0:00 This is Brent, President of B2C Fitness, and in this video, we're doing an active 0:03 stretch for the levator scapulae. So, for doing active stretching, I'm going to assume 0:08 that you've already done your release techniques, and that you've probably been 0:11 working on that static pocket stretch to help return a muscle that is adaptively 0:15 shortened, to its optimal length. I'm going have my friend Salve come out here 0:20 and help me demonstrate this exercise. We're going to do a quick kinesiology 0:23 lesson, because this is a fairly involved stretch. All right, so our levator scapulae 0:28 runs right here on the side of our neck, does a little bit of lateral flexion, 0:32 ipsilateral rotation, and extension. That's its cervical spine function. Now 0:38 at the scapula, the same muscle does elevation, as its name would imply. The 0:43 levator scapulae elevates the scapula, it downwardly rotates the scapula by 0:48 pulling up on that internal angle, 0:50 alright, that superior angle of the scapula, tilts it this way, as well as 0:54 anteriorly tilts the scapula. 0:58 So first things first, I want to knock out some of those joint actions. That's a 1:01 whole lot of joint actions to think about. 1:03 I want to make a stretch that's at least fairly simple to do. So what I'm going to 1:07 have Salve do, is she's going to back up against this wall, she's going to step 1:11 out a little bit, so she's leaning against the wall. That'll posteriorly 1:14 tilt her scapula, and then if I get her to depress her scapula while she's back 1:18 in that wall, it'll fix her into a little bit of depression. From here, we can now 1:24 do our pocket stretch, which if you've been doing your static stretch, your 1:28 client should be well aware of, and all I have to do is add one more action to get 1:33 some upward rotation, and we get a nice active stretch. So what I'm going to have 1:37 Salve do here, is she's going to go into her pocket stretch, looking down into 1:41 this pocket, she's going to use that hand to hold her head in place. I don't want 1:46 her pulling on her head with this arm, she's just holding her head in place. 1:49 And now she's going to reach up with this arm to force her scapula into upward rotation. 1:56 She'll hold for two, and then she'll come back down. 2:00 Look straight ahead at me. Good, perfect. Look down. 2:04 Hold. By going into upward rotation, she activates all those upward rotators, 2:09 which will reciprocally inhibit her levator scapulae. Once again, the goal of 2:15 active stretching, is to strengthen our functional antagonists, as well as return 2:22 reciprocal inhibition back to optimal, back to the way it should be. 2:28 Let's see one more rep here, Salve. So she's going to look down. 2:32 She's going to hold, not pull, and then reach up, making sure that she keeps 2:38 depressed, though. She's keeping her shoulder down, which Salve is doing a 2:40 great job of. I'm going to have you guys see just one more angle, just so you guys can 2:45 see which direction her head's going, how she's reaching up. Why don't you go ahead and 2:49 flatten yourself against this wall? 2:52 Alright guys, I'm going to have her draw in and she's going to, kind of, take that curve out 2:56 of her lumbar spine. Good, Salve, so let me have you reach down. You're going into flexion, 3:01 contralateral rotation, lateral flexion away. She's holding and she's going to 3:06 reach up, hold for two, good, and back down. Now with all active stretches, guys, it's 3:14 8 to 15 reps, 2-5 second holds. By the end of your set, you should 3:19 start to feel things loosen up a little bit, should start to feel an increase in 3:23 extensibility, and of course if you selected the right stretch, after you've 3:28 done this, you should move a little better. I hope you guys have enjoyed this 3:31 video. Thank you Salve, once again.
