Basic Hanging Fascial Lat and Side Stretch

[[DW]]

Here is a

of one of the foundational positions I use for horizontal hanging Lat and Lateral Line (and Functional Line) stretching (horizontal as opposed to hanging from a chin-up bar, or rings, for instance).

You can definitely target the Lat muscle directly, if you get the angles and PNF contractions correct, but as interesting (or more so) is the many areas of tension and adhesion of the soft tissues of the lateral aspect of the body that are amenable to re-modeling in this position. Many of you will have tried a lot of these variations in position on ladder bars or hanging off squat racks between sets, etc.

Once you've got the base position (hip hinge; correct grip and shoulder position; stable base; etc), there are a lot of different angles to 'lean in to'; directed breathing techniques for emphasizing the internal and external intercostals and diaphragm; contact-relax and other tension oscillation techniques; spiral vectors and mirco-movements.

The sensations in the lats can be quite strong if you have done a lot of strength training, or sport/martial art training, or are generally tight from sitting and not moving enough - so pretty much tight in most people. Go slowly and smoothly whilst exploring the sensations and don't go into pain. There are easier version of both side bends and lat stretches in Kit's books and videos, if you have not done any stretching before. Once you are comfortable with the position and movements you can increase intensity. I personally find that this has really wide ranging and positive postural, movement and breathing benefits.

The hanging variants seem to work really well for guys and gals who already do strength training, sports and/or other movement work. Hope you enjoy it!

Dave

[Kylie_Firns]

Thanks for sharing this one Dave, I cannot wait to try it out! I especially like the cueing for breathing into this stretch, laterally to get those anterior serratus guys opening up. I'm keen to try this one on my office worker clients!

[[DW]]

More Fascial Lat Stretching:

http://physicalalchemy.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/fascial-lat-stretching-and-opening-up.html

http://physicalalchemy.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/freestylin-with-fascial-lat-suppleness.html

Oooooh Yee'ah!

[Diego]

On 8/4/2013 at 11:56 PM, [DW] said:

Here is a

of one of the foundational positions I use for horizontal hanging Lat and Lateral Line (and Functional Line) stretching (horizontal as opposed to hanging from a chin-up bar, or rings, for instance).

You can definitely target the Lat muscle directly, if you get the angles and PNF contractions correct, but as interesting (or more so) is the many areas of tension and adhesion of the soft tissues of the lateral aspect of the body that are amenable to re-modeling in this position. Many of you will have tried a lot of these variations in position on ladder bars or hanging off squat racks between sets, etc.

Once you've got the base position (hip hinge; correct grip and shoulder position; stable base; etc), there are a lot of different angles to 'lean in to'; directed breathing techniques for emphasizing the internal and external intercostals and diaphragm; contact-relax and other tension oscillation techniques; spiral vectors and mirco-movements.

The sensations in the lats can be quite strong if you have done a lot of strength training, or sport/martial art training, or are generally tight from sitting and not moving enough - so pretty much tight in most people. Go slowly and smoothly whilst exploring the sensations and don't go into pain. There are easier version of both side bends and lat stretches in Kit's books and videos, if you have not done any stretching before. Once you are comfortable with the position and movements you can increase intensity. I personally find that this has really wide ranging and positive postural, movement and breathing benefits.

The hanging variants seem to work really well for guys and gals who already do strength training, sports and/or other movement work. Hope you enjoy it!

Dave

Hey,

Do you still have a video or picture of this stretch? The video seems to be deleted from youtube as well as from the physical alchemy blog.

Many thanks