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This is Brent of the Brookbush Instititue and in this video we're bringing you advanced
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self-administered release techniques. In this particular video, we're going to go
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over piriformis dynamic release, or pin and stretch technique. Now, the piriformis
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created a little bit of a logistics problem for self-administered dynamic
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release. Two reasons. Number one, it's a fairly thin band-like muscle and it's
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deep to the gluteus maximus, which is a fairly thick muscle, so I had to find
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something that was going to have a small enough surface area so that I can get
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the pressure per square inch to get deep to the glute max while still maintaining
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my perpendicular width, so that I could block the adhesive tissue as I pull
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the muscle fibers through. That's when I happened to come across these massage
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therapy balls from Trigger Point. This is a 5 inch multi-density foam ball. They
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work quite well. I will warn you guys, once again, these dynamic release, or pin
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and stretch techniques are a progression from static release techniques. One of
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the reasons being is for this particular video, this is not nice.
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This is going to be fairly firm and cause a fairly large amount of
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discomfort. I wouldn't start with this. I would want to progress up to this if
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somebody's already started to desensitize and started to release some
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of those very active trigger points that they started with. I'm going to have my friend,
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Melissa, come out. She's going to help me demonstrate this technique. Now, your
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piriformis, once again, is a horizontal band of tissue that goes from
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tailbone to greater trochanter. So this is like a horizontal line across the top
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of your backside, but it's deep to your glutes.
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So, you're going to go ahead and sit on that foam ball. We're going to start on her
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right cheek. Notice that she's down on her elbows so that she's a little bit more
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And then we're going to take this leg and we're going to have her put her
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ankle up on her knee. Now, what that does is it lengthens the glute max, so that if
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that muscle's lengthened, it's also a little bit thinner. It also gets me ready to put
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my piriformis on stretch.
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Now, I'm going to have you find the most tender spot horizontally across the top
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of your backside. She can go from from her tailbone all the way out almost to
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the side of her hip, just posterior to her greater trochanter. Got it?
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Alright, so once she finds that most tender spot, just like all of our other
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dynamic release or pin and stretch techniques, I'm going to have her go just
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distal to that spot. This means just closer to the greater trochanter so that
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she just rolls to the lateral side of that adhesion. You there?
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You're now going to take this hand and you're going to grab this knee.
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How you feeling? And she's going to pull with her arm, get a good
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stretch on that piriformis, hold for 2 to 5 seconds, and relax.
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Make sure she's still got the spot, she's still got the adhesion. Once again, pull
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through. So all we're doing, guys, is using that massage ball to block the
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adhesive tissue as she then stretches her piriformis and pulls the muscle
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fibers through that adhesive tissue, hopefully increasing our functional
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extensibility.
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She's going to do ten to fifteen reps. As you can see, you guys, this is, once again,
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not nice.
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This is going to cause a fair amount of discomfort, so you need to start with
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those static release techniques using something like a Trigger Point Roll, or a
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softer medicine ball. Make sure that you tone down some of those active trigger
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points, desensitize the area a little bit first, and then you can work on some more
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of these fascially based techniques increasing functional extensibility. I
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might have somebody on a foam roll for four to six weeks before I even
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introduce this technique. You ready for the other side?
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Good. Of course, after I did this technique, I would want to see some sort
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of improvement in my movement patterns. To give you guys an idea, if I was doing
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an overhead squat assessment, I might release the piraformis if I saw
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somebody who had knees bow out. If I was doing goniometric assessment, I can
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actually make a good argument for a decrease in internal rotation or
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decrease in external rotation in goniometry, so I would want to retest those. I
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make sure that if I'm going to subject my client or patient to this technique,
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which is a little uncomfortable, that I am getting good results from it. I hope
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you guys enjoy using the new massage therapy balls. I think you guys will find they're
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wonderful for all sorts of techniques. I hope you find good results from dynamic,
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or pin and stretch technique for the piriformis. I look forward to hearing