Category: Exercises

By chrisna July 30, 2024 Active Isolated stretching, Exercises

The Lower Back

The lower back, also known as the lumbar region of the spine, is primarily supported and controlled by several key muscles that play crucial roles in stabilizing the spine, facilitating movement, and supporting posture. These muscles include:

  1. Erector Spinae: This is a group of muscles and tendons that run the length of the spine on either side. They help extend and rotate the spine and maintain upright posture.
  2. Multifidus: These are small muscles located deep in the back, attaching to the vertebrae. They provide stability and support to the spine and help with rotational movements.
  3. Quadratus Lumborum: Situated on either side of the lumbar spine, these muscles help stabilize the pelvis during walking and standing and assist in lateral flexion (side bending) of the trunk.
  4. Psoas Major: Also referred to as the hip flexor, the psoas major connects the lumbar vertebrae to the femur (thigh bone). It assists in bending at the hips and plays a role in posture and spine stability.
  5. Iliocostalis, Longissimus, and Spinalis: These muscles are part of the erector spinal group and help extend and rotate the spine, contributing to movements like bending backwards (extension) and twisting (rotation).

These muscles work together to support the spine, maintain proper alignment, and facilitate movements such as bending forward, backwards, and sideways, as well as rotation of the torso. Proper conditioning and strengthening of these muscles through exercises like core strengthening, stretching, and targeted resistance training can help prevent and alleviate lower back pain and improve overall spinal health.

How does AIS assist in supporting and maintaining good back health?

Active Isolated Stretching (AIS) effectively alleviates lower back pain by specifically targeting tight muscles and improving flexibility. By systematically elongating muscles surrounding the lower back, AIS increases blood flow and oxygenation to these tissues, promoting healing and reducing stiffness. AIS’s gentle, repetitive nature allows muscles to relax gradually without triggering protective contractions, which can occur with static stretching. This approach helps restore the normal range of motion and enhances overall muscular balance, reducing the strain and discomfort associated with lower back pain over time. Integrating AIS into a routine can provide significant relief and contribute to the long-term management of lower back issues.

By chrisna June 28, 2024 Active Isolated stretching, Exercises

Gluteus Muscles or Buttock Area

Buttock pain and posterior hip pain are widespread and can be caused by a variety of disorders. When your gluteus or buttock muscles and the piriformis muscle, a hip rotator located underneath the gluteus muscles are tight and tired, they can cause discomfort and pain in the body.

The gluteus muscles are a group of muscles that make up the buttock area. The glute muscles include the gluteus medius, at the back and top of the hips and the gluteus minimus, also at the back and just below the gluteus medius, as well as the gluteus maximus – the biggest muscle in the body lying over the other glute muscles and the hip rotator muscles. The piriformis is one of the six hip rotator muscles lying horizontally underneath the glute muscles and over the sciatic nerve.

Some issues caused by tight glutes and piriformis:

  • Sore lower back and hamstrings
  • Poor balance and posture, which can lead to other issues in the body
  • Shooting nerve pain down your leg and sometimes in the heel, due to sciatica (your sciatic nerve shoots underneath your piriformis).

Stretch therapy can stretch and strengthen the glutes and piriformis as well as the other muscles and soft connective tissues in the deep gluteal space to treat and prevent the issues mentioned above.

We will always advise you to see a stretch therapist before commencing any of our recommended home exercises. Still, they are suitable for maintaining a body structure that has been balanced and mobilized with a program of stretch therapy. Watch the link below to stretch the piriformis muscle.

By Hans de Wit April 30, 2021 Active Isolated stretching, Exercises, Therapy

What is Stretch Therapy?

Stretch Therapy is the name we give to the special work being developed by Aaron L.Mattes over the last 50 years. Stretch Therapy spans the entire technique called ‘active isolated stretching’ and ‘active isolated strengthening’. This technique is very useful right from rehabilitation to performance enhancement.

Stretch therapy comprises the following main elements:

Stretching
we use a number of techniques to improve the Range of Movement (ROM) of the body; nerves, fascia and muscles are used as ‘gateways’ to change the “movement map in the brain.

Re-patterning
inactive muscles are made active; knees, shoulders, and elbows are stabilized; posture and alignment are made more efficient.

Strengthening
the capacity of the whole body to exert force is the emphasis here; most of our techniques are body-weight only, and all involve the ‘core’.

Relaxation
the forgotten part of any health optimization program. Here, ‘relaxation’ is used in two ways: the first as a shorthand for techniques that enhance speed (any force-producing agonist needs its antagonist to relax equally quickly so that a limb, or a whole body, can move faster), and the second sense, the fundamental part of rejuvenation and regeneration practices.
Together, the Stretch Therapy elements enable anyone to improve flexibility, and to perform ordinary and extraordinary tasks with greater ease and better performance, and for longer in life.

