CARs: Thoracic Spine

Neutral starting point: elongate through your spine, slight convex curve.

Countering compensations: watch the shoulder blades and the hips, keep your hips pointing forwards like car headlights.

Basic functions:

• Flexion: curving forward.
• Extension: opening backward.
• Lateral flexion (side bend): shoulder to floor.
• Rotation: twist side to side.

Special concerns:

When mobilizing the thoracic spine, you have to remember your spine is more than one joint. Your thoracic spine consists of twelve vertebrae. The connection between each of these bones is a joint. In other words, your thoracic spine is more like a string of pearls, as opposed to a plank of wood.

When you’re doing mobilizations that involve flexion, extension, and side bending, you want to do your best to segment your spinal movement. In other words, you want to move each vertebra independently, preserving the shape of the chain otherwise.

 

Flexion

Flexion is curving your thoracic spine forward towards the ground. For better mobilization, curl each vertebra down individually — one at a time — instead of having your trunk topple over like a dead tree.

Start with your first thoracic vertebra. Think about spiraling it upon itself, forwards, as if it were a doorknob you were twisting. As you do this, minimize movement down the chain. Twist the top doorknob, keep every other doorknob in its place. Once you reach the first vertebra’s end range, move to the second… twist… max out your range of motion… third… twist… all the way down the chain.

Return to neutral, by reversing the movement. Start at the base of your thoracic spine. Spin the bottom vertebra back to neutral. Try to keep the shape of the chain preserved otherwise. You’re working from the bottom to the top, so the top of the chain shouldn’t be affected by your initial movements. Continue up the chain, returning each vertebra to neutral one by one until you reach the first vertebra.

Notes: 

Watch for shoulder-blade protraction and lumbar flexion.

 

Extension

Extension is curling your thoracic spine towards the sky. Approach extension the same way you approached flexion, just in the opposite direction: Curl each vertebra up and backward individually — one at a time — instead of having your trunk topple over like a dead tree.

Start with your first thoracic vertebra. Think about spiraling it upon itself, backward, as if it were a doorknob you were twisting. As you do this, minimize movement down the chain. Twist the top doorknob, keep every other doorknob in its place. Once you reach the first vertebra’s end range, move to the second… twist… max out your range of motion… third… twist… all the way down the chain.

When your thoracic spine is fully extended, your back muscles should be contracted. Pause for a second. Return to neutral, by reversing the movement. Start at the base of your thoracic spine. Spin the bottom vertebra back to neutral. Try to keep the shape of the chain preserved otherwise. You’re working from the bottom to the top, so the top of the chain shouldn’t be affected by your initial movements. Continue up the chain, returning each vertebra to neutral one by one until you reach the first vertebra.

Notes:

Watch for shoulder-blade elevation and lumbar extension.

Side bending

Side bending is dropping your shoulder toward the floor. Approach side bending the same way you approached flexion and extension: Curl each vertebra down individually — one at a time — instead of having your trunk topple over like a dead tree.

Start with your first thoracic vertebra. Think about spiraling it upon itself, to the side, as if it were a doorknob you were twisting. As you do this, minimize movement down the chain. Twist the top doorknob, keep every other doorknob in its place.

Once you reach the first vertebra’s end range, move to the second… twist… max out your range of motion… third… twist… all the way down the chain. When your thoracic spine is fully bent, the muscles on the side of the dropped shoulder should be contracted, the opposite side should feel a stretch. Pause for a second.

Return to neutral, by reversing the movement. Start at the base of your thoracic spine. Spin the bottom vertebra back to neutral. Try to keep the shape of the chain preserved otherwise. You’re working from the bottom to the top, so the top of the chain shouldn’t be affected by your initial movements. Continue up the chain, returning each vertebra to neutral one by one until you reach the first vertebra.

Repeat in the opposite direction.

Notes: 

Keep your lumbar spine steady.

 

Rotation

Rotation is twisting your thoracic spine. You don’t have to worry about spinal segmentation. From neutral, rotate your thoracic spine in one direction. Pause at your maximum range of motion for a second. Return to neutral. Repeat in the opposite direction.

Notes:

Think of your hips as headlights, they should point forward the entire movement. Also, watch for shoulder-blade protraction and retraction.

 

3-D ROTATION

The 3-D rotation is a combination of all of the 2-D mobilizations.

First, assume neutral. For this rotation, I’m sitting on a yoga block. Doing this sitting will help minimize lower-body compensations.

Start with flexion and your topmost vertebra. Spiral each vertebra downward, one at a time.

Once you finish flexion, rotate.

Once you finish rotation, side bend. Starting with the topmost vertebra, spiral your shoulder towards the floor.

Once you finish side bending, extend. Starting with the topmost vertebra, spiral your thoracic spine towards the sky.

Once you finish extension, rotate through center and across your body until you have your opposite shoulder pulled towards the floor.

Once you finish rotation, flex. Starting with the topmost vertebra.

Once you finish flexion, undo the side bend. Starting with the topmost vertebra, pick your shoulder off the ground. And then, once you undo side bending, rotate back to a basic flexed position.

Once you rotate to neutral, extend. Return each vertebra to its neutral starting position. This is ½ rep. To complete a full rep, repeat the sequence in the opposite direction.

Notes:

Your thoracic spine isn’t incredibly mobile. As you can see in my demonstrations, it’s easy to overextend yourself and compensate.

 

Parting words.

You should attack troublesome areas with isolated 2-D mobilizations.

You can do these mobilizations from different positions: standing, seated, kneeling…

You can do these mobilizations in reverse order. I went top-down here. In other words, these mobilizations started with the topmost vertebra and work towards the bottom. You can (and should) also go bottom-up from time to time.

Using extension as an example: when you go top-down, the last vertebra does its job with everything up the chain already extended. This means your last vertebra will get better at extending when everything up the chain is already extended. If you work bottom-up, then the last vertebra extends with the rest of the chain in a neutral position. This means your last vertebra will get better at extending when everything up the chain is neutral.

Doing these mobilizations top-down and bottom-up will give your joints more degrees of freedom.

Completely segmenting your spine is impossible. You’re not gonna have individual control over each vertebra, but programming that vision into your mind will get you closer to that ideal.

Even though complete segmentation is impossible, you want a trending wave in the direction you’re moving. Similarly, you should only feel tension and tightness in the region you’re trying to move. If you’re trying to move the top of your thoracic spine and you feel tightness in the bottom of your spine, then the joints in your spine are glued together. The twelve joints are behaving more like one single joint. Not good.