing problems, I eventually saw a good chiro (one who spends 30 mins with you and pays attention to detail, rather than one who cracks your back in 5 mins and is on to the next patient). I made good progress for a couple months, but then plateaued.

I then added a muscle relaxant (diazepam) and a good PT who does a lot of soft tissue work (Joyce W in Santa Monica). After a couple months of that, I improved so much that I started strength training, but as I gained muscle mass, especially around the chest and shoulders, my compression increased and I caused a flare up. Ug!

Part of this process is learning what you cannot do.

I also have problems with chronic muscle tension (greatly improved). See our threads on magnesium, meditation and caffeine if you do too.

My current routine is down to a 35 min stretch set and another 30 mins or so of postural exercises. Throw in more reading and the chiro and PT appts (one per week of one or the other) and I'm at about 10 - 15 hours a week, down from 15 - 30 when I was in really bad shape.

I also love this book:

"3 Minutes to a Pain Free Life" by Weisberg & Shink
http://www.amazon.com/Minutes-Pain-F...8124970&sr=8-1

While the title is overhyped, I found the info and the small stretch set to be quite useful and I do them every day. I noticed results on day 3. You might even start here first for the "bang for the buck" factor. Or rather "bang for the time invested".

There is also good book for women written by a female PT called "The Core Program" by Peggy Brill, which is only 15 mins a day. Despite being for women, I gave it a try as much of it was not specific to females. Personally I found the face down "belly breath" exercise to be interesting as it evened out the lateral range of my neck (even though nothing was mentioned about it having that benefit and I was not expecting it). I do that one every day. This is a great example of how exploring these different books and really trying their programs can yield unexpected improvements while teaching you more about what your specific body issues are.

Another good one is "It's not CTS" which specifically talks about TOS.

"Somatics" by Thomas Hanna was very interesting. I found that I had both the "red light" and "green light reflexes" (as he calls them) kicking in during the day, which is bad for posture and compression. With this awareness, I have reduced them.

I also found the "Posture, Get It Straight" DVD informative. For me, "lifting the sternum" was a key tip I was in need of.

One pattern you'll see above is that whenever I plateau, I reach out for other stuff. Make progress, plateau, try something new. Repeat.

Another pattern is drawing from multiple sources to pick up every tip and advantage I can get.

Due to that, I now use a word processing document to list all my stretches and exercises. I tweak it almost every week.

So for stretches/exercises, I currently recommend:
* Weisberg book (3 min/day)
* Brill book (15 mins/day)
* Egoscue book (many mins/day)
... in that order. The first two are quick to read and start their programs. You could do Weisberg in week 1. Add Brill for weeks 2 and 3. And add Egoscue on week 4.

I recommend finding a good postural specialist whether that's an Egoscue clinic, or a PT or chiro that likes to talk about posture and muscular balance upfront as something they emphasize in their practice.

I recommend both active treatment (doing things yourself) and passive treatment (chiro, PT, OMT, etc.). I don't think either is a substitute for the other when one has serious problems.

The two downsides to the above are (a) the time it takes to do all this is huge and (b) I have not achieved a total cure (and realize I may never). (a) is mitigated by the fact that as I get better, less time is required. Also there is some overlap between the books where you'll see the same exercise ("cat and cows" and "cobra" are popular).

Plus if you have serious symptoms and forgo surgery, you pretty much just have to suck it up anyway and put in that time and effort.

The biggest upside is that my investments have yielded positive results.

I hope this information helps!