What The Heck is a Thoracic Spine?

By: Mike Boyle
Titleist Performance Institute

The thoracic spine is often a neglected section of twelve vertebrae stuck between the much more talked about lumbar spine and the forever-painful cervical spine.

By definition, the thoracic spine is the twelve vertebrae that connect with the rib cage and is located between the lumbar spine and the cervical spine. Because we rarely get thoracic pain we tend to overlook this critical area. Neck and low back pain are rampant so the thoracic spine is often completely overlooked.  Unfortunately a big key to avoiding both lower back pain and neck pain may lie in the mobility of your thoracic spine. In the simplest terms, the body does what is easy, not what is best. As we age the thoracic spine stiffens. As a result we tend to turn the head at the neck (cervical spine) or rotate at the lower back (lumbar spine). A mobile thoracic spine can help to avoid or relieve both low back and neck pain by allowing rotation in this key area.

For years we have been warming up the wrong area with the wrong exercises. Lots of “experts” recommended exercises like hip crossovers and scorpions to “warm-up” the low back. A few years ago I wrote an article called Is Rotation Training Hurting Your Performance.  In the article I recommended that athletes, particularly golfers, avoid most exercises that rotate the lumbar spine and instead focus on developing motion at the hips and thoracic spine.  The truth is that good motion in golf comes from turning the hips and the shoulders not from rotating the lumbar spine. The way to get good hip motion and good shoulder turn is to focus on the hips and thoracic spine, not the low back. Bottom line, bad golfers turn at the low back. Good golfers turn at the hips and shoulders.

Mobility at the thoracic spine is actually simpler to develop than you think. It doesn’t even involve rotation. What you are going to do to mobilize the thoracic spine is to perform a series of simple crunch type exercises while lying on two tennis balls taped together with masking tape or your can even put them in a sock.

Place the tennis balls under your back with one ball on either side of the spine. Begin at just above bellybutton level. With the balls in position do five crunches. You should feel the balls pushing into your spinal erectors (the big muscles on either side of the spine).  The balls are actually pushing the vertebrae slightly forward, in effect creating motion (mobility) at the level of that segment. A series of these crunches can be done all the way to the top of the shoulder blades. The end result is often a large increase in shoulder turn. Another possibility is to foam roll the thoracic spine. Make sure the elbows are together to separate the shoulder blades and get pressure on the thoracic spine.

If you are bothered by low back pain, neck pain or want more shoulder turn try the attached mobility exercises. Just remember, it’s not always where it hurts that needs the attention. Often times it’s the joint above or below.

Michael Boyleis a Boston based strength and conditioning coach and one of the world’s foremost experts in what is now called FunctionalTraining. Michael’s products are available at: www.performbetter.com

Getting Fit with Billy Horschel

Bill Horschel winner of the 2013 New Orleans Zurich Classic, is known for working out. Judging by his results in the last couple of months those workouts are really paying off.

In today’s world if you want to increase your ball speed and generate more power, you have to get in the gym and learn to load and explode. Check out this video bleow from the PGA Tour that highlights Billy Horschel's workout with his TPI Certifed Trainer Jeff Fronk.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW VIDEO :: GETTING FIT WITH BILLY HORSCHEL

Maximize Your Golf Performance This Winter!

While most of you are starting to tune your skis and put your clubs away for the winter, you should be tuning your body for next year’s golf season. That’s right, the winter is a great time to prepare yourself for the upcoming year . . . to get into golf shape. Most recognize the value of pre-ski and snowboarding conditioning, but few acknowledge that the game of golf needs proper physical conditioning and preparation.

It makes sense to enhance your golfing longevity by being assessed in order to figure out what YOU need to do for your body in order to maximize YOUR golfing performance. Combining improvement in physicality with proper swing instruction from your PGA professional swing coach, as well as being fitted for proper equipment is the best way to fully and comprehensively improve.

If you are interested in being  physically assessed and set up with a program that will help you achieve your golf performance goals call 541-350-1631 or email: ccooper@taiweb.com

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO ON OUR GOLF PERFORMANCE PACKAGES

TPI Level 3 Professional Seminars

Chris Cooper PT, DPT, CSCS, TPI CGFI is pleased to announce that he will be attending the upcoming TPI Level 3 Medical and Fitness Professional Seminars at the TPI headquarters in Oceanside, CA which is the highest level of certification that TPI offers. This is a four-day event for passionate professionals of golf, fitness, and medicine.

Chris is looking forward to the event and plans on passing his experience onto his patients.

ABOUT THE SEMINARS:

TPI Level 3 Certified Medical Professional Seminar :: November 2nd - 3rd
This seminar will foucs on: Exercise Progressions for the SFMA, Nutrition, and Advanced Swing Analysis.
 

TPI Level 3 Certified Fitness Professional Seminar :: November 4th - 5th
This seminar will discuss advanced topics including: Nutrition, More Strength and Power Development, Advanced Swing Concepts, and Balance.

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