Stretches

Thoracic Spine Stretches

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The thoracic spine is the middle and upper back, between the neck and the lower back. It is built to rotate and extend, and long hours hunched over a desk or phone tend to stiffen it. The page has filmed moves, from foam rolling to thread the needle, with a sequence to follow and guided routines.

Thoracic spine stretches with video

These are the 8 movements from the MoveWell library for this area. Each page has a demo, numbered steps, the muscles worked and common mistakes.

Around the Body demonstrationAround the Body5 to 10 slow circles each direction. Cat-Cow demonstrationCat-Cow8 to 10 slow reps. Lat Smash demonstrationLat Smash60 to 90 seconds per side. T-Spine Smash demonstrationT-Spine Smash60 to 90 seconds. Double Flat Needle Pose demonstrationDouble Flat Needle Pose30 to 60 seconds. Reach Through Shoulder Stretch demonstrationReach Through Shoulder Stretch20 to 30 seconds per side. Thread the Needle demonstrationThread the Needle20 to 30 seconds per side. Weighted T-Spine demonstrationWeighted T-Spine30 seconds to 2 minutes.

A simple thoracic spine sequence

Do these in order: warm-up drills first, then any rolling, then the longer holds. Move slowly and stop if anything is sharp or numb.

#MovementHold or repsSides
1Around the Body5–10 each wayn/a
2Cat-Cow8 repsn/a
3Lat Smash60 s/sideEach side
4T-Spine Smash60 sn/a
5Double Flat Needle Pose45 sn/a
6Reach Through Shoulder Stretch30 s/sideEach side
7Thread the Needle30 s/sideEach side
8Weighted T-Spine60 sn/a
JR

Joel is the founder of MoveWell and IMPOSSIBLE. He became the youngest person to run an ultra marathon on every continent, and created MoveWell to make recovery easy with routines he would actually do.

More stretches

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