Midback Foam Rolling
Foam rolling your mid back is an effective way of keeping mobility in your mid back, since we are often in a flexed position for a majority of the day. I would recommend:
10 repetitions of each of the 3 arm positions you will find in this video. Repeat daily, or even multiple times a day if you are seated for prolonged periods (i.e. working at a desk, driving, studying).
WHEN PURCHASING A FOAM ROLLER FOR WORKING YOUR MIDBACK: ensure you purchase a MEDIUM DENSITY foam roller. Avoid high density rollers, or rumble rollers for use on your spine. These can be found on Amazon, at a workout store (such as treadmill factory or fitness depot), or a sports store (sport chek, etc).
This is a foam rolling video for your low back. In this tutorial I’m going to show you the three different positions, you are going to need a medium density foam roller. You can check to make sure that it is medium density by pushing into the roller and there will be a bit of an indent. If it’s too hard to push it might be a little too hard for your spine and definitely the rumble rollers which have a little knuckles on them the bumpy ones you do not want to roll your spine with.
Never foam roll your lower back or neck, those areas in your spine are a lordosis meaning they curve the opposite way. If you foam roller these areas you will be jamming the joints which we don’t want. The mid back however curves the opposite way so this is going to open up those joints, so you are going to roll from the base of your neck where your shirt collar ends down to where your ribs end. Those are the landmarks for where you want to roll. Start in a neutral position with your hands, then roll back and forth ten times, each way counts as one. More is not better so stop at 10. The second position for your arms is up above your head, complete this 10 more times. Then the last position is you give yourself a big hug and roll 10 times. It does not matter which order you complete these exercises in as long as you hit all three. Arms above your head are more superficial for muscles, hug across the chest is deep more so for joints. You can do that once a day and as often as twice a day to work through the mid-back opening things up. The last one that you can focus on is if there’s certain areas that seem to be catching you can put your hands behind your head and extend. I’m just extending my mid-back over top of the foam roller as opposed to actually rolling over and using the foam roller as some leverage to create some movement at a particular area of restriction.
