fourleg.com

Hi,

Have just finished reading an article on Multi plane stretching for humans (eg. The members of a functional group such as hip flexors are grouped together based on sharing one plane action. However every one of the muscles which shares hip flexion also possesses one or more joint action, either in different planes at the hip joint or at another joint.) Multi plane tweaks the position of the stretch to target a specific muscle of the functional group. The tweaks are based on adding in joint action positions in the other planes.

They are incorporating the spine into the psoas major stretch. For example if you are trying to stretch the Left hind limb, you would extend the Left hip and Left stifle while flexing the Right side of the trunk.

Has anyone tried this yet? I welcome any and all thoughts
Denise

Hey Denise!

Great concept & discussion / food for thought. Very 'yoga' as well.

I know that as a physio, we were taught to think about muscles & movement in a very forwards, backwards, inside and out sort of a manner. In other words, how can you stretch a muscle more, or in a different location, etc etc. The advantage with humans is they can tell you "Oh, I feel it over here more now", whereas a dog, you have to just 'feel' for subtle changes in tension, and gauge the dog's reaction to your inputs.

As well, I think that in the animal world, you have to sort out 'tolerance', 'compliance', and 'practicality'.
So for an iliopsoas stretch, as you discussed, perhaps you could do an active stretch:
Front feet up on a stair, or low bench. Have the rear feet blocked to be stationary, and then lure with a cookie for the dog to stretch up and a bit over to one side. Alternately, you stretch in the same way, but create a new 'pull' by having one foot up on a book or FitPawd, and then lure in one or the other direction.

I can see specificity and multi plane directions being most applicable to sporting dogs, as well as those that have experienced abdominal surgeries (lots of fascial scarring). And a modified use with geriatric dogs.
These types of cases, I think you'd have more of a chance of seeing and experiencing improvements as compared to your average case.

Thanks for bringing this up Denise. I'd love to hear from others!

Cheers,

Laurie