- Hi, I'm Bob Schrupp, Physical Therapist.
- Brad Heineck, Physical Therapist.
- And together we are the most famous physical therapist
on the internet.
- In our opinion, of course, Bob.
- Brad, we just did a video on the top three signs
of thoracic outlet syndrome.
Now, we're gonna show you how to treat it.
- Sure.
- So these are some just basic stretches.
And what's nice about these first three
is that you can just do 'em throughout the day.
You don't have to... You can do 'em anywhere, basically.
- Sure.
- So do you wanna show the scalene stretch?
- You bet. So you can do it standing or sitting.
One thing is important that you have good posture,
shoulders back, head in that nice neutral position
as opposed to this.
Get in that position.
And then you're just gonna go off to the side.
There's a gentle stretch you're gonna feel it right here.
You could pull a little bit on your head,
but not aggressive at all.
Just fingertips is all, and relaxed,
and you're gonna hold that.
How long do you like to hold that for, Bob?
- All three times 30 seconds. - Yep.
- Now, you really wanna make sure,
like if your symptoms are on this side
you wanna stretch that way.
And if the symptoms are on the other side,
you wanna stretch the other way.
Some people, when they're standing,
they actually put their arms behind them like this,
which just helps get a little more stretch.
But then you can't use your arms.
- And then, for sure you got good posture.
- Exactly. So that's number one, the scalenes.
'Cause the scalenes, the nerve's muscles,
nerves, arteries and veins
go right through those two scalenes.
- Yep.
- All right. The next one you wanna do
is kind of a pec stretch.
And well, basically, what we're trying to do
is open this whole area up.
So a good one you can do in your chair,
we call it the hallelujah stretcher,
back extension stretch.
You got me Lonnie?
- [Lonnie] Mm-hmm.
- All right. - Yeah. That's his good side.
- My good side is back here.
All right. So you can put your arms up like this,
and then you're gonna just stretch back.
Now, this one, you can actually do repeats if you want.
- And nice thing about this one,
it's great for your thoracic and your mid-back as well,
so you're getting more than one benefit outta this.
- This is a double benefit.
- Right. But you wanna feel those muscles stretched
right in through here in those pectorals major
and minor muscles right there.
- Yep. The higher you bring the arm up,
the more you're gonna stretch the minor.
And we'll show that in the doorway too.
So the third one is basically you're gonna need a doorway.
So Lonnie's gonna follow us over to this doorway.
- And most people have doorways, Bob.
- Oh, that's a good point.
- Oh, here we go. We'll use this one.
- Give Lonnie a minute to get in place.
- Careful. Easy. - Careful. Easy.
- Good job. Thank you.
- We don't like the cut away.
- No, no. All right, here we go.
So you can put your hands here.
But like Bob says, higher up,
you're gonna get that pectoralis minor.
And we're gonna stretch.
And boy, I'm just relaxing here
and being real gentle about it.
- A good lean in again. - Yep.
- And good again. 30 seconds time three.
This is one you can just, when you find a doorway,
go ahead and do it as a reminder.
And it's a good one for, actually, everyone to do,
because everybody tends to get tight in that area.
- Right. Yeah.
Yep. And if someone has to get through the door
you just tell 'em, "Wait, I'm doing my stretches
"Bob and Brad said to do."
And they'll say, "Oh, sorry. Excuse me."
- All right, last one.
We're gonna give you a bonus one, Brad.
'Cause we always give a bonus one, right, don't we?
- Yep.
- So what you're gonna wanna do is you're gonna get
some sheets and a towel maybe,
and you're gonna wrap it up like this.
And then you're gonna use Brad's famous duct tape
and you're gonna make a roll around it.
And this is a good solid thing here.
Look at it, just solid.
So what you're gonna do is you're gonna lay this down,
you're gonna have to move now, Brad.
- Ah, sorry.
- And you're gonna put this down on your bed
or on the floor,
and you're gonna put it right between the shoulder blades.
Now, normally I'd have a pillow here too.
Well, Brad's gonna get me a pillow.
And I'm just gonna lay like this,
and I can put my arms out like this
and I'm just gonna relax.
And this is a great stretch.
- You may have to double the pillow up,
so you can get things lined up.
- That's beautiful.
And I'm even gonna put my arms out like this
'cause that'll stretch that pec minor.
And this is just gonna relax everything
and open everything up.
And this one alone, probably,
will help solve a lot of your thoracic outlets problems.
- But the other problem you might experience with this
is if you're doing it at home
and you've got young children or pets,
they may jump on you and squish you.
There might be some other issues in that point.
- But we're not responsible for that.
- Thank you. - All right.
Thanks a lot for watching.
Make sure you subscribe.
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