Fix Your Stiff Spine: Thoracic Rotation Exercises That Actually Work!
Dec 18, 2024
The ability of your spine to rotate in your upper back, or thoracic rotation, is essential for optimal movement and resilience. Yet many people are commonly limited in their upper backs and their ability to easily turn in both directions.
A common strategy to address this is to stretch the chest, shoulders, and back in hopes of influencing more thoracic rotation.
But this often falls short because it fails to address the deeper issue, which can be compression of the ribcage and how the pressures in the lungs influence our ability to turn into each side.
We can improve our thoracic rotation by opening space in the back of the shoulder and ribs in the side we are turning toward.
This, in combination with choosing smart exercises to target our rotational muscles, the internal and external obliques and serratus anterior, will help us develop our thoracic rotation abilities for better, more resilient movement.
In today's video, I share a simple assessment to understand your or your client's rotational limitations, and 2 exercises to quickly help with better thoracic rotation.