How to Improve Your Thoracic Mobility
Apr 24th, 2008 by Mehdi
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Your spine consists of several parts. Your lower back or lumbar spine counts 5 vertebrae (L1-L5). Each segment has about 2 degrees rotation which totals for 30° movement when turning. Your lumbar spine is designed for stability.
Your cervical spine or neck counts 7 vertebrae (C1-C7). About 40° movement in rotation. Your thoracic spine or middle back counts 12 vertebrae (T1-T12). 70° movement when turning and designed for mobility.
Lack of thoracic mobility is as common as lack of hip mobility. Slouching posture, hunchback, problems rotating your torso, … You’ve seen it, it might even sound familiar. This post will show you how to fix it.
Why Do You Need Thoracic Mobility? Lack of thoracic mobility forces your body to function in ways it was not designed for. Lack of thoracic mobility also forces your lower back and/or neck to compensate. Both increase risks of injury.
- Improve Posture. Part of the solution to a slouching back - kyphosis - is improving your thoracic mobility.
- Improve Technique. Keeping your chest up on Squats & Deadlifts prevents lower back rounding. Improving thoracic mobility makes it easier to keep your chest up. It also makes it easier to shift your torso under the bar during the Overhead Press.
- Avoid Lower Back & Neck Injuries. Lower back has 30° mobility, neck 40°, thoracic spine 70°. If you lost 70° mobility at the thoracic spine, you risk forcing mobility in your lower back/neck. Example: rotating your torso to look behind you when parking your car. This can result in a tweaked lower back/neck if you lack thoracic mobility.
- Prevent Rotator Cuff Injuries. Kyphosis prevents your shoulder-blades from tilting back when raising your arms. This narrows the subacromial space, increasing risks of shoulder impingement. Frequent impingement causes rotator cuff injuries over time. And external rotations won’t help without addressing thoracic mobility.
Do You Lack Thoracic Mobility? Lie with your back on the floor. Feet flat on the floor. Glutes against the floor. Bring your arms straight overhead (not the side). Keep your elbows locked and don’t hyper-extend your lower back.
If you can’t touch the floor with your wrists like in the picture above, you lack thoracic mobility. You can improve it using the following exercises.
1. Thoracic Spine Soft Tissue Work. I recommend Perform Better’s Foam Roller Plus. It has a PVC pipe on the inside which makes it last longer than other foam rollers. I use a paperboard roller, but a PVC pipe works too.
Lie back on the floor. Put the foam roller under your thoracic spine. Hug yourself so your shoulder-blades shift to the side. Foot flat on the floor. Glutes off the floor. Roll back & forth. Stay away from your neck and lower back.
This exercise will loosen your upper-back. Cracking & popping is common. Work through the pain while keeping your elbows up. Your back will feel better after 2-3 sessions. Again: stay away from your neck & lower back.
2. Thoracic Spine Soft Tissue Work with Tennis Balls. Same exercise as the first one but using 2 tennis balls inside a sock.
Perform sit-ups with your thoracic spine between the 2 tennis balls. Head goes against the floor on each rep. Crossed-arm grip. Elbows up. Move the tennis balls up every 3 reps. Stay away from your lower back & neck.
3. Thoracic Extension with Foam Roller. Stay on the floor with the foam roller under your thoracic spine. Glutes on the floor, hands behind your head, elbows pulled together. Drop your head. Let your upper-back stretch.
Your goal is to “arch” your thoracic spine. Try to wrap your upper-back around the foam roller. Glutes on the floor, head down, elbows together. Hold position for a few seconds then move up. Stay away from your neck & lower back.
This exercise will fix your bent upper-back posture. If you’re into powerlifting use this exercise to increase your arch for the Bench Press. But always stay away from your neck & lower back.
4. Side Lying Rotations. Lie on your right side. Left hip & knee flexed at 90°. Right leg straight. Rest your left leg on a cushion or foam roller so you can’t rotate at your lower back. Hold your right arm straight above you.
Push your right hand up while bracing your abs. Left hand on the floor with your hand palm up. Bring your left hand to your right hand while rotating your hand out. Hold the position for 2 seconds, then come back down. 10 reps both sides.
This exercise improves thoracic extension & rotation while improving your chest flexibility. Make sure you move from the thoracic spine, not from your lower back. Push your abs out from start to finish.
5. High Step Rotations. Grab a broomstick and put it on your back like for Squats. Rest your right leg on bench. Push your abs out. Squeeze your left glute. Rotate as far as you can to the right without moving your pelvis.
This exercise improves thoracic mobility & glute activation. Don’t move your neck and pelvis. The whole movement must come from your thoracic spine. Push your abs out and squeeze the glute of your down leg.
6. Quadruped Thoracic Rotation & Extension. Get on all 4s. Arms & thighs perpendicular to the floor. Brace your abs. Left hand behind your head. Rotate your trunk to your right arm by leading with your left shoulder.
This exercise improves thoracic rotation and extension. Move your thoracic spine, not your lower back, neck or elbow. Keep your elbow inline with your shoulder, your neck inline with your spine and push your abs out.
7. Heel Sit Mid Thoracic Stretch. Kneel on the floor. Sit back on your heels. Lay your torso on top of your thighs. Left arm reached out in front of you. Right hand behind your head. Rotate your trunk to the ceiling.
This exercise improves thoracic rotation & extension. Move from your thoracic spine. Keep your stomach on your thighs. Keep your elbow inline with your shoulder. Keep your neck inline with your spine.
