Gastroc and Soleus (Calf) SA Static Release

Gastroc and Soleus SA Static Release, is an innovative and comfortable calf stretching device designed to help improve flexibility and range of motion in both the gastroc and soleus muscles. The device is ideal for increasing the effectiveness of static calf stretches, by providing uniform compression to the calves. It is adjustable, with one size fitting all, so you can customize the amount of compression to your individual needs. The Orthopedic molded foam and polyester fabric construction ensures maximum support and comfort while

Transcript

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This is Brent, President of B2C Fitness, in
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this video we're doing static release
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techniques for the calf, or foam rolling, self myofascial release, you've
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probably heard those terms before. Now, the calves tend to get bound down in lower
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leg dysfunction. The common thing that we see in lower leg dysfunction is a
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combination of eversion, that's the feet flatten out, and external rotation,
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which is the feet turnout, and the inability to dorsiflex. So the
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plantar flexors are tight, restricting our ability to dorsiflex.
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I'm going to have my friend, Laura, come out and help me demonstrate this exercise. Now,
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because we know what this lower leg dysfunction generally looks like, we
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can't kind of predict where our trigger points are going to be. So, the lateral
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gastroc here, does all three of the joint actions that I talked about before. It
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resists dorsiflexion as a planter flexor, it will cause some external rotation of
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the tibia, and it will evert my foot. So we expect to see a lot of trigger points in
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this upper lateral portion of the calf, or the lateral head, the outside
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head of this two-headed muscle here, being your gastroc. The other place
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we commonly see trigger points is your soleus. Now, this gets a little
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complicated, but your soleus will definitely resist plantar flexion, it can
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also do some external rotation of the tibia, as well as some eversion because
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of where the Achilles tendon attaches on the calcaneus. The most common places to
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find trigger points for the soleus are going to be here, right
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kind of in between the bottom of those two gastroc heads, which happens to be the
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middle of the belly of the soleus, as well as up here, which I know that's
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underneath the gastroc, or it kind of looks like I'm pointing at the gastroc,
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but the trigger point you guys will feel is way up in the corner here, right where
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the gastroc even starts to thin out a little bit. So I'm going to have Laura go ahead
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and sit down. I'm using a softball here, you can use a
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foam roll, that's fine, I'll kind of explain that here in a second. She's
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going to find the most tender point in her calf, which generally for Laura is
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right exactly where I talked about those points being. It's either right here in
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the middle of the head of her soleus, or right here on her lateral gastroc in
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the middle of that belly. Kind of just getting back to the foam roll versus
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the softball, I do find that as tendinous as the calf is, there's a lot of connective
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tissue, that a foam roll might not be enough pressure per square inch. At the
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end of the day all static release techniques are a matter of squishing
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muscles. We're just taking something hard and squishing the muscle between that
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object and bone. So by using a soft ball I'm reducing the amount of surface area,
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increasing the pressure per square inch. This has a huge advantage, I've seen
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people use the foam roll and then lift their butt up to try to get enough pressure, but
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chances are we're going to have to hold this position statically on a trigger
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point for 30 seconds to 2 minutes before we're going to feel a release, and
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it's that release that we're looking for to get us an increase in extensibility
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to get that trigger point to calm down. So Laura's using a softball here. If she
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wanted to progress even further she could actually put this leg on top of it,
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and then she's just going to hold, and you can see her face, 'yeah I feel that'. She's just
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going to hold that position until that trigger point goes away. Once again,
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it's going to take 30 seconds to 2 minutes for that to happen, you should
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feel a significant amount of discomfort reduce. Don't roll back and forth.
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I see that a lot, I see a lot of people roll over this
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spot over and over again. The thing that you're probably most likely to do in
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that scenario is start stimulating your pain receptors, which could make your
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trigger point worse. I hope you enjoy the video, I
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hope you enjoy this technique, great for anybody with lower leg dysfunction.
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Once again, this was static release for your gastroc and soleus complex. Talk to