"Move Better" Series: Exercises To Improve Thoracic Rotation

Yesterday’s “Move Better” post on the Thoracic Rotation Test presented a way to assess your thoracic rotation mobility at home.

The thoracic spine is the mid-region of the spine that consists of twelve thoracic vertebrae (T1-T12) that are attached to the ribs posteriorly.  The orientations of the joints in the thoracic spine allow for motion in several planes, including flexion, extension, rotation, and sidebending.  

Sufficient thoracic rotation is important for sporting activities like golf, throwing sports, swimming, tennis, and kayaking/rowing.  A lack of thoracic rotation mobility may impact someone's performance with these activities.  Impaired thoracic mobility may also cause increased stress through the shoulders, hips, and lower back, especially with activities that require repeated rotational movements.  A sedentary lifestyle, including prolonged periods of sitting with poor posture, may increase the risk of losing thoracic mobility.     

Exercises to improve your thoracic rotation are included in the video below:

If you are interested in other ways to improve your thoracic spine mobility, specifically thoracic spine extension, CLICK HERE.

Questions?  Contact sean@salmonbaypt.com.

-Brian Collins, DPT & Sean Tyler, DPT

"Move Better" Series: Exercises To Improve Thoracic Mobility

Yesterday’s “Move Better” series post presented the ‌‌Tragus‌ -To-Wall‌ ‌Test‌ ‌‌‌to‌ ‌assess‌ ‌your‌ ‌neck‌ ‌and‌ ‌thoracic‌ ‌spine‌ ‌mobility.‌  This blog post will present exercises to improve thoracic mobility - more specifically the motion of thoracic extension. 

The thoracic spine is the mid-region of the spine that consists of twelve thoracic vertebrae (T1-T12) that are attached to the ribs posteriorly.  The orientations of the joints in the thoracic spine allow for motion in several planes, including flexion, extension, and sidebending.  

Sufficient thoracic extension is important to allow full scapular and shoulder range of motion with overhead activities during daily and sport activities.  A lack of thoracic extension mobility may impact someone’s strength with overhead activities and may increase someone’s risk of neck, shoulder, and low back pain.  Thoracic extension may be limited in people who spend a lot of time in positions of slouched or forward flexed postures, including office workers and landscapers.  

The video below includes exercises to improve thoracic extension mobility passively with the use of a chair, foam roller, or other substitute, like a rolled up yoga mat or large towel. 

Other common exercises that may improve thoracic extension mobility include stretching for the pec and lat muscles, which will be included in another upcoming “Move Better” post.  A future “Move Better” post will also cover ways to assess and improve thoracic rotation, another important motion that occurs in the thoracic spine.  

Stay tuned!

-Brian Collins, DPT & Sean Tyler, DPT

Anatomy 101: The Rotator Cuff

You’ve probably heard of the term “rotator cuff” before, but do you know what the rotator cuff is? More often than not, a thorough explanation is required when introducing the rotator cuff to individuals in physical therapy for shoulder pain. So what is it? The rotator cuff is simply a group of four muscles (supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor, and subscapularis) that work collectively to stabilize the ball-and-socket structure that makes up the shoulder joint. By itself, the bones of the shoulder joint are not very stable, as the ball-and-socket structure is similar in composition to a golf ball sitting on a golf tee, with the golf ball being the humeral head and the golf tee being the glenoid. Inherently, a golf ball resting on a golf tee is not very stable, i.e. it is easy to knock the ball off of the tee. Physiologically, this would be rather problematic if this were the entire design of the human shoulder joint complex. Enter the rotator cuff, which helps hold the golf ball securely in the center of the golf tee. As you raise your arm overhead, the rotator cuff activates, pulling the humeral head down while it rolls upward in the glenoid. Without a healthy and efficient rotator cuff to provide the necessary counterforce, the golf ball would get dangerously close to rolling off the tee. This would not be an issue on a golf course, but could result in injury in the human body. In fact, many common aches and pains in the shoulder are the result of an injured or inefficient rotator cuff, which can result in an unstable shoulder joint, particularly with overhead activities such as swimming, rock climbing, and tennis. Shoulder impingement syndrome is a common diagnosis that involves a pinching of the supraspinatus tendon. Rotator cuff tears can involve any of the four rotator cuff muscles, but most often impact the suparspinatus. The good news is physical therapy can help strengthen the rotator cuff, in hopes of improving the stability and subsequent function of the shoulder joint. Here are a few therapeutic exercises used to strengthen the rotator cuff:

Band-Resisted Wall Crawl

Band-Resisted Shoulder External Rotation At Sides

Resisted Scaption

Quadruped Scaption

So, if you are experiencing nagging shoulder pain, you may benefit from having a physical therapist or other sports medicine specialist evaluate the health of your rotator cuff. Treatment can be rather effective and typically only takes between 6-8 weeks, the average time required to strengthen weak or dysfunctional muscles. Get started now!

-Grant Hennington, DPT