8. Indian Style Thoracic Mobilization. Sit indian style. Hands behind your head. Rotate to the right. Sidebend to the right. Try to rotate further on each rep by moving from your thoracic spine. Video by Mike Boyle.
Try all these thoracic mobility exercises. 2 sets of 10 reps as warm-up and/or on recovery days. Focus on quality of movement not quantity. The exercises you struggle with are the exercises you need to do.
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Medhi, this site is a treasure. Thank you. I hope you have a business plan that keeps you profitable and posting, because I would really hate to lose all this marvelous advice and content. I am only beginning to really delve into your past articles, but you have already cleared many things that always bothered me. Thanks again.
That’s a huge one after the break !!!
Thx
perfect! exactly what i needed.
Excellent post. This will be useful for anyone who does any kind of strength training and for those who have any form of back pain.
@Brock, I am with you on that!! I hope that we won’t see that day!!
Long way to go though!! I can’t stop my self saying “thanks alot” Mehdi for all the advise!!
On side notes…I gained 2.2 lbs of muscle on week 1 of 5X5 program. My LOG is up in the forums section. Waiting for this Monday for my Week2 results
@Mehdi
Man, nice one.
The posture-articles are my favourites. It shows how F%§&-Up our body is after several years of mistreating through an sedentary lifestyle. I don’t have this particular problem, but I have other inflexibilities which I’m treating right now . Thanks man!
Btw. Your writing skill has improved noticeable
Great post Mehdi
Can’t wait for similar tips that deal with the Upper Spine. I had an upper spine injury last month, which was cured with a Chiropractic technique that decompress-crackles the spine.
Great Article Mehdi. Reminds me of a lot Eric Cressey’s stuff from t-nation and Bill Hartman’s and Mike Robertson’s inside-out DVD. I too enjoy the posture articles, particularly because they apply to me.
I’ve have a heap of kinetic chain injuries - shoulders, elbows, sometimes back. It’s very strange because i’m actually a very flexible a guy - i don’t have problems with the exercise above, i can easily squat below parallel, my dynamic flexbility isn’t bad at all (high kicks and all developed from years of karate), passive flexibility, although worse, isn’t bad at all when compared to the general population. Yet, regardless, of my flexibility i still suffer from a myriad of shoulders problems and other annoyances like back and sometimes glute pain.
I was wondering whether you could offer me some general advice. I realise a proper diagnosis impossible to do over the net due to the shear number of factors that could be influencing my pains. But maybe you could offer some advice. i list the problems in the next post.
@Mehdi
Several years ago i began experiencing shoulder discomfort. I wouldn’t say pain but perhaps impingement and poor scapular and serrtus anterior function. X-rays and ultrasound concluded my shoulders were healthy. Nevertheless, i had basically lost all stability in my shoulders. Every time i would go to the gym i felt my shoulders were just loose. Last year i began having ART which has definitely helped in restoring and promoting stability though corrective exercise and removal of scar tissue but it has not fully solved the problem. I would like to say i’ve never actually experienced severe pain in my shoulders - it has always been a lack of stability, looseness, laxity - perhaps i’m hyper mobile, i’m not sure. In terms of exercise performance, my squat and bench numbers havn’t really improved in years. Although, i may not be totally consistent with my gyming it doesn’t explain why my deadlift numbers have slowly tipped 100kgs but my squat has stayed on 50kgs and my bench press has stayed at around 50+- for the last couple of years.
Recently, other parts of my body ave started to feel the effects of my poor posture - rounded shoulders, slight anterior pelvic tilt, flat feet, poor core functioning. I’ve started to experience left elbow pain, right hip always click, occasional back and glute pain.
It has been a frustrating couple of years at the gym, justs pains and no improvement. I believe my main problems are my lack of core exercises (though i surprised myself when i could hang off a pullup bar and raise my legs to my head- and i never train abs directly), rounded shoulders; im guessing a lack of stability, muscle imbalances and strength -(since i’m experiencing all these problems for a guy who;s only 19). I see people older with worser posture never having any troubles. Anyways, i apologise for the rant and lengthy post and i thank you in advance for any advice you can offer.
@Brock
Don’t worry about that, there always be blog posts.
@thenonhacker
There isn’t much to be said about the cervical spine, it’s much like the lumbar spine. Tips would include: lots of thoracic mobility, stretching the traps (not neck), correct head posture, etc
@Alex
If you say you have rounded shoulders/anterior pelvic tilt, start by addressing those. You probably have tight pecs (pecs are to shoulders like hip flexors are to pelvis), doorway pec stretch, foam rolling of pecs, etc. You could also try overhead squats, those will stretch your pecs the hard way, while realigning shoulder-blades.
Bookmarked!!
@Medhi
Thanks for an excellent post, Medhi. I injured a disc in my back about 8 years ago (it’s fine now) but a combination of compensating for it and working in an office job has left me with very little spine mobility these days. I’ve been looking for some good, practical exercises to get that mobility back so I was delighted to discover your website and this post.
I particularly like the Thoracic Mobility test as I wasn’t sure where exactly I needed to focus my attention but doing your test proves that my thoracic region needs some SERIOUS work. My wrists were a good six inches off the floor and I couldn’t have touched them down if my life depended on it!
Thanks again, and if you feel like doing a similar post foIr lower back mobility that would be great, as my lower back doesn’t bend, either!
Cheers,
Dave
Great post as usual
I can bring my wrists close to the floor, but not touch - but I feel tightness in my shoulders when I’m close to the limit.
Is this the normal symptom for lack of thoracic mobility, or does it mean that the problem is with my shoulder flexibility?
@Sifaan
Could be tight lats, try stretching/foam rolling them.