0:02 This is Brent, President of B2C Fitness, in this video we're doing static release 0:06 techniques for the calf, or foam rolling, self myofascial release, you've 0:10 probably heard those terms before. Now, the calves tend to get bound down in lower 0:15 leg dysfunction. The common thing that we see in lower leg dysfunction is a 0:19 combination of eversion, that's the feet flatten out, and external rotation, 0:24 which is the feet turnout, and the inability to dorsiflex. So the 0:28 plantar flexors are tight, restricting our ability to dorsiflex. 0:32 I'm going to have my friend, Laura, come out and help me demonstrate this exercise. Now, 0:37 because we know what this lower leg dysfunction generally looks like, we 0:41 can't kind of predict where our trigger points are going to be. So, the lateral 0:46 gastroc here, does all three of the joint actions that I talked about before. It 0:51 resists dorsiflexion as a planter flexor, it will cause some external rotation of 0:56 the tibia, and it will evert my foot. So we expect to see a lot of trigger points in 1:01 this upper lateral portion of the calf, or the lateral head, the outside 1:06 head of this two-headed muscle here, being your gastroc. The other place 1:10 we commonly see trigger points is your soleus. Now, this gets a little 1:14 complicated, but your soleus will definitely resist plantar flexion, it can 1:18 also do some external rotation of the tibia, as well as some eversion because 1:23 of where the Achilles tendon attaches on the calcaneus. The most common places to 1:28 find trigger points for the soleus are going to be here, right 1:32 kind of in between the bottom of those two gastroc heads, which happens to be the 1:35 middle of the belly of the soleus, as well as up here, which I know that's 1:41 underneath the gastroc, or it kind of looks like I'm pointing at the gastroc, 1:44 but the trigger point you guys will feel is way up in the corner here, right where 1:48 the gastroc even starts to thin out a little bit. So I'm going to have Laura go ahead 1:52 and sit down. I'm using a softball here, you can use a 1:59 foam roll, that's fine, I'll kind of explain that here in a second. She's 2:03 going to find the most tender point in her calf, which generally for Laura is 2:07 right exactly where I talked about those points being. It's either right here in 2:10 the middle of the head of her soleus, or right here on her lateral gastroc in 2:14 the middle of that belly. Kind of just getting back to the foam roll versus 2:18 the softball, I do find that as tendinous as the calf is, there's a lot of connective 2:24 tissue, that a foam roll might not be enough pressure per square inch. At the 2:29 end of the day all static release techniques are a matter of squishing 2:34 muscles. We're just taking something hard and squishing the muscle between that 2:39 object and bone. So by using a soft ball I'm reducing the amount of surface area, 2:46 increasing the pressure per square inch. This has a huge advantage, I've seen 2:51 people use the foam roll and then lift their butt up to try to get enough pressure, but 2:55 chances are we're going to have to hold this position statically on a trigger 2:58 point for 30 seconds to 2 minutes before we're going to feel a release, and 3:02 it's that release that we're looking for to get us an increase in extensibility 3:08 to get that trigger point to calm down. So Laura's using a softball here. If she 3:12 wanted to progress even further she could actually put this leg on top of it, 3:16 and then she's just going to hold, and you can see her face, 'yeah I feel that'. She's just 3:22 going to hold that position until that trigger point goes away. Once again, 3:26 it's going to take 30 seconds to 2 minutes for that to happen, you should 3:30 feel a significant amount of discomfort reduce. Don't roll back and forth. 3:34 I see that a lot, I see a lot of people roll over this 3:38 spot over and over again. The thing that you're probably most likely to do in 3:42 that scenario is start stimulating your pain receptors, which could make your 3:46 trigger point worse. I hope you enjoy the video, I 3:48 hope you enjoy this technique, great for anybody with lower leg dysfunction. 3:53 Once again, this was static release for your gastroc and soleus complex. Talk to 3:57 you guys soon.
