April 29, 2020

Stretch Therapy cues (makes understanding the videos easier!)

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In this video, Liv explains a few key Stretch Therapy terms:

The ""tuck" and "untuck" (pelvis positioning cues; technically these are described as "posterior pelvic tilt, or "PPT"), and "anterior pelvic tilt" or "APT"). Isn't tuck and untuck simpler? 🙂

The terms "square" and "un-square" (the angle between the line of the legs and the hip joints; in most poses, getting closer to 90° in this angle increases the stretch effects hugely).

And the essential "Contract–Relax" technique (we have discussed this in many other videos, but Liv brings her own perspective. A little known fact, which we see demonstrated on workshops literally every time we run them, is that you can hear the same fundamental information from a different person in a different voice and you will hear it differently – some people for the first time.

Read transcription

Olivia :

Hello, Olivia here. In this short presentation I want to explain three terms that we use all the time, when we're explaining our exercises in stretch therapy. Two are to do with positioning your hips and pelvis, and one is a key technique that we use in every stretch.



Olivia :

The first one is called the tuck, untuck. I'm going to turn side on so you can see the two movements. Stand comfortably with the knees a little bit bent. Place one hand on your lower belly, your lower abdomen, and your other hand in your lower back. The first term is the tuck, tucked pelvis. It looks like this. Literally, you are trying to tuck your pelvis under and you will feel that your lower back gets straighter as you do that.



Olivia :

The opposite movement we call the untuck. You can imagine you're trying to stick your bottom out behind you. And in the un-tucked position, you'll feel the curve in the lower back is increased. I'll demonstrate it one more time.



Olivia :

Tuck: tuck the tail under and your lower back is flattened to some extent. Untuck: stick the bottom out and the curve in your lower back is increased, and the hand positions here you'll feel that happening. So that's the tuck and the untuck.



Olivia :

The second hip/pelvis position we talk about is in relation to squaring and un-squaring. So now I'm facing the camera and as I stand here, the front of both of my hips are pointing directly forward. Exactly as my shoulders and chest are, that is a square hip position. If I let the hip on one side pulled back and the other one goes forward, now my hips are pointing here. That's an un-square position. So square, un-square. It's as simple as that.



Olivia :

The third thing I'm going to explain is our Contract–Relax technique and I'm going to do that down in a lunge position because we love lunge positions, they're super important. This is what I mean by lunge. I kneel on one knee. I step the foot of the other leg forward and I lower myself down so my hands are on the floor. Look at where my hips are currently in relation to my kneeling knee. My hips are almost back above that knee. A lunge stretch is where you explore letting the hips go down and forward towards the floor. The knee is now well back behind my hips and I'm getting, for me, a gentle stretch through here. So that's what we call the initial stretch. I'm just using the lunge as an example exercise.



Olivia :

Now the contraction here would be in reference to this back knee. I'm going to attempt to drag the knee forward through the mat, but it doesn't move because the mat is holding it still. That's the contraction. And that's always the contraction. You're trying to pull a body part in a particular action, but it doesn't move. And we typically do that for a count of five, four, three, two one.



Olivia :

It's not visually very interesting because nothing's happening, but I'm trying to drag the knee forward through the floor. I stop at the end of my five count. I do nothing. I take a deep breath in and it's when you next breathe out that you see if you can go further into the stretch. So my hips have now moved further down and forward towards the floor and that's the relax part. So the knee drag attempt was my contraction and the moving deeper into the stretch is the relax part. That's a "Contract–Relax".



Olivia :

There are other terms that we use, but they're the key ones. The tuck untuck, the square un-square and the Contract–Relax technique.



Olivia :

Now, if there's any other terms that you come across when we do these exercises that don't make sense to you please pop them in a comment and we'll do another explanatory video as necessary.



Olivia :

Cool. See you next time.


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