Thoracic Spine Mobility and some other stuff
Are you working to maintain or improve your thoracic spine mobility?
I hope so. It seems with all the assessments that I do in my PT clinics and at IFAST, I’m seeing more and more mobility issues with the thoracic spine on my patients and clients.
Most of these people with limited thoracic spine mobility also present with either neck pain or shoulder pain. This isn’t really a big surprise as we’ve known for quite some time that reduced thoracic spine mobility limits scapular mobility which, in turn, limits shoulder and cervical range of motion. As these joints typically require a great deal of mobility for normal function, it’s common to see compensations that lead to pain and injury.
Mobilizing the thoracic spine with a foam roller has become quite common in fitness and sports training fields, and while this is a great contribution to improving mobility, even the foam roller has limitations. When mobilizing your thoracic spine, you need to mobilize not just in the sagittal plane with extension mobilizations. You also need to mobilize in rotation and sidebending to optimize mobility.
For those of you who are using the Assess and Correct program, you’ve already experienced the benefits of approaching thoracic spine mobility from multiple planes.
At IFAST, we’ll also reinforce thoracic spine mobility during horizontally loaded cable exercises, like horizontal pushes and pulls, as well as unilateral shoulder exercises such as PNF diagonals, and total body exercises like chops and lifts.
What else can you do to positively influence your thoracic spine mobility?
You need to reinforce it throughout the day. There’s a concept called competitive adaptation in fitness and rehab fields. Basically, it means that what you do most often or with the strongest stimulus will result in the greatest adaptation.
For instance, you’re most likely sitting in front of a computer as you read this. If you spend a great deal of time doing computer work or playing video games, break the postural cycle every 15 minutes by sitting up as tall as possible to reduce the slouching influence. Make sure you stand up and squeeze your buttocks together every 50 minutes or so. If you drive long distances on a regular basis, stop every hour to stand and stretch.
The real fix is a matter of breaking those patterns that negatively influence thoracic spine mobility and then doing enough progressive mobility work to assure optimal thoracic spine mobility.
Other Stuff…
Congratulations to Mike the Intern on the completion of his IFAST Internship and his graduation from Western Michigan.
My good friend and fitness director at Men’s Health Magazine has a brand new book combo out for Christmas.
The Men’s Health Big Book of Exercises
The Women’s Heatlh Big Book of Exercises
Order it now and you can have 619 new exercises for your best body in 2010. Oh, and you’ll also get some cool workouts from yours truly in there too.
Bill
“At IFAST, we’ll also reinforce thoracic spine mobility during horizontally loaded cable exercises, like horizontal pushes and pulls, as well as unilateral shoulder exercises such as PNF diagonals, and total body exercises like chops and lifts.”
Bill,
I am new to training, so I apologize when this request comes across as highly uninformed and clueless! Would it be possible for you to briefly elaborate on what goes on during the movements listed above to reinforce thoracic spine mobility.
Merry Christmas to you, your family, all the folks at IFAST, and I hope that 2010 is your best year yet!
Bill,
Great post. DO you ever use elastic tape to correct the posture. I use it all the time as a reminder for them to sit up straight, retract the shoulders. I like the assess & correct stuff and I will post a review about soon. I did mention it in another post you might enjoy.
http://chidaily.wordpress.com/2010/01/04/functional-movement-screen-fms-does-it-predict-anything/#more-44
~ Chi
Yes, we will tape as a corrective measure to reinforce postures and improve scapular positioning.
Bill,
Thanks for the post and I will check out Access and Correct. I’ve been meaning to send you a lengthy email but I’ll keep it short for now. I’m a Physical Therapist/CSCS with about 12 years experience, mostly outpatient ortho. I’m quite confident with some areas, have my interest areas but have areas that I feel I need to relearn or readdress. I have been searching for info on Janda’s upper and lower crossed syndromes…most of what I find, at least on the web, is defining what they are and generally what needs to be addressed. I was wondering if you (and Cressy, Robertson etc) have discussed this and if you had any reference suggestions. Thoracic/Scapular/Cervical issues that you guys might be discussing here look at least on the surface, possibly like the upper crossed syndrome type of issues? I’ve considered Gray Cook’s FMS but haven’t been too quick to drop $600 or more. By self diagnosis, I feel I fit into the lower crossed syndrom but if I had myself as an actual patient…I’m not sure exactly where to start? My thought is if I can figure out how to “fix” myself, then I can apply that new knowledg onto my own patient care. I’m between Dayton and Cinci…if I need to, I’ll come to Indiana at some point for a consult and step out of my clinician shoes into my patient shoes.
Thanks for your time and consideration.
Ryan
Good stuff!
I would be interested if you can post some videos on the t-spine drills you use. I have quite a few, but I am always looking for anything that works better.
Excellent point–lifting since it is higher stress worked to keep either poor posture or good posture longer, depending on how you let athletes lift.
Rock on!
Mike T Nelson PhD(c)
Have used you InsideOut DVD to help with t-spine mobility. You refer above to pnf diagonals – do you have a vid link/description of these pnfs please? thanks
Not understanding, Chris. If you have Inside-Out, the diagonals are described in the manual and demonstrated on the DVD.
Sorry – I last looked at InsideOut about 1 year ago and just do the exercises – simply forgot the name – I apologise. Thanks
Mr. Hartman,
When you talk about Thoracic spine mobility are you referring to the flexibility in the musculature or the mobility of the vertebrae themselves. I recall a few weeks back in one of my graduate classes my professor was very clear in stressing the point because the thoracic vertebrae were attached to the sternum, via the ribs, that there was no measurable movement within these joints. He then demonstrated with a model that the only freely movable vertebrae were in the cervical and lumbar regions. Just want to be sure I’m understanding what you mean exactly by mobility. Thoughts?
Thanks for your time.
Blake Theisen, CSCS
Graduate Assistant, Strength and Conditioning
St. Cloud State University
The ribcage is a range of motion limiter, but it does not restrict T-spine motion to zero. The mobility of the T-spine is a factor of the musculature and connective tissues as well as the mentioned ribcage limitations.