John Clohisy

In this article, Im going to add to my list of stretching and not to show another popular stretch and warm up exercise that is based on nothing but nonsense, and should be removed from your program.

The scary thing is that, because of the immense popularity of this exercise, it is very likely that you practice or has been recommended by a chiropractor, physiotherapist, yoga intructor or personal trainer.

As I did in my article donts stretching before, I'll give you a lot of science and a strong rationale for why exercise stretching listed below are two fails to promote proper movement patterns and, on the basis of recent research, may actually cause a malfunction.

Stretching does not do: The Piriformis Stretch lying and / or permanent Leg Cradle

The cradle leg is used by many coaches to improve mobility in the hip rotators mainly by stretching the piriformis muscle. It is actually a permanent change in the traditional supine piriformis stretch.

Another one of those movements that I have not used much because I never really liked. I think it is a difficult movement to the coach and thought that has created unnecessary torque on the knee. Nevertheless, I continued to give the home leg of a chance and he occasionally used. Finally, however, I decided to completely eliminate our program while attending a workshop of Physical Therapy. It has been known diagnosis of mechanical dysfunction and stability of the hip recycling, and taught by Mark Comerford.

During the workshop, Comerford clearly explained why the piriformis stretch for any position (standing, sitting, lying, etc.) with the hip externally rotated and abducted (as in the home leg) will actually do more to stretch the joint capsule of the posterior lateral piriformis.

According to Comerford, always stretching of the capsule of the hip in most cases it is a bad thing, because it may develop uncontrolled movements (eg instability). This type of instability may eventually lead to a number of disorders such as hip impingement syndrome of the hip.

Hip impingement occurs when the head of the femur (thigh bone) abuts against the acetabulum (hip). In the process, the labrum (cartilage around the rim of the socket) to pinch.

It is at this moment that I realized something very important. I realized that both the cradle and the leg extends traditional pyramid placed in the supine position of the hip in virtually the same position as when sitting cross-legged.

What insights Comerford went with what physical therapists have been saying for years about the limitations of the cross-legged as it can cause malfunction of the hip. Until then, I had just never made the connection. It was quite obvious to me then that the cradle of the leg is a stretch Do not. Just to put the final nail in the coffin of the leg cradle, I found a research article on hip impingement by Dr. John C. Clohisy That says something pretty amazing.

"Improved MRI technology has enabled to study this problem more closely. Accordingly, we now know that many people have no symptoms femoroacetabular impingement. (John Clohisy Orthopaedics, and clinical research related Journal in September 2007. Vol. 462 pp. 115-121.)

This is very important to understand because it means that someone can actually impinge the hip and without even knowing it. What is also important to understand that the first thing that any physical therapist qualified support a patient with hip impingement to do is avoid sitting cross-legged.