How To Stretch Deltoids In Sports Massage Video

The deltoids are the muscles near and above your shoulders. Get expert tips and advice on massage and other treatments in this video.

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Ask about range of motion issues
Avoid stretching problem areas
Gently pull on the arm

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Malu works for Retreat Massage Therapy as a massage therapist. She is well versed in techniques that are particularly helpful for athletes.

MALU LUJAN: Okay, so we are going to be working on stretching and massaging the deltoid. And the deltoid muscle is this muscle right here. It goes on the front of the arm and it goes on the back of the arm to the shoulder. It gets really tight sometimes. One thing you want to find out from your person before you are doing a stretch on them on any part of the body is to make sure that they don't have any range of motion issues or any dislocations of the joint. So I am going to ask: Have you ever had any dislocations of your joint, Sam? SAM: No. MALU LUJAN: No. Okay, that's good. So if this person had dislocated a shoulder at any point, if I were going to stretch her, I would do it extremely gently and I probably would avoid stretching somebody who has dislocated an area, honestly. I'll just stick with massage. But she has not had that problem. So we are just going to start with a gentle stretch here. You reach under the meat of the arm with one hand and get their elbow a little - I am going to move my arm so you can see what I am doing - get their elbow bent a little bit slightly. You do not want their arm to be hyperextended because that is really uncomfortable when you are stretching somebody. And I am just going to gently pull back and just very gently pull on the muscle. And you can even do this up to about one to three minutes. It really stretches the fascia which is the connective tissue around the muscular system, and it is kind of like the casing on a sausage basically and that can get really tight and constricted and uncomfortable, and it will make your muscles have a hard time moving. Okay, the next thing we are going to do is we are going to stretch that way. So we are going to bring the arm up. And it is the same concept and you put your hand about in the same spot. You put them just at the top of those deltoids we talked about and just a real gentle stretch, like so.

How to Stretch Deltoids in Sports Massage Video

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