In this post:
- use the DCT Proflex to stretch your calves.
- a tool to optimize ankle range of motion.
Author: Nick Ortego is the owner of N 2 Action, a wellness studio in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, offering personal training, health coaching, yoga, and assisted stretching.
Also find more on the Nick Ortego Fitness YouTube Channel
Transcript:
Hey it’s Nick Ortego here. I’m going to
show you how to use this thing. It’s
called the DCT proflex. I’m gonna put a
link where you can get this thing in the
description of this video. It’s
basically a way to give yourself
leverage when you’re doing a calf stretch,
or an ankle range of motion exercise.
It straps on kind of like a boot. You can
see the harness here. It comes in different sizes.
These straps that determine the size are
interchangeable. So the trainer model
comes with all the sizes and the
personal model comes with just the size
that you order. I found that sometimes
putting a towel in, a kind of flattened
out towel can help it get on your ankle
or your foot more securely just
depending on the size of your ankle and
foot. I’m gonna put that in there, so
there it is. And you really just put it
on like the boot. So you see, I got it on.
Pull the tongue up into my ankle, being
sure that the tongue is not has not slid
down toward the toes. Then pull the
strap and pull it over. It’s velcro. Now
my ankle can move. You want to feel like
your heel is back in that socket in
the back side of the boot apparatus.
After you move your ankle around a few
times you can pull it a little bit
tighter and get it more secure. So you go
into a position lying down on your back.
Then grab these straps. As you can
see, I can use these straps for leverage
to pull my ankle into dorsiflexion.
There’s a few ways that I like to do it
And the makers the dct pro flex. DCT is a
acronym for a dynamic contraction
therapy or training something along
those lines. They have a very specific
method where you pull into a stretch, and
then contract the muscle while it’s
being stretched. I’m not going to go into
that so much as just to show you the
different ways you can use this and if
you are more interested in the DCT
methods check out their website. They
have great courses about it. I haven’t
taken any of them yet, but very
interesting, very intriguing. So you can
start with just the leg on the floor and
pulling straps on both sides. So I’m just
pulling in dorsiflexion stretching
the calves. I can also pull more with one
side than the other. So I can throw some
inversion and eversion into the
dorsiflexion. I’ll pull it back you
can also pull it more to one side or the
other depending on which strap I’m
pulling with. So the way I like to do it
is just starting at the bottom. Legs are..
the leg that I’m stretching is on the
ground. The other knee can be bent or
straight and I just pull the toes back.
I also pull more on the inside to
get a little inversion and more on the
outside to get a little eversion. The
ankle is a multiplanar joint, it moves in
all three planes so stretching the
muscles that control
ankle motioned you should also stretch
them and those different planes. I can
also start to bring a little bit of a
hamstring stretch in, and I can choke up
the straps kind of wrap them around my
hands and then I can have my knees
straight, and I’m pulling the ankle into
dorsiflexion. Here another thing that I
can do is put both straps in one hand
and pull the leg over to that side. And
then I can put both straps in the other
hand and pull it over to the other side.
The inside and the outside trying to
keep my hips squared up and keep the
hips kind of flat I don’t want to be
turning, totally turning over, turning my
hips with my leg because then I’m not
moving the actual hip joint. But what
this tends to do is stretch all of the
tissue that is continuous with the
calves, all the fascial tissue that’s
continuous with the calf muscles, and the
Achilles tendon all the way up the chain.
If I pull it across my body, I’m
getting into the outside of the
hamstring and into the hip abductors and
the IT band. I pull it to the
outside of my body and getting more into
the adductors the inner hamstring and
these muscles on the inner thigh. After
I’ve gone through that method another
thing I like to do is bend the knee and
just pull it into dorsiflexion with the
knee bent. This way I’m getting a lot
more stretch on the soleus or the lower
calf muscle. I can keep
pulling the straps and start to
straighten out my knee and whenever I do,
I keep some tension on the calf. I’m shifting the stretch up into the
gastroc, the belly like muscle in the
calf and into the hamstrings.
I’m definitely a big fan of this DCT
proflex. I was a little skeptical if it would work
well but it’s probably the most
effective calf stretch method that I’ve
found that you can do on yourself. Some
of the FST methods that a
practitioner can do on you are
probably a little better,
but if you don’t have that availability,
the DCT Pro flex is an excellent tool.
I’m a big fan of it, been using it.
Ankle range of motion issues are a big
factor in a lot of injuries, so if you
can increase your ankle range of motion
you’re gonna be ahead of the game for
performance and injury prevention. I’m
also going to link to a video that shows
you how to see if you need to improve
ankle range of motion. That will be on
the end screen of this video. If you
got any benefit from this video or you’d
like to get more content that’s not
available on the blog or the regular
YouTube channel, then click the link that
I’m connecting to this video where
you’ll be able to sign up for the Run
Better Now VIP club.
N 2 Action 