Body and Spirit

Flexibility

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Michael Webb, Miles Scruggs, Dick Nunez

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Series Code: BAS

Program Code: BAS000025


00:02 The following program is designed to demonstrate
00:04 simple workouts that you can use to improve your
00:06 health. Be sure to consult your physician
00:10 before beginning any exercise program.
00:15 Stay tuned for Body and Spirit where today we're
00:17 going to talk about how to become more flexible.
00:49 Hello, I am Dick Nunez. Welcome to Body and
00:51 Spirit I am the Wellness Director at the Black Hills
00:52 Health and Education Center. Today we're going to be
00:55 focusing in on flexibility, as we look at the Bible,
00:58 we see several times throughout the Gospels the
01:00 Jesus talks about a parable of seeds being planted.
01:03 Towards the end he talks about the seed that goes
01:05 into good soil that develops good root. We find in life
01:08 unless we're very flexible with things that come our
01:10 way we'll break and that includes our body, over the
01:14 course of time we become less flexible if we don't use
01:17 our bodies and take it to a full range of motion.
01:19 People often times think it's because somebody gets
01:21 way too muscular, but the reality is what happens to
01:24 people is they just stop moving and the less they
01:27 move the less flexible they become, so today's program
01:30 is gonna focus on that, so lets get started.
01:33 Today helping me will be Mike and Miles.
01:41 And we will be starting by just loosening up the
01:43 shoulder area and we're gonna just swing the arms
01:46 around nice and controlled. Up and around,
01:54 feeling the shoulders move. Lets do now about five
02:03 more just to get nice and loosened up. Okay, good now
02:15 we're gonna be training the chest area and by doing that
02:17 we're gonna reach up and we're gonna squeeze down
02:20 and across like that, we're gonna come back up and
02:24 we're gonna reverse the direction of how our arms
02:26 crossed. Now up and cross over and back up, cross over
02:34 squeezing the chest as you come through we're working
02:38 on a range of motion here, bring your arms way across
02:43 and feel them work. And do five more its one squeeze
02:53 the arms, once again you dictate on how hard you go,
02:57 if you have a lot of strength then go ahead and squeeze
02:59 it hard, if not then take it a little easier as you bring it
03:03 through. One more time okay now we're gonna do a
03:08 static squeeze with that, bring your hands together in
03:11 the middle and you squeeze your palms together
03:13 hard, we're gonna squeeze that for 15 seconds.
03:19 Squeeze it as hard as you can. We should feel that
03:22 working in through this area here, squeeze hard good.
03:28 Five more seconds okay good. Today we are gonna
03:34 implement a piece of exercise equipment and its not
03:37 going to be very expensive in fact it's something you
03:38 will find in your home, so Mike if you wanna get our
03:42 assisted equipment there and you will find that we
03:48 have something very complicated, a simple towel.
03:52 But even as something as simple as a towel can be
03:54 made to a great exercise trainer especially for doing
03:58 things involved flexibility. So what we are going to do
04:00 is we're gonna bring our towel up over our head,
04:03 we're gonna pull over to the side and across the other
04:08 way and back, we wanna pull across, so that we do
04:18 it feel it stretch then pull back. This should be working
04:22 the upper back area, the latissimus dorsi area,
04:26 very complex area in the upper shoulder area.
04:30 Lots of various muscles we talked about 16 different
04:33 muscles attaching to each side of the scapula,
04:36 the muscles that make the rotator cup are back there,
04:39 it's very important to keep those moving,
04:41 keeping them limber. Bring it back again,
04:45 feel it stretch, pull and pull, lets do three more
04:53 across, should be filling in their shoulder a little bit
04:56 as we do it as well. Once again you dictate how
04:59 hard you wanna go, one more time and relax,
05:04 good okay now we are gonna do this we're gonna
05:08 hold the towel in front of us and we're gonna act
05:10 like we're trying to tear it in two just by pulling
05:13 apart, so we're putting the attention on the shoulders
05:14 already. Now we're gonna bring it up, over the
05:18 head and back down. Keep the tension on whole time
05:23 way up, feel it stretch back and come down.
05:28 Okay keep going pull it hard keep the arm straight
05:32 okay and back down, now keep that attention on
05:34 there the whole time, remember whenever we
05:37 exercise we wanna keep the xiphoid process,
05:39 the bottom of the sternum up, so we keep ourselves
05:42 in a good position. Pull hard like you wanna tear
05:46 that towel in two, whenever you do it we'll give you
05:49 some type of bonus for that. You get to keep the
05:52 towel how's that. Pull hard up and back good.
