 Hey everybody, I'm Lance Coyke and today we're gonna go through the quadruped right arm reach now If you throw the like maximum version at yourself right away, you're probably not gonna get it, right? So I'm gonna show you four different variations of this exercise to accomplish the same thing so the origin of this is most people have really stiff Left neck, left posterior shoulder, left ribs and even left low back and all of that stuff stems back to the normal asymmetries in the body So if you look at somebody they've got two arms, two legs, two eyes, two ears, two nose holes It looks pretty symmetrical But if you take all that away and you look at the organs that are like in the center of the body Things don't look very symmetrical. You've got a colon that runs out the left side But not on the right side You've got a breathing muscle in the middle of your body. That's huge on the right side and pretty small relatively on the left You got a big liver on the right small spleen on the left. There's just not a lot of balance here Among other things, right? So what we're trying to do with this is people generally get stiff and predictable Patterns because of this normal asymmetry in the body. What we're trying to do is just kind of keep that at bay So with the quadruped right arm reach there's gonna be four progressions We're gonna start from the base level. If you can't feel it you just stick through it Sometimes it takes a few sets to get things to really settle down first variation is Actually in another video fix your pigeon stretch. It's a left posterior hip Hip capsule left posterior hip capsule inhibition type of exercise I made a whole video about that if you need like a progression on Loosening up stiff hips check out up here in the upper right hand corner For this we're gonna start hands and knees. We are going to hopefully there's two ways we can do this You can either elevate your left knee on some sort of pad or rolled up towel That's kind of like the easiest way to do it To fake that you can also just slide. I'm gonna turn this way You can slide the right knee outward and keep the hip or the weight down on the left knee from Behind it looks like this right. I'm just sliding this knee outward and my hips turn if I slide my knee outward like this I am not stretching the back of the left hip. This is the wrong way to do it So if you can't get this motion even just a slight little shift out with the right knee Does a lot if you can't get that then you've got to just elevate the left knee and keep the knees parallel So this is first variation left post your hip capsule inhibition on all fours So we start here. We're gonna slide into the hip shift So I slid my right knee outward ever so slightly then you're gonna pull the belly button up Making sure not to crunch while you do that It's just the belly button comes up hips kind of roll underneath you and then from there You're just gonna keep the arms long Try to keep 80% of the weight over here on the left knee and you're just gonna breathe nice slow breaths into the nose Out to the mouth And as you exhale try to make your torso nice and long from tail to top of your head Pause for five seconds after you exhale and breathe in I'm gonna repeat that for five breaths and do that. Okay, so this is not a follow-along That's just how you're gonna do a progression number one. It's the quadruped Left post your hip capsule inhibition, but what we're doing it for is the torso So the ribs on the left side tend to be really approximated. They tend to get close together and tight So what we're trying to do with this hip shift is we're trying to loosen the left back That's essentially what we're doing. Okay, that's progression number one progression number two is Now we're gonna align the knees, but we're gonna shift the torso. So quadruped Right arm reach so same idea if you had that pad under your left knee now You're gonna take it out and you put it under your left hand So your left hand is elevated the way that I'm gonna fake that if I don't want to get a pad is I'm gonna go on my fist Very subtle movement, but even just a little bit there will help you So we talked about the asymmetry before maybe it'll help if you understand what we're trying to do here The breathing muscle thoracic diaphragm in the middle of the body His smaller on the left side tends to be flatter and that goes with a flat back Tightness in the left back. So what we're trying to do is recreate a dome shape of the left Thoracic diaphragm what we have to do is kind of rotate the ribs to the left the lower ribs to the left to capture that position and then we got to hang on to it and then we got to learn how to breathe and then We got to further inhibit the things that we do and we do that as we work up through this progression So what we're trying to do with this left Left arm elevated right arm reaching variation progression number two Is we're trying to capture that left diaphragm and we tried to do that with the posterior hip capsule in a mission as well Just the people that I work with tend to have really stiff hips. So it's a good place to start But to progress we're gonna try this next one. So it's the same idea in execution. So we start on all fours Left hand is elevated. We're gonna exhale Pull the belly button up slightly Stay nice and long and then same thing with the breathing Stay nice and long top of the head to the tail Pause and breathe in One cue that I like to give people is try to breathe into your butt If you feel stuff in your butt pelvic floor area moving around when you breathe in Then your tends to be taking the air into the right spots, right? It's not that air is actually going into your butt common misconception Okay, so we talked about Positioning the left diaphragm. That's really important We also have to Close the left ribs in order to position that diaphragm So one thing that you might have to do as we do progression number two This is a really complicated problem I have to go through all these steps because it's really easy to mess up In general less is more lots of pausing very easy inhales on this one What you might need to do to get the feeling that we want is When you exhale, you might even need to crunch your shoulders very slightly to the left Okay, not this much, but I'm showing you the direction that we're going just Something like this So now my right shoulder feels like it's a little further away from my body while my left shoulder Well, let's align my arms and legs here. Yep So now my right shoulder feels like it's a little further away from my body than my left shoulder is okay And then we're just gonna try to do the same stuff Execution is the same it's just Learning to breathe while you're holding yourself in this position that is pretty much totally foreign to you If you're anything like me at least okay, so that's progression number two progression number one just quick recap was Left post your hip capsule inhibition what we're trying to do there is shift the hips They're turning you're turning the pelvis to the left and arms are parallel flat on the same plane Progression number two was a left trunk rotation So now the right arm is reaching further away from the body than the left arm It helps rotate the torso to the left to help you capture those left abs and squeeze down the left ribs and Position the left thoracic diaphragm. So that's