Many years ago an occupational therapist told me that thoracic mobility is one of the most important things you can do as you age. She explained, “Once you can’t wipe your own backside, I don’t care how much your family loves you, the chances of them putting you in a nursing home go up exponentially each day.”
Does the t-spine also inhibit you from letting the barbell sit lower on your back? Pressing seems alright, it's the lowering that's difficult. All mobility tests seem to pass except for the lowering of the arms against the wall.
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The first time I did the stretch from 4:23 something popped gently in my middle back. The pain and stiffness I had for the last few weeks is gone. Thank you so much! I'll doing those on a regular basis.
As a runner who is training for a marathon, these foam rollers ru-vid.comUgkx9XSsjzA4f84VmhBCHlyhec7XILIxennL are really good for sore and tight muscles. This one is a good size (mine is the purple, 36 inches) not too big but big enough to work and roll both my legs at the same time - I took a photo holding the roller next to me just to provide a better representation of its size. I noticed some reviewers who complained that this is, “just a foam noodle”… and yes, that’s exactly what it is. It’s a high density foam roller. It is absolutely NOT the same consistency/strength/durability/ or texture as a ‘pool noodle’ thought and I disagree entirely with those that say so. As a former collegiate athlete and marathon runner, I’m comfortably giving this roller 5 stars. It’s lightweight and durable and does just what I need it to do at a budget-friendly price. Overall, I have no complaints and am happy with it!
These mobility exercises truly make a huge difference. I have suffered with a super stiff cement-like mid back for years and recently started doing these mobility drills plus a few others and the difference was almost immediate.
Cement concrete like mid back for as well been deadset years of tightness and pain .. makes it hard to weight train ! Or do anything .. can you help me lol
@@AztechNation weight training as well stretching goes hand in hand. Your muscles around the back needs to be strong and stable. I would recommend to hire a qualified personal trainer. They be able to make a program for you and test the muscle imbalances etc. I suffered back pain for 21 years. I started my program when I turned 42. I'm virtually pain free
I have severe osteoporosis with fractures at T 6 and 7. My upper back kills me, but I don't know if it's because the muscles trying to support my weak bones are over-stressed, I don't even have muscles to support my weak bones any more, or what. I see the foam roller and think, "That seems like it would feel really good!" but then again, I apparently fractured those vertebrae simply from "poor posture" (I'm sorry, I do hair, it's pretty hard to have good posture when your arms are in front of you and half the time your left arm is pointed at the ceiling and you're bending from the side...and frankly, I think my back IS pretty strong, because I'm doing it (for limited hours, though,) with bad bones; I suspect a healthy back would be pretty wracked after hours on end of that kind of maneuvering 😂) do...I dunno. Might try it anyway.
It is imperative that you have the roller for the rotation thing with the pvc pipe. I did not use a roller and I was standing. I got injured because I was rotating w the lower back.
I never comment on videos, but I had too because this genuinely changed my life. I’m 17 year old soccer player and I was playing at a high level MLS academy when I hurt my hip. I have been struggling with hip pain for over a year now and struggled with shoulder pain and winged scapulas for close to 2 to 3 years. Recently, I tore my groin completely and had surgery to repair it. Even after surgery it wasn’t really getting better and didn’t feel right. I started looking through your channel to fix my shoulders and I found this and another thoracic spine mobility video. I did these exercises and when I went to do my rehab for my groin, it felt completely normal again and also it completely fixed my shoulders. I had no ideas what it was like for my muscles to work normally. Thank you so much. I can’t put into words how happy I am. This is only after a couple days of doing the exercises, but hopefully I can make a progression fully back to soccer.
I was able to lay down totally flat without something under my head for the first time in probably 15 years thanks to your videos. My back has been a horror my entire life, I’m really trying to fix that and I am so happy to have found you.
Thank you so much for the explanations! I strained my right QL recently and couldn't work out why - realised I've been foam rolling the wrong way for the past year 🙄 so the lumbar spine was compensating for the thoracic spine
Everything you put out is excellent, and contributes to what I call "body intelligence". Love all your content, the clear descriptions, directions and delivery! Many thanks for sharing your e exercise genius with us!
I always get pain in my thoracic spine while doing mobility stuff. On the other hand; why is the thoracic spine so stiff all the time? There should be a stability problem too, otherwise the spine won't get stuck all the time.
I have recently been struggling with my overhead squats and have come to believe that the issue is my thoracic spine preventing me from doing anything decent. I almost always have pain in my upper back area around my shoulder blade area that causes me to feel a little stiff. I tried a couple of these stretches and could feel the difference immediately! I'm not saying that it's a magic fix-all remedy, but you know that I'll be adding it to my warm up routine in the hope it will improve my squat. Thank you so much for this.
