25/08/2026
Why we bother checking it: your mid back is where most of your rotation is meant to come from. Reaching overhead, throwing, swinging a club, turning to look behind you, even a clean squat or overhead press. When that region is limited, the demand tends to get shared out to the neck, shoulder or lower back instead. Those areas can usually cope, until they are asked to do it several hundred times a week.
That is why it turns up in both physio assessments and PT programming. Physio side, it helps explain why a shoulder or neck keeps flaring. PT side, it is often the reason a lift looks awkward no matter how much you drill the technique.
Level 1 Shoulders barely turn. The lower back and neck are doing the work instead.
Level 2 You get partway round, but it stalls and the ribs flare to get there.
Level 3 Chest opens and the shoulders stack, no compensating.
None of these are a verdict. Plenty of people sit at level 1 with no symptoms at all, and plenty at level 3 still get stiff necks. It just tells you where to begin.
Kubo built a full eight week mobility programme around drills like this one. Tracking sheets, exercise breakdowns, follow along videos, the lot.
Want it? DM us the word MOBILITY and we will send it over.