♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous physical therapists on the internet ♪
- Hi folks, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- We're the most famous physical therapists on the internet.
- In our opinion, Bob,
I'm reaching out again to our viewers.
I'm reaching out.
- I'm pulling 'em in. - Come on, yeah.
- I'm pulling 'em in. - So, Bob,
we're talking about hamstrings today,
and the vulnerability of hamstrings,
from young athletes to people our age
who are just trying to stay in shape, become a problem.
They become strained, injured, and even torn.
- And what we have found is once you injure a hamstring,
that injury can last a long time,
and athletes have found that too.
- Exactly, and so-
Well, go ahead.
- Well, wide receivers, that's the injury they hate
is a hamstring injury because it keeps cropping up on 'em.
- Yeah, and it's a problem, that's kinda their livelihood.
I'll never forget the time when Barry Sanders, remember him?
One of the greatest- - Yeah, he was a running back.
- Running back for the Lions.
He was running and all of a sudden, bang,
hamstring tore and down he went and he was out,
out for a few weeks.
I don't know, maybe longer, but anyways,
the way I'm really doing this video, selfishly,
because my hamstrings in the last year or so,
maybe more than that, had been bothering me, just jogging,
and it's like I could feel that thing tighten up.
- And it keeps, like, it seems like it goes away, right,
then it comes roaring back. - Yeah, yeah,
and I'm not even sprint,
I'm afraid to sprint as a matter of fact.
So getting that, I like to run and-
- Get some answer.
- Yeah, I wanna go out and play with the kids yet.
So anyways,
doing a little research in this is not uncommon.
This is something that's been around for a while,
is the term gluteal amnesia.
You wanna talk about that, Bob?
- Well, it means that the gluteus maximus.
- These muscles.
- Is not kicking in like it should,
and it's becoming very weak and not being used.
And this quite often starts with what?
- Sitting.
Excessive sitting, which, if you're working,
oftentimes you have a job seated,
or sitting in a car, sitting in a truck, whatever it is,
these muscles are not being activated.
- No, you're sitting on 'em,
but you're also tightening the muscles in the front.
And this creates a system they call lower cross syndrome.
The front is tight, so the back becomes weak.
And this happens all over the body.
- Right, but in this situation, when you look at this,
so you're sitting a lot, the hip flexors in the front
get tight, as a result, the glutes turn off.
- As a reflex, yes.
- And that's a neurological response.
And that makes the hamstrings,
which actually extend the hip,
and the glutes also extend the hip,
but the glutes should be doing, when you're running,
should be- - Right,
it's taking a lot of the force.
- Right, the glutes should be doing the work
but they're weak, so the hamstrings take over
and they're being overworked.
And there you go, you've got hamstrings injuries, strains.
- I felt this myself, Brad.
I was really hamstring dominant, and we go for a walk,
and by the time I got done,
my hamstrings would just be sore.
- Just walking. - Yeah, just walking.
So I tried to train myself to get my glutes moving.
- This is an epidemic, Bob,
in our age group. - In us! Yes!
- Well, anyway, so we've got a little recipe here
to help eliminate that.
Now we'll start with,
first of all, we wanna strengthen the glutes.
So I've got an exercise
and I think I may have this in the title
or in the subtitle somewhere
about not having to get down to the floor to do it,
'cause it's a little inconvenient that way.
But we're gonna start that and show how this,
the upright exercise, came to be.
This is in my little head.
- I was worried about that, but...
- I know. - Okay,
one very simple one you can do,
you can actually do it in bed.
It's a little more difficult.
It's better on a hard floor,
is actually just to do some bridging.
So you're actually gonna lift up,
double leg bridging to start out with,
and then you can work to single-leg bridging
where you bring one leg forward
and all the work is happening on this side.
- [Brad] Oh, yeah.
- And you can actually work it pretty hard, Brad.
- Yeah, it can be a quite aggressive exercise for you.
And you really think about getting those muscles
in your buttock.
Sometimes you can put your hands.
- Yeah, you wanna tighten them up.
- Yep, think about squeezing your butt cheeks together
like you got a $100 bill in there
and you don't wanna drop it.
That kind of makes those turn out a little more.
- I always told my patients it's just a quarter.
- It used to be a quarter, but inflation, Bob,
it's up to $100.
You can put one of these.
Here, let me do this, Bob.
I just thought of this now, and I had it handy,
but that will activate some more.
Now pull your knees apart.
- Bob, it works if your leg's apart,
and it works the glutes in their external rotation.
- Yeah, and this, you will feel different.
It kicks in some extra fibers there.
- Ah, that's even harder. - Oh,
I thought he was trying to kick me.
Yeah, yeah.
It's fun, isn't it?
- Yeah, I love it.
