♪ 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 are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- In our opinion of course, Bob.
- Today we're going to talk about the best
home leg-knee workout.
No weights, and you can also improve your balance
at the same time.
- Yeah, it's two for the price of one.
Or three, actually.
- I always like that-- - Yeah.
- I like to get a bargain.
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You actually got it right this time, Brad.
- [Brad] Oh yeah.
- [Bob] We got a Instagram, we've just started on there.
We like that environment.
- [Brad] Sure, yep, new platform.
- [Bob] Leave a like, welcome.
Facebook, Bob and Brad.
You're gonna wanna join us on there too,
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we believe in like two weeks,
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- Million!
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boat loads of stuff then.
- Good, yeah. It'll be fun. - Alright, Brad.
You go to work now.
- Okay, so we're talking about strengthening the legs,
and the muscles around the knees.
So the quadriceps, hamstrings.
That's the big powerhouse of the leg.
And we're gonna work that, at home.
You don't need any weights,
nice to have a little stick to balance with,
you're gonna see.
And, depending on if you're real weak,
there's a aid we're going to show you
with some banding that you can use, that can help.
It's optional.
We're gonna show five different exercises.
Probably, one or two will probably be the ones
that'll work for you.
So you can look at 'em, and try the ones that work,
and then zero in, that works best for you.
- And what I like about these, Brad.
Is they're all functional.
- Right. - These are things,
that are gonna carry over to your everyday life.
- Right, exactly.
- There's no use in just sitting there
and doing weights like this,
and that's nothing that's going to carry through.
Like the closed kinetic chain, right?
- Right. Okay, Bob for the first one.
This is for someone, if you have sore knees,
or you're weak from recovering from an injury,
or whatever it may be.
Your strength is down,
and you don't feel comfortable when you bend your knees,
like they're going to give out on you.
Then you're going to need some assistance,
because you need to be safe.
We don't want people falling.
And what I like to do is,
go to the resistance band for that.
You need to attach it to the wall, or to the ceiling.
We've got it attached to the wall anchor right here.
We do have these in our favorite products, below the video.
But you could attach it in another way,
if it works for you.
And for that squat, we're going to do squats, or lunges,
is our primary mode for strengthening our knees.
Now with this, the bands are gonna help.
I'm gonna go down like this.
And you can see, I've got three bands on here.
And that works good for me.
It'll vary depending on how heavy you are,
and your weakness and whatnot.
I'm gonna go out like this,
I'm gonna use the wall for some balance,
and I'm gonna go down.
And the bands are gonna assist and pull up.
Now as far as repetitions, for all of these, the goal is 10.
Once you can do 10 easy,
then we're gonna go up to two sets of 10,
and eventually three sets of 10.
I do wanna go over the mechanics
so that you don't injure your knee,
or cause any other problems with your legs.
So Bob is gonna help me out.
- One of the things we do not want you to do,
you don't want the knee to pass this plumb line,
just like that.
- Right. Now, if I have my feet close to the wall.
- [Bob] It's real easy to do that.
- [Brad] So, you do need to get your feet
in the right position.
And if I'm about a foot, foot and a half, from the wall.
For me, I can do that.
And the next thing is,
don't go farther than that your femur,
or your thighs are parallel.
So this would be too far, puts pressure on the knees,
particularly the kneecap--
- And back, there's really no reason to do it.
- Right. - There just isn't.
- There is some controversy with that, but we can tell you.
If you wanna be safe to your back,
and your knees, and your joints.
- You wanna work out your entire life,
(laughs) and not just work out in your 20s and 30s.
- Precisely.
- Then you better go ahead and listen to us.
- You can also do lunges with this.
Now, I'm gonna step forward
and I'm gonna hold the bands right about here.
And I'm gonna go out to here. Now again--
- The same issue as here,
you wanna make sure you're not going past the plumb line.
- Right.
- The level plumb line,
coming from off the front of the foot.
So there you go, perfect.
You're coming forward, and you're kinda dipping down.
- Good point Bob, yep.
Once you get so far,
I can see my knee is just about to the toe.
And then instead of keep going forward, I'm gonna go down.
And these bands really make, they really make--
- They really help you.
- Yep, they do. And of course you'll wanna work both legs.
Same number of repetitions,
so you balance off, otherwise you--
- And they do help with your balance a bit too, don't they?
- Oh yeah, yeah there's a number of benefits
from working with these.
- 'Cause I use the bands,
even more on a strengthening manner.
But even when I'm doing those, they help me.
- It actually forces you to balance,
things stay where they belong.
Okay, well Bob, that's,
Well, no, we've got four more to go.
- Alright, let's go, let's keep it moving.
- Let's just work squats.
- Alright.
- Bob, we're using the booyah stick--
- Booyah!
- You can use whatever you have at home,
a broomstick or whatever.
We use these because they work so well.
We're gonna use these for maintaining good posture,
because we're gonna do squats.
Now, if you have a balance issue,
you're gonna wanna put a chair in front of you.
- Giving you ideas.
