Lewit Deep Neck Flexor Activation

Lewit Deep Neck Flexor Activation is an innovative training program from renowned strength and conditioning coach Chris Lewit that helps you strengthen your neck and shoulder muscles to reduce injury risk and improve your posture. It is designed for anyone who wants improved performance and better neck and shoulder health, from athletes to weekend warriors to desk jockeys. The program combines an easy to understand combination of stabilization, mobility and strength exercises that are designed to systematically activate and strengthen your neck and shoulder muscles so you can

Transcript

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This is Brent of the Brookbush
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...blank
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Institute, and in this video we're going over
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a very clever deep neck flexor
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activation exercise that I picked up in
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a text called 'Manipulative Therapy' by
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Lewit. I'm going to have my friend Melissa
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come out she's going to help me
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demonstrate. Now we do need a prop for
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this exercise, we need to pretend that
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Melissa is sitting at her desk in the
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middle of the gym, on turf. I'm just
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kidding, we're going to pretend that
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Melissa is your common office, desk bound,
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computer working individual. The big
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problem we have with these individuals
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is unlike our athletes where we can go,
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okay I need you to not run for two weeks
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while we kind of get this problem
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figured out. Or I need you to stop
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playing basketball, or stop playing
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footbal,l just give me a couple weeks get
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this straight. I can't go hey you just
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stop working for two weeks ok. I know
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paychecks are important and all but you
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don't need it, but that doesn't work for
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this group of people. They're
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actually very hard to treat. If they have
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cervical dysfunction and they have to be
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staring at a computer, we have to find
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ways to help them manage that problem.
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And then I read about this exercise
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which i've been using which is fantastic,
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no equipment required except for a desk
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chair, which they happen to already be
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sitting in. So what this exercise
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involves is if Melissa leans her head
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back so that it matches her body right,
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so you guys can see she's leaned back, a
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little back this way. If her head and
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neck match that angle, she now has a
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little bit of a force vector opposing
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what her deep neck flexors would do,
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which is chin tuck. So if she chin tucks
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from this position, a little more
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forward, hold for 2 to 4 seconds, and then
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relax; she can help to reactivate those
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deep neck flexors that might become a
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little inactive when we sit in front of
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our computers like this. Start
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stabilizing that cervical spine a little
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bit, and hopefully manage some of the
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cervical pain and dysfunction she's been
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having. Now if I want to take this up one
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more step, I could even show Melissa how
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to use her hand to palpate her SCM. All
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right so palpate sternocleidomastoid,
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kind of get her used to feeling okay
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what is a inactive sternocleidomastoid
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feel like. It's going to be slightly
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active since we're upright, but now only
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lean back as far as you need to before
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those guys all of a sudden turn on. All
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right, you feel that? So if she goes ahead
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and falls way back here, like you
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might even be able to see how her
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sternocleidomastoid just geared up, and
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you can see that big line down here.
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Alright so lean back only as far as you can
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without those guys getting active, now do
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your chin tuck, hold for four seconds,
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four seconds times 10 to 20 reps, so
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we're looking at about a minute. I don't
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know anybody with a good excuse to not
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take a minute out of even every hour if
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they had to, to start being able to
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manage their own cervical pain this is
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an important one. Although i don't like
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this exercise as much as like some of
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that isolated activation exercises we
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did in previous videos, where we also get
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some of the lower cervical extensors, and
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we're also mobilizing some of that CT
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junction. This exercise just for ease is
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so clever I think it'll definitely help
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your carryover from session to session.
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So there you guys have it, Lewit deep neck
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flexor activation in a desk chair.