Improve your Rotation!
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Here are 2 exercises to improve your Thoracic spine mobility, with some side benefit of improving Shoulder Mobility.
Exercise #1️⃣:
✅Start in a 1/2 kneeling position with a ball between your inner leg and the wall. This will ensure you DON’T cheat with any hip motion!
✅Try to rotate with your hand all the way around and back
-Progression: Keep your hand away from the wall the entire time
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Exercise #2️⃣
✅In half kneeling – Keep both hands behind your head
✅Thoracic spine around the world against wall
✅Rotate all the way around and come back, try to challenge yourself from keeping the elbow away from the wall.
❌AVOID side-bending the opposite direction, this is a compensation.
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What is the difference between this and the open book exercise? This requires more active range of motion!
This stretch is for all the desk jockeys. The thoracic spine is often stable and generally on the stiffer side, limiting mobility. This limited mobility can manifest in compensations up or down the chain, which is why people often have neck and low back pain!
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Your thoracic spine–also known as your mid-back–is comprised of 12 vertebrae (T1-T12) and is responsible for about 35 degrees of rotation to each side. This number is just a norm and can vary from person to person. The amount of rotation you have depends significantly on your activity. For example, if you play golf or baseball you may have more rotation to one side than the other.
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To perform this exercise:
-Begin with a rock back to allow your lumbar spine to go into flexion in order to lock out your lower back. This allows the motion to come primarily from the thoracic spine.
-Rotate with one hand as far as you can while keeping your arm in contact with the floor.
-An alternative way of performing the exercise is shown with the hand on the head. Focus on opening up your chest to the wall you are rotating towards. Focus on moving ONLY at the thoracic spine. .
Note: This stretch will additionally open up your pecs!
Going off of this weeks theme of improving shoulder overhead mobility. Did you know the last bit of shoulder elevation is attributed via thoracic spine extension? The average thoracic spine flexion is 35 degrees while extension is 25 degrees. With the hunched over position that most of us remain in throughout the day, we often lack the extension needed to reach overhead. When this area is stiff we often look to compensate with excessive motion either up (cervical spine) or down (lumbar spine) the kinetic chain which can lead to a cocktail of impairments.
Demonstrated here is a way to improve thoracic extension use a foam roller by @Mobloko , (use claim code “PREHAB10” for 10 dollars off).
-I lay down finding an area of the thoracic spine that I feel is stiff or Hypomobile. Then I go to end range trunk extension (hinging at the segments on the foam roller), this foam roller is essentially providing a Posterior to Anterior glide of the segments it is on. This posterior to anterior is essentially mimicking how the vertebrates move when going from flexion to relative extension.
-Make sure to keep your butt on the floor! This will help prevent you from hinging at the hips. Also avoid hinging at the lumbar spine.
-I continue to bring up the foam roller on my back and oscillate at end ranges of motion of thoracic extension.
-Perform this for 5 minutes, then reassess your thoracic extension or shoulder elveation range of motion to look for improvements. Tag someone with a stiff back that can benefit from this!
Hopefully you don’t want your back to look like the image shown on the Left. If this is true try out this mobility drill to improve extension in your mid-back aka Thoracic Spine!
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1️⃣Place the foam roller perpendicular to your spine onto a segment which you want to work on (personally I like to work from bottom to top). 2️⃣While grabbing onto a stick/pipe, elevate your arms as far back as you can-in an attempt to touch the floor. This movement is very similar to a wall angel.
3️⃣Spend a few repetitions on each segment-then move up toward the next.
. ❌Don’t allow your but to come off the floor or your ribs from flaring out this is typically due to compensation from your low back!
✅A more aggressive way to perform this exercise is by using an external load of a weight as shown here. This will make the stretch more passive and less active.
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A stiff thoracic spine may contribute to issues both up the kinetic chain to the shoulders/neck or down the kinetic chain to your lower back. With a hunched over position that most of us remain in throughout the day, our joint/soft tissue often adapt to this flexed posture; limiting us from getting that 25 degrees of thoracic spine extension that is considered the norm. When someone lacks Thoracic spine extension, often times they will compensate with lumbar spine (lower back) extension. With repeated poor movement pattern of compensated lumbar spine extension, an individual may develop extension sensitive low back pain.
FEEL: You should feel moderate amounts of pressure in your mid back. If you feel a “pop”, that is totally normal and okay.
COMPENSATION: Do not put the foam roller on your lower back, just your upper back. Keep your core engaged and do not overly arch in your lower back.
