The following link is to my iDisk public folder containing an article on the myofascial stretching techniques of Guy Voyer, MD, DO. The article provides a brief introduction and overview of Dr. Voyer’s system and provides example stretches for several major muscle groups.
This article is a revised version of one I wrote several months ago and incorporates some corrections and clarifications provided by Dr. Voyer who was kind enough to review the article and provide his input.
The folder also contains a short document listing some seminars Dr. Voyer will be teaching in Boston that are tentatively scheduled for late 2006 and early 2007. It will give you an idea of some of the types of seminars he teaches, which go beyond stretching.
Please feel free to download the article and experiment with the stretches. I would like to get some feedback about your experience with the techniques, to the extent you can pick them up from an article (which is pretty tough).
Unfortunately, the article pretty much represents the extent of my knowledge on the subject, so I might not be much help at answering questions. However, Rucsandra Mitrea, who taught me the stretches, informed me that several of Dr. Voyer’s students and colleagues at the Sutherland Academy of Osteopathy are interested in the article. So hopefully, I’ll be able to direct them here and they can jump in and field any questions.
Is anyone having trouble downloading the article? I’ve never done this before, so I’m just doing the file sharing for dummies approach through my .Mac account.
The pectineus strecth is particularly useful in my situation right now. As stated it was not very paid attention to, and now i’m paying the price. Thanks.
That’s definitely one of my favorites. I had some rolfing work done a little over a year ago and my adductors were so tight I literally had to relearn how to walk after they were loosened up. It was a great object lesson for me regarding the importance of keeping those muscles loose.
what is the number of sets, time under tension, and breathing and release method used with this type of stretching? It looks interesting but I assume this is form of static stretching used after workouts. Is my assumptions correct?
Correct, it is static. Regarding the parameters, I haven’t taken Dr. Voyer’s seminar yet, so I don’t know what his specific recommendations are. Rucsandra Mitrea’s recommendation to me was three holds of 30 seconds. However, if you’ve experimented with the stretches you will notice they can be quite tiring to hold for that long.
My suggestion is to treat them like any other static stretches.
I just got back from the myofascial stretching course with Guy Voyer and I have to say this guy is good. I would strongly encourage any of the coaches and therapists on this site to study with Guy if you get a chance.
What I particularly liked about the course was his teaching methodology. Instead of simply teaching us the stretches, Guy had us figure out the stretches based on our knowledge of the anatomy, and then he would give us feedback and make corrections until we got it right. This way instead of simply memorizing stretches, we learned to understand the logic of each stretch, which makes everything much easier to remember. Overall, it was a terrific learning experience.
Just to give you a little more insight into what we learned, one of Guy’s major points at the beginning of the course is that the goal of the stretching isn’t necessarily to increase length but to improve articulation and ease of movement.
The basic methodology is quite simple. Figure out the actions of a muscle and then perform the counter-actions to stretch that muscle. Those who have read Supertraining will be familiar with Siff’s muscle action/counter-action charts. However, even those charts are very simplified descriptions of the muscle actions. In actuality, most muscles have several actions, much more than is commonly understood.
To give you an example, the iliopsoas is usually described simply as a hip flexor. More sophisticated texts may also mention that it side bends the trunk and externally rotates the femur. That’s three actions. As it so happens, the iliopsoas actually performs ten actions.