05:59 Keep the arms straight, good and we're looking
06:04 really good, keep it going and back down again,
06:10 reach way back behind you. Way back, stretch it back,
06:13 good and back and front, back again, good back over,
06:23 try and keep the arm as straight as possible,
06:24 lets do three more. Put them back, good and back
06:29 down and up and back, down again one more time
06:36 up and down excellent. Okay, now what we're
06:40 gonna do is we're gonna take our towel and we're
06:43 just gonna grab it with one hand here, hold down with
06:46 the other side and we're gonna raise it up to the side
06:48 like this and pull it back through, so we're raising
06:52 up, pulling back down. Up and pull down,
06:57 try and get yourself a nice range of motion across,
07:01 all this is designed once again to help get the range
07:03 of motion back in the body again. Sometimes we have
07:07 a condition what we call frozen shoulder, where
07:09 somebody just flat can move anymore.
07:12 The body is telling you, the body not to, not to do
07:15 what it's supposed to do by going through the range
07:16 of motion. What we're trying to encourage the
07:18 muscles to be able to move again, to get that range
07:21 of motion that we so desperately need. Okay,
07:27 lets do three more, once again we dictate how hard
07:33 we wanna go. Okay now switch over to the other
07:37 side and up, pull back. Want to feel that shoulder
07:51 contract as you bring it up and then pull it back with
07:54 the opposite arm, so you have resistance on the way
07:57 back, two more. Okay, we can use this also for our
08:10 bicep curl. The function of the bicep is to curl the arm
08:13 up and also to turn out, so what we're gonna do is
08:16 we're gonna grab the towel like that, so as the
08:18 assistance is gonna encourage us to turn out.
08:20 We have to curl it up and pull it back down.
08:26 Once again we're supplying the resistance there.
08:34 We wanna get that good full range of motion.
08:44 Doesn't matter how heavy you go, as long as you're
08:47 getting that good range of motion, lets do three more.
08:50 There's one and two, one more time, good.
08:56 Okay switch it, once again we want to grab the towel
08:59 so that it's pulling our thumb outward to give us a
09:04 proper positioning to do our curls. Good study
09:14 repetition, pulling back down to increase the
09:18 resistance as we do the movement. I have seen
09:27 people do amazing things with increasing their
09:30 flexibility and their strength just by starting something
09:35 with a good range of motion, good, okay. Now we're
09:41 gonna put the towel up over the head and we're gonna
09:45 stretch down and we're gonna push up. Once we had
09:52 a lady come out, she was a good Irish woman and she
09:55 didn't want to do any exercise. She had
09:57 Rheumatoid arthritis, she was very overweight,
10:00 but we couldn't get her to do anything. First week she
10:03 just sat in a chair and watched everybody go their
10:05 exercise time. In the second week we had an 87-year-old
10:09 woman come, didn't matter that she could hardly do
10:11 anything, she was determined to get in and start
10:13 exercising, each time she worked out, she felt better
10:17 and better and by the third week, the good old Irish
10:20 woman couldn't take anymore and she said alright,
10:23 I'll come do it, stop yelling at me, which I hadn't said
10:25 a word. But her own conscious was getting to her.
10:28 Okay, lets switch sides. And she came and she started
10:31 to workout and within a week she felt so much
10:34 different. She said oh its such a pity to be a stubborn
10:37 Irish woman. I could have had all this benefit,
10:40 instead I was so stubborn I didn't want to do it.
10:43 So just getting the body moving again, it's such a key
10:45 element of getting that vitality back again.
10:50 Remember when you feel old you feel weak,
10:53 when you feel young, you feel strong. Okay, good.
11:03 Okay, lets, what I like you to do now is to set the
11:09 towels down for a moment and we're going to do
11:11 an exercise for the legs to help encourage the
11:14 flexibility of the leg. What I want you to do, is I
11:16 want you to pick your knee up real high, high as
11:19 you can, as high as your pants will allow, higher,
11:22 higher, okay now put it back down, now bring the
11:24 other side up. Okay, now down, now up again.
11:31 Okay, keep alternating it now, up and down.
11:34 Okay, down up, good down, up good okay lets speed
11:40 it up a little bit more now. Good, good, up, way up
11:48 high each time, way up high, good way up high.
11:51 Feel that range of motion. Good, keep bringing
11:57 that knee up high, focus on the flexibility of it,
12:00 range of motion. Okay speed it up a little more still,
12:06 good. You guys will make a great dance team.
12:14 Okay, bring them up good. Good, keep going,
12:22 ten more there is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, good 10.
12:41 Now what we're gonna do is gonna step way out
12:43 to the side and feel it stretch and now we're
12:47 gonna shift over to the other side and then back,
12:53 feel that stretch now shift and shift and shift,
13:03 lets keep it going now, you feel that stretch in
13:04 inner thigh. We also should be feeling it in the
13:08 quadriceps. Good, let's keep it going, reach way out,
13:23 good. Okay we're gonna do ten more, there is 1, and 2,
13:37 and 3, 4, and 5, 6, 7, and 8, and 9, one more time
13:59 10 okay, good. Okay lets get in a squat position
14:02 and squat down and lets gonna hold it there proper
14:06 position, chest up, squat down a little bit further,
14:10 we're gonna do a static hold there for 30 seconds
14:12 just to finish off the legs a little bit here.
