The Correct Way to Perform the Sleeper Stretch

[박성광[안산]]

우리가 post. capsule을 스트레칭 시키기 위해 sleeper stretch를 시켜주는데 오히려 그 자세는 post. capsule을 더 strain 시킨다고 합니다

따라서 아래와 같은 방법으로 해야하며, tightness가 없는 일반인이니 선수들은 오히려 더 독이 된다합니다

How to perform the sleeper stretch

OK, so you want to perform the sleeper stretch.  Here is how I would recommend that you perform the sleeper stretch.  Just my opinion and I am sure that some may disagree, so take this with a grain of salt.  Here is a video demonstrating what I feel is the proper form for performing the sleeper stretch followed by my 3 keys to performing the sleeper stretch correctly:

3 keys to performing the sleeper stretch correctly

1. Scapula position.  Roll onto your side and make sure that your scapula is retracted, meaning that you do not want to lay flat on your scapula with your shoulder rounded, you want to lay mostly on your rib cage and the outside border of your scapula.  I usually roll forward towards my arm to get my scapula off the ground and then roll back.
2. Shoulder position.  Next, make sure that your body is not straight up and down.  You actually want to roll backwards so you body is facing upward at close to a 45 degree angle.  This will get your shoulder out of the sagittal plane, which places too much strain on the posterior capsule, and into the scapular plane that stretches more of the posterior musculature.  I am also trying to keep my head in neutral with my body position.  I would normal use a yoga block or something similar to relax my head but it would have blocked the camera.
3. Intensity.  Lastly, you want to gently push down until you feel a MILD stretch and hold for 30 seconds.  Most people will push WAY to hard.  You do not want to feel anything in the front of your shoulder.  The goal is to feel a mild stretch in the back of your shoulder and to hold this position.  Do this gently for a few reps and you will see improvement without cranking on the arm aggressively.  Notice the amount of IR that I am achieving.  It’s not a large movement but as you can see it is close to 45 degrees of internal rotation, which is plenty.  Your hand is not supposed to touch the ground, that is WAY too much motion.

That last point could be the most important and what I likely see abused the most, the intensity of the stretch.

If you do not feel any stretch at all before starting to feel anterior shoulder pain, stop, the sleeper stretch is not for you.

You are now putting too much stress on the shoulder joint and not achieving the posterior shoulder stretch we are looking for with the sleeper stretch.  Remember above when I referred to a study that showed that the sleeper stretch was effective in restoring posterior shoulder mobility in overhead athletes?

Well, interesting enough, the sleeper stretch did not change motion in healthy, non-overhead athletes.  So if you don’t have posterior shoulder tightness, you don’t need the sleeper stretch and may just irritate your shoulder.

[이주운/부산]

좋은 자료 감사합니다 선생님~^^

[오환경[서울]]

감사히 잘보았습니다~^^

[길봉선[인천]]

감사할 따름입니다^^