“], “filter”: { “nextExceptions”: “img, blockquote, div”, “nextContainsExceptions”: “img, blockquote”} }”>
Get full access to Outside Learn, our online education hub featuring in-depth fitness and nutrition courses and more than 2,000 instructional videos when you
>”,”name”:”in-content-cta”,”type”:”link”}}”>sign up for Outside+.
Because of its tendency to be so achy-breaky, your lumbar area usually hogs all the spinal glory, but the thoracic spine (T-spine) is an important link in the chain and is perhaps the most disregarded area when it comes to mobility: Stiffness and lack of extensibility in the soft tissue surrounding the T-spine can cause shoulder strain and promote compression of the nerve roots, which can lead to pain and numbness in your shoulders, neck and fingers. And if you do a lot of chest presses, crunches and even lat pulldowns, you could be tight in your pecs, lats and shoulders. This can affect your overhead position when performing moves like pull-ups and overhead squats because the upper back can’t extend to align the arms overhead.
The following moves are designed to release and retrain your T-spine to extend…
