Facebook Pixel
Brookbush Institute Logo
Preview

Sternocostal Joint Self-administered Mobilization

Learn how to use self-administered mobilizations to stretch and relax the sternocostal joints. Achieve greater flexibility and improved mobility with easy and pain-free stretches.

7 likes

Transcript

00:04 - 00:06This is Brent of the Brookbush
00:06 - 00:07Institute bringing you a new
00:07 - 00:09self-administered joint mobilization
00:09 - 00:11technique. In this video we're going to
00:11 - 00:13talk about sternocostal mobilizations,
00:13 - 00:15or mobilizations of these tiny little
00:15 - 00:18joints that you have just lateral to
00:18 - 00:20your sternum where your ribs interface.
00:20 - 00:22Some of you guys are thinking to
00:22 - 00:23yourself well why would I want to
00:23 - 00:26mobilize these tiny little joints. We
00:26 - 00:27have to think a little bit bigger
00:27 - 00:29picture for the broadest use of this
00:29 - 00:31technique, which is those individuals who
00:31 - 00:35have problems with thoracic mobility. So
00:35 - 00:36your thoracic spine controls your
00:36 - 00:39ribcage, and your ribcage attaches to
00:39 - 00:42your sternum anteriorly. Now if you've
00:42 - 00:44had long-standing thoracic mobility
00:44 - 00:47issues, it would actually make sense that
00:47 - 00:49we've had some sort of adaptive change
00:49 - 00:52in the mobility of these joints. Maybe an
00:52 - 00:55increase in stiffness that is preventing
00:55 - 00:59us from getting as much results as we
00:59 - 01:00could be getting from our thoracic
01:00 - 01:02mobility routine. There are some other
01:02 - 01:04issues where we may look at using this
01:04 - 01:07technique as well, for example those
01:07 - 01:09people who get a lot of trigger points
01:09 - 01:11through their pectoralis major. I would
01:11 - 01:13say it's worth a try to do this
01:13 - 01:16technique. I have noted clinically that
01:16 - 01:18there seems to be a relationship between
01:18 - 01:20sternocostal mobility and pectoralis
01:20 - 01:22major trigger points. There are also
01:22 - 01:24those individuals who feel like these
01:24 - 01:28joints need to pop, that's a potential
01:28 - 01:31symptom or a potential sign that this
01:31 - 01:33technique is also worth a try. Of course
01:33 - 01:36if you guys are dealing with pain, make
01:36 - 01:37sure you're either a licensed
01:37 - 01:39professional or you refer out to a
01:39 - 01:41licensed professional, to determine
01:41 - 01:42whether this technique would be
01:42 - 01:44appropriate. I'm going to have my friend
01:44 - 01:45Melissa come out, she's going to help me
01:45 - 01:49demonstrate this technique. Now let's go
01:49 - 01:51over our anatomy a little bit, like the
01:51 - 01:54practical part of this. You guys all know
01:54 - 01:57where your sternum is. Now this is her
01:57 - 02:00manubrium, the top of her sternum. I can
02:00 - 02:02actually just by putting the pads of my
02:02 - 02:04fingers down in the center of her
02:04 - 02:05sternum, I can actually feel her sternocostal
02:05 - 02:08joints at either side. So if you
02:08 - 02:09thought your sternum was that wide
02:09 - 02:12you're wrong, your sternum is actually
02:12 - 02:15fairly thin. These sternocostal joints
02:15 - 02:18are just lateral to the midline, so we're
02:18 - 02:20not going to be moving a whole lot when
02:20 - 02:23we do these mobilizations. We're going to
02:23 - 02:26be staying pretty center, which I know
02:26 - 02:28what some of you guys have already been
02:28 - 02:30thinking with this technique, is this
02:30 - 02:32safe for females to do, is this going to
02:32 - 02:35be uncomfortable for females to do, am I
02:35 - 02:39going to impinge, or bruise, or compress
02:39 - 02:43breast tissue. Chances are no, we're not
02:43 - 02:45moving very far and if somebody is
02:45 - 02:46really rolling over their chest they're
