Tendon Stretch Breakdown

Hi. I'm Brett Howard, and today I'm gonna do a tutorial on the tendon stretch. So The tendon stretch is an exercise that a lot of people don't like, but I think it's just misunderstood. So, you know, that person, they look very mean, and you don't wanna be their friend, maybe they're just misunderstood. They could be a very nice person after all. That's how I look at the tenant stretch.

So today, we're gonna be working on the GRatz apparatus here, the GRatz performer, just a couple things in the beginning. I will probably only refer to springs, as even tension. So the grots cat, reformer here, there are 4 spring system. All springs are equal tension. So it is not 5, and we also don't work with colors. If you don't have, McGrath Salparatus, that's perfectly okay.

I would say that, it's probably gonna be one of your stronger Springs, most likely a red spring. So this will work with both. Alright. So, with the tendon stretch, what I like to do first is I usually like to first prep it on the electric chair. I like the electric chair because the length is a little higher. And so by pushing down with my hands and the tension of the spring on the pedal that allows me to be able to find the exercise a little bit better.

Then my next step would be to transition it to the wonder chair where there's a little bit less spring tension and also the wonder chair is slightly lower than the top of the electric chair. Then lastly, I like to bring it over here to the reformer. Now I just don't go into the exercise I normally like to do a couple different preps. Now first, what I wanna show you is what we don't wanna do. So this is something my teacher, Ramana Chris and Alska, did not like us to do.

So this is the wrong way, and this is what she would say. Don't ride the springs. So she wanted us to partner with the reformer. She always would say that when you're working with your apparatus, you're doing like a potadoo, a partnering of 2. So you wanna make sure that your apparatus is your partner, and you don't want it to control you you want to control it. So this would be the apparatus in this position, the reformer controlling you.

This is what we would just call riding the springs. And so Romana didn't like that because once again, it felt like that the reformer was doing all the work and you were not. The other thing is she also didn't like the pelvis to go behind this foot bar. And so to help people understand how to keep their pelvis forward of the foot bar and also help them get a good work through their abdominals I like to do these following preps. So I'm gonna take all the springs off right now. Just to get this carriage out of the way.

Now you could also do this against the wall. I also tend to do it against the wall. If I was teaching, I would probably bring my foot on the foot bar here just in case the client has a temptation to pull the bar. Then I'm gonna round forward slightly away from this bar. And then what I'm gonna do is I'm going to Push my hands backwards to push my hips forward. So it's an active push.

Then I'm gonna curl my tailbone under. Sacram under, lower back under, because I'm gonna do that movement later. Now I'm gonna push back through the hands. I'm thinking of pro attracting my scapula, then tailbone under, sacrum under, lower back under, One more time. I push through the heels of my hands. Notice how that brings my pelvis forward.

I'm not bringing my shoulder blades together. I'm actually separating them. Then tailbone under sacrum under, lower back under, and that's what helps to then lift me back up. Once they've understood that concept, I'm gonna then bring the carriage back in. I'm gonna place it on two springs.

I like to put the pad here at the very front. You don't need it, but it helps in case you feel like you're gonna slide. Then I'm gonna sit on the bar. Now this variation is very helpful for people who have restrictions in their hamstrings. So maybe they can't stand up right away because they can't reach the bar.

But this variation will allow them to have an experience of the tendon stretch. And over time, it's going to create more and more stretch through the hamstrings also through the calves there. So then later, they are able to do the tenant stretch starting with a standing position. So I'm going to push the carriage out, then I'm going to round my back. I'm going to keep the carriage out I can be in rotation or in parallel. Doesn't matter at the moment.

I'm going to push my hands back to lift my hips up. Then I'm just gonna sit back down for the moment. I'm gonna push backwards through my hands, and I'm going to protract the scapula. Then I'm going to sit back down. One more. I'm going to push back through my hands.

So notice my hips are forward. Of the bar at the moment. So then I'm gonna lift my hips up as much as I can without going behind then to go out. This is where it returns tailbone under. Sacrum under, lower back under. That makes my upper abdominals work.

And then I push through my hands as I go forward through my hips, then tailbone under. Sake or under, lower back under as I push further with my hands. Hands backwards, hips forward, then to notice I'm going a little higher each time. Now tailbone under, sacrum under, lower back under. That really gets my upper abdominals. Eventually, I'm able to come all the way up, still keeping my hips forward of the bar as much as possible.

Now We're gonna do the same thing and then I'm gonna try to apply what we've done previously to go out. I'm gonna push through the heels of my hands as I bring my hips forward and my tailbone under. Notice that my heels are dropped. That's our goals. We try not to lift up because otherwise we're not getting a stretch of the Achilles tendon. And then why is it called that tendon stretch. So when I try to keep my heels down, there are also different positions.

If I need to make it a little easier, I can walk my feet a little further forward. I had my feet right now. 5050, half on, half off, And if I was really stretched through my Achilles tendon, I could go on to my toes and just drop the heels there. Today, I'm gonna do it 5050 half on half off. Now I'm gonna push backwards with my hands. See, I won't even need my hands as I go forward through my hips, then from there to come up I'm gonna push my hands further back as I go tailbone under, sacrum under, lower back under.

Hands back pelvis forward heels under tail under, then to come up. I'm gonna curl under to lift lift lift lift lift. One more tailbone under. Hands back. Then from there to come up, I push with my hands, keeping the hips forward.

So then I can maintain that. And then as you see, I'm getting a or you don't see, but I know. I'm getting a good work here, but as you see, I was able to keep my hips forward, but also I was able to control the carriage. I was able to partner with my reformer, make sure that the reformer was not controlling me. So I hope this is helpful, and I hope that you like the tenant stretch maybe a little bit more than he did previously.