Hi everybody, Dr. Kinney here. Your chiropractor for athletes in Belmar, NJ. Today I’m gonna do a video, stretches for the youth athlete.
So this is my patient, Nick. He’s been a patient for a little over two years now. He plays two sports, lacrosse and football. Initially came to me ’cause he was having some knee issues with weight training and running and all that. He’s been doing really great under care. Part of the reason why is ’cause we stretch him out.
Youth Athletic Stretch In Chiropractic Belmar, NJ
Typically, kids in general don’t like to stretch. Nick, would you agree with me? Most youth athletes do not stretch and are incredibly tight in their lower extremities. And that’s what they use the most to run, to kick, to throw, to do all their stuff, and jump and all the things they do.
And so, it’s really important that the lower extremities be stretched out. So I’m gonna show you some of the stretches we do for our youth athletes.
Bend up for me first. So typically I just do a little hip rotation, just to kind of loosen him up. It also warms up and loosens up the inner thigh. You feel that in your inner thigh, Nick? And then straight up the hamstring.
So this is what most kids can’t do very well, including Nick. He does not like this. Yeah. So don’t completely lock the knee out. Maybe a little bit of a bend, but you really wanna feel that in the back of the leg. You feel that, Nick? Yeah.
Chiropractic Stretch for Youth Athletes in Belmar, NJ
You always wanna make sure that your patients, your kids are breathing through the stretches. ‘Cause a lot of times kids go oop, and hold their breath into stretching, which is the last thing you wanna do. You wanna really have them breathing into it.
And then I rotate the hip out a little bit. This is more of a glute kind of lateral hip stretch. You feel that in your glute, in your butt.
Good. And then I’m gonna flip it over. And for Nick, what we did is I kind of have him scooch over a little bit and he could participate in this.
So Nick, you’re gonna grab your ankle here. Yep. And if you push down on the knee, you’re gonna feel that quad. Yep. So that’s a really, really good quad stretch.
So you can bang all of those stretches out on one side pretty easily. Remind your patient that they should be breathing through the stretches. Now we’re gonna do the other side.
Chiropractic Youth Athlete Stretch In Belmar, NJ
So again, you’re just gonna go a little hip knee, kind of loosen everything up, a little bit of an inner thigh stretch, and then straight up, be breathing through it. So again, you don’t have to completely lock out the knee, but you wanna make sure that your patient’s not like this, trying to stretch, ’cause that’s not stretching at all.
You really wanna make sure that they feel the nice stretch behind the leg. And then you’re gonna rotate the hip out. I’m sorry, the knee out. So you feel that in the posterior aspect, the hip, the butt, the glute, and you can push into this gently while the patient’s breathing.
And then I’m gonna have you scooch over a little, Nick. You could do this on a chair, a bench, a couch, anything so that you push down on that leg, and you got that nice quad stretch in there. Okay good.
Youth Athlete Stretch Techniques In Chiropractic Belmar, NJ
Last one I wanna show you is a hip flexor stretch. So you’re gonna go face down for me. So I’m gonna have you bend this knee up. Now you should start to feel, can you feel that in the front of the leg when I do that? Yep, a little bit.
And you’re gonna grab underneath the knee, and you’re gonna anchor kind of right on the hip and pull up. You feel that in your hip flexor? Yep. So the hip flexors are right here, the front of the leg. So that’s a really good hit.
You are tight, Nick. Yeah. Good, and then we’re gonna go to the other side. So he comes up for me. Yeah, your quads and your, you just did legs, didn’t you? Yeah, I did. Yeah, same thing. Good.
So in between Nick’s sports, he lifts weights too. So in between his football and his lacrosse season, he’s in the weight room. So he is also doing a lot of lifting, which you’re not stretching either. All right.
So anyway, those are my youth stretches. The stretches I do for the youth athletes. Make sure that you practice those, coaches, trainers, kids. Parents, you can do it too. Make sure your kids stretch, ’cause they don’t like to do it. It’s important that they do.
All right. Thanks so much for tuning in. We’ll see you soon.
