The thoracic spine makes up the upper middle portion of your back and is responsible for most of your spinal rotation. Your thoracic spine moves into flexion (bending forward), extension (arching back or overhead lifting), and rotation (twisting). Adequate mobility in your thoracic spine is essential to optimal function of your neck and shoulders. Since a lot of our daily activities in modern life involve sitting (hello, desk jobs!) our thoracic spines can easily become stiff and immobile.

This lack of mobility transitions to a much harder time lifting weight overhead in CrossFit and eventually leads to compensations of other joints. For example, a Cross Fitter with limited thoracic spine mobility will have to rely on more shoulder range of motion to catch a squat snatch or perform a kipping pull up due to lack of extension in the thoracic spine. This compensation at the shoulders takes a toll on those muscles and may lead to decreased power or increased risk of a pain problem at your shoulder.

The key to improving this movement is to optimize thoracic spine mobility and control so that it can act as a stable base for your shoulders to work on and help you produce power. We want our thoracic spine and shoulders to work efficiently together, not fight each other!

Here is a simple test to look at your thoracic spine mobility:

1. Sit on a chair or box with feet supported evenly
2. Hold a PVC on the top of your shoulders with arms crossed
3. Without moving your hips, rotate your trunk to the right. Then rotate to the left.

You should be able to achieve 45 degrees of rotation to each side. Are you able to achieve that without moving your hips? Does the rotation feel similar side to side? Or is one side much stiffer than the other? Any pain with these movements? If you are unable to achieve full rotation or have a huge difference side to side, thoracic mobility may be something you would benefit from working on! Even more important, if you have pain with these motions a physical therapist can help.