A Key Takeaway From The Grove Member-Member
My most common findings working with Nashville golfers include hip mobility restrictions, low back pain, and a goal to improve distance and swing speed. These findings are common, but there is another consistency that was especially on display The Grove’s latest member-member. This sneaky restriction can be related to shoulder pain and low back pain, over-the-top and early extension swing characteristics, and speed restriction. This is the missing movement quality of thoracic spine extension. Let me explain what this is, how it is important for golf, and how it is related to your aches, pains, and possibly your recurring injury.
Learn more about what else we have learned at member events below…
-What I noticed helping Brentwood Country Club members warm up for their club championship
-3 key tests for all Nashville golfers
-How to become a club champion in Nashville
What is thoracic spine extension?
Thoracic spine extension is the backward tilting of the vertebrae. Think the opposite motion of bending over to touch your toes. This is a common range of motion to become restricted in from our daily life, posture, and activity. By pressing into the spine and springing the joints at the thoracic spine and rib cage, we can assess access to this motion.
It had become a theme. I was finding golfer after golfer was missing mid back extension when we would work on opening the rib cage and hip. At the member-member, we saw some of our favorite things to work on. Low back pain with associated restricted hip rotation and hip flexion, shoulder tightness and neck pain, and elbow and wrist pain. But we also saw a sneaky, non-painful but almost always present restriction in thoracic spine extension.
Thoracic spine extension for golf
In the golf swing, we start in flexion at the spine before working into extension and rotation in the backswing. Then, we initiate the downswing with flexion and rotation before getting back into extension, rotation, and tilt in the follow through.
We talk a lot about rotation through the spine, and if we were at the clinic we would certainly have measured these golfers for thoracic spine rotation, but what I can feel with my hands is the missing access to joint play and extension at this region. What most people don’t understand is that thoracic spine rotation is coupled with extension and lateral tilt. If we are missing extension, it is affecting your rotation and stance position.
Missing thoracic extension is related to your aches and pains
When we stop extending through this region, it means the rib cage and shoulder blade stop moving as well. Further, we ask regions like the low back and shoulder joint to pick up extra motion for us. This is usually seen as excessive extension in the low back and over-rotation from a vulnerable position at the shoulder. Unwanted swing characteristics, distant joints aching and overworking, and poor performance are being driven from thoracic extension limitations.
Improving thoracic extension
The first thing we would do is combine manual techniques like chiropractic care, soft tissue and active release, and dry needling together, as needed, to create and improve thoracic spine and rib cage joint mobility. From there, we can try the following exercises and movements to help control and continue to improve these characteristics.
1. DNS starter position
2. Low sit breathing
3. DNS tall bear
4. DNS modified oblique
5. Banded external rotation press with thoracic extension
6. Banded deep squat shoulder press
These movements will build on each other to create more space, challenge your control over it, and combine different planes of motion.
Conclusion
In golf, movement quality matters just as much as mobility. Many golfers can “get into position,” but how they create that position often determines efficiency, consistency, and long-term durability. As we saw throughout this member-member event, limitations in thoracic spine extension and rotation can force the body to compensate elsewhere, commonly through the low back, shoulders, or pelvis. Over time, these compensations may contribute to swing inefficiencies, pain, and unnecessary stress on the body.
The good news is that these movement patterns can be improved. By assessing how the thoracic spine moves and identifying where compensations occur, golfers can begin to restore more efficient rotation, improve posture throughout the swing, and potentially create more speed with less effort. Combining mobility work, stability training, and swing-specific movement prep can help golfers move better both on and off the course.
Golf performance and physical health are closely connected. Sometimes the missing link is not simply flexibility or strength, but the ability to move through the right areas at the right time.
-Dr. Nick DC, MS, TPI, CSCS
If you would like to learn more about your body, pain, and performance, send Dr. Nick an email at contact@integratedrpc.com or call at (585)478-4379, or schedule a FREE discovery visit at Contact.
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