We are in full swing quarantine, making it all the more important to keep up with your self-care and home exercises. Many of these concepts come from one of my favorite books, “Becoming a Supple Leopard” by Kelly Starrett. It is a great resource for mobility work.
You need to create your own mobility sequence to target your specific needs, whether it be pain relief, recovery, corrective, conditioning, or maintenance. The introduction of “pin and stretch” to your mobility routine is a game changer. Instead of just mashing tissues, once you find a problem area (adhesion, trigger point, and/or fascial restrictions) pin that spot with a ball and take that body part through its ranges to truly get an active release.
If you’re suffering from pain, discomfort, or loss of mobility: know that CSC+M is open and accepting new chiropractic patients in NYC!
Here is a recovery sequence to help runners with Quad dominant posture and asymmetries. This sequence can help you get the proper mobility to fix chronic back pain, ITB Syndrome, nagging hamstring, injuries, and shin pain. For myofascial work you can use a tennis ball, lacrosse ball, or even that massage gun I see all over Instagram.
1. Roll out the TFL. 2” of muscle right below the ASIS(bony prominence on the front of the hip)
2. Roll out the Quad. Find the point of centration on the lateral quad a “good hurt” spot. (Check out our acupuncturist’s @jmadly7 post of the four horses points on @cscm_nyc feed). Pin the spot with the ball and stretch the muscle by doing a hamstring curl to get active motion. Also do right above the patella.
3. Don’t forget to target the ligaments- this position drives the hip back into the socket to stretch the hip capsule and venerate the joint-try to “pop” the hip out to the side. Walk hands forward.
4. Knee gapping-any old knee injury will lose flexion, by putting a ball behind the knee you can gap and restore pain-free knee flexion
5. Couch stretch- put a towel on the ground or even a yoga block to level the pelvis and try to have your weight evenly distributed to the front and rear foot as you try to get that heel to your rear.
6. Roll out the fibularis longus and brevis-these are the shin splint muscles
7. Stretch the calves
For the best results, perform each mobilization for 1-2 minutes each for a total 10-15 min of mobility work.
Notice we didn’t do any glute work. Sometimes where it hurts needs to rest in the case of a glute strain or SI joint injury. When working on the glutes for the first time it is better to start off with a soft mushy ball like the miracle ball or a fitball.
Mobility Sequence for the Glutes
Glute Max, Glute Med, Glute Min…I’d throw piriformis and quadratics femoris in there as well.
The glutes extend the hip and commonly get bogged down or stuck to the surrounding muscles/fascia.
These tissues develop dysfunction from too much sitting, excessive out toe, and even running.
When Glute muscles are tight you can’t open the hips into extension this makes the spine work into hyperextenstion just to stay in an upright posture and you lose force production. The muscles of the trunk stabilize around this bad position and presents as chronic back pain, early fatigue, and/or hip pain. These are the first muscles I look to clear dysfunction when addressing the posterior chain.
1. Glute max-put your feet up on a chair so you are in a supported table top position. Start with the ball just lateral of the sacrum and roll across the top fibers of the glut max just below the iliac crest by digging your opposite heel into the chair and rolling towards the ball. To pin and stretch find that good hurt spot, and pull the knee to chest with external and then internal rotation rotation.
2. Glute Med-position the ball along the the glut med by finding a tender area behind and a little above the greater trochanter(that bony prominence on the side of your hip). Pin and stretch by opening your hip like a clam shell and pulling your knee toward your center.
3. Glute min- This side-lying position can target the 2 very different actions of the glut min the posterior fibers and the anterior fibers that actually flex the hip. To pin and stretch bring the leg into flexion while on the posterior fibers and extension while on the anterior fibers.
4. Now you can put it all together-Single leg flexion w/ external rotation. Mark Vestigan used to call this the greatest stretch in the world. You are basically doing a lunge and focusing on the end range. It is simply working on the bottom of your squat one leg at a time. You have to hunt for the tight area. The 2 key components are to keep the front foot on the ground and to keep the shin vertical. From that position drive your hips back to bias the hamstrings. Try to keep your back flat with this stretch. Try to bring the torso away from the front leg, and finally try to rotate your bellybutton toward the front leg To get all those tight angles.
Test and re-test a movement you were having difficulty with like a squat or half-kneeling position.
Did it get better? Less pain? Easier to do? If not, this might not be the sequence for you. Our office is open and we are accepting new chiropractic patients in NYC! Get in touch to schedule an appointment,.