I can not thank you enough for this video and the stretches and exercises. Immediately after doing these about 30 minutes later I can feel the tension in my rhomboids and traps ease and my shoulders don't feel as rounded anymore. The amount of pain that has been relieved almost makes me want to cry. THANK YOU !
@@harrishanif3273 thanks for asking! The intense tightness I was feeling at the time disappeared after a couple of days, which may well have been helped by the exercises. They definitely feel like they target the area. I think what causes it is sitting at low tables while eating, which involves rounding the thoracic area a lot while looking down at the food
Hi, I love your channel! You’re literally one of the best if not the best. Can I please ask if you can recommend some specialist in London who I could see in person, who could help with my upper back imbalances? I have chronic upper back pain and I’m not that old (38), I literally feel helpless with that pain… tried many specialists but nothing worked
I find it helpful to extend the thoracic spine only to open the first two ribs, which allows my neck and shoulders to go backward. Extending the mid-back leaves my shoulders forward -- not a good thing. I like the rotation movements of this and other videos, which can only be done without extending the back. I used to overextend my middle and low back to compensate for my forward neck, which, in turn, was caused by my collapsed first two ribs.
Wait wait wait wait wait WAIT A HOT DAMN MINUTE !! Are you telling me that increasing my lateral rotation and thoracic spine twisting... will also unlock thoracic extension ?
My squat stinks. My one rep max is like half of my dead lift but I am decent in the leg press. I am starting to freak out and this looks promising because I think my problems might be fully due to mobility issues. When I did the foam roller stretch for the first time, one of my vertebrae connection cracked so loud my dog got scared! :)
I just started learning weightlifting recently and found out I don't have as much mobility in the jerk position as I should. Will definitely try this out. Thanks!
Ian Co I only found out that your upper back was supposed to have movement a couple months ago, also because of weightlifting. 😅 Mine was so stiff that my PT thought the joints might be fused together. Took a lot of work to get some mobility there but the progress is great.
These exercises make a huge difference when I test and re test. The prayer stretch on the foam roller is hurting my shoulder a little though. Anybody else experience this?
This is great, I am going to implement this. I very tight on my left side. I am so glad you guys kept the little hiccup with the camera man I think he almost tripped idk. But for some reason I liked that you kept it. Lol
I did the cross mark test and after bracing my abdomen I wasn’t able to go past 30 degrees. Also turning to the left gave me a pain sensation behind my left shoulder plate. When I did the elbow between the knees I wasn’t able to open my chest like in the video plus pain sensation on the left side. Two days ago I did my chest workout and my left shoulder was uncomfortable.
I just tried this mobility exercises omg the difference I feel is amazing thank you so much I have some front left rib soreness and swelling i dont know if that’s fine but other than that my symptoms is got so much better!!!
So is it „wrong“ to rotate more in the quadruped stance? I’m a bit confused bc I see that all the time. Or is it just in order to really evaluate movement quality of the T-Spine only
Static stretches are related to acute lost of strength and that's related to a higher risk of injury. With this being said, how can they be implemented in a session? Thank you
this is excellent. My problem is that most of my movements come out of my lower back but I dont really notice it. Just slipped a lumbar disc a few weeks ago and now have to learn how to move differently. And STICK with it
I struggle knowing weather these are exercise I should practice daily before each workout or before each relative workout or if it’s once a week on a rest day I should be doing these…is this a warm up for those parts going into a lift or is this an exercise in itself?
That stretch at 8:30, how come whenever I do that it triggers pain in a knot I have between my shoulder blade ? I worked as a painter a lot with my arms overhead.
I recently started jumping rope but much to my surprise it caused a bit of pain around my mid-ish back,a little below my scapula. I’ve been working out for quite a long time and I do my fair share of back excercises - pullups, rows ,deadlifts ,swings etc . What could be the cause of this ?
Dr Horschig, are those applicable if i have t6-t7 herniated disc? Also, where could i get more info on how to treat my herniated disc ( i assume there have to be some exercises for the back muscles ), i have checked the "rebuilding milo" and although pretty amazing book, i could not find t-spine fixes there
Thanks so much for this! I've had chronic lower neck/upper back pain since middle school. Now 35 and have been filming myself doing some calisthenics, noticing that my upper back is constantly rounded in a lot of exercises. Thanks for the explanation on how to test this, as well as the link between rotation and extension in thoracic spine mobility! I guess I'll finally pick up a foam roller after hating on them for too long :D
I don’t know if this did the trick (cos I have been trying many things today) but after slip and fall on butt with abducted arm 4 days ago, I could not raise my right arm without some assistance. And now I can do it. Something felt reset with the mobility drills. Maybe I manipulated some minor subluxations in thorax with this drill I dunno. But it feels better. Thanx
This is a video I needed today. I have a request for a video. My forearms have been taking a bit of punishment in my first year of trying stuff like log press. Its affecting flexor and extensor ulnaris muscles, making pressing very painful in many cases. Any helpful tricks>?