Facebook Pixel
Brookbush Institute Logo
Preview

Posterior Shoulder Stretch Modifications (Sleeper Stretch on Wall)

Stretching your shoulders with the Sleeper Stretch on the wall can help improve flexibility and reduce pain. Learn how to modify the well-known Sleeper Stretch to make it more comfortable and effective.

3 likes

Transcript

00:00 - 00:03This is Brent coming at you with a progression from one of our stretching
00:03 - 00:08videos. Now, in this particular stretch we're going to do our posterior capsule,
00:08 - 00:12our posterior delt. This is for any of those individuals with upper body dysfunction.
00:12 - 00:18We know that the humeral head has a tendency to shift anterior and superior
00:18 - 00:23in that glenoid fossa, so we need to release those posterior structures to
00:23 - 00:27help improve this movement dysfunction. Now, in a previous video I showed you
00:27 - 00:30guys the sleeper stretch for that. Now, the sleeper stretches a good stretch if
00:30 - 00:35you can queue somebody into position, which tends to be the challenge with that
00:35 - 00:39stretch. I'm sure some of you have already experienced where you've taught
00:39 - 00:43the stretch to one of your clients or patients, come back, retested them, and
00:43 - 00:48they've given you one of these sleeper stretches. This is this is not good form.
00:48 - 00:52So we need to find a way to make sure that the people that we teach the
00:52 - 00:57stretch to cannot go back to their compensation patterns, which, of course is
00:57 - 01:00going to reduce the effectiveness of that stretch. The other problem we have
01:00 - 01:03with the sleeper stretch I'm sure some of you have already experienced
01:03 - 01:06which is very frustrating, as you go to put somebody in that position, as soon as
01:06 - 01:11you get them side lying, they're in pain. As soon as they put pressure on that
01:11 - 01:16shoulder, they're in pain. So my friend, Rob, came out to one of my last workshops.
01:16 - 01:21Now, Rob has been a PT for many years, certified orthopedic manual therapist, faculty for
01:21 - 01:27the Maitland workshops, has tons of great ideas, showed me a modification on this
01:27 - 01:31stretch which I'm going to now show you with Rob's help. My friend Rob is going
01:31 - 01:35to come out, we're going to demonstrate these modifications of the sleeper
01:35 - 01:38stretch which I think you will find very helpful when you're teaching your
01:38 - 01:42clients. Now, the first thing we're going to do just to show you the position
01:42 - 01:45of the stretch, I want you to imagine there's a see-through wall here.
01:45 - 01:49Eventually Rob is going to have to turn himself into this corner,
01:49 - 01:53this stretch does require one of these inward corners, but for just a second
01:53 - 01:57pretend there's a wall here so I can show you how to set this up. Now, Rob
01:57 - 02:01is going to step out just a little bit, and what he's going to do is press his
02:01 - 02:06back into the wall. What that's going to do for us is help stabilize his scapula
02:06 - 02:10in the sagittal plane. There's not going to be a whole lot of anterior
02:10 - 02:13tipping happening, and it's also going to prevent
02:13 - 02:16a little bit of elevation because his scapula now would have to work against
02:16 - 02:21the friction of the wall. Now, when he puts his arm up, we don't get that
02:21 - 02:26position anymore. I mean, he can force it up, but we should be fairly well
02:26 - 02:32stabilized. Then he can go ahead and go back into the same queues we used for the
02:32 - 02:36other sleeper stretch. Stabilize the elbow with the hand, and slowly turn in.
02:36 - 02:41As you can see here, nice form. Where do you feel that Rob? Alright, so you
02:41 - 02:45want to feel the stretch where you intend the stretch to be felt which of
02:45 - 02:50course is in this posterior delt, posterior capsule area. Now, to show you how
02:50 - 02:55this really works, Rob will go ahead and get into the appropriate position here.
02:55 - 03:01Now, if we get into a corner, we not only have him stabilized in the sagittal
03:01 - 03:07plane, no anterior tipping, we have him stabilized in that frontal plane, so now
03:07 - 03:14he can't protract. His scapula can't abduct. So now we have scapula retracted, we
03:14 - 03:19have scapula depressed, we know that the shoulder joint is where we want it, and
03:19 - 03:26now when we go into internal rotation we can get a much more pure posterior
03:26 - 03:31capsule and posterior deltoid stretch, with a lot less likelihood of him
03:31 - 03:35compensating, of him turning the stretch into something that we don't want to see
03:35 - 03:40the next time he comes in. Then we'll go ahead and show the other
03:40 - 03:49shoulder. So he just flipped there, flipped which position he was in this corner. The
03:49 - 03:53thing I want you to notice from this position is that Rob is
03:53 - 03:57not using a whole lot of weight. These are smaller structures, this isn't a hip
03:57 - 04:01flexor, it's not a hamstring, it's not a calf, this isn't something you want to be
04:01 - 04:06cranking on. He's actually stabilizing his elbow with his hand, so you can
04:06 - 04:10add a little bit of stability, and then it's more or less the weight of his arm
04:10 - 04:16that's creating all of the pressure down, and the force that we need for the
04:16 - 04:22stretch. He's not giving himself a whole lot of adduction with his lats. In
04:22 - 04:26fact, his lat is nice and toned down, it's almost totally flaccid right here, I can
04:26 - 04:30grab and it's nice and soft, there's no pulling, there's no straining.
04:30 - 04:34He's going to hold this position for 30 seconds to 2 minutes until he feels a
04:34 - 04:41release, once he gets a release he can try to get a second and a third release.
04:42 - 04:47He's going to hopefully do this stretch often, and if you retest I think
04:47 - 04:52what you'll find is - I'm sorry, not retest immediately, but when they come back for
04:52 - 04:56the next session, you actually have something that looks very similar to
04:56 - 05:01this, as opposed to the sleeper stretch which I know from session to session can
05:01 - 05:06get pretty messy. Rob, thank you again for the for the tips, I really appreciate it. I
05:06 - 05:09hope you enjoy this stretch.

Comments

Guest

3 Certifications, 165+ Courses, 500+ videos, and so much more!

The Brookbush Institute (BI) continues to improve affordability, access, flexibility, and convenience to the highest-quality education.

The Bl is the only approved/accredited certification and continuing education course provider with a true monthly membership model (cancel anytime).

This reduces the initial cost of education to just 3-5% of comparable education, improving access to complete, continue, or just "try" education with low financial risk. Don't get fooled by great marketing to make a large purchase for potentially sub-optimal education. Become a member, and find out why we think this is the way education should be!


or
Sign Up with Email Address
Already Have an Account? Sign In