The thoracic spine is located below along your mid back and consists of 12 vertebrae. It’s attached to your rib cage. Mobilize your Thoracic spine to support movements for everything above and below it. It’s simply the link between your upper and lower body.
The thoracic spine loves to extend and rotation. It also helps you take your arms overhead, reach out to an object behind you or help you take off your sweater coat.
Tight thoracic compromise the movement of your shoulder and your hips & result in a rolled forward shoulder posture, poor alignment, and unbalanced load transfer through the whole body.
The focus during our Thoracic training is:
- Think of a string hanging your head up as you twist your grow taller and resist any tendency to shift weight sideways.
- Move from the waistline and articulate up the segment by segment finishing with the neck and head.
- Anchor your feet forward and square your hip to isolate movement through the Thoracic spine.
Exercises tips.
Always start your workout with spinal mobility in all directions
- Use a foam roller in an incline position and extend your thoracic from neutral to extension
- Progress to side bend – lateral flexion
- Progress to spinal rotation
- Finish with flexion if you are arthritis and osteoarthritis free.
As a progression, you can repeat above in 4-point kneeling – Moving from neutral to extension- lateral flexion and rotation while the lower extremities stay stable.
