Upper Back Flexibility

How Upper Back flexibility will save you


In my last post I mentioned the contributing nature of the thoracic spine(upper back) towards shoulder movement.  What I didn't touch upon was that the thoracic spine is highly involved in all movements of the neck, shoulder and lower back.

I see it literally every day where someone comes in with a stiff upper back, yet their complaints are of shoulder, neck or low back pain.  So let's think about an example of how that happens:

Every time you reach overhead, approximately 25 percent (completely made up number) of the range of motion comes from your thoracic spine.  So when you have a stiff back, 100% of the stress will go on the shoulder joint.  Eventually it gets overwhelmed.

Your driving and you turn to check your 'blind' spot you turn your head as far as you can.  That involves a 15-20%(even more made up) contribution in range of motion from your upper thoracic spine.  Again when you don't have the range of motion in your back, 100% of the stress from that movement will go to your neck.

Eventually all this stress on the neck will lead to pain.  The specific diagnosis is disc bulge, sprain/strain, facet disorders, etc... however the problem is the lack of contribution from the thoracic spine

So the point is that a stiff upper back completely beats up your neck, shoulders and low back.  So how does this happen?

For the most part we live in a sedentary society (even if you still exercise an hour a day) that involves entirely too much sitting.  As you sit in chairs with poor psoture for years at a time you start losing the flexibility in your upper back because your not really using that range of motion (unless you get regular chiropractic treatment or are otherwise involved in regular yoga).  When you don't use it, you lose it.......lol.

So now for the good part, what to do about it:

I'll show you the first two steps we take in my office.  1) Thoracic Spine Foam Rolling and 2) Quadruped reach backs.

1) Thoracic Spine Foam Rolling

2) Quadruped Reach Backs

As always, if you have any pain or injuries be sure to consult a local health professional.
To check out more visit www.Mobility-4Life.com