14:15 Your legs aren't tired yet are they. Okay there is five
14:25 seconds, okay keep holding and there is 10,
14:27 nice and tight, focusing on tightening the hips and
14:30 the hamstrings and the quadriceps 15, 20, 10 more
14:39 seconds and 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 good, good. Okay,
14:49 we are going to do something also that's gonna
14:51 be a little bit difficult because of not having
14:54 somebody to braise yourself. I want to put your
14:55 edge of your toes on the edge of the platform there
15:01 and I want you to push way up on your toes.
15:07 Okay and down, for those at home you want to
15:11 use a step up, lose it and down and up good and
15:21 down, and up and down and up and down,
15:32 okay we're gonna go way up high and try and
15:34 stretch down as you go down. Try and let the
15:37 heels go down, feel it straight. Okay and up and
15:41 down and up and down, lets do five more,
15:48 up and down and up and down and up and down
16:00 up down lets do one more and up and down,
16:06 good. Okay, why don't you go ahead and have a
16:09 seat on the floor there Mike. One of the ways
16:14 of helping people get more flexible is a technique
16:17 called Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation
16:20 which is abbreviated simply as PNF Stretching.
16:23 What this does is encourages a person to go
16:26 full range of motion and maybe then some,
16:29 so what we do is we take for example we take his
16:32 shoulder and we're gonna bring it across and see
16:35 where he actually wants to stop, now Mike is very
16:38 flexible, but often times you will find somebody
16:40 who can only go about till here then what we do
16:43 is we have them press against my palm press
16:45 against me like you wanna drive your elbow back
16:47 down. Okay, he's pushing against me push, push,
16:51 push, push, push now relax and then what we find
16:56 is we can bring him even further. As I said before
17:00 Mike's already very flexible, he can scratch his
17:02 knee with his opposite arm without any problem
17:04 there. Okay push again, you push for about five
17:11 seconds and then we relax. Once again we don't
17:14 wanna push into the pain range, we simply want to
17:17 get a good range of motion there. Where we're gonna
17:21 increase our flexibility, lets do the other side.
17:27 Okay and push against me, we're pushing for about
17:29 five seconds and then we're relaxing. Okay again
17:37 push, push, and relax, okay good. Okay you wanna
17:46 stand backup. Miles, what I like you do is lay on
17:50 your back here right here this way. One of the areas
17:55 that gets very tighten people is their hamstring
17:58 area and when the hamstrings get tight it
18:01 causes a lot of lower back problem, so by just doing
18:04 this Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation
18:07 on the hamstring area, we can dramatically improve
18:11 the pain level of the lower back, so the side ache
18:15 isn't going to be near as bad. So straighten your
18:17 legs out and I'd like you to bring your right leg
18:20 up, keep it straight, okay what I'm gonna do,
18:24 now this time we did find one that's a little bit
18:25 inflexible Ideally we would like to have this to a
18:29 90 degree bent at least and we'll see if we can get
18:32 there within a few stretches here. One way or the
18:35 other we will get there. Okay push against me,
18:39 push, push, push, push, okay relax. Okay, already
18:47 we're starting to bring him up a little bit further.
18:50 And he's starting to breath a little bit harder
18:52 okay push again, push, push, push, push, push,
18:59 now relax. Okay as you can we are almost a 90
19:04 degree now, its good, now we're gonna turn you into
19:08 a punter for a professional football team, push,
19:11 push, push, push, and relax. Okay, so we're about
19:21 90 degree now, so we got a pretty good
19:23 improvement in this flexibility. Okay, go and
19:25 relax for a moment. What happens to the body
19:28 when we start to get tight and people often times
19:31 what causes pain throughout the vertebral column,
19:34 its muscles that are tightened up for one reason
19:36 or another. So do people do when they have this pain,
19:40 well some will go off to a medical doctor, some
19:42 will go off to a chiropractor, some will go
19:44 after a massage therapist, but inevitably what's
19:46 happened, the muscles tightened up, so a person
19:49 might take a muscle relaxer, so it relaxes temporarily,
19:52 but after the muscle relaxer wears out, that tightens
19:54 up again or they might get a quick Ballistic pop
19:58 and that quick Ballistic pop will make their body
20:01 want to relax temporarily, the popping of the
20:03 vertebral column or what have you, or if somebody
20:06 even has a cramp in the muscles if you do a quick
20:09 Ballistic pop it will relax. What we're trying to do
20:11 is encourage the muscle to relax and let it go back
20:15 to it's normal range of motion and if we do that
20:18 we can take the pain off the vertebral column
20:20 because isn't the vertebra that is putting pressure
20:22 on the nurses unless it's a herniated disc or
20:24 something along like that. It's simply the muscles
20:27 have tightened up and the swelling of the muscle
20:29 tissue has caused that or little nodules are
20:32 developed in the muscle tissue from this knotting
20:34 up process and what we wanna do is just get
20:36 them to relax. In Miles' case, it was difficult for
20:39 him to go through a full range of motion on that.
