Thoracic extension reset
2 rounds of foam roller back extensions at 4-5 spots, 3 breaths each.
- Slot
- Mobility
- Focus
- Mobility
- Time
- 6 min
- Intensity
- Low intensity
- Injury risk
- Low injury risk
- Equipment
- Foam roller, Floor space
How to do it
Lie on your back with a foam roller across your upper back and your hands supporting your head. Keeping your hips on the floor, gently lean back over the roller and take 3 slow breaths, then sit up. Move the roller a few centimeters and repeat at 4-5 spots between the bottom of your shoulder blades and the top of your back. Do 2 rounds. Don't roll onto your lower back.
Run it now
The same timer as the app: a five-second get-ready, then every round and rest counted down with a beep. Keep this page open while you train.
Thoracic extension reset
0:00 / 6:05
Ready
6:05
2 rounds
2 rounds of foam roller back extensions at 4-5 spots, 3 breaths each.
High risk: read the protocol, stop if anything feels wrong.
- 2
- rounds
- 6:05
- total
Done.
Want this inside a plan? Take the quiz.
Seven questions about your climbing, then a plan built from your answers. Free.
Want this in a plan? Seven questions and you get a plan built around your climbing.
Take the quizWho it's for
Upper backs that have spent the week hunched, and shoulders that can't get fully overhead. It's six minutes and it makes overhead positions feel much better.
Common mistakes
- Rolling onto the lower back. Stay between the bottom of the shoulder blades and the top of the back. The lower back doesn't want this.
- Hips lifting. Keep them on the floor, or the movement goes into the lumbar spine.
- Cranking hard. Gentle. Three slow breaths at each spot does more than forcing it.
- Staying in one place. Four or five spots. That's what makes it a reset rather than a single stretch.
How to progress
There's nothing to load here. Doing it more often is the progression: after sessions, and on desk days, rather than once a week for longer.
When it fits
The training periods this exercise fits into in Blok Sessions.
Base Lots of easy climbing, good movement and aerobic fitness.
Strength Stronger fingers and pulling, with weight you control.
Power Explosive moves, momentum and coordination.
Power Endurance Keep your power through one hard move after another.
Endurance Climb longer before you pump out, by moving efficiently.
Performance Peak for a trip or a comp: focus, reading problems, trying hard.
Deload Train less, let your fingers recover, keep moving.