Flexor Carpi Radialis Activation

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Flexor Carpi Radialis Activation is an effective exercise to improve the strength and coordination in the wrist, forearm, and elbow muscles. When done correctly, it can target the muscles in the forearm and elbow, which are often underused and can lead to poor mobility, stability, and posture. This exercise involves the activation of the flexor carpi radialis muscle, which can help to improve overall strength and control of these muscles. It is a great exercise for athletes and

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Transcript

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This is Brent of the Brookbush Institute,
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and in this video we're going to do
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flexor carpi radialis activation. This is an exercise that is for those who are
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exhibiting forearm dysfunction. That'd be anybody with issues of the wrist, forearm
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or elbow. I'm going to have my friend Cryistal come out, she's going to help me
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demonstrate. Now forearm dysfunction, postural dysfunction of this part of our
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body generally looks like too much pronation, too much ulnar deviation, too
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much extension, and of course we end up in this typing position. Which is
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probably why we're seeing a lot more hand, wrist, and elbow dysfunction as
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people are increasingly doing more desk jobs, more computer work right. So what
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we're going to do is this excessive ulnar deviation, we're going to try to
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correct this a little bit by activating the muscle that does the opposite which
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would be the flexor carpi radialis. Now the only thing we have to try to figure
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out is how to activate the flexor carpi radialis, without also activating the
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overactive synergists extensor carpi radialis longus and brevis. So all of
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these forearm exercises are fairly simple,
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but kind easy to mess up if you not paying attention to your details. So what
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I'm gonna have you do is grab one of these FlexBars, These are FlexBars
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from Theraband they are the best tool I have found for
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this stuff. I'm gonna have you take a grip just like this. I'm then going to
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have you smash the FlexBar into your forearm. So that automatically turns
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you down into ulnar deviation, which means now all of your radial deviation
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is now resisted. So we're actually resisting radial deviation not just from
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neutral, because if you try to resist radial deviation just from neutral
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alright, like if you let this go, if you were to just go from neutral and then radial
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deviate like you don't really have that much motion. But if we resist all the way
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from end range ulnar deviation through end range radial deviation, we get a
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little bit more motion that way. Alright so you're going to go ahead and radially
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deviate. Now what are we going to do to ensure that our extensor carpi radialis
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longus and brevis do not kick in, well that's actually pretty easy, all we have
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to do is make sure that Crystal here stays in a little bit of flexion.
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So if you imagined her having another one of these FlexBars right
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here, we don't want her to break neutral with her wrist, go ahead and show us
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radial deviation, boom and she stays in just a little bit of flexion and that
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works perfect. And you notice here Crystal, you don't even have to use
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both hands to do this. You can just kind of smash the FlexBar underneath your
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forearm if you're sitting at a table and do it with one hand. This is a
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surprisingly challenging exercise, and of course I would use the same activation
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exercise protocol that I've used for everything which is 2-4-2, or
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2-2-4 count. All right so it's nice and slow, hold at the top and then maybe back
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down for four seconds if I want to work on eccentric control. I'm going to do
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that twelve to twenty repetitions range, if she can do twelve to twenty perfect
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repetitions without veering into extension, without letting those
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overactive synergists come into play, then I can give her a bigger FlexBar.
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And they actually come in like four or five different sizes here you guys can
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see here this blue FlexBar is actually incredibly challenging. But if you have
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somebody who has a history of elbow dysfunction, a history of wrist
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dysfunction, and for example they play sports it might be very important for
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them to start getting very strong at these exercises. You want to try the
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other hand? Let me see setup the other hand. I always check, always make sure
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that your patient your client can set it up on their own and having them do the
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other hand sometimes this is an easy way to do that. What aren't you doing on this
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hand that you need to watch out for? Okay good, smash yeah, make sure your wrist
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is in flexion. There you go, that's actually a pretty easy thing to teach
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guys. Make sure as you're giving these exercises, you're probably giving them
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one or two exercises at a time. I wouldn't give them you know a whole
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slew of forearm exercises that they're really unfamiliar with to take home,
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because chances are things are going to get a little.. not so perfect when they
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come back. I hope you guys enjoyed this exercise, that's flexor carpi radialis
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activation, with just a little tip to inhibit extensor carpi radialis longus
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and brevis.