Instructional Videos
Welcome to Dr. Rob Thiry's video series on stretching! Whether you're a seasoned athlete, a desk worker, or someone simply looking to improve flexibility and alleviate pain, these videos are designed just for you. In each video, Dr. Rob will guide you through targeted stretches that enhance mobility, reduce tension, and promote overall well-being. Let's embark on this journey together to discover the power of stretching and its profound impact on your health. Get ready to move, stretch, and feel your best!
Low Back - Bridge - Strengthening
Today we're going to do some low back core exercises to help strengthen that lower back, mid abdominal area. The first exercise that we're going to do is called the BRIDGE. So we're going to bring our feet up onto the floor at about 90 degrees.
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What we're going to do then is lift our pelvis, our hips up off the ground. And we'll give that a five-second count. Then we'll go back down. We will repeat that, bringing the hips up. And when you do this, you want to be contracting your abdominal muscles, pulling the core in towards your spine.
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And up. And we'll repeat this until we've done 10 to 20 reps.
Low Back Crunch - Strengthening
The next exercise we're going to do is the CRUNCH, working to strengthen that main core abdominal area. So we'll be laying in this position, feet flat on the floor. We'll take our hands, put them behind our head, making sure, as we do the crunch, not to pull up with our hands pulling up on the neck - just kind of placing them there and supporting.
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We will then lift the head up off the floor, crunch, focusing, contracting the abdominal muscles toward the spine, and then back down. We'll hold that for three seconds each time we come up. Give it a three-count again, contracting the abdominal muscles toward the spine. We'll continue to repeat this until we've done 10 to 20 reps.
Low Back Plank - Strengthening
The next exercise we're going to do for the low back and core is a PLANK exercise on the side. We'll start off in this position. Notice that the elbow has been at 90 degrees underneath the shoulder. And what we'll do from this position is lift our hips up off the floor into that side plank position.
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We'll hold it for five seconds, and then we'll go back down. Then we'll return back into that side plank position and back down again. Go ahead and contract your abdominal muscles toward your spine as you're doing this. And we'll repeat that until we've done 10 to 20 per side.
Low Back Superman Pose - Strengthening
The next exercise we're going to do is going to target the lower back, and we're going to lay face down, arms straight out, From here,, we're going to do the SUPERMAN POSE, where we'll just lightly lift the legs and the arms up off the floor. We'll hold that for five seconds, and then we'll go back to the start position and back up.
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Notice that we don't want to hyper extend the lower back, so we're just lifting up gently off the floor, just to get a good contraction of those muscles. With the 5-second hold. Again, just like the other exercises, we're going to do 10 to 20 reps.
Low Back Double Knee to Chest - Stretch
This low back stretch is beneficial and helpful for people who have compression in their low back - people who sit for a period of time, and then when they stand up and start to walk, they feel stiff and uncomfortable until they start moving. This stretch is really good for that type of scenario.
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The first one we're going to do is a DOUBLE KNEE TO CHEST. We're going to bring both knees up toward the chest, pulling them forward, and then we're going to lift our chin off the ground toward our knees. And what's happening here is this position is forcing that curve and compression in the lower back to flatten out -helping to decompress.
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With these particular stretches, we'll hold this 20 to 30 seconds in this position, and then we'll relax, and we will do three to four repetitions of that particular stretch. One of the hard things to do is to make sure you keep breathing when you do the stretch. Sometimes it's easy to get into this position here and want to hold your breath, but go ahead and keep breathing through the process. Again, we'll hold it 20 to 30 seconds and repeat it three to four times.
Low Back Pelvic Tilt - Stretch
The next stretch we're going to work on for the decompression of the lower back is a PELVIC TILT. So we're laying in this position, flat on our back, feet flat on the floor.
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What we want to do now is rotate our hips underneath, pushing our spine down into the floor, really working to take that natural curve of our back and flatten it out, getting the spine to touch the floor.
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You're going to hold that 20 to 30 seconds, and then we'll repeat it three to four times.
Low Back Arch - Stretch
This stretch is great for decompressing those lower back joints. We're going to go into an ARCH and sit position. we're going to tuck our hips forward underneath, and as we do that, we're going to sit back towards our heels continuing to reach forward. As we sit back, we're forcing the curve in the lower back to open up and really decompress those joints.
