12: the reason your shoulders and neck hurt
if you’re like most people you probably have a tight thoracic spine.
what’s that? let me explain.
The thoracic spine is the part of your spine from your belly button up to that notch on the back of your neck. this part of the spine is designed to be mobile and is supposed to rotate and laterally flex. now, how often do you actually do those movements? probably not often enough. this tightness could be what is contributing to your sticky, tight shoulders, tight neck and even low back pain. good news is i attached three exercises you can add to your warm up, cool down or superset to work on this. throw them into your next workout and see how you feel.
half kneeling med ball rotations
in a half kneeling position (90 degree bend in both knees, back knee on the ground), push your front leg hard into the floor like you’re trying to break ice and do a hard rotation over your front leg followed by an easy counter rotation the opposite direction. a hard rotation just means you’re trying to get as many degrees of rotation as possible so use your exhale and fight for each millimeter, but don’t let your knee move. the easy rotation is relaxed and balances out the first side.
1-3 sets, 5-8 reps each side
foam roller reach and rotate
start on all fours with the roller on one side of your body between your hand and knee. place the back of your opposite hand on the roller and reach through your body letting the roller roll up your arm. exhale, look up to the ceiling and try to get your opposite shoulder as close to the ground as possible.
1-2 sets, 8-12 reps each side
full kneeling t-spine rotations
start on all fours, place one hand at the base of your skull, exhale and follow your elbow with your eyes, inhale on the way back to the starting position.
1-2 sets, 5-10 reps
