Crucifixion Stretch (Static Pec Stretch, Sub-occipital Release & Gentle Thoracic Mobilization)

Crucifixion Stretch is an effective form of injury prevention, rehabilitation, and prevention of chronic spinal pains. It combines three distinct stretching and mobilization techniques into a single exercise. The first is a static pec stretch, which targets the pectoralis major muscle and its associated connective tissue. The second is a sub-occipital release, targeting the muscles and connective tissue at the base of the skull. Finally, the gentle thoracic mobilization technique ensures the proper movement

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Transcript

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This is Brent of the Brookbush Institute

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at the Independent Training Spot. Today

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i'm bringing you guys one of my favorite techniques, it's something i use all the

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time. It's something i put in home exercise programs all the time, and its

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because it combines so many useful bits. It's occipital release, a gentle thoracic

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mobilization, as well as pectoralis minor and major stretching. This is called the

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crucifixion stretch. I'm going to have my friend Jordan come out and demonstrate.

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Now what you guys will notice is I've used a half foam roll here, so I have the

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flat side down. You could use a full foam roll, we'll talk about that in a

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second. What you guys might have noticed is I put some some orange Rock tape at

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the top here, that's just so you guys can see the end a little bit better. As

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Jordan laid down on this half foam roll, what I have him do to start off is put

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his occipitals, those little soft muscles back there at the

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top of the neck, right at the corner of that foam roll. Now just the weight of

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his head leaning back against the corner of the foam roll. That's a nice soft

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rounded edge, probably feels pretty good. Right feels excellent. Alright so he's

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getting a nice gentle massage there, a nice gentle release. Notice that the foam

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roll is forcing his thoracic spine flat. So if you guys have somebody who's a

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little too tender to do the thoracic spine mobilization with the foam mold

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this way, you can have them start here, the foam roll will conform a little bit

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to their spinous process, but just forcing their thoracic spine into

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extension to flat, is a nice little mobilization. His arms being in this

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position, providing that he's letting his shoulders relax, is a gentle PEC minor

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stretch. So just getting somebody in this position for a few minutes definitely

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helps loosen up some of those overactive or restricted structures, in those

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individuals with upper body dysfunction. Now I can take several steps to either

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progress this exercise, make it more intense, or in some cases just make it

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better. We'll start with, Jordan go ahead and have your arms like this.

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Alright so now he's not putting his hands behind his head, because that's

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going to interrupt his occipital release. It's just kind of behind the upper part

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of his head, and he doesn't have to lock his fingers, they're just kind of

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interlaced, and then he's just going to let gravity start pulling his elbows to

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the ground. Now because of this externally rotated position and the

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upward rotation of a scapula, I just increased the stretch on his pectoralis

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minor, as well as added in pectoralis major. So how does that feel, it feels

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wonderful. So that's a little bit further along. I could take this one step further

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depending on how much flexibility somebody has. If they can keep most of

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their forearm and hands on the ground, I can increase the lever length of his arm, get

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an even more intense stretch of his pectoralis major and minor, just by

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having him lengthen out his arms. Now be careful with this one, because if

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somebody has any sort of of neural tension, they might get tingly in their

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fingertips and thumb. This can become kind of a median nerve stretch, you can

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have somebody just kind of curl their fingers, that might help. If they're

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still tingling, or they're losing sensation, you just have them go back to

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this right. We don't want to increase nerve symptoms, just to try to get a

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bigger stretch on the PEC major. From here I can even increase the pressure on

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the occipitals right, by making it unilateral. So what I'm going to have

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Jordan do is just turn his head to one side good, and he's just going to relax

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in that position, stay there until he gets a nice release. Might take 30 seconds,

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might take a minute, and then I can have him come to the other side

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right, all the while he's still getting his stretch here, he's still getting that

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gentle thoracic mobilization. Maybe from this exercise the next thing could be

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that thoracic self-administered mobilization manipulation this way. Or

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maybe I could go into open books, which would be a rotational mobilization plus

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active chest stretch, which also works all of the stuff that we just went

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through. So I hope you guys can see, let's go back to here, so this is a very

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common position i use. You could go up on a full foam roll also, and get a bigger

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stretch for his chest. I hope you guys can see all of the variations of this

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just one position, how useful this becomes for chest stretching. Those

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individuals with cervical spine pain, neck pain. Those individuals with

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thoracic dysfunction, and of course it contributing to many structures in our

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upper body dysfunction model. I think if you guys start using this in your

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routines, you're going to knock a bunch of exercises out all at once. I hope you

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get great outcomes. I look forward to hearing from you.

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Crucifixion Stretch (Static Pec Stretch, Sub-occipital Release & Gentle Thoracic Mobilization)

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Crucifixion Stretch (Static Pec Stretch, Sub-occipital Release & Gentle Thoracic Mobilization)

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