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This is Brent, President of B2C Fitness, and in this video, we're doing an active
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stretch for the levator scapulae. So, for doing active stretching, I'm going to assume
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that you've already done your release techniques, and that you've probably been
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working on that static pocket stretch to help return a muscle that is adaptively
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shortened, to its optimal length. I'm going have my friend Salve come out here
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and help me demonstrate this exercise. We're going to do a quick kinesiology
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lesson, because this is a fairly involved stretch. All right, so our levator scapulae
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runs right here on the side of our neck, does a little bit of lateral flexion,
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ipsilateral rotation, and extension. That's its cervical spine function. Now
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at the scapula, the same muscle does elevation, as its name would imply. The
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levator scapulae elevates the scapula, it downwardly rotates the scapula by
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pulling up on that internal angle,
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alright, that superior angle of the scapula, tilts it this way, as well as
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anteriorly tilts the scapula.
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So first things first, I want to knock out some of those joint actions. That's a
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whole lot of joint actions to think about.
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I want to make a stretch that's at least fairly simple to do. So what I'm going to
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have Salve do, is she's going to back up against this wall, she's going to step
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out a little bit, so she's leaning against the wall. That'll posteriorly
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tilt her scapula, and then if I get her to depress her scapula while she's back
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in that wall, it'll fix her into a little bit of depression. From here, we can now
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do our pocket stretch, which if you've been doing your static stretch, your
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client should be well aware of, and all I have to do is add one more action to get
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some upward rotation, and we get a nice active stretch. So what I'm going to have
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Salve do here, is she's going to go into her pocket stretch, looking down into
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this pocket, she's going to use that hand to hold her head in place. I don't want
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her pulling on her head with this arm, she's just holding her head in place.
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And now she's going to reach up with this arm to force her scapula into upward rotation.
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She'll hold for two, and then she'll come back down.
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Look straight ahead at me. Good, perfect. Look down.
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Hold. By going into upward rotation, she activates all those upward rotators,
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which will reciprocally inhibit her levator scapulae. Once again, the goal of
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active stretching, is to strengthen our functional antagonists, as well as return
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reciprocal inhibition back to optimal, back to the way it should be.
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Let's see one more rep here, Salve. So she's going to look down.
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She's going to hold, not pull, and then reach up, making sure that she keeps
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depressed, though. She's keeping her shoulder down, which Salve is doing a
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great job of. I'm going to have you guys see just one more angle, just so you guys can
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see which direction her head's going, how she's reaching up. Why don't you go ahead and
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flatten yourself against this wall?
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Alright guys, I'm going to have her draw in and she's going to, kind of, take that curve out
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of her lumbar spine. Good, Salve, so let me have you reach down. You're going into flexion,
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contralateral rotation, lateral flexion away. She's holding and she's going to
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reach up, hold for two, good, and back down. Now with all active stretches, guys, it's
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8 to 15 reps, 2-5 second holds. By the end of your set, you should
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start to feel things loosen up a little bit, should start to feel an increase in
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extensibility, and of course if you selected the right stretch, after you've
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done this, you should move a little better. I hope you guys have enjoyed this