Exercise: The Brettzel
One of the new catch phrases that is going around in sports conditioning and in musculoskeletal health care is “corrective exercise”. Presently, my simple definition of corrective exercise is, “Exercise that improves a dysfunctional movement”. The Bretzel, named after Brett Jones and its pretzel like positioning, is becoming one of my favourite corrective exercises.
I have found this exercise to be great in improving neck extension, shoulder flexion, hip extension, back extension, as well as thoracic spine mobility. So if you have problems with neck pain, shoulder pain, or even lower back pain this may be an important exercise to consider.
Here are a few ways you can help yourself out with this exercise
- Look with your eyes and neck in the direction you want to rotate into. Where you look your body follows.
- Relax into the rotation
- Use a towel if you can’t adequately grab the bottom ankle
- Abdominal breath as you relax in the position
I hope you found this exercise interesting and challenging.
Dr Notley
