I am familiar with the Edgelow protocol but haven't found it that helpful. Maybe I'm missing something. The only exercise that I find helpful is the one where, you are lying on the floor with knees bent, and doing abdominal breathing in rhythm with pelvic rocking. When I rock forward, flatten back completely against floor and exhale, I get some relief. But that is it! All the other exercises seem to be small variants to the basic abdominal breathing.

Hiker, what particular exercises are you finding helpful?

SummerRain,

That has been my experience as well. Abdominal breathing is helpful... then you have to get off the floor and live your life. Unfortunately, I haven't found any residual relief once I get off the floor.

Take care,
Kelly

SummerRain,
yes, most exercises are variations of the abdominal breathing.
I found the basic one you described most helpful.
When I was in bad pain last year, this was the only exercise I could tolerate. I would just lie down on the floor and do it all day.

After a couple of weeks I noticed that 20 minutes of breathing provided an hour or so of relief and that I can make it through the day by doing it every hour.

The other exercises I found helpful was the longus colli strengthening and the foam roll. Breathing on a ball - not so much.

I think in my case TOS symptoms are secondary to RSI. My overworked neck muscles were constantly spasming causing pain due to nerve compression and trigger points. Doing Edgelow's exercises alllowed the muscles to relax and take pressure off the nerves.

I don't think they helped much with trigger points as I still have a lot of myofascial pain in the neck.

I've done some of the Edgelow stuff but after 35 years with TOS breathing isn't going to break up tight muscle fascia. Joint mobility exercises, self-massage, and vacuum cupping have really helped me but I've been doing this stuff for over 5 years. Results come slowly and they can be painful!

What are your symptoms? A posterior pelvic tilt appears to be what you are doing.

Edgelow's program is 1 year long. I am now at 10 months. Don't think I will be back to normal at one year, but I definitely made significant improvments.

I am feeling good on most days as long as I don't touch the computer. I can now work for 30-60 minutes before the neck pain slowly creeps in (big improvement compared with a few seconds 10 months ago).

All symptoms in my arms are moslty resolved. I can do push ups, chin ups, dumb bell curls etc without flaring up. Though I think proper scapular stabilization is more important than arm strength so this is what I am focusing on.
I resumed regular running and hiking. Went for a bike ride the other day for the first time in over a year - feeling no ill effects. Swimming is the next thing on my list.
Driving is less of a problem now - I can drive pain free for an hour or so.

I am now on the last exercise from Edgelow's DVD, neck stretch with wedges (don't have the wedges, I simply do it lying on the foam roll). There is some minor pain in the clavicle area when I do these stretches. It will probably take a couple months for it to resolve.
I am gradually adding more exercises on top of Edgelow. Mostly core exercises for the upper back and abdominals.

Still not able to work full time in the office. I am now working in the office two days and at home three days a week. My neck/shoulders feel achy after a day in the office so I have to stay at home the next two days.
The biggest problem area for me now is the neck. Any activity that involves a static pose and looking down (reading, typing, writing/drawing, cooking etc) causes neck pain. Have not yet found a remedy other than avoiding these things.
Another problem is the atrophy/weakness in the upper traps. Not seeing a lot of improvement there. I added some strength exercises for the upper traps a couple months ago. The traps feel a bit stronger, but no visible change and lack of endurance is a problem. Hopefully the affected nerves will recover and allow me to build strength.

Can you tell me a bit more about how you did the neck strengthening exercises with the cuff, any tips for the method, how many times, duration etc? I think they are crucial for me as I developed TOS via sudden trauma, though I was predisposed to it.

You use a pressure biofeedback device like this one:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01...f_rd_i=desktop

No need to buy the expensive gadget. One can simply take apart the old blood pressure cuff (the old-style with the pump and dial, not digital).

Here is the exercise (longus colli strengthening):

1. Lie on your back with knees bent
2. Place the pressure cuff under your neck and attach the meter where you can see it without moving your head. Inflate to 20 mmHg
3. Tuck the chin slightly to increase pressure to 22 mmHg
Make sure not to use scalenes or SCM muscles (feel them with your hand).
Hold for 5 seconds, relax for 5 seconds. Do 30 reps twice a day.
4. If this is easy, increase to a 10 second hold and then progress
to 30 or 40 mmHg.

This exercise is not hard to do. The idea is to learn to engage the right muscle for neck flexion and relax the scalenes.
I am not sure how fast one should progress and what target pressure is the best. I was adding 2mm pressure every few days. After a while I stopped using the meter, just inflated to the pressure that felt right.

I did this exercise for 3-4 months and found it helpful. Don't think my longus colli was actually weak. I was just using a bunch of other muscles along with it.

Thank you Hiker!

So does the arm/nerve pain come back when you work on the computer or only the shoulder pain? Its such an irritating thing, this TOS. And I still can't figure out why its the computer posture as you say, looking down, which is the biggest bother.

Hi Akash,

The current pain I have starts in the neck after 20-30 minutes of computer work. It then spreads to traps, clavicle and shoulder. This is when I stop.
I am guessing if ignore the pain and continue working, the pain will eventually spread down the arms.

Often times, I also get neck/shoulder pain at night. Static posture causing lack of circulation? Don't know.