Been doing “textbook” T-spine extensions, chest openers, or stretching for a while now… with no results?

It’s time to stop chasing symptoms and understand the root cause — and how to actually address it.

The shape of the T-spine affects movement.

Some people’s thoracic spines are more kyphotic, others less so.
The shape of the T-spine will absolutely impact movement availability — that’s a non-negotiable.

But beyond the shape, there’s something even more important:

The nervous system aims to keep us upright and facing forwards — always.

To stay upright against gravity, the human body must be able to produce force into the ground.

Just look at individuals using walking sticks or frames — these people can no longer produce enough force at their joints to stand up unaided.

Compensation: the body’s clever workaround

Over time, your body makes micro-adjustments and compensations all over, usually because it can’t produce enough force at certain joints.

Let’s simplify this:

If I can’t put enough force into the ground, the back side of my body may compress and shove joints forward

For example, squeezing the shoulder blades, flaring the front ribs, and arching the lower back

When I do this, I’ll feel my weight shift forward toward my toes

But here’s the issue…

That forward shift does help me push into the ground…
…but I’m now falling too far forward.

To stop myself from falling, the chest wall compresses to push me back.

Try this:

Crunch your chest wall

Lift your head to look forward

What do you see?

You’ve just created an excessive kyphotic curve — complete with rounded shoulders.

The traditional fix? It’s not helping.

Most practitioners see the kyphosis and try to reverse it with:

Squeezing the shoulder blades together

Pushing the chest out

Face-pulls with ropes

And other textbook “posture” corrections

Let me be very clear:

Any exercise that results in:

A lower back arch

Shoulder blades being squeezed together

Front ribs flaring or lifting up

…will compress the ribcage further and be completely counterproductive.

So what is kyphosis?

A compressed chest wall that cannot open

An upper ribcage that is jammed down

A lower posterior ribcage (lower back) that is also compressed

A sternum pulled down hard by a highly concentric ‘6-pack’ muscle — desperately trying to stop the body from falling forward

The excessive kyphotic curve (the hunch) you see is the visible result of these deep structural compensations.

The real solution: Expand, decompress, reverse engineer

We must begin strength training in a way that:

Opens up the lower posterior ribcage

Expands the chest wall

Keeps the area between the shoulder blades open (more protracted than retracted)

In some cases, this can still involve relatively common exercises, but with intelligent constraints and cueing.

Also important: Avoid further compression of the abs

Do not prescribe sit-ups or crunches where the upper body folds toward the lower body.
You need to decrease the concentric tone of the ‘abs’ — not increase it.

To summarise:

Kyphosis is a centre of gravity that has gone too far forward.

We must reverse engineer how someone got there, and sequentially bring them back — not force them “upright.”

This process:

Decompresses the ribcage

Unlocks movement options

Improves joint range of motion

And most importantly, respects how the body actually functions under gravity.