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Dynamic Latissimus Dorsi Stretch

This video explains the Dynamic Latissimus Dorsi Stretch for improved shoulder mobility and flexibility. Learn how to do the stretch correctly to maximize its benefits and reduce the chance of injury.

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Transcript

00:00 - 00:03This is Brent, President of B2C Fitness, and in this video we're doing our
00:03 - 00:07dynamic lat stretch. So, if you're doing your dynamic lat stretch I'm going to
00:07 - 00:10assume that you've already done a few things. I'm going to assume that you've
00:10 - 00:15already done your release techniques for the lats, probably both static and active,
00:15 - 00:18you've already done your self administered mobilization techniques
00:18 - 00:23when appropriate. The activity of the latissimus dorsi, especially when it
00:23 - 00:27becomes overactive, seems to be highly correlated with thoracic mobility as
00:27 - 00:31well as SI joint mobility on the same side. I'm going to also assume that
00:31 - 00:35you've already progressed through your other types of stretching. So you've done
00:35 - 00:38static stretching to return an adaptively shortened muscle to it's
00:38 - 00:43optimal length, we've done active stretching to return end range strength
00:43 - 00:47as well as optimized reciprocal inhibition, and now you're looking to
00:47 - 00:53increase neuromuscular control at the tempo of daily activity, or sporting
00:53 - 00:57activity. So this is one of the ends of our progressions when it comes
00:57 - 01:01to flexibility training. I'm going to have my friend Leanne come out, help me
01:01 - 01:05demonstrate this exercise. We're going to start off with just a little bit of
01:05 - 01:10functional anatomy here. The latissimus
01:10 - 01:15dorsi, huge muscle with a very
01:15 - 01:19complicated origin, and some very complicated actions, goes from an
01:19 - 01:23insertion on the front of our humerous and that intertubercular groove, and then
01:23 - 01:28courses down our ribcage into our thoracolumbar aponeurosis, which of course
01:28 - 01:34has its own attachments in the lumbar spine and posterior pelvis. So this
01:34 - 01:41muscle can not only adduct, extend, and internally rotate our humerous, we have
01:41 - 01:45to keep in mind that has some actions here at the spine too.
01:45 - 01:50It'll ipsilaterally rotate the spine. It will do an anterior pelvic tilt by
01:50 - 01:56pulling up on the pelvis, as well as extend the lumbar spine. So we've got to
01:56 - 02:00be careful when we're trying to stretch the lat that we keep all of this in
02:00 - 02:03consideration. I'm going to show you guys some simple queues to get that done. So I'm
02:03 - 02:08going to have Leanne go ahead and turn around. She's going to grab this
02:08 - 02:14band for us here, and the first thing we're
02:14 - 02:20going to try to do is going to look very much
02:20 - 02:25like a shoulder press. So, if this is what the lat does, this is going to be a
02:25 - 02:29stretch for the lat. So she's going to start in kind of this guarded
02:29 - 02:34position here, and she's just going to go ahead and press straight up, reach up as
02:34 - 02:38high as she can above her, kind of in a cross-body fashion. We could start without
02:38 - 02:41trunk rotation, just to start. We want to make sure that she can
02:41 - 02:46perform this press without going
02:46 - 02:50into an anterior pelvic tilt. That's our first progression. I know this looks
02:50 - 02:53like a shoulder press, but this is a dynamic stretch for her latissimus dorsi.
02:53 - 02:58I'm not using a ton of weight, I'm just trying to get her to stretch out as far
02:58 - 03:05as she can, get a nice stretch in her lat, and maintain control. From here,
03:05 - 03:09now we can start getting a little bit more complicated, we can start adding a
03:09 - 03:13little bit more joint actions and get even a little bit more stretch. So what
03:13 - 03:16I'm going to have Leanne do is she's going to use that rotation component of
03:16 - 03:21the spine. We're going to go from a shoulder press, to a shoulder press with
03:21 - 03:28rotation. So now I'm going to have you reach across this way, and what you
03:28 - 03:32might have to do to keep somebody's pelvis from twisting with their body,
03:32 - 03:37because your lat does spine rotation, it doesn't twist your hips, is you might
03:37 - 03:42have to palpate the front of their ASIS on the opposite hip, I guess
03:42 - 03:45the same side that you're pressing, then you could reach a hand up, so reach for
03:45 - 03:50my hand, good, you can get lots of trunk rotation. Let's try that one more time.
03:50 - 04:01Really reach, good. Let's see that one more time, reach across, good.
04:01 - 04:05Do you feel that Leanne? -Yeah. Good. If Leanne wasn't feeling that we need even more
04:05 - 04:08extensibility she could do kind of what's going to look kind of like an