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The biggest mistake that people make on this stretch is when they start to sit back, they let their hips roll forward again, and you lose that stretch. So you've got to make sure that as you sit back to do this stretch, that you keep the hips tucked under, and when you do this, you'll feel a nice stretch and pull in that lower back.
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You hold it 20 to 30 seconds, and do 3 to 4 reps.
Neck Stretch - Forward Flexion
Today we're going to talk about some neck stretches. The first one we're going to do is a FORWARD FLEXION. We're going to bring our chin down toward our chest, and we'll hold that for 10 seconds, Then we're going to come up, and we're going to look all the way up,
get a little stretch onto the front part of the neck, hold that again for five, and then we return to normal, neutral position. Another way to do this if you want to get a little extra pull on the forward flexion part is to put your hands behind your head and just gently pull the chin down farther toward the chest.
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Again, we would do a five-second hold and then come up and go into the extension position, looking up again, holding for five seconds. Do 10 to 12 repetitions of that particular stretch.
Neck Stretch - Side Bending
The next stretch we're going to do is a SIDE BENDING stretch. On this particular stretch, we'll just lean the head to the side, bringing our ear toward our shoulder, and we'll hold that position for five seconds. Then we'll switch going to the other side, again, and hold for five seconds.
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If we want to get a little extra pull, we'll grab over the top of the head, bring the ear toward the shoulder, and give it just a little extra pull. Same to the other side, the five-second hold. Repeat the stretch three to five times per side.
Neck Stretch - Rotation
This stretch is a ROTATIONAL stretch. It's in that same seated position as the side bending stretch. We're going to turn our head to the right, just working to get a nice pull on that left side of the neck, holding five seconds, and then switch, returning to the other side, again holding five seconds. We'll do this stretch three to five times each side.
Neck Stretch - Scalenes
The next stretch we're going to work on is for the side of the neck, the SCALENE muscles. From this seated position, we're going to grab underneath the chair with one hand. With the other hand, we're going to reach across, grab onto that shoulder, slightly pulling down. Then we're going to bend our head to the opposite side.
From that position, turn and rotate our head toward that shoulder. You're going to hold that position for five seconds. And then we're going to switch and do it from the other side. Again, grab under the chair, reach across onto the shoulder, pulling down, lean the head to the side, and then rotate again into it, holding it five seconds.
Do this three to five times each side.
Neck Stretch - Trapezius
The next stretch is for the upper shoulder up into the neck, upper TRAPEZIUS muscles. From this position, we're going to grab under the chair. We're going to tilt the head to the opposite side and then grab with that hand and gently pull the ear to the shoulder. We'll hold that for five seconds and then we'll switch.
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Repeat it on the other side.
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Again, do a five-second hold three to five repetitions per side.
Neck Stretch - Levator Scapula
The next stretch we're going to do for the neck and upper back is the LEVATOR SCAPULA stretch. From the seated position, we're going to grab underneath the chair, just for a good stabilization. We're going to turn our head away from that, grab our hand up over the top, and we're going to pull our chin down toward our chest.
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This should give you a nice pull in the back of the neck, upper shoulder blade area. You'll hold it for five seconds, and then you'll switch, going to the other side, again, reaching over the top, and pulling forward toward the chest.
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Do three to five repetitions per side.
Hip Mobility Stretch 1
Hey everybody, it's Dr. Rob with Personal Care Chiropractic. Today we're going to go through some hip mobility stretches.
First one we're going to do is we're going to bring the knee up to the chest, then we're going to take the knee out to the outside, then we're going to take the knee straight down, bring the feet back together, and then repeat.
Knee up, out to the outside, down, and back together. Let's go ahead and do the other side.
You'll notice just a little brief hold in each of those positions. And though we're only doing two on each side, I would like to see five repetitions on each side.
Hip Mobility Stretch 2
Now that we've done both sides five times, we're going to reverse it.
We're going to take the leg out to the outside, bring the knee up, bring it back to center, and straight down. And we're going to repeat that again, leg out to the outside, knee up, bring it back together, and down. And we'll repeat that again on the other side.
And again with these, we're going to do five times on each side.
