Thoracic
Spine Mobility
Why are we taking the time to talk about the Thoracic Spine?
Isn't is just something to connect the lumbar spine to the neck?
Yes, this is true, but it does so much more than that for the
body. And, because of this mentality, it has been overlooked for
many, many years. The lumbar spine is what most people think
about when they have back pain, and everyone knows that without a
cervical spine, the head would be all over the place.
So, what area of the spine are we discussing? The Thoracic Spine
consists of the 12 vertibrae in the mid part of the spine between
scapula. It starts just below C7 and goes all the way down to
L1.
During movements, the thoracic spine is intended to be mobile.
The lumbar spine is what is supposed to be stable. All too often,
this is backwards, and the thoracic spine is stable instead of mobile
and they are attempting to get motion out of the lumbar spine.
The thoracic spine is basically intended to perform 2 motions:
- Rotation-Allows
us to move, reach and throw in mechanically sound ways. Many
athletes will present with an asymmetry with this movement.
- Flexion/Extension-We
typically have the flexion part figured out because of poor postural
habits, but extension is another issue.
The Ripple Effect
A lack of Thoracic Spine mobility will affect the body in a great
number of ways by causing compensatory changes throughout the kinetic
chaiin to make up for this lack of movement. Some of the areas
and/or movements affected are:
- Shoulder Health
- Shoulder stability and mobility are very closely related to Thoracic
Spine rotation and extension
- Overhead
Movement Patterns - An athlete's ability to press
and/or
hold an object overhead is a direct reflection on their Thoracic Spine
mobility
- Shoulder Performance
- The performance of the shoulder joint is highly dependent upon the
foundations which is is built upon, thus having a big interaction with
the Thoracic Spine.
- Sport Specific
Movements - Many sporting movements including
throwing,
hitting, and martial arts movements depend upon the Thoracic Spine to
rotate efficiently for quality, clean movement
- Overall Spinal Health
- Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. So, in order
to balance a poor area, something has to give somewhere else.
As always, MTS is devoted to helping you not only understand the most
complex and difficult injuries to the body, but we help you fix your
athletes. So, the first thing is understanding how to recognize
lack of Thoracic Spinal mobility.
Once you have read and understand how to recognize a lack of Thoracic
Spinal mobility, you need to understand how to fix it. As we have
talked, for the purposes of this discussion, you can seperate mobility
restrictions into 2 categories:
Click on either of the links to learn how to fix each area of
restriction.
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