04:08 - 04:13upper cut, or a lay up. If we turn the hand this way, so palm's up, that'll force
04:13 - 04:16more external rotation of the humerus and get an even bigger stretch. So she
04:16 - 04:21can start here in that nice tucked up position, and then she's going to press
04:21 - 04:28up this way. So let's try that Leanne. Good. Of course, these are progressions
04:28 - 04:31for neuromuscular control. You still have your tempo progressions that you can do.
04:31 - 04:37So she can do a few reps, and then start speeding up as she gets more
04:37 - 04:43comfortable. This is dynamic stretching after all. Then if we really want to
04:43 - 04:47increase the complexity of this exercise, increase the amount of neuromuscular
04:47 - 04:52control, I can let her start spinning in the hips so now she's going to look like
04:52 - 04:58this, making sure she still presses off this hip, keeps this glute locked out, and
04:58 - 05:01she's still reaching up nice and high without going into an anterior pelvic
05:01 - 05:10tilt. Alright, good. Keep going. Notice Leanne's keeping the ball of her foot
05:10 - 05:18on the floor on her left side. So this would be the end of our band
05:18 - 05:21progressions. This is a great exercise, you can have them pick up the tempo a
05:21 - 05:23little bit. She's using a band so we don't have to worry about throwing
05:23 - 05:27around a weight stack or anything. If she can get up to this kind of tempo
05:27 - 05:31where she's bouncing a little bit, that's okay, this is dynamic flexibility,
05:31 - 05:35providing she can keep all of her kinetic chain checkpoints in line, she
05:35 - 05:38doesn't go into that anterior pelvic tilt, and she continues to feel a stretch
05:38 - 05:44on her latissimus dorsi. Now, from here we can progress to something that I know
05:44 - 05:51everybody's seen which is the the medicine ball chop patterns with reach. I
05:51 - 05:56would still have Leanne start with just the pressing motion. I think people tend
05:56 - 06:00to progress dynamic stretching a little too fast, they start losing their form,
06:00 - 06:04and remember, if we're trying to increase neuromuscular control that's
06:04 - 06:07kind of a step backwards. We want to increase neuromuscular control, we want to
06:07 - 06:11optimize movement. So I'm going to have Leanne start just like she's
06:11 - 06:15going to do a two-handed press with the medicine ball, except we're going to
06:15 - 06:18add just a little bit of rotation. So I'm going to, once again,
06:18 - 06:24palpate Leanne's ASIS, making sure her pelvis stays stable, and I'm
06:24 - 06:28going to have her reach for my hand here. Good, and she should be feeling a stretch
06:28 - 06:35on this lat, the side opposite from where she's reaching. You feel that? -Yeah. Let's
06:35 - 06:39come up just a little higher, but a little bit more stretch. There we go, good.
06:39 - 06:44Big stretch, and I'm going to keep going through the same type of
06:44 - 06:46progressions we went through with the band. So now I'm going to have you go
06:46 - 06:51ahead and spin on this hip. Nice reach up. Try not to go into an anterior
06:51 - 06:57pelvic tilt, drawn-in for me. Speed that up just a little bit. Good. And then,
06:57 - 07:01of course, I can make this even more complicated if I want to get more involved,
07:01 - 07:05get more muscles involved, maybe kill a few birds with one stone here, I could
07:05 - 07:10have Leanne reach down for that toe in either a squat or deadlift fashion,
07:10 - 07:15and then reach up. So now we've got this big movement pattern, just
07:15 - 07:19reach down towards your toe, and then reach up. She can start speeding
07:19 - 07:22this up a little bit as she gets better form. Make sure you're keeping your glutes
07:22 - 07:28engaged, you're drawn-in so you don't go into that anterior pelvic tilt. Now,
07:28 - 07:32generally for dynamic stretching you're going to do 10, maybe up to 20
07:32 - 07:36repetitions. Leanne's done like 500 here, that's probably way too many repetitions
07:36 - 07:42for any one side of a dynamic stretch. You have tons of progressions. Let's
07:42 - 07:46try to back off some of the more complicated progressions to start, and
07:46 - 07:50try to think about optimizing movement starting with our regressions, and then
07:50 - 07:55progressing. So we did the band press, then the band press with rotation, trunk
07:55 - 08:00rotation that is, then the band press with external rotation of
08:00 - 08:05the humerus, then we did hip rotation, and then we added the ball. We went through
08:05 - 08:11those same progressions again, and then we added the toe touch to press. I hope you
08:11 - 08:14enjoy this video, I hope I just gave you a ton of stuff to work with with
08:14 - 08:18your clients, your athletes. I think you are going to enjoy this progression and
08:18 - 08:25the performance increases you get. Thanks again Leanne for participating.

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