Upper back
Thoracic extension over chair
Mobility · Seated
- How to do it
- Sit with mid-back against the chair back, hands lightly behind your head. Lean the upper back over the chair while keeping the low back quiet.
- Dose
- 8 reps
- What you should feel
- Your mid-back opening backwards
- Common mistake
- Hyperextending the low back.
- Make it easier
- Reduce the range and skip the hand support.
- Avoid this movement if
- You have osteoporosis or a mid-back injury and have not checked this movement with a clinician.
- Why DeskBreak uses it
- Targets the mid back, the stiff hinge between neck and low back that absorbs a lot of desk posture.
Stop this movement if it causes sharp or worsening pain, numbness, weakness or dizziness.
Evidence
General movement principle.
- Effectiveness of workplace interventions in the prevention of upper extremity musculoskeletal disorders and symptoms: an update of the evidence (Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 2016)