Self Myofascial Release to Improve Shoulder Mobility

Everything is connected when it comes to your body. In this video, Jill discusses how your shoulder range of motion could be a result of tight foot muscles. Flexion of the shoulder joint involves moving the arm from a resting position to an overhead position,while external rotation is the rotation away from the center of the body (in this case the head of the humerus), which causes the eye of the elbow to roll forward. The first ball placement is in the quadratus plantae, a muscle that extends from the front of the heel bone to the tendons of the digitorum longus muscle in the leg. The quadratus plantae assists the flexor digitorum muscle with toe flexion. This point is also the attachment point for the plantar fascia, a thick weblike ligament that connects your heel to the front of your foot. The second placement, the transverse arch is where the mid-foot bones (cuboid and three cuneiform bones) connect into the phalanges, the bones that make up the toes. In the third move, Jill refers to the ‘dorsifascia. Dorsal is the top of the foot and as you can see, she uses her opposite foot to scrape, melt and soften the tissues. Recheck your shoulder flexion and observe how mobilizing the fabric of the foot, translates all the way up.