Transcript for:
Effective Lower Limb Stretching Techniques

hello physios so this is the second part of my stretching series i have already uploaded part one and if you haven't watched that yet then you can watch it out i will upload the i button here somewhere and you can click over there and you can watch that video and if you want to watch any of my exercise therapy videos then you can go to the playlist i have created exercise therapy playlist in my channel so you can go there and watch any of my exercise therapy videos so now let's start with stretching of lower limbs so first i will tell you piriformis stretching so it performs abduction extension and external rotation of hip so for its stretching we will perform just opposite of these functions so patient will be in supine line and we will bring hip and knee in flexion and at this point you have to externally rotate the hip i will tell you the reason behind that but now you have to trust me and you have to note this point and then you have to adapt the hip you have to bring the knee towards the opposite shoulder so now you have to adapt the hip so i am pushing the knee towards the opposite shoulder so this is the stretching of piriformis now i will tell you why i externally rotated the hip after 90 degree of hip flexion the reason behind that is pi formulas is such a spatial muscle that after 90 degree of hip flexion it start working as internal rotators and that's the reason why after flexing the hip beyond 90 degree i externally rotated the hip and then i pushed it towards the opposite shoulder because after 90 degrees piriformis start working as internal rotators so after 90 degrees of hip flexion i externally rotated the hip and pushed the knee towards the opposite shoulder to stretch that piriformis muscle now i will tell you how to stretch hip adductors those are adductor magnus minimus adductor longus adapter braves pectineus muscle and chrysalis so to stretch those muscles bilaterally that means if i have to stretch those muscles of both limbs then the patient will be in crook line as you can see and therapist will abduct those limbs so i will abduct both the limbs and this stretch will stretch both the muscles in both the limbs so this is a bilateral stretch it will stretch adductor muscles of both limbs but if you want to perform a unilateral stretch that means you want to perform a stretch of only one limb then there are two methods of doing so my one hand will stabilize the asis and with my other hand i will apply a abducting force so one my one hand is just stabilizing the pelvis and with my other hand i am abducting unilateral adapter muscles you have to sustain this stretch for at least 15 to 20 seconds and you can do six to five repetitions this is also a test fabers test to identify sacroiliac joint dysfunction so if you see someone doing this then it can be possible that they are performing a test called faber's test to identify as a joint dysfunction now there is one more method to perform unilateral stretch of adducta muscle for this patient will hold his one leg in flexion position and his other leg will be hanging freely out of the couch you can see the patient position so to stretch those adapter muscles i will apply a abductor and extension force so you can see i am applying a abductor and extension force to stretch those unilateral adapter muscles and patient is stabilizing his pelvis by flexing his hip joint so this is the way you have to stretch your adductor muscles so now i will tell you stretching of sartorius muscle so sartorius muscle at hip joint performs flexion abduction and external rotation function and at knee joint it performs flexion and internal rotation function so to stretch it i will perform just opposite of these function first i will adduct the limp which i have to stretch because it does the function of abduction so i will do just opposite of this function and then after adducting i will flex the knee joint as you can see and after flexing it i will internally rotate the hip joint so you can see i am internally rotating the hip joint because sartorius extend externally rotate the hip joint so to stretch it i am internally internally rotating the hip joint so this is the way you have to do sartorius stretch now i will tell you how to stretch calf muscles so basically calf muscles are made from two muscles gastrocnemius and soleus muscle so first i will tell you how to stretch soleus muscle so soleus muscle perform just plantar flexion function at ankle joint so to stretch it i will flex the knee about 20 to 30 degrees because gastrocnemius muscle also perform function of knee flexion so just to eliminate the function of gastrocnemius i am flexing knee joint about 30 to 20 degrees so you this point you have to remember so to stretch soleus my one hand will be below the calcaneus and i will apply a dorsiflexion force so you can see i am applying a dorsiflexion force to stretch those soleus muscles now i will tell you how to perform gastrocnemius stretch so for this the knees will be extended because gastrocnemius also assists in knee flexion that's where knees are extended and i will dorsiflex the ankle joint because gastrocnemius plantar flexes the ankle joint so i will i am doing just opposite of these functions so i have to stretch the same way i did for soleus muscle now i will tell you stretching of tbls anterior so it does the function of dorsiflexion and supination of ankle joint so to stretch this muscle i will perform just opposite of these functions so to stretch it i am plantar flexing and pronating the ankle joint and with my other hand i am stretching that belly of tibialis anterior anterior away from its insertion and this method will give such a good stretch to the patient i just want you guys to try this method and it will give such a good stretch to the patient you just have to grab the medial border of foot and you have to plant a flex and pronate the foot and with your other hand you have to just stretch that belly of that muscle away from its insertion and it will give a good stretch to the tibialis anterior muscle now i will tell you stretching of extensor digitorum longest not bravest remember this so for longer it does the function of dorsiflexion at toes and dorsiflexion and pronation at ankle joint so to stretch extensor digitorum longus i will do just opposite of these functions so i will grab all these four toes and i will perform function of plantar flexion at toes and plantar flexion and supination at ankle joint it will give such a good stretch and with your other hand you have to just move the belly opposite away from its insertion and it will give a good stretch at extensor digitorum longus if you are just plantar flexing the toes and you are not moving the ankle joint then it is just stretching extensor digitorum braves because previous does not act at ankle joint so this thing you have to remember so if you will not involve the ankle joint it will not stretch extensor digitorum longus it will just stretch bravest muscle now i will tell you stretching of extensor hallucis longus so this is the stretching of big toe so it does the function of dorsiflexion at big toe and dorsiflexion and supination at ankle joint so to stretch the big toe i will perform just a post opposite of these functions so what i will do plantar flexion at big toe and plantar flexion and pronation at ankle joint and with my other hand i am just stretching the belly of extensor hallucis longer away from its insertion so this is the way you have to do stretching of extensor hallucis longus muscle now i will tell you stretching of intros eye muscles so there are two types of intrusion muscles dorsalis intrusive and plantaris first i will tell you stretching of dorsalis so dorsalis does the function of abduction of toes and plantar flexion at metatarsal phalangeal joint so to stretch it i will adduct the toes and i will do dorsiflexion at mtp joint now for enterocyte plantaris muscle it performs the function of adduction of toes and plantar flexion at mtp joint so to stretch it i will adduct the toes you can see how i adapted the toes so adduct the toes and do the dorsiflexion at mtp joint so this stretch will also stretch the lumbarical muscle so you don't have to remember them separately