You can only view 3 videos without an account. Become a Member to access all videos on the website.
Lower Leg Dynamic Stretching Series
This Lower Leg Dynamic Stretching Series is designed to stretch, strengthen and mobilize the lower leg muscles. This workout series will help to improve flexibility of the Achilles tendon, calf muscles, hamstring and adductor muscles, as well as the hip flexors and quadriceps muscles. The series includes dynamic exercises that are focused on range of motion and bodyweight movements to increase your lower body strength, flexibility and ability to move more efficiently. This series is perfect for athletes, dancers and anyone
Transcript
00:00:0000:00:04
This is Brent, coming at you with a
00:00:0400:00:08
we're going to go over four exercises that we can do back-to-back in a circuit,
00:00:0800:00:14
that just happen to correlate to the most overactive structures in lower leg
00:00:1400:00:17
dysfunction. So if you have been carefully progressing your exercise,
00:00:1700:00:20
you've done all your release and stretching, first starting with static
00:00:2000:00:23
stretching, then active stretching, and now you are getting ready to go on
00:00:2300:00:27
to more high intensity activity in your resistance training, you're going to want
00:00:2700:00:30
to move on to dynamic stretches. One of the most commonly asked questions I get
00:00:3000:00:35
is how do I fit all of this stuff into one routine. So little circuits like the
00:00:3500:00:40
one Leanne and I are about to do save a whole lot of time, and get us through a
00:00:4000:00:44
lot of exercise very quickly. My friend Leanne's going to come out and help me
00:00:4400:00:51
demonstrate this exercise, or these exercises. So, what this is going to take
00:00:5100:00:55
is a bit of a band around your waist. Now, we have just a resistive band that we've
00:00:5500:00:59
hooked to a hook. We threw a towel around it so that it doesn't rub her skin or
00:00:5900:01:03
pull into her waistline. You could use a super band, one of those thick
00:01:0300:01:08
black bands, or you could use even a belt with a cable attached to it, what we
00:01:0800:01:12
need though is just a little bit of anterior to posterior pull. First muscle
00:01:1200:01:16
we're going to look at is the TFL. So if I want Leanne to stretch her TFL, we
00:01:1600:01:20
know that muscle does abduction and flexion. I'm going to have her go into a
00:01:2000:01:27
little bit of adduction and extension by pushing off, and stepping in line with
00:01:2700:01:30
the other foot. You can see little markers here on the floor we've got. So
00:01:3000:01:34
she's going to step in line, really working on the posterior tilt of her
00:01:3400:01:40
pelvis to ensure she's getting good extension on that back leg, really trying
00:01:4000:01:45
to get her to feel this TFL getting stretched, and then as she gets better at
00:01:4500:01:49
this movement pattern, of course she can speed it up. She can even take a little
00:01:4900:01:55
bit bigger step if she feels she can, and get a good stretch. Once we've done 10
00:01:5500:01:59
on each side, and we're going to speed Leanne up just a little bit, once we do 10 on
00:01:5900:02:03
each side we're going to go ahead and switch to a different exercise, switch to
00:02:0300:02:07
a different group of muscles. So the next muscles we're going to look at for lower
00:02:0700:02:11
leg dysfunction is the biceps femoris. Now, the biceps femoris stretch, or
00:02:1100:02:15
dynamic stretch rather, is just the single-leg touchdown
00:02:1500:02:21
with a kickstand. Of course if she has this anterior to posterior pull, I'm also
00:02:2100:02:24
getting great glute activation and she comes back up and drives her hips
00:02:2400:02:32
forward. How's that feeling Leanne? -Good. Now, just like any dynamic stretch she can
00:02:3200:02:36
start off nice and slow, make sure she's feeling it, make sure we have good form, I
00:02:3600:02:40
got through all our queues, and then as she gets better she can start
00:02:4000:02:44
speeding up. The next group of muscles we're going to look at that are very
00:02:4400:02:48
commonly tight in lower leg dysfunction are the adductors. So now she's going to
00:02:4800:02:53
twist that band so it's sideways, and all we need to do to go into an adductor
00:02:5300:02:59
stretch is go ahead and step sideways and a little bit forward, really working
00:02:5900:03:04
on activating the glute medius. So Leanne's got her left thumb there, just
00:03:0400:03:09
over the top of her glute medius, and she's really trying to push out and a
00:03:0900:03:14
little bit forward on that band. She'll give me 10 good reps, once again she can
00:03:1400:03:20
speed this up as she goes, and then she's going to go ahead and switch sides.
00:03:2300:03:28
Do a couple reps on this and I'll have you go ahead and move on. Good. So make
00:03:2800:03:33
sure that you're not going into an anterior pelvic tilt. There we go.
00:03:3300:03:37
Watch as people do these exercises, especially with lower leg dysfunction,
00:03:3700:03:39
the 2 queues that you're going to have to
00:03:3900:03:42
use over and over again as their feet are going to want to turn out, you're
00:03:4200:03:45
going to have to keep queuing them back to feet neutral, and the other thing
00:03:4500:03:48
they're going to want to do is that anterior pelvic tilt because of the
00:03:4800:03:52
tightness and their anterior adductors as well as their TFL, so you're probably
00:03:5200:03:56
going to have to keep queuing that tuck under. Now, once we've gone through these
00:03:5600:04:01
three dynamic stretches, we can go ahead and end with our calf stretch. Now our
00:04:0100:04:04
calf stretch just also happens to be the biggest movement pattern, which
00:04:0400:04:08
is why I saved it for the end. She's going to go into prisoner
00:04:0800:04:13
squat here, so hands behind head, that band is going to force her tibialis
00:04:1300:04:19
anterior to activate really hard to pull her mass forward, which is going to give
00:04:1900:04:25
us a little bit better calf stretch than we get on just a normal prisoner squat.
00:04:2500:04:29
So you're going to want to work really hard to get them sitting straight down,
00:04:2900:04:33
and then once she's done a few of these we can even progress this as we did in
00:04:3300:04:39
our dynamic calf stretching video by doing the step forward. Now, one big queue
00:04:3900:04:42
with this is, notice how she's not straightening out her torso as she steps
00:04:4200:04:46
forward, that's purposeful. If she straightens out her torso this becomes a
00:04:4600:04:49
hip flexor stretch and she probably won't be able to step far enough forward
00:04:4900:04:53
to get a good calf stretch. So there you go, I don't even think that took
00:04:5300:04:57
five minutes, we've done dynamic stretching for all of the commonly
00:04:5700:05:00
overactive muscles for lower leg dysfunction. Do you feel nice and warm ready
Related Videos
Sacroiliac Joint Chicago Technique
Thoracic Pistol Manipulation
Upper Cervical Manipulation
Radial Head Manipulation
Shotgun (Pubic Symphysis) Manipulation
Dynamic Pec (Pectoralis Major and Minor) & Subscapularis Stretch
Lower Leg Dynamic Stretching Series
Dynamic Latissimus Dorsi Stretch
Dynamic Adductor Magnus Stretch Lateral Lunge Series
Dynamic Adductor Stretch Anterior or Short Adductors
Rope Row
Single Leg Alternating Horizontal Abduction with External Rotation
Wobble Lunge
Wobble Squat
Combined Deep Cervical Flexor and External Rotator Activation
Dynamic Calf Stretch - Gastrocnemius, Soleus & Peroneals (a.k.a. Fibularis)
Dynamic Biceps Femoris (Lateral Hamstring) Stretch