Hey Guys Patrick & Rob here Physiotherapists from Inertia Health Group.
We`re just here to talk to you guys today a little bit about self release techniques that we can use to sort of take care of that pesky neck pain and upper back pain that we`ve been seeing a lot of the clinic lately.
Yeh, So the muscles were going to show you how to release in this series of video. Guys, these are the common ones we see really tightening up. And they`re really big contributors to it. A lot of neck pain, a lot of upper back pain and headaches. So grab your trigger bulls and let`s get cracking.
Alright guys so the first muscle we`re going to work through today is our sub occipitals. These are the ones that sit just below the base of our skull. And can get really short and tight with some postural changes that we see. So particularly that chin poking forward. now hand pat the trigger ball here to find these muscles. You want to find this sort of bony prominence on the underside of our skull. It`s probably a little bit easier to see on Pats head here. Just as he rotates around so he`s just going to line the ball up just below that. Okay, Now he’s sort of just relaxing his head, letting his head the weight of his head s seep into the ball there, while he`s putting some really just gentle pressure on, he’s just nodding up and down, and turning his head side to side. So he`s making sure he`s not going to hard because he`s area can be quite sensitive, and it`s completely normal that while you`re doing it just to get some referral up into the head, maybe even down just into the top of the shoulders as well.
Now Pat would probably do this for about 30 seconds up to a minute he`d repeat it on the other side and then just continually repeat as he needs the relief.
Inertia Health Group |PHYSIOTHERAPY | PODIATRY | REMEDIAL MASSAGE
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HEEL PAIN SELF HELP EXERCISES
Hi guys, Ali here from inertia podiatry. This week,we asked the question – Do you have heel pain? Your pain is super common, and it can stop us doing the things we love, and it can take a while to disappear – sometimes.
So today I`m going to show you a couple of easy exercises you can do at home to help relieve your symptoms and help keep you moving better.
All you need is a vertical surface to prop your toes up against. This Surface Could be a wall, the bathroom Vanity, the photocopier at work, doesn`t matter.
Make sure your heel is resting on the floor and you`re knee is straight. Then shift your hips forward to engage a stretch down the back of the calf. Hold this stretch for 30 seconds and repeat on the other side. You can do this multiple times throughout the day to help your calves feel light and loose.
Second Exercise, Now this one`s a goody. All you need is a lacrosse ball or a firm tennis Ball. Place the ball on the floor underneath your arch. You wanna work on your foot for about one minute, rotating left to right. You can use as much pressure as you like It should feel like a firm massage. Now, if you have any concerns about your balance, you could do this one sitting in a chair.
So Try Both these little gems every day. But if you`re not feeling any improvement, maybe we need to have a closer look. So call us or book online to schedule a full heel pain assessment.
Inertia Health Group |PHYSIOTHERAPY | PODIATRY | REMEDIAL MASSAGE |EXERCISE PHYSIOLOGY
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Neck Pain & Headache Self Help Hacks Part 2 – Rhomboids & Levator Scapulae Release
Part 1 Rhomboid Release
Today we are going to talk about releasing the levator scalpulae and rhomboids. So we`ve got the lovely Rob here today,
and all you`re going to do is just grab our trigger balls or a lacrosse ball, baseball, cricket ball, whichever one Rob, if we you could just get you to bring your arm across your body. Good. so you really just want to open up, and move the shoulder blade away from the midline of the body. Just to get those rhomboids stretched out and those mid to upper parts of traps. Sorry more, mid traps sort of stretched out through there. Then we`re gonna grab our trigger ball and we’re going to come back down on that for me Rob. You’re just gonna find some of those sore spots between the Shoulder blade and the spine. Alright… and you’re just going to adjust your pressure and just slowly seep onto the ball, so, turning your body onto the ball a bit more – GOOD, and let your arm just relax on your shoulder there, so the shoulder blade stays out of the way and you`re really getting the ball deep into those trigger points through the rhomboids. Through there – alright.
ROB: I can feel that into my shoulder.
PAT: Yep, so you might get some referral up through to the top of the shoulder. You can also get some even up to the top. To the top of the neck, OR BASE Base of the neck. What we want to try and do here probably for about 30 seconds to a minute. Maybe a minute and a half just seeing how you`re feeling. What`s giving you relief, you might get little pulses,
which is the muscle just contracting trying to relax. So yeah, that`s your rhomboid release.
Part 2
Levator Scapula Release
Okay guys, so now we`re gonna talk about the next muscle up through the neck and shoulder region that can really give you some grief that’s a muscle called your levator scapulae that goes from the top part of the shoulder blade and runs up into the top of your neck.
So this muscle can get really fatigued with postural positions of sitting at the desk and letting your head hang so, a lot of tech neck and these types of positions.
So very easy to release. And its done in a very similar way to the way that we did Rhomboids. So Rob what I`m gonna get you to do again If we could just move your shoulder
out of the way there and we`re gonna get our trigger ball out again, we’re just goingt to find the pointy part of our scapula or our shoulder blade. We’re just gonna lay it on there. And Rob youre going to come back over onto the top of it. Just have a wiggle there and get your pressure right. So again just very gently seeping into the ball and adjusting the pressure
according to what feels comfortable for you, what you want to be doing.
Theirs is letting sit there again for 30 seconds – a minute. Maybe a minute and a half. You might get some of these little flecks or twitches again in the muscle and again that’s the muscle trying to contract and then relax, what you might also get too when the ball is sitting there is it might also reciprocate a headache. Sometimes, it can also give you pain into the back of the skull and up the neck also. So if you get a bit of discomfort just ease your pressure up and slowly ease back onto it. The other thing we could do this position to is like Rob`s doing there. It`s just very gently rotating your neck. So you`re putting a bit of pressure on to the point where the muscle inserts onto the scapula or onto your shoulder blade and then you`re just getting a bit of active release in terms of stretching the muscle while it`s holding a pressure. So you might to Six or eight of those little neck rotations and that should sort of ease your symptoms A little bit.