HERE's TWO joint mobility and foot/ankle awareness exercises that get into the posterior compartment and deep posterior compartment of the lower leg nicely. One is from a cat crawl beginning position, the other from the top position of a push-up.
You can get some novel contractions of the calf muscles if you focus on the sensory awareness of the muscles (as well as the spatial awareness required for doing the figure 8's).
Try to keep you've got good spinal alignment during them for bonus points.
Enjoy! And may the Calf-growing Force be with you!
Showing posts with label Deep Posterior Compartment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Deep Posterior Compartment. Show all posts
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Flamin' '8' Deep Posterior Compartment Exercise
Today, a practical post! HERE and HERE is a video of an exercise I created (someone else probably does it, as always; but I didn't learn it off anybody) one day when I was exploring.. trying to get the deep posterior compartment of the lower leg working. It makes use of the awesome figure 8 movement pattern that works so well in joint mobility exercises.
This compartment contains Flexor Hallucis Longus; Tibialis Posterior and Flexor Digitorum Longus. This hidden compartment often has a fair degree of 'sensori-motor amnesia', weakness and/or trigger points and fascial adhesions in it - hence the growing list of 'tibialus posterior' activation exercises, of varing degrees of effectiveness (and it is great to activate the tib post!).
These three muscles and their associated fascia are part of the Deep Front Line (DFL) of the Anatomy Trains myofascial meridians - and they are highly involved in healthy and strong foot, ankle, knee, hip movement. Having these muscles 'come back to life' feels really good; solid and grounded, yet lighter on ones' feet - plus it will improve the girth of the lower portion of the shin musculature (if you're into that type of thing..which I am).
The exercise works best as a weighted joint mobility exercise on a 'light day'; as movement-play, or as part of a 'finisher' to a heavier workout. Due to the balancing on the balls of the feet and the knee position; do not do the exercise if you have knee pain in it. The exercise becomes suitably *intense* after about 30 seconds, but again, shouldn't be painful.
Try it NOW (if you can safely do it)! Especially if you are in Australia in one of the colder cities.. It's called 'Flamin' 8' for a reason!
This compartment contains Flexor Hallucis Longus; Tibialis Posterior and Flexor Digitorum Longus. This hidden compartment often has a fair degree of 'sensori-motor amnesia', weakness and/or trigger points and fascial adhesions in it - hence the growing list of 'tibialus posterior' activation exercises, of varing degrees of effectiveness (and it is great to activate the tib post!).
These three muscles and their associated fascia are part of the Deep Front Line (DFL) of the Anatomy Trains myofascial meridians - and they are highly involved in healthy and strong foot, ankle, knee, hip movement. Having these muscles 'come back to life' feels really good; solid and grounded, yet lighter on ones' feet - plus it will improve the girth of the lower portion of the shin musculature (if you're into that type of thing..which I am).
The exercise works best as a weighted joint mobility exercise on a 'light day'; as movement-play, or as part of a 'finisher' to a heavier workout. Due to the balancing on the balls of the feet and the knee position; do not do the exercise if you have knee pain in it. The exercise becomes suitably *intense* after about 30 seconds, but again, shouldn't be painful.
Try it NOW (if you can safely do it)! Especially if you are in Australia in one of the colder cities.. It's called 'Flamin' 8' for a reason!
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