What's up, guys? I'm Steve Cook, this is Jacob Hutton... I just said your name wrong.
What's up, guys? I'm Steve Cook, this is Jacob Hutton aka the Vanilla Gorilla.
On a side note, I'm wearing Jordan because Jordan is the GOAT. If you
disagree and think LeBron is, we're gonna fight. But today we're going over
thoracic mobility. Alright guys, so when you think about trying to bulletproof
your body, there's certain areas of your body that you want to be mobile and
there's certain areas that you want to be stable. Like honestly, you want
stability and mobility in all areas, but these are kind of the things that most
people need to focus on when they're in the gym. So if we're
talking about the joint by joint approach, if we start with the ankle, you're
gonna want your ankle to be mobile, your knee to be stable, your hip to be mobile,
your low back, your lumbar spine to be stable. And then once we get to the
thoracic spine, which we're talking about today, you're gonna want that to be mobile.
So let's say you have a tight hip. A lot of people have tight hips, that's
gonna radiate pain to your low back, because if you can't get hip extension
it's usually gonna put people in over extension in their lumbar spine and
cause issues down there. So the same thing goes for your thoracic spine.
If you don't have good mobility in your thoracic spine there's a good chance
that it's gonna radiate to your shoulders. You're gonna have shoulder
issues, neck issues, and low back issues. So today we're going to go over our
favorite routine to help you clear up that thoracic spine and help you gain
some mobility in that area. We're gonna be doing a little soft tissue release
right now. We are using a foam peanut, but you can also just tape two
lacrosse balls together. That's probably gonna be the best actually if you want
to get really deep in there, or even two tennis balls together. So what you're
gonna do is sit down on your back, you're gonna put the peanut right at
the bottom of your thoracic spine, and what you're gonna do is just from
this bottom position, hands straight out, you'll just do five situps. So let's say
Steve's done five, then he's going to roll forward two to three inches and
then do five more. And basically you're gonna roll up your back two to three
inches, it should be about four to five sets all the way up your back,
just opening that up a little bit. So another way that you can add even more pressure
is gonna be to grab a plate, if you don't feel like that's deep enough.
And then you're gonna press up, there you go, good, and that's gonna really get deep
into there. So a lot of times when I do this my back will pop. It'll just open up
a little bit. Do five reps, and then slowly inch your
way up all the way to basically right in between your shoulder blades
will be your last set for that last five reps. Now that you've worked through your
soft tissue release, the next thing we're gonna do is just do a stretch real quick.
So you're gonna need a foam roller or PVC roller, any type of roller that you have.
Usually I put it right below my shoulder blades, and then from there
you're gonna lay back, put your hands over your head, and then have a partner
or you can grab yourself a plate, and then basically just relax like this.
So ideally you would lock your elbows out too, just depends on how mobile you are.
Notice how Steve's legs are straight out. So that's gonna let his lumbar spine be
more in extension. If he curls his legs up it's gonna put the lumbar more in
flexion, and you can feel a lot more pressure that way.
So the higher you get your knees closer to your stomach,
the more tension there's going to be in your thoracic spine. So we usually do
the peanut and then spend about 2 to 3 minutes just hanging out here.
Try to straighten your arms if you can. The more that you relax into it... so Steve's lats
are probably a little bit tight, that's why it's probably hard to completely
straighten out his arms right here. But the longer you sit into it, just try to
stretch out even more, bring those knees up, and then just relax, deep breaths,
belly breaths, deep belly breaths. Kelly Clarkson!
All right guys, now we're gonna be going into the
activation part of our routine. So what we're gonna do is have you sit down
indian-style on the ground. And the reason that we're doing this is that
it's really gonna put your lumbar spine in flexion, so it's gonna close you off
right here. Next, you're gonna interlace your fingers behind your head,
get your chest nice and high, and then from there you're gonna turn to the side.
Try not to bend over at all forward, and bend to the side, there you go, good.
That's one rep. Keep trying to push further, bend as much as you can.
So the goal here, though, notice how Steve's leaning forward a
little bit as he's going to the side, you want to try to stay as upright as possible.
Turn and then bend, there you go, good.
Usually posture up, turn, bend, posture back up, turn, bend, three on each side.
Then we'll rest for about 30 seconds, and do that three more times.
Alright guys, thank you for checking out this video on thoracic mobility. I know I
need work on that, chances are you guys could definitely benefit from doing this.
If you haven't checked out the previous video on lower back pain make sure you do so.
We want to talk about preventative things, so even if you don't have lower
back pain, make sure you check it out and do
those exercises, and we'll see you guys next time.