Thoracic Spine exercises

[fbleagh]

Hi guys,

Over the past couple of weeks i have noticed a tension in my mid-lower thoracic spinal area.

I notice it mainly when im doping movements similar to the second stretch after the single arm circles in warrior wellness beginner. IE arm outstrechted in from of you and reaching forward, curving your upper spine.

The discomfort is situated about 6cm (2 and bit inches ) from the bottom of my shoulder blade.

I also feel discomfort if i try to touch my shoulder baldes together, alsomt feels like that area is bruised ( no visible bruising )

Has anyone got any stretches or mobilisation exercises i can try on this one ?

PS. and no i dont expect a perfect diag over the net, just looking for some exercises to free up that area.

[Jarlo Ilano]

Stuart,

How does the "Chest arching" exercise in Warrior Wellness feel? (the one where you stick your chest out and then hollow it out?

Also try this on all fours changing where your weight distribution is (forward of hips or back).

How does this feel?

[fbleagh]

How does the "Chest arching" exercise in Warrior Wellness™ feel? (the one where you stick your chest out and then hollow it out?

it feels good in the forward potrion, but if i extend backwards ( past spine stright poistion ) at all i get discomfort



Also try this on all fours changing where your weight distribution is (forward of hips or back).

I can extend further on all fours but i still get the same discomnfort - although it feels more like its on the boundry of my avaliable motion.

[rbibbs]

Don't 'load' it (repetitive exertion) until it's back in working order. Shoulder rolls and shoulder screws redistribute tensions in this area Stuart. There's another series of spinal stretches but I can't remember what video they're on, geezeritis.

[Jarlo Ilano]

Stuart,

Ditto what Rick said. The screws and shoulder rolls are great, especially as you begin to alternate the motions (one shoulder going one way and the other the opposite).

I would also "play" with the movement in the all fours position. This is an unloaded position as regards to weight. A sort of antigravity position for the spine (of a sort :D ) Continue playing with the motion just within the edge of your discomfort as long as it does not increase pain. It should feel as if it eases with each repetition, if it does not, you've gone too far.

Is it more one side then the other? If so you can try sidebending exercises away from the painful side.

Sorry to be so vague, but I have difficulty giving specifics over the net. I am much more comfortable with someone right in front me. That way I can twist and turn, and poke and prod them, until I make them worse and am satisfied I know what's wrong! :lol:

Anyway, try these suggestions out for a few sessions and see how it feels.
Your baseline movement of assessment, would seem to be :

"I notice it mainly when im doping movements similar to the second stretch after the single arm circles in Warrior Wellness™ beginner. IE arm outstrechted in from of you and reaching forward, curving your upper spine."

and "it feels good in the forward potrion, but if i extend backwards ( past spine stright poistion ) at all i get discomfort".

So you would go back to these movements to see if there is improvement after the session of mobilising activities.

Let us know how it goes.

[JasonE]

Stuart -

Have you tried Arm Screws from Bodyflow yet? They are also in Warrior Wellness Intermediate.

Arm Screws also help release tension in that part of the back. Give them a try after you try Jarlo's suggestions, or if you don't have room to roll around.

[bob_stra]

Well now....this is nice...with Jarlo doing all the hard work, all I'm gonna add is this:

Ultra slow train tracks, ala GTB (laying on your back, knees bent)

Choo choo!

Be sure to allow (not force) your whole spine get involved in the movement.

Oh and as for that stretch / traction. See what happens when you do it from a sitting position (say, in a chair). It's ok to let the hips rock a little. Almost as if your trying to catch a beach ball. Alternate with hips rocking forwards + reaching (everything goes fwds IOW) VS hips rocking backwards + while reaching (like a little kid catching a beach ball. Chest hollows a little). Rocking is over the sitbones, as if you were sitting on a cylinder. Try it, see what happens.

Also perhaps door towel rows, modified to include the above instructions (done from sitting etc etc etc)

Towel rows = kinda like this:

http://www.bodytrends.com/products/resistance/exercises/standingrow.htm

except you open the door, loop a towel around the door handles. In an ideal world, you'd have a moving platform to sit on, as you're trying to work on mobility not pure muscle strength.

You might like to try the new one here -

http://www.nas.com/~richf/low56.htm

- to see what it can teach you about using your back in a different way.

[Scott Sonnon]

Stu,

You're in competent hands with Bob and Jarlo.

What event (including your training content) which preceded the discomfort and tension issue?

[fbleagh]

Wow thakns for all your responses guys :)

now i've defiantely got something to work on when i get home this evening :)

Coach, I can't thakn of anything specific that would have predicated this.
THe only major thing that has changed recently is the fact that i stopped driving to work I now catch the train to work. I quite often get s tiff neck from reading on the train but other than that nothing particular.

Hmm one other thing that i just remembered. When this pain first started I also had a kind of muscle spasm in my lower trap area and the muscles on the side of the neck ( so turning head was fairly painful - RPD = 8 )

THanks again for all your help guys, I'll be sure to let you know how i go :)

[Scott Sonnon]

Stu,

What preceded the muscle spasm? What did you do earlier that day, or right before that episode?

[fbleagh]

Hmm just a normal day - for a tuesday.
getup , drive to station, train to work, work, train home, drive home, prepare for wrestling practice, goto wrestling.

I initialy noticed hte tension in my back when doing our WW before wrestling practice ( that forward stretch i talked about above )

A bout 2 days later ( so thursday) It felt slightly worse.

At the time i just ascribed the spasm to sitting in a draft on the train. ( sydney trains can be kinda drafty at times due to badly designed aircond. systems )

The spasm has since recovery ( it took about 4-5 days helpde along by some self massage ) Also it was worse on the left hand side.


The pain in my back has remained fairly constant since that time.

[Scott Sonnon]

What's your daily water consumption, and your daily caffeine intake? Are these numbers consistent (including the day of the spasm)?

[fbleagh]

My water intake and caffeine intake vary slightly from day to day

during the week my normal daily fluid intake consists of.

2.5 litres of water
1 cup of green tea or earl grey tea ( I've since stopped the ear; grey and just drink green tea now )
about twice a week I have a 600ml coke with my lunch

on the weekends I slip a little and normally only get about 1 litre of water and a cup of tea



-- I used to have a moderately high caffeine intake about 9 months ago ( since then I haven't touched a single drop of coffee ) -- used to have 1 STRONG coffee* a day + 2-3 600ml bottle of coke. thank fully gone are the days where I would 4 coffees and a 2 litre bottle of coke at work + whatever coke I drank when I got home. I decided to stop that since it was affecting my sleep patterns and I wasn't drinking enough water.

* Australian Brewed Coffee is shall we say brutal compared to the stuff we had on our holiday to Europe- approx the same as 5-6 standard coffees from one of those funny machines in France and Germany

[Jarlo Ilano]

Stuart,

How is your progress?

[fbleagh]

its getting better but fairly slowly.

[Jarlo Ilano]

Stu,

May I ask what in particular you have been doing? (There was a lot of advice here!)

Maybe we can structure it a bit better.