02:46 - 02:49going too far. Or they're using a
02:49 - 02:51foam well that's just too wide for their
02:51 - 02:53little person, but chances are they're
02:53 - 02:55rolling too far and as I show you this
02:55 - 02:57technique that'll make more sense. Now
02:57 - 02:59what we're going to do is we're going to
02:59 - 03:01adapt a manual therapy technique, which
03:01 - 03:03would be anterior to posterior
03:03 - 03:05mobilizations, where I would take maybe
03:05 - 03:09the ulnar border of my hand and put
03:09 - 03:12pressure down on those sternocostal
03:12 - 03:12joints anterior to posterior. Now
03:15 - 03:17obviously I can't do that with a foam roll
03:17 - 03:18I guess I could have somebody hug
03:18 - 03:19into themselves, but that's not going to
03:19 - 03:21work out too well. What we're going to do
03:21 - 03:23is we're going to start on the sternum
03:23 - 03:25which is essentially the ribs being
03:25 - 03:28unloaded, and then roll onto the ribs
03:28 - 03:29which is going to be an anterior to
03:29 - 03:31posterior force. We're then going to roll
03:31 - 03:34back and forth and that's going to
03:34 - 03:36create the oscillation that we'd
03:36 - 03:39normally use for mobilization. So
03:39 - 03:41Melissa's going to go chest down on this
03:41 - 03:42foam roll and the trigger point roll
03:42 - 03:45tends to work pretty well, being covered
03:45 - 03:47in a little bit of foam it definitely
03:47 - 03:50helps the sensitive area. She's going to
03:50 - 03:51start with her hands and maybe even
03:51 - 03:53elbows down to take off some of the
03:53 - 03:56weight, especially when she starts
03:56 - 03:57because this can be quite tender. If I
03:57 - 03:59needed to I could even use a towel
03:59 - 04:04underneath, to even further soften that
04:04 - 04:06down. We don't want to kill the person. We
04:06 - 04:08don't want them in so much pain just
04:08 - 04:09trying to do the technique that they're
04:09 - 04:11not going to comply, and do this with
04:11 - 04:14their home exercise program. Once she's
04:14 - 04:15found the center of her sternum I'm
04:15 - 04:17going to have her try one side at a time.
04:17 - 04:20I just want her to roll over one set of
04:20 - 04:23ribs, just barely over those bumps and
04:23 - 04:23then
04:23 - 04:26back, and then if she can get a little
04:26 - 04:30oscillation going, I'd have her do about
04:30 - 04:3415 maybe 30 seconds tops on each side.
04:34 - 04:38Good go ahead and switch sides.
04:42 - 04:45I'm going to have her get up and go back into Child's
04:45 - 04:50Pose. Nice and comfortable and then I go
04:50 - 04:52ahead and retest. Be very careful how
04:52 - 04:53much of this stuff you guys do, you don't
04:53 - 04:55want to take a mobilization from
04:55 - 04:59positive to irritating. Now there are
04:59 - 05:01several progressions to this
05:01 - 05:03mobilization to add force, that was our
05:03 - 05:05first progression. You may need to
05:05 - 05:08regress to something even softer. When
05:08 - 05:10Melissa and I were experimenting before
05:10 - 05:12we made this video, we actually used this
05:12 - 05:16very soft squishy ball, and honestly
05:16 - 05:18that's enough to load and unload the
05:18 - 05:20ribs for somebody who might be really
05:20 - 05:26really sensitive. Little tougher to roll
05:26 - 05:30back and forth but that's okay.
05:31 - 05:33Good go ahead and relax. The other thing
05:33 - 05:35we talked about is if you guys have any
05:35 - 05:37really soft foam rolls lying around, a
05:37 - 05:39good reason to keep some of those old
05:39 - 05:42beat-up spongy foam rolls, is a long foam
05:42 - 05:49roll can actually be less force because
05:49 - 05:52now Melissa can shift part of her body
05:52 - 05:56weight, onto her inner thigh on the side
05:56 - 05:58the she's is going to roll. So now
05:58 - 06:00she's getting like more or less the
