Thoracic Spine Self Administered Mobilization

Thoracic Spine Self Administered Mobilization is a self-care technique used to improve the movement, stability, and performance of the thoracic spine. The technique involves using your hands to slowly move and mobilize the thoracic vertebrae in a controlled manner to reduce tightness, stiffness, and pain. This can be done while sitting or standing with your chest against a wall or a firm, flat surface.

Transcript

00:00:0200:00:06
This is Brent Brookbush, president of the B2c
00:00:0200:00:06
fitness, we're going to talk about one of
00:00:0600:00:10
the very few self-administered mobilization techniques that we have in
00:00:1000:00:15
our arsenal. Now the thoracic spine has a propensity to get tight in anybody with upper-body
00:00:1500:00:20
dysfunction, and a lot of individuals with lumbo-pelvic hip complex dysfunction,
00:00:2000:00:24
like an anterior pelvic tilt, or even those individuals in posterior pelvic tilt.
00:00:2400:00:29
I'm going to have Leann come out and help me demonstrate this mobilization technique
00:00:3300:00:38
Now unlike some of the other mobilizations we've done, or the techniques we've done in this position
00:00:3800:00:43
with a foam roll, we're looking for actual tenderness, I'm going to
00:00:4300:00:48
have her locate tenderness that is on her spine or very close to her spine. So you can go ahead
00:00:4800:00:56
roll up and down to the top of your scapulae, all the way down to about here.
00:00:5600:00:59
Look for the most tender spot.
00:01:0100:01:04
When she's found that spot she's gonna go ahead sit down
00:01:0400:01:08
so she's nice and stable, her knees are bent, she's going to go ahead and lean back as
00:01:0800:01:12
far as she's comfortable. Because Leann's a little smaller once again I'm going to use
00:01:1200:01:16
something a medicine ball works just fine, to kind of support her head so that she
00:01:1600:01:21
doesn't try to lean too far back. You guys don't want to force this technique.
00:01:2100:01:26
Mobilizations can be potentially harmful, or at least cause a little inflammation if we
00:01:2600:01:31
really try to force them. So I want her to just into a mild stretched position, wait
00:01:3100:01:36
for a release, and then we can get that little click of pop that we would get from
00:01:3600:01:40
a chiropractor. If we just lightly, once we've got the release,
00:01:4000:01:49
roll back and forth a little bit. And I'm going to move this ball for her, let her descend a little
00:01:4900:01:52
further back into extension and she'll get that release. And often you will have somebody get
00:01:5200:01:57
a little click or couple pops. It's totally fine while we're doing this mobilizing,
00:01:5700:02:04
those facet joints in the thoracic spine that have a tendency to get stuck, and provided you don't force them
00:02:0400:02:08
There's really no danger in doing this exercise. The one thing I see that I want to warm against
00:02:0800:02:15
is everyone once in a while I'll see somebody trying to foam roll their lumbar spine.
00:02:1500:02:21
If she goes all the way back and does her lumbar spine, you're going to notice
00:02:2100:02:27
that this gets very bent out of shape. She ends up in extreme lordosis.
00:02:2700:02:31
This is exactly the position we're trying to get her out of. So from a functional standpoint,
00:02:3100:02:35
not okay. And then we have another anatomical standpoint that we need to consider,
00:02:3500:02:41
her lumbar spine does not have a support from the ribcage to keep that
00:02:4100:02:46
in place. The lumbar spine has very little to actually keep it posterior.
00:02:4600:02:50
She's getting forced anterior, and there's nothing to stop those vertebrae
00:02:5000:02:56
except for the discs themselves. This can be potentially hazardous, although
00:02:5600:02:59
I've never seen somebody hurt themselves doing this, I really wouldn't
00:02:5900:03:02
want to take a chance. And like I said since we're trying to get her out of the lordosis,
00:03:0200:03:05
There's really no point in doing this exercise.
00:03:0500:03:08
So once again we can go all the way through the thoracic spine,
00:03:0800:03:13
all those vertebrae that attach to our ribs. She's going to hold a tender spot and then go
00:03:1300:03:16
slightly back into extension. If you guys want a progression
00:03:1600:03:22
medicine balls, and these foam medicine balls, work really well as long as