This is Brent of the Brookbush Institute, and
in this video we're going to progress
from our static self-administered
release techniques with a foam roll, and
move on to our dynamic self-administered
release techniques, or pin and stretch
techniques. So we're moving on from
addressing those trigger points within
our muscles, to starting to address the
fascial adhesions and layers of
connective tissue. I'm going to have my
friend Melissa come out she's going to
help me demonstrate this technique. She's
going to start in a long sitting
position that she used for her static
release technique for her calf, we're
gonna use her trigger point roller here.
She's going to survey her entire calf,
maybe from calcaneus all the way up to
the back of her knee, and she is going to
look for that most tender spot. Although
there are some other ways to assess
fascial restriction, most of them being
manual techniques, we're going to go
ahead for our purposes here and being
that they're self-administered
techniques, assume that that most tender
spot is also a site of additional
dysfunction relating to connective
tissue. Maybe an increase in cross-
bridging between layers of connective
tissue that we need to free. Once she
finds this most tender spot, I actually
want her to move the foam roll just
distal to that spot. So if this is the
the most tender spot, the little ball of
connective tissue restriction, she's now
got the foam roll abutted against it
like this. My hope is is that i can use
now her tibialis anterior to pull her
foot up or dorsiflex, and pull the
fibers of her gastroc and soleus through
that connective tissue binding, breaking
up some of that cross-bridging and
freeing up that fascial tissue, so that we
increase extensibility. So we started by
finding the adhesive point, moving the
foam roll just distal to it, and now we're
using her tibialis anterior to pull
those fibers through the adhesive point.
Now Melissa is fairly advanced here, so I
need to consider how to progress my
techniques which we go back to that
formula,
pressure equals force over area. To
increase force maybe get a little deeper
within this muscle, all we have to do is
add the weight of her other leg. So she
can start by having her foot on the
floor and only a small amount of the
weight of this leg putting pressure on
this leg, all the way to putting this
foot over her other foot so all of the
way of this leg is adding additional
pressure. One thing I don't like to see
guys is the butt up off the ground,
thank you. If you put your butt up off
the ground what I think you guys will
find is, number one -it's very hard to
hold a static position, hold a nice
position for long enough to finish the
technique. I think you'll also find that
you add a lot of additional tension
throughout your musculoskeletal system,
or myofascial system. It doesn't give us
much of an opportunity to get a good
release. So we've started by increasing
the pressure here and then I would have
her do her 10 to 20 repetitions, with a
two to five second hold at the very top
of this movement, trying to break up as
much of that connective tissue binding
as we can. But again Melissa is a very
advanced exerciser, I don't think this is
intense enough for her, painful enough
for her because you know, I'm just a
little sadistic as a trainer and
therapist. So we're going to find a way
to not only increase force, well let's
decrease area. Now one thing you guys got
to remember with these particular
techniques is we don't want to decrease
the perpendicular width of whatever
we're using for this dynamic release
technique. We need to decrease the
surface area this way, so that we
increase pressure, without decreasing
what we're using to block that adhesive
point. So although in some videos you
guys see me to go to a softball, softballs
are a little rough to use to increase
pressure for dynamic release, or pin and
stretch; because you get the adhesion
pinned and then as soon as you go to
pull the gastroc and soleus through
it, it just goes right right around the
ball. So that's where this stuff comes in
real handy. This is a quadballer and
this is a footballer, and you guys can
notice that I get to keep the
perpendicular width, but decrease the
surface area. So i'm going to have
Melissa try this one first,
go ahead and put her foot over and add
as much pressure as she needs. See now
we're getting a little closer to that
that tender area, that site of
dysfunction, and she's going to do the
same thing here to second holds 10 to 20
repetitions, hoping to break up some of
that fascial binding, that connective
tissue binding and increase our
extensibility. You want to try this one?
Great! So all these products are trigger-
point products guys the trigger-point
foam roll, the quadballer, the footballer
come in very handy for these dynamic or
pin and stretch techniques. I know this
isn't an assessment video but let's
quickly break down why I would use this
particular technique, number one I would
assume that I've already done static
release with Melissa for probably four
to six weeks. I've gotten everything I
can at a static release and now I need
to progress this technique. Why I would
address this muscle at all, if I'm using
the overhead squat assessment it would
be things like feet turn out, feet
flattened, knees bow in, knees bow out,
excessive forward lean, and potentially
an anterior pelvic tilt. That stuff can
all be related to lower leg dysfunction.
If i was using goniometery I'd have a
restriction in dorsiflexion that I had
already tried to reduce with static
release techniques and perhaps
stretching, and I still needed maybe an
extra 3-5 degrees. Let's say I got
Melissa to 12 degrees of dorsiflexion
and my goal is 15 to 20 degrees, maybe
I'll progress to this technique and see
if I can get a few more degrees of
dorsiflexion out of it. Or if I'm using
that gastroc soleus muscle length test,
I can look at that test and if I see
that there's restriction primarily in
the gastroc complex, that would help me
narrow down what I need to release to
just the upper half of the calf complex;
as my gastroc does not continue all
the way down to my
calcaneus. I hope you guys enjoy using this
technique. I hope you guys see additional
benefit from progressing from static to
dynamic release, or pin and stretch, and I
look forward to hearing all about the
outcomes you guys get with your clients
patients and athletes. I'll talk with you
soon.
you