0:00 This is Brent coming at you with another calf stretch. In this video we're going to 0:03 go over the slant board stretch as an alternative to the wall stretches I showed 0:08 you before. Although that's a great stretch and it's something that you 0:12 should have in your repertoire, to get the most out of it is actually fairly 0:16 complicated to teach. So I'm going to show you guys how this stretch fulfills all of 0:21 our criteria for a great stretch. It supports the bottom of the foot so we 0:26 don't take the chance of stretching out those intrinsics of the foot, those 0:30 intrinsic flexors that support the medial arch. We're going to keep the hip in 0:34 a neutral position, so none of this long sit, pulling up with a strap, which puts 0:39 the hip into flexion, knee into total extension, pulling up into dorsiflexion 0:42 which has the potential to over stretch that sciatic nerve over time. We can put 0:48 a considerable amount of force through a slant board, right. We have our entire 0:53 body weight contributing to this force, and lastly, this is where things get 0:58 really really simplified, in that wall stretch I had to work really hard to get 1:04 somebody from that everted, turned-out position, that we're trying to correct 1:09 with a calf stretch, into this inverted and dorsiflexed position. With a slant 1:15 that becomes two simple queues. I think if you have tried that wall stretch I 1:20 showed, you realize it takes a little bit of effort. I'm going to have my friend, Yvette, 1:24 come out, she's going to help me demonstrate. So, first things first, the 1:28 reason I've never showed this stretch before, I hadn't found these OPTP slants 1:34 before, and this is not just an endorsement for a product, slant boards 1:38 had the tendency to be really expensive, like in that hundred to two hundred 1:42 dollar range, it makes it very hard for me to look at a client or a patient and 1:46 go, 'hey I need you to get this for home', not to mention some of the slant boards 1:50 I've had in the past were a little rickety on top of being expensive. These 1:53 OPTP slants you can get on Amazon for 21 bucks, and it comes with two, if I beat 1:59 them up it doesn't matter a terrible amount, they seem to last 2:03 three to six months anyway, and then I just buy another set. I can refer a 2:07 client to get these for home, so I know that in between our sessions they're 2:12 continually working on gaining that dorsiflexion. Now, let's get back to the 2:16 queues on this stretch so I can show you how simple this really is. Rather 2:20 than that wall stretch where we had to turn the foot in and work on tibia on 2:24 foot inversion and take a step sideways and do all this queuing, all I have to 2:29 ask Yvette to do is go, "okay stand up on the slant board, hold on to this for 2:33 support." She's going to turn her feet a little pigeon-toed, so pinky toe pointing 2:38 forward, or fifth metatarsal pointing forward, and then once she gets into a 2:43 little bit of rotation this way, all I need to do is externally rotate her legs 2:48 a little bit to pop her arches back up, and I can do that with a simple queue of 2:52 squeeze your glutes, and stand up nice and tall. Alright, so now we have a nice calf 3:00 stretch. We have the hip in neutral position, so no sciatic nerve issues, we 3:04 have the foot in inversion, so that's not a problem. We have a considerable 3:09 amount of weight with our whole body weight in the stretch, and it's 3:12 absolutely no effort for the patient or client. This actually, for the 3:16 most part, unless somebody has arthrokinematic dysfunction that you're going to 3:19 have to take care of, I actually find this more effective than doing manual 3:23 stretching on a patient or client. Now, the only problem with the OPTP slant 3:28 is that the angle isn't very steep. So this is great for somebody who just came 3:34 in who is very tight, but after a few weeks of doing this they're going to get as 3:41 much as they can out of the OPTP slant and we're going to have to find something 3:44 a little bit more intense. So we're going to trade in two pieces of cheap foam, and 3:52 by cheap I just mean less expensive, which I love, for another piece of cheap 3:59 foam, which is the half foam roll. So if I take this half foam roll and put it flat 4:04 side up, when Yvette comes and steps on it and does the exact same queues, 4:09 she's pinky toe pointed forward, she gets her heels down on the 4:14 floor, and she can be leaned back a little bit, that's okay and then she 4:17 squeezes her glutes, we're right back to having a nice slant board, bottom of foot 4:23 supported, she's in that inverted position. Squeeze your glutes, and 4:29 you can see here that the half foam roll is actually a fairly steep angle. So this 4:33 gives her a lot more to work on. For Yvette, personally, I would actually give her 4:38 the half foam roll for home, rather than the OPTP slants because the OPTP 4:42 slants looked a little not challenging enough for her. So there you go. 4:48 I want you to learn that wall stretch. That wall stretch is important 4:52 in the previous video. It's important that you have a technique that requires 4:55 absolutely no equipment. All of you who have runners with tight calves who 5:00 end up doing these events and need some way to warm up beforehand, they need 5:05 something with no equipment, but for your clubs get something that you can use for 5:11 a slant board, it will make your life a ton easier, and then make sure that if 5:15 your clients have lower leg dysfunction, your patients have lower leg dysfunction 5:20 and some sort of ankle, foot, lower leg injury, that you get this stuff for home 5:25 so that they can continue working on it. I hope you get a huge results, I 5:28 look forward to talking to you again soon.
