Optimize your full body extension with Lift Clinic’s team of Vancouver physio, chiro, RMT and strength coaches!
Full body extension is one of the many assessments we perform during our full body screen. This movement requires adequate mobility from your upper back, lower back, and hips. These movements are essential for everyday tasks and athletic movements such as jumping.
Read through this post to learn about the treatment techniques that our physiotherapists, chiropractors, RMTs, and kinesiologists to fix pain or limitations in the movement.
This post is a continuation of our blog series on our full body assessment. If you haven’t already, visit our blog page to learn more about how we assess and treat other movements in the body.
For any given movement pattern, our treatment approach follows 4 primary steps:
- Assessment
Techniques used to test ranges of motion and find the root causes of limitations
- Reset
Hands on treatment techniques used to improve & restore limited range of motion
- Reinforce
Exercises or self treatments that help maintain the gains made from the reset techniques.
- Reload
Exercises that develop strength, resilience, and coordination for the desired movement pattern.
4 reset techniques to treat limitations in full body extension:
1) Thoracic extension mobilization
This treatment facilitates joint glides between the vertebrae in the thoracic spine allowing for increased extension mobility.
2) Soft tissue mobilization
Soft tissue mobilizations (massage) of various flexor muscles in the body can free up movements involved in full body extension.
3) Sacroiliac (SI) joint mobilization
This treatment helps to free up the movement between the sacrum (bone in the spine above the tailbone) and the ilium (pelvis bone).
4) Hip flexor + quad PNF
Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF) is a stretching technique that involves alternating contractions and stretches of a muscle.
What's next?
Hands-on techniques are a great way to alleviate pain and improve mobility in your neck. However, without proper maintenance through exercise, the results of these techniques will only be temporary. To lock in these mobility gains, you will need to perform reinforcing and reloading exercises.
On that note, stay tuned for the next post in the series: Full Body Extension Reinforce