progression number two now progression number three and progression number four just More right arm reaching so essentially There's two things that keep this these ribs up one is a lack of compression down and then one is a lack of release of Compression down on the other side. So I need the right side to open up if I'm gonna get this position So our progression now we can put the hands on the same plane Okay, I'm gonna lower both palms down to the ground And what I'm gonna do is I'm just gonna take a baby step forward with my right knee and a baby step forward Maybe a big baby step forward with my right hand now We're emphasizing what we talked about right We're trying to open up the right side close down the left side It's a it's okay to kind of steer into the side bend that I was talking about just make sure your head doesn't come over You want maybe nose about thumb line here Nose directly over thumb or pointer finger, okay? And we're just hanging on here try to not put too much weight on that right arm You're gonna feel as we shift this way You're gonna feel pressure on that right arm kind of pushing you over to the left, but that is okay So same execution we pull the belly button up And we breathe in through the nose Breathe out to the mouth as we breathe out let the left shoulder drop and let the left hip Come towards it. Okay. I don't want to emphasize it too much, but let those motions happen. Then we pause breath in Now we still want to be nice and long from tail to top ahead But we need a little bit of side bend as we do that and as you do this one as you breathe in specifically You should feel your right armpit expand. That is the goal And as you exhale you should feel a squeeze in the left armpit So we're trying to get this left abs left serratus anterior that will help reshape the rib cage Which then calms down the neck and repositions the shoulder gives it some stability stuff like that Okay Let me just show you the last progression then we'll talk through trouble shooting So last one is yeah, I mean you're basically doing all the same stuff But now we're gonna pick that right hand up and we're gonna reach it away So all of my weight is on this left hand now Same idea belly button up nice and long through the top of the head to the tail and breath in Breath out get that squeeze in the left armpit pause Breath in breath out See if we can get a little bit more squeeze on the breath out now And then a little bit more expansion on the breath in This one you might run out of steam earlier than the other ones Maybe you won't make it to five breaths and that is okay now I Have been doing YouTube for ten years and I haven't made this video yet because it's such a pain Normally I have to watch you do it It's really easy to take too big of a breath and to lose the squeeze on the left shoulder You need the squeeze on the left armpit area this side bend notice how I'm sitting I'm kind of side bent to the left here You need to hang on to that if you're going to Get anything out of this really if you're gonna open up the right side if you're gonna keep the left side closed down If you're gonna inhibit the peck that's overactive on the left side And if you're gonna facilitate the serratus the interior on the left side That needs to be there to give you the shoulder stability and to loosen up the neck So Biggest thing that it looks like I'm just gonna show you a very tiny version of this So let's say I'm here and I breathe in That was wrong. That was completely wrong. I'll get nothing out of that See if you can see it again So what's happening there is I'm letting my body go to the asymmetry that it's used to when I breathe in I Close my right shoulder down. I feel a lot of pressure in this armpit area and then when I breathe out I'm not getting that reversal of things. Okay. I need this to Expand and so every time I take the breath if I'm doing it correctly It's kind of like I'm just ratcheting every breath maybe a little bit further to an extent you can go too far So, I mean stop when you when it feels uncomfortable, right? But that's one of the biggest things if you're running into that and if you can't get it Just focus on the exhale the exhale is easier to get it's easier to do correctly And every exhale just try to squeeze a little bit more a little bit more a little bit more and even if you have to let It go on the inhale That's fine because you're starting to mobilize stuff and then the next progression is to say, okay after I exhale I'm just I'm not gonna lose that position I'm gonna breathe in just try to hold it whatever I got to do and then when I breathe out again I cinch down a little bit more and you start to get that Ratcheting effect to give you progression over each breath I think I said this in the beginning but Sometimes you don't feel it on the first two sets because the right stuff is not inhibited So if the left neck and the left back aren't shutting off You might not feel the left armpit taking over you might not feel the right armpit expanding because there's no movement there But you're starting the process You're giving the inhibition of that left back left posterior hipcaps leaving and the left neck And eventually as you do a couple sets you really start to you get looser and you feel the right muscles turn out So generally we want to feel squeeze in the left armpit opening in the right armpit Only other thing that I really want to talk about is the side to side movement So it's more about a slight twist and a subtle side bend rather than cranking everything It's not about just turning the abs on as much as possible So if I go front facing if I exhale Let's go right arm reach. See I have a little bit of a twist already If I don't reach long through my arm, I don't have a twist already So I need both arms reaching long that turns my torso to the left helps me capture that left breathing muscle that diaphragm So I got to do that and I got to hang on to that now second thing is if I do that By trying to do something like this. I'm just pulling my neck over to do the work I'm not getting the inhibition that I need in my left low back. I'm using it to pull me over instead. So Both arms have to reach and then a slight little twist Slightly tilt and this is it. Okay If you find your head is really going over the other way generally we want the head to stay Pointed forward looking forward neutral you might say So it's going to kind of correct these other motions in in an ideal world You have that torso bend, but the head stays level looking directly at the camera Right, it doesn't do something like this because then I'm just using my neck to do the exercise Okay, that's exhausting And it will be exhausting when you do it. Normally I feel Just just crazy. It's like like I just meditated for 20 minutes Super exhausted, but like clairvoyant. I don't I don't know. Hopefully you feel that way Hopefully when you're breathing in you're not letting that left shoulder rise up And you're letting that right armpit open up not it's not this necessarily It's just a little bit of tilt a little bit of side bend It's almost impossible to pantomime because it's the breathing that does it It's the breathing that drives that opening and that that correction of imbalance. So hopefully that helps Pick the appropriate progression and work on it for months. And I'm sure you'll see tons of progress