06:00 - 06:02bottom half of her body supported by the
06:02 - 06:03length of the foam roll, and then she
06:03 - 06:07only has her upper body weighting down her
06:07 - 06:12ribs. But as Melissa is pretty tough and
06:12 - 06:14we've been working on this a little bit,
06:14 - 06:15let's go ahead and show you guys the
06:15 - 06:17progression. So those are some of the
06:17 - 06:19regressions, how would I progress this
06:19 - 06:20exercise, you want the trigger point roll
06:20 - 06:23back.
06:29 - 06:31So to increase the amount of weight
06:31 - 06:34we're using, we could just start by going
06:34 - 06:36from elbow and forearm down where we're
06:36 - 06:41nice and unweighted, to arms wide and now
06:41 - 06:43she can kind of roll back and forth this
06:43 - 06:49way. The next progressions we
06:49 - 06:51kind of start integrating this into our
06:51 - 06:54trapezius activation, or those prone ITY's.
06:54 - 06:58She goes on one side just over
06:58 - 07:00those sternocostal joints, and she
07:00 - 07:05goes down into her Cobra from floor and
07:05 - 07:07then pinches your shoulder blades. Not
07:07 - 07:09only is she unweighted herself by going
07:09 - 07:14from floor and up, floor and up, but her
07:14 - 07:16scapula having to retract and
07:16 - 07:20posteriorly tip, is also forcing
07:20 - 07:23mobilization of her rib cage which is
07:23 - 07:24going to have an effect on our sternocostal
07:24 - 07:27joints. And of course i can
07:27 - 07:30increase that posterior tipping and that
07:30 - 07:35retraction by going from Cobra to
07:35 - 07:37abduction, abduction with external
07:37 - 07:41rotation ideally. So now I'm kind of
07:41 - 07:42getting a little bit more bang for my
07:42 - 07:44buck if I'm writing out like an
07:44 - 07:45integrated warm-up, corrective exercise
07:45 - 07:47routine, home exercise program, where I'm
07:47 - 07:49trying to get a lot done in a few
07:49 - 07:51exercises or a short amount of time. I
07:51 - 07:54might be able to use this for trap
07:54 - 07:56activation knowing that I'm also getting
07:56 - 07:58some sternocostal mobility, if she's
07:58 - 08:01had a history of upper-body dysfunction.
08:01 - 08:04You can go ahead and relax.
08:04 - 08:07It has a tendency to be very tender. As
08:07 - 08:09they get off that foam roll I have found
08:09 - 08:11that going right into a child's pose
08:11 - 08:14helps. Sometimes you even get a little
08:14 - 08:16cavitation or mobilization of the
08:16 - 08:17thoracic spine going back into that
08:17 - 08:20lengthened position and having loosened
08:20 - 08:23up all of this tissue. This is once again
08:23 - 08:26a sensitive technique, you guys are going
08:26 - 08:28to have to use your best judgment. You
08:28 - 08:29guys are going to have to modify with
08:29 - 08:32towels and softer pieces of equipment
08:32 - 08:35and keep some old foam rolls around, but
08:35 - 08:37this is one of those techniques if it
08:37 - 08:40really is like a clinical gem. If you
08:40 - 08:43have that stiff thoracic spine that just
08:43 - 08:45doesn't seem to want to respond for you.
08:45 - 08:49You have somebody who's several years
08:49 - 08:53post sternotomy right,
08:53 - 08:55that bone is healed but all these joints
08:55 - 08:58are super stiff. Little stuff like this
08:58 - 09:01all the sudden might open some doors and
09:01 - 09:03get you a little further through your
09:03 - 09:06rehabilitation, or a little further into
09:06 - 09:08your intervention, or give you a little
09:08 - 09:11better mobility for your performance
09:11 - 09:12training, so that you can get better
09:12 - 09:15results than you've had before. I look
09:15 - 09:17forward to hearing how you guys use this
09:17 - 09:18technique, when you guys use this
09:18 - 09:20technique, and of course what results you
09:20 - 09:23get. I look forward to hearing from you.

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