Nerve Flossing for the Lower Body
You might have seen my last video discussing how to nerve floss for your upper body. How do you do it for your lower body?
What we are doing is called Nerve Flossing. This work is based on Aaron Mattes “Active Isolative Stretching” and my own Style mixed in from my 10 years of experience. This has helped many clients with weak hip flexors who deal with nerve pain or irritation in the legs, especially my desk worker clients.
The nerves, mostly come down the back of the legs and the base of the spine, Now since we're 3D, it's not really the back of us, it's more like a center back, and are often the most over-lengthened and compressed part of your body (your glutes/hamstrings). The nerves that get irritated for people in the front are often irritated because of lack of use. Lack of use of these muscles and that range of motion. This is the range of motion to stretch out the nerves and floss them through their pathways in the back of your lower body and activate the ones in the front so they feel like they're engaged and being used properly.
Often, I find a lot of tension and pain comes from a lack of engagement. The more we engage our body, the happier it is. That's why movement and exercise feel so good.
The first thing you're going to do is you are going to lay completely flat and you're going to bend one knee and bring it as close as you can to your butt and that is your stability leg.
The next thing you're going to do is try to tuck your tailbone so that your lower back is as flat to the ground as it can be. Even if it feels like it elevates your butt a little bit, try to be as flat as you can. Bending this one leg makes it a little easier for a lot of people.
The next thing you want to do is you're going to lift your toes, towards your shin as far as you can. Same thing as the other video when we stretch out the upper body nerves, you need to create tension because the nerves are the least flexible part of the body to floss all those nerves for your lower body through all the holes so that you can break up adhesions and inflammation by pulling one end while going through Range of Motion.
Then with the toes lifted as far as you can on the leg we are starting with, you lift your leg with your knee straight towards the upper body and you're going to keep that foot engaged in Dorsiflexion(toes lifted towards the shin) the whole time, allowing you to feel a mild calf stretch, and you do a count of “one, two” at the very end and then back down to the table or bed. It doesn't matter how far you go, it's about going to the edge of your range of motion and stopping for only 2 seconds. That's why I count “one, two” and repeat a minimum of 5 times. 10 is ideal.
Then I rotate the foot inwards as much as I can with the knee straight as can be, feeling the rotation in the hip. Maintaining Dorsiflexion, lift the leg straight up as far as you can towards the upper body. Keep the knee straight with a count of “one, two” at the very end and then back down to the table or bed. It doesn't matter how far you go, it's about going to the edge of your range of motion and stopping for only 2 seconds. Repeat a minimum of 5 times. 10 is ideal.
Then rotate your foot outwards. The knee is straight the whole time, and you want to feel rotation with the femur of the hip socket. So then we're lifting the leg doing a “one, two” again at the end of the Range Of Motion. We are doing this “ROM” with at least 5 repetitions and 10 is ideal.
Then you would switch sides, which means you bend the knee that you just did the “ROM” for, switching to the other leg. Tuck that hip again, so you make sure your back's still flat to the table, extending your leg. Then you're going to lift your toes as far as you can. Repeating all that you just did with the other leg.
You should feel it quite a bit in your hip flexors (the front of the hip) and that is good. You're activating and bringing blood flow to all those muscles. How often do you do stuff like this, that really fully activates your hip flexors? This is why a lot of us hurt when we go from sitting to standing because our hip flexors cannot relax if they're not fully engaged.
I usually do a bridge, after I've done the nerve flossing of the legs and this is about bringing extension to all those muscles that you just practiced in flexion. Strengthening and activating blood flow in all the muscles you just stretched out and flossed the nerves for.
Starting with the lower back being as flat as it can be. Bring the ankles and the heels as close to your butt as you can and then you tuck your elbows underneath your ribs. What we're going to be doing is lifting our hips up, but you have to push, not with your head and neck, but with your elbows and your heels.
You do not want to put a strain on your neck. You should not feel this in your neck or upper shoulders at all. This is purely elbows and heels. So, pushing up you're not going for an extension, you're going for a flatness in your belly, not an arch in your back. You should feel this in the front of your thigh and a clenching in the glutes.
When you hit the top of the motion count, “One, two”, and drop down. Repeat 10 times.
Roll to your side and get up slowly after doing this.
This is a great ending to this range of motion work that we are doing called Nerve Flossing.
This work is based on Aaron Mattes “Active Isolative Stretching” and my own style mixed in from my 10 years of experience. This has helped many clients with weak hip flexors who deal with nerve pain or irritation in the legs, especially my desk worker clients.
There is always room for improvement so if anyone has any suggestions feel free to comment.
I hope this helped.