[JNT2014]

Greetings,

I get burning pain in my triceps, and it's particularly bad when I raise my arms over my head, such as when hanging laundry on the line. Assuming my TOS diagnosis is correct, does anyone have an inkling as to whether this type of pain signifies pectoralis, rib/clavicle, or scalene issues as the source of the problem?

Many thanks!

[Akash]

Originally Posted by JNT2014

Greetings,

I get burning pain in my triceps, and it's particularly bad when I raise my arms over my head, such as when hanging laundry on the line. Assuming my TOS diagnosis is correct, does anyone have an inkling as to whether this type of pain signifies pectoralis, rib/clavicle, or scalene issues as the source of the problem?

Many thanks!

C7 radiculopathy is linked to the triceps.

Could be forward head posture (do you have bad posture and kyphosis?), so you tend to put more pressure on the base of the neck in daily activities, so when you raise your arms, you are trying to compensate for limited shoulder mobility by stressing your neck further, which may put pressure on the C7 nerve root.

[JNT2014]

Originally Posted by Akash

C7 radiculopathy is linked to the triceps.

Could be forward head posture (do you have bad posture and kyphosis?), so you tend to put more pressure on the base of the neck in daily activities, so when you raise your arms, you are trying to compensate for limited shoulder mobility by stressing your neck further, which may put pressure on the C7 nerve root.

Thanks! Makes sense to me. I do have forward rolled shoulders, and forward head posture. My massage therapist has given me exercises to correct it, but the exercises often cause pain in the back of my neck. Depending on what position I am in, the pain in the back of my neck can be as bad as-or worse than-the pain in my arms.

[Akash]

A PT once told me - if it pains, don't do it. I know its hard to follow that though, because we end up doing it.

What exercises have you been given to correct the FHP? I suspect cervical retraction. It will cause pain in the back of the neck, because what you may end up doing is translation, i.e, you are moving the vertebra backwards which stresses the back of the neck and is painful. Instead, do gentle chin nods as versus chin tucks/ backward horizontal movements. Another thing to do would be to massage the back of your neck, just below the hairline. Those muscles are often very tight in those with FHP and perpetuate the issue. Best of luck!

[JNT2014]

Originally Posted by Akash

A PT once told me - if it pains, don't do it. I know its hard to follow that though, because we end up doing it.

What exercises have you been given to correct the FHP? I suspect cervical retraction. It will cause pain in the back of the neck, because what you may end up doing is translation, i.e, you are moving the vertebra backwards which stresses the back of the neck and is painful. Instead, do gentle chin nods as versus chin tucks/ backward horizontal movements. Another thing to do would be to massage the back of your neck, just below the hairline. Those muscles are often very tight in those with FHP and perpetuate the issue. Best of luck!

Basically the exercises were to gently pull my head up and back. Another description was to envision a string being attached to the "upper back corner" of the head, and imagine that string pulling up.

Can you explain the distinction between a "chin nod" and a "chain tuck"? Is there information online about the difference?

[Akash]

Both these seem ok. That's exactly the gentle kind of exercise you are meant to do. The reason I think you are getting a lot of pain on the back of the neck is probably your suboccipitals are super tight and facilitated.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped..._muscles06.png
Is this where your pain is? They respond very well to massage if you do it regularly. They are very tight in people with FHP and by relaxing them, you will get back mobility.

Chin nod would be akin to gently looking down or nodding downwards while lengthening the back of the neck ("long spine"). Chin tuck, would be trying to move the chin horizontally backwards using (say) a finger as a cue on the chin. First is what you are doing, that's fine (its use depends on person to person). Second is aggressive strengthening prescribed by some chiros etc and its very painful for the wrong person.

[Akash]

Typically with sedentary folks (as versus those with trauma induced symptoms), the usual pattern from what I've read is tight neck extensors at the base of the neck (suboccipitals) and the upper cervical spine is in extension. This is because rounded shoulders and curved upper back put the neck lower than it should be, so we tend to extend the neck upwards to look straight and move our shoulders/arms. So as a result the portion of the neck i mentioned gets super tight. Now, there is a school of thought which says because your neck is in the position (to see a computer screen for instance) and you round your back while sitting, this is the end result. So your PT is probably attempting to fix your FHP and make you sit straight to fix things.

What other exercises are you doing for the back and shoulders and neck?

[JNT2014]

Originally Posted by Akash

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped..._muscles06.png
Is this where your pain is?

One bad days it would be quicker to talk about where my pain is not. I'm exaggerating a bit but not by that much. I do get pain in the area on the chart occasionally, but typically it's a bit lower on the neck.

[JNT2014]

Originally Posted by Akash

What other exercises are you doing for the back and shoulders and neck?

Well, I spent the past year or so in a very unhappy pattern of pushing forward with new exercises only to find out that they made things worse. I actually have more pain now that I did 14 months ago.

So I have dialed things back, and am only slowly adding exercises to make sure the new ones do not hurt. I use a foam roller on my back several times a day. I also do one session with a Ma roller. A couple of times a day I use a tennis ball, racquetball, or lacrosse ball on my thoracic back and rhomboids. I spend just under 30 minutes a day stretching my neck (mostly the scalenes and SCM), and I have become cautiously optimistic that this stretching is helping. In the past few days I have experimented with doing self massage of my upper trapezoid and pecs by pressing a softball into a wall. Overall the self massage stuff feels pretty good, and at the very least does not seem to be hurting anything.

[Jomar]

Here are some other gentle things to try- gravity does the work to help shoulders drop.
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/album.php?albumid=422

Book - Conquering Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and Other Repetitive Strain Injuries- by Sharon Butler has very good stretches for all RSI /TOS with info on posture causes and corrections. She has detailed stretching ideas to gently coax the damaged tissues to release-not to force them. her website has many articles & a lot of information.
I found it very helpful.
http://www.selfcare4rsi.com/

Useful sticky thread - a lot of collected info over the years.
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread84.html