Treat Mid Back Stiffness

The Mid Back Explained

As we are all aware, joints and muscles are designed to move in order to stay healthy, but unfortunately with an increased sedentary lifestyle this is just not the case in the modern world. Think about your normal day, you will invariable be sitting while you have your breakfast, sit on the train to work, sit at your desk for a majority of the day and then when you go home you may well find yourself sitting while you have dinner, watch television or work on the computer. The thoracic spine is already understood to become less compliant and mobile with age, on top of this we also have these other loading issues. This is not conducive to a normal, mobile, healthy strong back.

The mid back is one of the key regions of the skeletal structure, adding stability and integrity to the spinal column. It is made up of 12 vertebrae that each has 2 smaller joints both superiorly and inferiorly (facet joints); along with this there is also the presence of the attachments of the 12 ribs to each side of the spine. As you can start to see this becomes a complex region but due to the number of joints involved also a very stable one.

The mid back also has a major part to play in loads on other regions of the body. Primarily if you become stiff in the mid-back region you essentially lose the ability to arch backwards in this region (extension), however the body is proficient in adapting to blocked regions and so just compensates in local areas of the body. This is a gradual process that happens over an extensive period of time and leads to the overloading of the low back (lumbar spine), neck (cervical spine) and even the shoulder girdle region (scapular, clavicle and shoulder joint). It is these regions that we commonly injure or have longstanding problems with, but as explained here there are other major influences affecting the loading stresses on the spine.

Lack of thoracic spine extension may lead to the problems listed below occurring, therefore with careful management of a healthy exercise routine we can prevent many of these issues arising in the first place.

Problems that may occur form poor Spinal Extension

• Sciatica/Chronic Low Back Pain
• Neck Pain, leading to headaches
• Shoulder Problems, especially frozen shoulders
• Rotator Cuff Impingement Injuries (shoulder tendon damage)
• Breathing/Tight Thoracic Region - try this slouch at your desk and take a deep breath in, which is difficult, now try the same breath sitting in a good postural position, which you will find is instantly easier but also you are able to take a deeper breath.

The Thoracic Wedge is to be used strictly under the recommendation of a professional practitioner (e.g. Chiropractor, Physiotherapist, Doctor, Osteopath, etc).

The Thoracic region

Use the Comffit wedge to target your thoracic area.

Improve quality of life.