Stretch Therapy is the safest, most efficient method for anyone to achieve grace and ease in daily life, and is suitable for most people.

Active Isolated Stretching: How it Works

There are two primary principles that provide the basis for how AIS works. The first is called reciprocal inhibition, which means that if you want to lift your arm, your nervous system has to shut off the muscles that bring your arm down. This means that AIS involves your nervous system in the stretch, making it easier for the muscles to elongate. The second principle is to hold the stretch for 1.5 to 2 seconds, and no longer. Research shows that holding a stretch for longer than 2.5 to 3 seconds will cause your body to engage a protective reflex. This stretch reflex will cause a muscle contraction in the muscle you are trying to stretch. It is therefore important not to hold any stretch to long, not even 3 seconds.
By not “tripping” the stretch reflex, you are able to get a gentle stretch, without the body fighting itself. The stretch is repeated 8 to 10 times in a set. The repeated “pumping” action of the muscle allows for increased circulation to the area. Because the stretches target highly specific areas of the body, AIS provides an efficient and effective stretch.

These specific movements also help relieve symptoms of stress. Stress touches all of our lives. Gentle stretching movements can invigorate the circulatory, respiratory and neuromuscular systems, which help alleviate many of the symptoms of stress.

Benefits of Active Isolated Stretching:

  • Improves flexibility
  • Helps to relieve muscle soreness
  • Reduces muscle spasm
  • Helps to address and reduce chronic pain
  • Reduces the risk of muscle strain and tearing
  • Helps recovery from injury
  • Helps to increase athletic performance
  • Helps to relieve stress
  • Improves oxygen and nutrient delivery to cells
  • Helps stimulate lymph circulation and elimination of cellular waste
  • Helps to maintain good posture
  • Helps to regain and maintain the full range of motion of a joint
  • Promotes balance in the body
  • Promotes healthy growth in children and youth
  • Prevent postural problems in pre-adolescent growth spurts
By Hans de Wit March 18, 2021 Active Isolated stretching, Exercises, Studies, Therapy

High Blood Pressure

Brisk walking was always considered a good way to reduce blood pressure, but now some researchers have found that regular stretching can be a better method to control hypertension. They have also found that stretching is also beneficial for those who are still at risk of developing high blood pressure.

High blood pressure else described as hypertension, is one of the primary risk factors for getting heart – and kidney problems, which can result in fatality.

Therefore it is important to keep your blood pressure within normal levels, and even more important to understand how you can prevent hypertension.

A new study from the University of Saskatchewan (Usask) has found that stretching is more effective in lowering blood pressure than the formerly believed strategy of brisk walking and physical exercise. Participants were asked to do either 30 minutes of brisk walking or 30 minutes of stretching every day for eight weeks. With all the necessary strategies in place to make it a random trial, there was a more significant improvement in the blood pressure levels of those participants that stretched for 8 weeks versus the participants that did brisk walking for 8 weeks.

By Hans de Wit February 6, 2020 Active Isolated stretching, Developments, Exercises, Insurance, Physio, Sporting, Studies, Therapy, Work Injury

All about the hips !

There are as much as 72 muscles surrounding your hips and upper leg. not even to mention the hordes of muscle structures that builds up from the hips into your back. When it comes to bones, the socket is made of three joined pelvic bones – the ilium, the ischium and the pubis. The hip joint is made up of four bones.

The hip bones, or os coxae, make up part of the pelvic girdle, which connects the lower limbs to the axial skeleton. Each hip bone is a large, flattened, and irregularly shaped fusion of three bones: the ilium, ischium, and pubis.

The pelvis refers to the lower abdominal area, with the main function of this bone structure being protection and support. It protect all the internal soft tissues and organs as well as giving support to the hip joints.

The pelvic floor is like a “mini-trampoline made of firm muscle,Just like a trampoline gymnasts would use, the pelvic floor is flexible and can move up and down with the forces it receives from walking , running and daily activities.

According to the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, about 8 to 9 percent of blunt trauma includes pelvic injury, Gillogley says. “These accidents include falls, motor vehicle crashes, bicycle accidents, and pedestrians being struck by moving vehicles. With these serious injuries, pelvic bones can fracture or dislocate and sometimes bladder injury even occurs.

How to take care of the Hips?

For prevention of pain and injury keep them MOBILE AND STRONG !

See these exercises on a video from Adarsh Williams

Piriformis, quick back pain relief

Hip Flexor Stretch