Thoracic Outlet Syndrome Exercises

Related Sections in this series:

Thoracic Outlet Syndrome

TOS Exercises and Tips

I suspect that the exercises for TOS probably depend a lot on the root cause. In my case a main factor was an elevated shoulder from scoliosis. So the simple answer for TOS exercises is that because your shoulder area hurts that is where you should stretch and focus your exercises. The human body is complicated, however, and a simple solution may not be sufficient to solve a complex musculoskeletal problem.

My rheumatologist told me that my left shoulder was elevated because it was "holding up the left side of my body". When he said that to me, it was one of those profound, light bulb turning on moments in my brain. My left shoulder was higher and taut because my right shoulder was getting pulled down by a big knot in my right leg.

So if I had only worked at getting out the knot in my left shoulder and not finding out what caused the knot to begin with, my thoracic outlet syndrome would not have improved. I understand that is it is unconventional thinking to get a knot out of your leg to improve your shoulder pain, but if you think about it, it is is highly logical. Doctors often treat people like they are made of car parts where you can replace one part and not effect the structure and balance of the remaining parts. However, humans aren't built like cars. We're stacked more like a house of cards or a Jenga game. The structure of our bones, ligaments and muscles are to some extent interdependent upon the structure of the surrounding body parts.

Most books on thoracic outlet syndrome, and other conditions often labeled repetitive stress injuries, only have exercises for the arms and shoulder. So for people like me, and I suspect many others with overall body alignment problems, they didn't help that much. A good book that does take a whole body approach is Pain Free at Your PC by Pete Egoscue.

Pain Free at Your PC

By Pete Egoscue with Roger Gittines

Most of the exercises in his book are based on yoga poses, which I found to be very helpful for thoracic outlet syndrome and many of the other related conditions that I had. As with the other books I recommend, I don't do every pose in this book, but I'm working up to the point where I can do all of the exercises without pain.

The exercises that helped my TOS the most from this book were:

Gravity Drop - p. 51 - this helped to stretch out my calf muscles so they weren't pulling on my upper body.

Static Wall - p. 52 - this also helped to reduce tension in my legs, which in turn reduced tension in my upper body.

Sitting Floor Twist - p. 65 - my torso used to have a slight twist to the right, which I think is part of the reason my left shoulder is so tight. The muscles in my right shoulder were overdeveloped from the constant tension of the twisted torso. The twisting poses like the ones in this book really helped me to stretch out my shoulder muscles by counter twisting to the left. I do the pose in both directions, but I hold the left twist a bit longer.

Upper Spinal Floor Twist - p. 69 - this is probably the one most helpful pose I found for my TOS. I twist my legs to the right and stretch out my arm to the left, and for me it really helps reduce tension in my left shoulder area. When I'm on the PC and my shoulder starts to hurt, this is the first exercise that I do.

All of the office therapy exercises starting on page 73 are also pretty good.

Standing Spread Foot Forward Bend - p. 145 - this pose helped both my scoliosis and TOS.