Hip Mobility Stretch 3
Next we're going to change positions and bring the feet up to 90 degrees and flat on the floor, and we're going to work a little bit of the lateral hip. So from this position we're going to cross one leg over the top of the other, and with that leg we're going to pull away to the side that we cross with.
We're going to hold that position for five seconds, then we're going to return back up to the start position, switch legs, and we're going to go to the other side. Again, pulling with the leg that we cross with, hold it for five seconds. Bring it back up to the start position, and we're going to repeat that again to the other side.
Again, crossing, pulling away, five second hold, and then we come back up, and repeat. Crossing the other way, pulling down to the side, and the five second hold. And again, we're going to repeat this until we've done the stretch five times on each side.
Hip Mobility Stretch 4
The next stretch we're going to work the lateral hip and a little bit of the glute. So we're going to bring one knee up toward the chest.
We're going to grab with the opposite hand. We're going to pull, rotating to the side. You might feel this in your low back a little bit as well. You're going to hold it for five seconds.
After five seconds, you're going to pull the knee up toward the shoulder and get a little bit more stretch in the glute. That's a five second hold. Then you're going to go back down to the start position and switch. And we're going to go to the other side, bring the knee up. Pulling to the side, we'll hold it for 5 seconds in that position.
Then we'll grab the knee, pull it up toward the chest, hold it for 5 seconds, bring it down to the start position, and back to our back. And then we'll repeat it again. Bringing the knee up, rotating to the side, again holding for 5 seconds, after 5 seconds we'll pull the knee up toward the chest, 5 second hold, then we'll bring it back down to the start position, and we'll repeat it again.
Knee up, rotation, a five second hold, knee up to the chest, and back down. And again, we'll repeat that same series until we've done five times on each side.
Hip Mobility Stretch 5
Next we're going to change into a seated position and we're going to work a little bit of the glute and we're also going to little work a little bit of the front of the thigh, the hip flexor area. So from this position, we're going to bring the right knee down and the left knee down to the inside, almost like a running position.
From this position, we're going to lean forward directly over the shin. We're going to hold that for five seconds. After that, we're going to come up and we're going to extend backwards and we're going to push forward with our opposite hip to stretch that front of the thigh hip flexor area on the opposite leg. After that, we're going to go back down again to the same position.
We're going to hold that again for the five seconds.
And then we're going to come back up and again, lean back, give a little push forward for five seconds. And you'd again, repeat this five times on this side. After that, we're going to switch and go the opposite direction. So we just rotate the knees the opposite way.
Then we're going togo forward down over the shin again,
five second hold. And then we're going to come back up and we're going to lean back and we're going to push that right hip forward a little bit.
And again, five second hold, then we'll go return back over the shin, and we'll do the five seconds, then we'll come back up, and we'll lean back, and push forward with the hip. Five seconds, and again, we're going to repeat that five times on that side.
Hip Mobility Stretch 6
Next we're going to work a little bit of the inner leg, the inner thigh, the adductor area. So what we're going to do from this position, the kneeling position, we're going to go down into an all four position, hands and knees.
We're going to spread our knees apart fairly wide, and from this position now we're going to sit up and sit back toward our heels, and we'll give that about a five second hold, and then we'll come back up.
And then we're going to go back to the back again and sit down. Back onto the heels, again a five second hold, and we'll rock this back and forth until we've done it five times.
Hip Mobility Stretch 7
The last hip mobility stretch we're going to work on today. We're going to start in the kneeling position and then go into a kneeling lunge. From that position, we'll bend forward with that front knee, with a little backward lean to get a little stretch into that hip flexor area. We'll hold it for five seconds, then we're going to go back, sitting back toward the heel, and you should get some stretch into that hamstring a little bit on the straight leg.
And we'll give that a five second hold. Then we'll come forward again. We'll hold that for five seconds. Then we'll go back up, sit back toward the heel, getting a nice stretch in the glute and hamstring on that other side. And you'll do that five times and then we'll switch.
And we'll lean that forward for five second hold. Then we'll sit back onto the heel and back toward the heel. Five second hold. Five times again, each side.
Those are the hip mobility stretches. Try to do them two or three times a week. I think you'll find those hips will feel much better.