Full transcript
0:00perhaps the most important area for us
0:02to address
0:03and assess from an overall mobility
0:05perspective is going to be our thoracic
0:07spine
0:07or our upper back this can be a little
0:09bit complicated to self-test
0:11but we're going to show you the most
0:13optimal way we can do it by ourselves so
0:15we're going to start getting
0:16up against a wall and i'm going to get
0:19my hip joint against the wall
0:20and my shoulder against the wall and
0:22then i'm going to sit my butt all the
0:23way down onto my heels
0:25while the wall kind of blocks me then
0:28i'm going to put the hand that's away
0:29from the wall
0:30against my low back with my other arm
0:32elbows right in between my knees
0:35and i'm going to turn my head and rotate
0:37my spine as far
0:38this direction as i can go what i'm
0:40ideally looking for
0:42as i perform this test is that i would
0:44like to see if there was a line
0:46going across my collarbone i would like
0:48to see that i can rotate to where that
0:50line gets to about a 45
0:51or 50 degree angle really important that
0:54we do this against the wall
0:56because if we do it away from the wall
0:57we can then side bend away and that will
0:59give us a lot of
1:00extra motion that will make it look like
1:03our thoracic mobility looks good
1:04when in fact it could be poor so we're
1:06looking for a 45 degree
1:08angle we want to test this on both sides
1:10because looking at
1:11rotation both ways will tell us what
1:13happens in thoracic spine extension
1:16if thoracic spine extension is limited
1:18so let's say we're stuck in this
1:20flex position because we can't extend
1:22then it makes it harder for us to get
1:24into a good overhead position
1:25when we get good thoracic spine
1:27extension we can get in a much better
1:29overhead position because we have the
1:31ability
1:32to get that upper back straightened out
1:34a little bit more that a lot of times
1:36will take stress
1:36off of the low back the neck and the
1:39shoulder so
1:40really important piece to test in your
1:42mobility