The thoracic spine is the area of the spine connected to the ribs. Each rib has its own joint to connect to its own vertebra. The ribcage reaches around the heart and lungs towards the front of the body where it connects to the sternum, with carti­lage, making move­ment avail­able for the ribs.

As a struc­ture of protec­tion for our vital organs heart and lungs, the ribcage needs to be strong, but not rigid. The breath initi­ates move­ment of the ribs, trunk muscles, and organs, all the way up to the shoulder girdle and down to the pelvic floor. When the shoul­ders are pressed down, or the ribs are ‘over’ closed, this move­ment becomes restricted. This will influ­ence move­ment along the whole spine.

If you look at the spine, and observe how the verte­brae at different levels of the spine have different shapes, you can imagine that the different areas allow for different move­ment ranges. The cervical spine is most mobile, and in all direc­tions. The thoracic is far less mobile ( because of its attach­ment to the ribcage). It has rela­tively most move­ment avail­able in rota­tion, but also flexion and exten­sion is avail­able, yet espe­cially exten­sion is often under-used in the Thoracic.

The lumbar spine moves mainly in flexion, exten­sion and side bending. As many of our clients can be quite unaware of the possible move­ment in their thoracic, they tend to over­look this part of the spine espe­cially in exten­sion. Therefor it is so impor­tant to include exer­cises to increase aware­ness, mobility and strength in every session with your client. This can result in dramatic changes to your clients posture, breath and therefor their general well being.

As you breathe your lungs move: they increase and decrease in size. Move­ment of the spine can be facil­i­tated by the use of breath. On the other hand, move­ment can also be restricted because of shallow or acces­sory breathing. Often this will come together with a stiff­ening in the Thoracic and the shoulder girdle, reducing the ROM in this area.

It can be useful to imagine the move­ment of the breath to be an initiator of move­ment. Also you can exper­i­ment in visu­al­izing the move­ment of the lungs as initia­tors of move­ment of the spine in rota­tion. Does the canister move the content, or is it the other way around?

If the ribcage is used as a rigid part of the trunk, you will observe exces­sive move­ment in the cervical and lumbar spine. On top of that, it is likely that the ribs are weighing down on the lumbar/​abdominnla area, which my result compres­sion issues in those areas.

In addi­tion one needs to consider the role of the shoulder girdle in the move­ment of the thoracic spine: the more free the scapulae move in rela­tion to the ribcage, in all direc­tions, the easier move­ment will trans­port trough the thoracic spine. Fine tuning the coör­di­na­tion between the scapulae, arms, ribcage pelvis and spine will opti­malise the move­ment of the spine, thus keeping it happy to move!

When bending to the back, we need to also have a look at the rela­tion between the pelvis and the ribcage. As the spine and the ribs reach back, the pelvis is easily ante­ri­orly tilted. This can also over­load the lumbar spine. While doing the exer­cises of this work­shop, it it therefor very impor­tant to keep paying atten­tion the posi­tion of the pelvis, specif­i­cally the length­ening of the psoas, in order to develop a healthy move­ment pattern.