0:05 This is Brent of the Brookbush Institute at the Independent Training Spot. Today 0:10 i'm bringing you guys one of my favorite techniques, it's something i use all the 0:13 time. It's something i put in home exercise programs all the time, and its 0:16 because it combines so many useful bits. It's occipital release, a gentle thoracic 0:23 mobilization, as well as pectoralis minor and major stretching. This is called the 0:28 crucifixion stretch. I'm going to have my friend Jordan come out and demonstrate. 0:31 Now what you guys will notice is I've used a half foam roll here, so I have the 0:35 flat side down. You could use a full foam roll, we'll talk about that in a 0:40 second. What you guys might have noticed is I put some some orange Rock tape at 0:44 the top here, that's just so you guys can see the end a little bit better. As 0:48 Jordan laid down on this half foam roll, what I have him do to start off is put 0:54 his occipitals, those little soft muscles back there at the 1:00 top of the neck, right at the corner of that foam roll. Now just the weight of 1:05 his head leaning back against the corner of the foam roll. That's a nice soft 1:10 rounded edge, probably feels pretty good. Right feels excellent. Alright so he's 1:16 getting a nice gentle massage there, a nice gentle release. Notice that the foam 1:21 roll is forcing his thoracic spine flat. So if you guys have somebody who's a 1:27 little too tender to do the thoracic spine mobilization with the foam mold 1:32 this way, you can have them start here, the foam roll will conform a little bit 1:37 to their spinous process, but just forcing their thoracic spine into 1:41 extension to flat, is a nice little mobilization. His arms being in this 1:46 position, providing that he's letting his shoulders relax, is a gentle PEC minor 1:51 stretch. So just getting somebody in this position for a few minutes definitely 1:57 helps loosen up some of those overactive or restricted structures, in those 2:02 individuals with upper body dysfunction. Now I can take several steps to either 2:07 progress this exercise, make it more intense, or in some cases just make it 2:12 better. We'll start with, Jordan go ahead and have your arms like this. 2:18 Alright so now he's not putting his hands behind his head, because that's 2:23 going to interrupt his occipital release. It's just kind of behind the upper part 2:27 of his head, and he doesn't have to lock his fingers, they're just kind of 2:30 interlaced, and then he's just going to let gravity start pulling his elbows to 2:34 the ground. Now because of this externally rotated position and the 2:38 upward rotation of a scapula, I just increased the stretch on his pectoralis 2:43 minor, as well as added in pectoralis major. So how does that feel, it feels 2:49 wonderful. So that's a little bit further along. I could take this one step further 2:54 depending on how much flexibility somebody has. If they can keep most of 2:59 their forearm and hands on the ground, I can increase the lever length of his arm, get 3:07 an even more intense stretch of his pectoralis major and minor, just by 3:12 having him lengthen out his arms. Now be careful with this one, because if 3:16 somebody has any sort of of neural tension, they might get tingly in their 3:22 fingertips and thumb. This can become kind of a median nerve stretch, you can 3:26 have somebody just kind of curl their fingers, that might help. If they're 3:31 still tingling, or they're losing sensation, you just have them go back to 3:34 this right. We don't want to increase nerve symptoms, just to try to get a 3:39 bigger stretch on the PEC major. From here I can even increase the pressure on 3:46 the occipitals right, by making it unilateral. So what I'm going to have 3:50 Jordan do is just turn his head to one side good, and he's just going to relax 3:56 in that position, stay there until he gets a nice release. Might take 30 seconds, 4:02 might take a minute, and then I can have him come to the other side 4:09 right, all the while he's still getting his stretch here, he's still getting that 4:15 gentle thoracic mobilization. Maybe from this exercise the next thing could be 4:21 that thoracic self-administered mobilization manipulation this way. Or 4:26 maybe I could go into open books, which would be a rotational mobilization plus 4:32 active chest stretch, which also works all of the stuff that we just went 4:36 through. So I hope you guys can see, let's go back to here, so this is a very 4:44 common position i use. You could go up on a full foam roll also, and get a bigger 4:49 stretch for his chest. I hope you guys can see all of the variations of this 4:53 just one position, how useful this becomes for chest stretching. Those 4:58 individuals with cervical spine pain, neck pain. Those individuals with 5:03 thoracic dysfunction, and of course it contributing to many structures in our 5:07 upper body dysfunction model. I think if you guys start using this in your 5:11 routines, you're going to knock a bunch of exercises out all at once. I hope you 5:14 get great outcomes. I look forward to hearing from you. 5:25