20:42 Obviously his hamstrings are a little bit tight and
20:44 it would be very helpful for him even though
20:46 he is very young to improve his flexibility
20:48 of his hamstrings. So we saw what the right leg
20:51 could do, lets see how the leg is. Lets bring your
20:53 leg up. This one is better to start off with than
21:00 the other one was. Okay push and relax.
21:08 Do you ever get back pain. You're young still,
21:13 okay lets push it again. Once again we're pushing
21:15 for about five second here, and relax, and we will
21:23 bring him back, okay now want to stay there for a
21:27 moment, you might ask how can you do this if you
21:29 don't have anybody to help you if you do have back
21:32 pain. Well that's where the towel comes in handy
21:34 again. Bring your leg up, can you reach that.
21:41 Just barely, okay you might need a little longer towel,
21:44 but what you can do is that just grab the towel and
21:47 pull, so you can give yourself some resistance
21:50 there. And you can do the same type of Proprioceptive
21:54 Neuromuscular Facilitation by using, simply using
21:58 a bath towel to pull against it and giving you that
22:02 same type of flexibility action. Okay what I like
22:05 you to do now is have both of you sit on the
22:08 platform here, facing out towards the camera there.
22:13 I would like you to put your feet together turn your
22:16 feet in, wing your knees out to the side.
22:20 There we go, now grab your ankles on the inside
22:24 okay, push down against your inner thigh with your
22:29 elbows to give yourself a flex or a stretch of that
22:32 adductor area. Okay now relax, just relax, okay now
22:41 push again. Okay good, okay now what I like you
22:53 to do is you're gonna have to space yourselves out
22:56 a little bit. So Mike, you scout back, Miles you
22:59 scout forward, okay go and lay back. Now what I
23:03 want you to do is bring one leg up and totally across,
23:07 now bring it over and just let it stretch there.
23:12 Okay, good, straighten this leg out, good, and just
23:20 lay back and relax and just feel that stretch.
23:26 Okay, lets turn that leg just a little bit, good.
23:30 Just let it relax there. Okay lets bring it across
23:33 the other side. Wanna feel this stretch in the back,
23:44 in the hip area. Okay, one more time back to the
23:49 other side. Okay and back over to the other
24:01 side again. Okay, now another way we can stretch
24:10 the hamstring is go and lay back flat again. Okay,
24:15 keep one knee bent and grab the other leg,
24:18 grab the another knee and pull it towards your chest.
24:22 Good. Okay we're going to hold that for about 15
24:29 seconds. Now switch it, and a nice study pull.
24:46 Okay good. Okay, I want to sit up and I want you
24:50 to do the lower back stretch we did before where you
24:53 just to put one leg over and bent across, there you
24:57 go, now twist this way, good. Okay now switch it,
25:12 once again we're holding each one for about a
25:14 10 or 15 times, 10 or 15 second time period.
25:22 Okay good, so back up on the feet again, okay hands
25:29 behind the back, lets do some of trunk work,
25:32 lets bent over and it's up and lean back, blow out as
25:39 we come forward and up and back, okay over and
25:46 contract the abdominal as we come forward and up
25:49 and back. Blow out, contract the abdominal,
25:56 up and back again, bend over, up and back,
26:05 bend over, up and back, lets do three more,
26:12 bend over, up and back, two more, over,
26:20 up and back, last one bend over, and up and
26:26 back. Okay now lets finish up with some trunk
26:31 turns to rotate to the side, get a nice stretch
26:34 there, hold it, now back the other way and turn
26:41 again and turn trying to get a good rotation of the
26:49 trunk, turn again and again, we're going to do
26:57 two more, turn and turn, one more time turn
27:08 and turn. Good, okay, thanks a lot fellows.
27:17 What we have done today is work on flexibility,
27:19 showing you various modes of doing it,
27:21 by doing exercise, range of motion of exercise,
27:24 and also by doing the PNF Stretching to help,
27:27 to get the body going to a full range of motion and
27:29 that will decrease pain, it'll help you so you won't
27:33 get injured near so easily and as Jesus said,
27:35 he will give us good route, so that if we're blown
27:38 one way or the other we're able to stand stable and
27:40 remember all through your exercise as it says
27:43 in Philippians 4:13, I can do all things through
27:46 Christ who strengthens me. God bless.


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Revised 2014-12-17