- All right, so that's a good way,
but if you wanna do it standing,
then this is what I do at home,
because I like to do mine standing.
I think it relates to my running exercise a little more.
- You need a little bit of equipment.
- Yeah, you do need some resistance,
so I'm using a loop band.
You can use different ones.
You need to anchor it somehow to the wall
or wherever you have a big piece
of heavy furniture. - Bed post, a door.
- If you have a steel rack for lifting.
This is what I use.
I use a wall anchor.
I put it around there and then I go around here like this.
I use a nice chair and I grab on to here and I kneel.
So when I kneel, it flexes the knees
and the knee, the hamstrings become isolated,
or it helps isolate the glutes.
So that's nice.
I'm upright, like in a running position.
- And the hamstrings are on slack right now, so.
- Right, is that what I said?
They're loose? - I'm not sure.
- I don't know, but the whole idea is it's helped isolate.
And I'm thinking the same thing
as what Bob is doing is there.
Squeeze those butt cheeks together.
- Brad, this doesn't look that hard to me.
- You wanna do it?
- No, I think you should do this one
and you show how it actually makes the chair move.
- Oh, yeah.
(Bob and Brad chuckling)
- Well, I was gonna say-
- I think this is harder than it looks, isn't it?
- Yeah, oh yeah.
But yeah, you're right, if you wanna make it harder,
you get your bigger sized loop
or simply move the chair farther away,
and I've done it where-
- I just wanna make the point, it really is working.
I mean, Brad didn't come up with this willy nilly,
he actually-
- You think I just make stuff up, Bob.
- Yep, I do.
- I'm always, I have a lot of fun.
- I can see with that one. - See,
now I gotta bring it back this way.
But yeah, make sure you do not go on the edge of the chair
with your knees, because-
- See what it's doing?
- Then you do a wheelie.
We'll have none of that.
That would be dangerous.
Safety first.
- But this shows you how much it's pulling now.
- And I like this because when I'm doing this,
I'm in an upright position.
So when I'm running, there's better crossover, I think.
- Right, right.
It's functional.
It's carried over to life.
- Now I do wanna say one thing that Bob has talked about,
a technique that you've done that I can't do.
- What's that?
- When you're running around your neighborhood,
you grab your butt cheeks and think about turning 'em on.
- Why can't you do that? (laughs)
- I just can't.
- It doesn't work out.
- No, the neighbors!
You running around like that.
- I'm not running the whole time.
Just, I put my hands there once in a while
just to make sure
it's kicked in. - That's all it takes.
I just can't even think about it.
- It did help, though.
- Well, I believe it.
I believe, 'cause I know it now.
You should strengthen
or make sure your hamstrings are not tight.
So when you have your chair, and I like to do this first,
I'll go like this, knee straight, back straight,
and lean forward gently.
You can hold onto the chair for balance if you need.
And just relax, have some music on,
think about life for a little bit, relax.
Stretch 30 seconds, two or three times per hamstring.
After you get done with that,
then get your loop out and do your Humperty Dumperty's here.
And do 10 of those.
And then-
- Which reminds me, Brad, by the way,
the way this presented itself in me
is that what happens if the hamstrings become overactive,
they can actually take the ball end out of the socket.
- What ball?
- The ball of the hip.
- Oh, the femoral head.
- Yep, and it can move it forward
and it caused a pinching.
- Oh, right.
- And I was getting pain down my (indistinct).
- Yeah, you had that issue for quite a while.
- Yeah, I couldn't run.
I couldn't, I mean, it was terrible.
And really, even now once in a while I'll feel it,
but I just concentrate on the glutes
and it just moves it back in place again.
- Yeah, I've gotta admit I was going out three miles,
and then this fall, I had a five-mile fun run,
and I wanted to do it.
So I built myself up. - You really did a good time.
- Yeah, but I could feel my hamstrings working.
So I was sitting here thinking,
"Butt, butt cheek, glutes, glutes,"
and I was sitting there trying to get my running form
so I'm not reaching out, and focusing on those glutes.
And yeah, that cycle-
- Quite often a shorter stride, I believe.
- Yeah, well, right.
Which is not- - A quicker stride.
- Which is not reaching out.
Keep it straight,
keep the foot where it lands, right below you.
And then you're thinking about form,
and it's not so fun to run because you're thinking about...
It's like-
- You wanna get lost in the running,
you don't wanna think about it.
- But that's a whole 'nother story.
We're getting into the psychological aspects.
- All right, think of the hamstrings,
use a heinie technique.
- Yeah, use those two techniques if you want.
Do the bridging if you want.
And if you wanna grab your butt
and run around the neighborhood, like Bob does, that's...
(Brad laughing)
- People talk, but I don't care.
- Well, hey, and it hasn't made the news yet, but...
(Brad laughing)
- At least I have pants on when I do it, so.