Quadruped Thoracic Rotation Exercise

The quadruped thoracic rotation exercise is something that we all might have experienced or done without even knowing about it in detail. Your thoracic spine, also known as your T-spine, is the spinal area that starts from your neck and ends at your mid back connecting to the rib cage. This thoracic spine is also the most common source and reason for frequently occurring muscle stiffness and tightness resulting from hunching all day over a desktop.

Quadruped Thoracic Rotation Exercise
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Thoracic rotation will be your newest favorite exercise if you also experience muscle tightness and stiffness in your spine. This exercise stretches the entire area of your spine and further improves your upper back’s posture and mobility. It recently went viral on TikTok as the ‘miracle’ exercise to take midback pain away.

What is the Quadruped Thoracic Rotation Exercise?

The quadruped thoracic rotation exercise is done in the quadruped position, which refers to being on your knees and hands. This exercise requires stretching and moving your upper and middle back to relieve muscle stiffness and tightness.

The thoracic spine exercise is designed to close and open up the chest while allowing your torso to twist from side to side. This exercise can significantly benefit people of all ages and fitness levels as this efficiently increases their upper-back and middle-back mobility, which plays a significant part in their daily activity.

How to Do Quadruped Thoracic Rotation Exercise?

Here is a step-by-step guide for you to efficiently perform the quadruped thoracic rotation exercise.

The first step is to get on your hands and knees. Remember to keep your knees straight under your hips while your hands straightly under your shoulders.
Keeping your hips level, place your right hand behind your head.
Pull your abs into the spine to stabilize the spine.
Rotate your upper and middle down slightly and to the left, while maintaining core stability, so the right elbow comes down towards the left hand.
Then, raise your right elbow sideways and up towards the ceiling twisting your torso to the right.
Repeat several times in one direction before switching to the other side.

Basic Benefits of Quadruped Thoracic Rotation Exercise

Relieved muscle tightness and stiffness not only offers you a fatigue-free and painless lifestyle, but it also has some more added benefits that are mentioned below.

1. Prevents Neck and Lower Back Pain

Your thoracic spine can twist. However, your lumbar spine, often known as your lower back, takes over if the thoracic spine isn’t quite as flexible as it should be. Fortunately, by freeing up your upper back, the T-spine twists maintain your neck, middle, and upper back flexibility. If your T-spine is mobile, you won’t overuse your lower back to perform daily activities that require twisting.

Quadruped Thoracic Rotation Exercise
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2. Increases Shoulder Flexibility

Because it joins a variety of other regions of the body, particularly your shoulders, the thoracic spine must be mobile. It might be impossible to perform workouts like the overhead press if the thoracic spine is stiff.

One of the many advantages of the quadruped T-spine rotation is that it increases your thoracic spine mobility, improving shoulder movement. You can increase the range of motion in your shoulders and T-spine by practicing this exercise which can help improve control and motion of the shoulders.

3. Improves Posture

Forward head position is linked to thoracic kyphosis, a condition in which your shoulders and spine are curved forward. The muscles in your spine are overstretched when you have thoracic kyphosis, whereas the muscles in the front of your front body are shortened, pulling your chest, head and shoulders forward.

Performing the quadruped T-spine rotation helps relax your kyphosis-related shortened chest muscles. Your muscles are expanded and stretched when you raise your elbow to the ceiling, helping to restore your normal posture.

4. Decreases the Damage from Prolonged Sitting

Less than 150 minutes of physical exercise per week and seven hours or more of sitting were associated with an increased risk of restricted thoracic mobility in students, according to a study from May 2018.

You can increase your thoracic spine mobility by adding the T-spine rotation stretch in addition to moving more. This will allow you to perform any other motions more efficiently and with better form.