Thoracic Spine Stretch
Benefits- Thoracic (t-spine) mobility is extremely important for your posture, shoulder function and neck/shoulder health. Your cervical (neck) and lumbar spine (lower back) should be stable areas of your spine, while your thoracic spine should be very mobile. While we don't recommend any stretching for the lumbar or cervical spine, we do recommend several movements for the t-spine. One of our favorites is the t-spine stretch featured in our above video. Without proper mobility of your t-spine, all of your rotating movements will transfer the stress to other areas of your back that are not supposed to move.
Execution- You may have done a similar stretch to the one above in your workout, but there are some subtle differences between the stretch we are demonstrating and the traditional rotating stretch. First, note that your knee is to be bent more than 90 degrees and it remains in contact with the floor. Why? Like I mentioned above, we do not want any movement in the lumbar spine. By holding your top leg at more than a 90 degree angle and keeping it in contact with the floor, you are locking your lumbar spine. Next, your hand is kept in contact with your body instead of reaching out to the floor with the traditional stretch. We do this because we are simply looking for a stretch in the t-spine and not looking to over stress the shoulder joint. Reaching to the floor only aggravates a sore shoulder and actually distracts you from really emphasizing the rotation in your mid back. Really try and push your shoulder to the ground while keeping your knee bent greater than 90 and in contact with the floor. Also, placing a towel or half roller under your head is a good idea.
Progressions- The progression for this stretch is to bend your bottom leg, reach with the free hand (top) to grab the foot of the bottom leg and to simultaneously work the shoulder to the floor while stretching the quadriceps of the bottom leg. This is a fantastic combo stretch
Especially good for- Everyone! Everyday! Golfers can really use this specific stretch to help them get more range of motion in their swing. We work with several golfers and this stretch is a staple in their program.
2 sets daily of 30-45 seconds each should do the trick. You can perform this movement more often and hold for a longer duration, if this is a problem area for you.
Get to stretchin!
2 comments:
I started doing this stretch after realizing that breastfeeding was leading to stiff mid-back. I teach pilates and forget to approach my body with the same care and concern. Re-reading this post was a great reminder that I might be spending too much time at the computer hunched over...Gonna go the T-Spine stretch right now. thanks for a great post.
Hi Anne,
Thanks for the reminder that even the "pros" need to do the restoration work!
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