﻿Hi there, my name is Sophie Brazier. I'm a children's physiotherapist. Thank you first of all for joining me for our lesson today. So we are on unit four and this is lesson nine. And we are looking at the topic of stretching. So what we're going to do today is we're going to continue on that topic. We will go over a little recap of why stretching is important and over a few points to remember. And then we will take a closer look at a stretch for the middle parts of your back. So last time in lesson eight, we looked at a stretch for your upper part of your back. So we're just working our way down the body now. And I will be giving you options to extend and simplify the stretch. So don't worry there will be an option that you should be able to do. And you just need yourself for the activity. You don't need any equipment. You may need some help from a parent or carer. So if you want to get yourself ready and ask them, and then we can get started. I would just like to give you a little message from our team. We as therapists have tried to think of the best way to continue to support children, young people and their families. So you may be watching this as a child by yourself, or you might be with a parent or carer. We will be exploring the topic areas that we regularly provide advice and support on across all ages and abilities. And each lesson we will aim to give you some ideas and activities that can be carried out either at home or in school. You may already have specific programmes that you're using or advice that has been given to you by your child's school or therapist. So please make sure that you're using any information I'm giving you alongside anything you already have. And if you do have any questions or would like help tailoring this to their needs, then please make sure you get in contact with your local therapy service. So let's just stop and think about why is stretching important. So if you think about stretching, it can be quite an instinctive action. Just think back to when you wake up this morning and perhaps you had a big stretch up as you woke up to really relieve those muscles and a bit of tension, or perhaps you've yawned in the last hour or the last few hours. And when you were yawning, did you automatically stretch at the same time? So it's just something to think about. And it also shows you that stretching can become part of our daily routine and we can build it in to our everyday actions and it can become something that becomes quite habitual. It's important to stretch because we do spend quite a lot of time and some statics, they still postures throughout the day, which can lead to tight muscles and stiffness. So stretching can help release some of this tension that might be there. And as I said before, regular stretching can become part of your daily routine. So I'd like you to think and remember about your breathing when you're stretching, as it can really help calm your mind. And just by taking a really deep breath in and then breathing out through your mouth, you can release some of that tension. And also when you're stretching, what it can do is help you perhaps increase the stretch a little bit and it can help you relax into the stretch. So I do think that breathing has an important role to play. When you are doing some stretching. Now we'll just go through some points to remember for good stretching. So some important things to think about. So the first one there, always follow the advice of your physiotherapist. So the reason why I put this in is because you might be watching this and you might already have a stretching programme that you've been given by your physio. So if you have, then my advice would be that you should stick to that programme and do that first. And then if you've got any stretches that you would like to try here, then you can always add those in. But it's really important because what I'm showing you, isn't specific for you. It's, there's some generic stretches that you might find comfortable and help you, but it's important if you have got your own programme to begin with that, you're doing that first. So then moving on to the best position to be in. So you really need to think about your position. When we talked about technique, you need to be thinking about are you comfortable before you even started the stretch? It's just where you're having a think about all those things. Then your breathing, so I'm trying to remember the relaxed breathing technique and really using your breath to help you with your stretches. And don't over force a stretch. So remember to take it slowly and don't think that you need to push that stretch to its maximum. You need to be remembering you don't want to bring in any pain, so you should be taking it to where you feel the stretch. And then you can back off a little bit, use your breath and maybe take it a bit further. So the activity I'd like you to try is a baby back bend. So it's just a real gentle stretch, but you should feel it across the middle of your back. So I will demonstrate this now, but I'll just talk you through it now as well, before I show you. Your starting position is standing with your feet, shoulder width apart. You're going to place your palms on either side of your middle back and you're going to arch your back gently. So you're going to sort of lean backwards. So you're creating a bit of a bend in the middle part of your back. And you're going to try to squeeze your shoulder blades together to increase the stretch. And then I would say, hold the stretch. It can be quite an intense stretch. So I'd say to begin with between sort of 15 to 30 seconds, if you can manage and then back off and then try a few more times I will now demonstrate, so you can watch me do the demonstration then pause the video and have a go yourself and then rejoin me afterwards. And I'll talk through ways to simplify and extend and it will be written down as well. So in this video, I'm showing you a demonstration of a baby back bend stretch. So I've put my palms on the middle to lower part of my back. And then I'm doing a little back bend. So I'm almost taking my shoulders back to page a little bit of an arch in the middle part of my back. And I'm changing where I'm putting my hands. So you can see I've got them flat against my back. I've got them in the lower part of my back, but you can move them up a bit higher if that's more comfortable. And then I'm just showing you from the back now so that you can see what my hands are doing and the position of my back. So I have got my palms on the side of my back. So there's two different ways to try it. You can have your hands position, so your palms are kind of around your back or you can have them flat, so your palms are facing down. So there's a couple of options as I'm showing you here. So you can see which one's more comfortable for you and have a little go. And I would say, try and keep your neck and head in align with your back. So a way to take the stretch a little bit further and extend it, is if you clasp your hands behind your back and interlock them. And then you can lift your arms up a little bit, so that then you feel a stretch across the middle part of your back. So you'll see here again, I put my hands together. I straightened out my arms and I am giving myself a good stretch across the middle parts of my back. So that can be quite a nice way to extend the stretch. So here, I've got a rolled up towel, I'm just showing you the size of, and I'm going to use this to demonstrate a simplified version for a stretch across your middle part of your back. So you can position it as I'm showing your here, so that it goes across your back like that. And then your upper and lower back will kind of open up over it. And then you can put it length ways as I'm showing you now. So almost down the middle part of your spine and the position will be quite personal to use. You might want it right exactly in the middle or slightly higher up or lower down. And then what can happen there is the middle part of your back can open up nicely each side of it. So you can get a nice stretch that way as well. So now I'd like you to pause the video and have a go at that stretch. If you rejoined me afterwards, I'll talk you through some of the ways to extend and simplify as I demonstrated in the video. So as I demonstrated the extension idea is that you can make it more challenging. So it's a slightly different stretch. You're going to stand, you're going to arch your middle back. So extend it a little bit more with your hands interlocked. So you saw me demonstrating it there. And this just does increases the stretch by a little bit, and it's just a different way to stretch. So you can try that one if you'd like a bit more of a challenge and to make it easier, you can be in a lying position and you could, as I demonstrated, you can have a small rolled up towel. You could have it going length ways or you could have it going width wise. So you can have it in different positions to get slightly different stretch across your middle back. So what I suggest now is you can pause the video, so it will be paused on this page. And then you can have a go at those two options 'cause you can see them written down now, and then if you rejoin afterwards, then we can end the lesson. Well done, if you gave the activity a try. I hope you found the stretch was good and you found the right option that worked for you. So now we have come to the end of our lesson. I'd like to thank you for joining me today. I hope you found it was useful. And I look forward to seeing you again very soon. So please join me next time for lesson 10 and we will look at a stretch for your lower back. So all that leaves me to say now is have a great rest of your day and take care and I will see you soon, goodbye.

This lesson is a recap of why stretching is important, with a focus on your middle back. The video includes a demonstration of a stretch to try with ways to simplify or extend the stretch as well.

Stretching your middle back

Stretching and Moving

UNIT

What is stretching?

Why is stretching important?

Type of stretching & technique

Stretches for your neck

Stretches for your shoulder

Stretches for your arms

Stretches for your wrists

Stretches for your upper back

Stretches for your lower back

Stretches for your hips

Stretches for your knees

Stretches for your ankles

Stretching summary

Lesson overview: Stretching your middle back

Video

Presentation

Transcript

14 lessons in Stretching and Moving: