0:02 This is Brent, President of B2C Fitness. In this video, we're going to do our static, 0:07 self-administered, levator scapulae stretch. Now our levator scapulae is one of 0:12 those muscles that gets over active and adaptively shortens in those people with 0:16 upper body dysfunction. 0:18 As well as those individuals with cervical posture dysfunction or forward 0:22 head tilt. Now before we do this stretch, it involves the neck, and anytime we do a 0:27 stretch for the neck, we need to be a little bit more cautious. There's some 0:29 very delicate structures that can be affected in the neck stretch. Things 0:33 like our brachial plexus, we have these little vertebral foramen that can impinge 0:38 down on nerves. 0:39 We have these transverse foramen that house something called a vertebral artery, 0:43 that can also get pinched down on and affect blood flow to the brain. That 0:47 would not be a positive thing at all, but what I'm about to show you guys is 0:51 totally safe, providing you remember one thing. This stretch is not going to take 0:57 the amount of force to lengthen a muscle that you would use on some of the bigger 1:02 structures and bigger joints in our body. If we put the calf stretch on one 1:06 end, taking a whole lot of force, you know and then the hip takes a little less force, 1:11 of course, when we're dealing with the shoulder, we need to be a little bit more 1:14 delicate, cervical stretches would be like way over here. They only 1:19 take a really small amount of force to create a lengthening of that structure. 1:23 I'm gonna have my friend Laura come out and help me demonstrate this exercise. 1:27 Now, our levator scapulae goes from the superior angle of our scapula to the 1:34 transverse processes, those processes that stick out of the side of cervical vertebrae 1 1:41 through 4. Alright, so this muscle goes from here to here. 1:44 I know you guys have felt this muscle before. If you feel right down here near 1:49 the origin, you probably got a lot of trigger points, a lot of knots, a lot of 1:54 painful spots. Alot of people attribute to the trap, usually is this nasty little 1:59 levator scapulae. Now, you guys can kind of see how it would pull us into that upper 2:03 body postural dysfunction, but let's see how it would pull on it to get it 2:06 lengthened, so we can get it stretched out, get it to 2:09 calm down. Alright, so this muscle does this- lateral flexion, ipsilateral rotation, 2:15 and extension. All we have to do is the opposite to stretch. 2:20 Alright, so she's going to go into lateral flexion, rotation, and just 2:25 a tad bit of flexion this way, and then I'm going to improve the stretch just a 2:30 little bit by having her stabilize her scapula, by kind of reaching down with 2:35 this arm. 2:35 She doesn't have to do it real hard, I don't want to activate anything. Just stabilize and 2:40 reach down a little bit. That will depress and posteriorly tip my scapula. Then she 2:45 can create a little bit of overpressure with this hand, by going to the back corner 2:50 of her head, just with like either the weight of her hand, or with the pressure of her 2:55 fingertips, create enough force to get a good stretch down here. Now, I'm going to show you guys a 3:00 couple more angles you can see exactly what's this stretch looks like. If you go 3:05 from the front, 3:06 I think you guys have put together all those joint actions real quickly, because 3:09 this stretch has a nickname. It's nicknamed "the pocket stretch." So if I have her 3:14 depress, stabilize that scapula, she can hold on to the back of her thigh, or glute. 3:21 And then I have her just look down into the opposite front pocket, let's say this is pants, head, pockets. All right so, 3:27 she's gonna look right down here. She just did all the joint actions I needed her to do. 3:31 She did some lateral flexion. She did some rotation. Just a little bit of 3:35 flexion, and then she can use this hand to help her see the bottom of her pocket. 3:42 She can hold onto that. One little pointer guys, because some people have a 3:46 hard time feeling the stretch. 3:52 Depress this scapula. All right, so you grab here. 3:55 One thing I want you guys to know, it's probably the most important joint action 3:59 of the three, to get a good stretch on this muscle, is to go into lateral 4:03 flexion. 4:04 Alright, so when I say there's flexion and rotation, she's not flexing like chin 4:08 to her chest, 4:09 she's just lateral flexion, rotation next, and then just a little bit of flexion. So 4:15 you guys can see that angle matches up with the exact opposing angle of this 4:20 muscle here. She'll then go ahead and put a slight bit of overpressure. Now, like all 4:27 static stretches guys, we're going to wait 30 seconds to 2 minutes, or ideally until 4:33 we get enough of that 4:35 golgi tendon organ stimulus to give something called autogenic inhibition, 4:40 which is going to be felt by us as a release that allows us to lengthen out 4:46 that tissue a little bit farther. So once again guys, this is your levator scapulae 4:50 stretch. We're doing a static stretch, so you're gonna hold it for 30 seconds to 2 4:54 minutes. I hope you guys enjoy this technique and see a good improvement in your 4:58 movement. I'll talk with you soon.
