Understanding The Anatomy Of Mid Back Pain

The mid-back region is also known as the Thoracic region. This is the portion of your spine that has ribs attached to it.  

The thoracic portion of the spine should be a mobile place.  The neck area above it, the lumbar area below it and the scapula that rests next to it, should all be stable. 

Causes Of Mid Back Pain

Pain often occurs here when the thoracic area becomes stiff.  When the parts that are supposed to be mobile aren’t then the adjacent parts that are supposed to be stabile can’t be.  The body will move wherever it can, not necessarily wherever it should.   

Most of the time resolving pain in this area involves a combination of hands on manual therapy to expedite the resolution of tightness and some changes or improvements in little things like your posture and/or your breathing pattern.

We breathe 20,000x/day on average.  Do it well and your thoracic spine and ribs will move well.  Do it poorly and you gum up the works. 

A breathing pattern assessment should be a part of every persons examination for mid back pain.

Other factors that commonly lead to mid back pain are a lack of normal motion at the shoulder or the neck. This is another example of why a whole body movement assessment is needed for us to make sure we’re addressing the root causes of your pain.  If we don’t assess it’s a guess.  

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