Posterior Shoulder Stretch Modifications (Sleeper Stretch on Wall)

Posterior Shoulder Stretch Modifications (Sleeper Stretch on Wall) is an effective exercise for improving shoulder flexibility and range of motion. This modifications allows the user to perform the classic Sleeper Stretch while utilizing a wall, making it easier to stabilize their upper body. This exercise should begin with the user in the supine position on the floor with their shoulder closest to the wall pressed against it. Then, the user should slowly allow the shoulder to slide down the wall while keeping the

Transcript

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This is Brent coming at you with a
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videos. Now, in this particular stretch we're going to do our posterior capsule,
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our posterior delt. This is for any of those individuals with upper body dysfunction.
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We know that the humeral head has a tendency to shift anterior and superior
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in that glenoid fossa, so we need to release those posterior structures to
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help improve this movement dysfunction. Now, in a previous video I showed you
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guys the sleeper stretch for that. Now, the sleeper stretches a good stretch if
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you can queue somebody into position, which tends to be the challenge with that
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stretch. I'm sure some of you have already experienced where you've taught
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the stretch to one of your clients or patients, come back, retested them, and
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they've given you one of these sleeper stretches. This is this is not good form.
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So we need to find a way to make sure that the people that we teach the
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stretch to cannot go back to their compensation patterns, which, of course is
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going to reduce the effectiveness of that stretch. The other problem we have
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with the sleeper stretch I'm sure some of you have already experienced
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which is very frustrating, as you go to put somebody in that position, as soon as
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you get them side lying, they're in pain. As soon as they put pressure on that
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shoulder, they're in pain. So my friend, Rob, came out to one of my last workshops.
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Now, Rob has been a PT for many years, certified orthopedic manual therapist, faculty for
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the Maitland workshops, has tons of great ideas, showed me a modification on this
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stretch which I'm going to now show you with Rob's help. My friend Rob is going
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to come out, we're going to demonstrate these modifications of the sleeper
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stretch which I think you will find very helpful when you're teaching your
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clients. Now, the first thing we're going to do just to show you the position
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of the stretch, I want you to imagine there's a see-through wall here.
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Eventually Rob is going to have to turn himself into this corner,
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this stretch does require one of these inward corners, but for just a second
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pretend there's a wall here so I can show you how to set this up. Now, Rob
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is going to step out just a little bit, and what he's going to do is press his
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back into the wall. What that's going to do for us is help stabilize his scapula
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in the sagittal plane. There's not going to be a whole lot of anterior
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tipping happening, and it's also going to prevent
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a little bit of elevation because his scapula now would have to work against
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the friction of the wall. Now, when he puts his arm up, we don't get that
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position anymore. I mean, he can force it up, but we should be fairly well
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stabilized. Then he can go ahead and go back into the same queues we used for the
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other sleeper stretch. Stabilize the elbow with the hand, and slowly turn in.
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As you can see here, nice form. Where do you feel that Rob? Alright, so you
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want to feel the stretch where you intend the stretch to be felt which of
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course is in this posterior delt, posterior capsule area. Now, to show you how
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this really works, Rob will go ahead and get into the appropriate position here.
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Now, if we get into a corner, we not only have him stabilized in the sagittal
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plane, no anterior tipping, we have him stabilized in that frontal plane, so now
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he can't protract. His scapula can't abduct. So now we have scapula retracted, we
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have scapula depressed, we know that the shoulder joint is where we want it, and
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now when we go into internal rotation we can get a much more pure posterior
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capsule and posterior deltoid stretch, with a lot less likelihood of him
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compensating, of him turning the stretch into something that we don't want to see
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the next time he comes in. Then we'll go ahead and show the other
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shoulder. So he just flipped there, flipped which position he was in this corner. The
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thing I want you to notice from this position is that Rob is
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not using a whole lot of weight. These are smaller structures, this isn't a hip
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flexor, it's not a hamstring, it's not a calf, this isn't something you want to be
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cranking on. He's actually stabilizing his elbow with his hand, so you can
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add a little bit of stability, and then it's more or less the weight of his arm
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that's creating all of the pressure down, and the force that we need for the
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stretch. He's not giving himself a whole lot of adduction with his lats. In
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fact, his lat is nice and toned down, it's almost totally flaccid right here, I can
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grab and it's nice and soft, there's no pulling, there's no straining.
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He's going to hold this position for 30 seconds to 2 minutes until he feels a
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release, once he gets a release he can try to get a second and a third release.
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He's going to hopefully do this stretch often, and if you retest I think
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what you'll find is - I'm sorry, not retest immediately, but when they come back for
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the next session, you actually have something that looks very similar to
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this, as opposed to the sleeper stretch which I know from session to session can
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get pretty messy. Rob, thank you again for the for the tips, I really appreciate it. I