We're trying to teach you the proper way
to do things for life.
So when you're picking up objects off the floor,
picking up heavy objects.
You wanna make sure your body is in this correct position.
- Sure.
- Basically you're gonna have three points of contact.
Contact on the head, mid-back, and low back.
And that's where the stick is hitting.
If you're only hitting with one point of contact,
then going down.
Your back is too rounded out,
and you're putting your back at stress,
- Yep. - and a risk of injury.
- So, if you need this, a chair for balance,
you're gonna have to think about that.
If you don't need the chair, then it's really nice,
and this is what I have my patients do,
I'll say work on your squats, with the stick.
Just like this.
And go down to that same distance we talked about,
your heels are gonna have to be on the floor.
- Again, you're trying to not put the knee
past the front of the shoe either.
- Right--
- You're coming apart there Brad.
- My tape's coming off.
We're gonna use that tape in the future, here very shortly.
That's number two, you can do squats.
Number three, we're gonna do lunges.
Where you put all the stress, or not all the stress.
A lot of the stress on one leg,
and this is where the stick comes in really handy.
If you don't-- - For beginners especially.
- Right, for balance.
I'm gonna come forward, straight forward like you see here.
Now I'm gonna do it on the profile.
If your right leg comes forward,
it works best if the stick is in the opposite hand.
Gonna come forward, again I'm not gonna do this.
Come forward here.
- And dip down. - Down.
If you can make your other knee just barely touch,
that's fine.
You may not be able to get that far.
You can just go whatever's comfortable.
Now you can go, repeated lunges like this.
Or you can do 10 of 'em here,
and you might wanna alternate legs.
That's your option.
That's one of those things,
you'll find what works best for you.
- Eventually, you can maybe do them without the stick.
- Right. - If that's
what you're hoping to do. - Exactly--
- And maybe even eventually do 'em with added weights.
- There you go, yep.
- But we're saying no weights on this, so that--
- Oh Bob. (laughs) - I'm sorry.
- I'm glad you caught that.
The other way to do this,
and from a functional therapist standpoint,
this is something you do more commonly.
Do a lunge going backwards,
like this.
And then you can do the same thing repeated.
- Well, tell the reasoning behind that Brad.
- Good, and the reason is,
is typically when people drop something on the ground,
you step backwards to pick it up.
Usually, you don't step forward,
because you're over the top of the object.
- Right. - So it's functional.
It gets into real life--
- Tying into everyday life.
- There ya go. Alright, now what, Bob?
- Now the stool.
- Good. Just testing ya.
(laughs)
- I'm staying, keeping track.
- Now we're gonna do what we call step ups.
We're gonna be like this, use a stick in your other hand.
And you can do this on stairs, you can do it on a stool.
This is about eight inches high.
You may start four inches, if you're not strong enough yet.
But one thing you wanna do is good posture,
upstairs in your shoulders.
You go up, and down.
Okay, now let's look at the mechanics of the knee.
- Yeah.
'Cause this is something,
we've got this white tape on here
so you can see this easier.
Now, what I wanna do is keep the knee in line
with the toe, and the hip.
- So in other words,
this whole tape should stay as straight as possible.
- [Brad] Yeah
- [BoB] You don't want the knee to bend out this way,
and form a concave either that way or this way.
- Often times, it's real common to see this.
- [Bob] Right, exactly.
- It goes in, and that stresses the knee.
It puts all the mechanics of the leg where it shouldn't be.
- Especially in girls, or women.
That really puts you at a higher risk for injury.
- Yeah, ACL in particular.
So we wanna concentrate that
that knee is in line with good mechanics.
So when you do this, this is what I have my patients do.
A good way to compensate to do it incorrectly is like this.
- Sure.
- It's much easier, but if you keep straight up and down
and watch my foot, Liz.
I'm gonna pull my toes up, and I'm gonna push straight up,
and I'm just gonna touch my heel.
(grunts)
I can hardly get there.
When you do it that way,
it makes it much more difficult,
and that would be the advanced method.
Versus pushing up with your toe.
And you can start out that way, if you want.
But eventually, try to do a set of 10 like this.
Keeping those mechanics that we talked about.
- That's hard, to not put the knee over the foot,
and to keep it on the sides.
It's harder than you think it is.
- When you look at the details, it makes a big difference.
And now we're getting to the ultra advanced, Bob.
Number five.
- Okay. One legged squats.
- Oh yeah. Now this one, most people,
unless you're really athletic and strong,
are gonna need a stick for balance.
- Sure.
- Okay?
You take one foot, back here on a stool.
The higher the stool, the more difficult it is.
I do mine at about this height, at home.
I do these three days a week.
And you simply follow the same rules,
and go down until you feel comfortable.
- Keeping the leg straight. - Yep.
- I mean this way. - Right.
- So it lines up again.
So you use the booyah stick when you do it?
- I do, I do Bob.
Because I do three sets of 10,
and that third set, I really need the stick.
- Sure.
- You know, if I was young and a stud muffin,
I'd probably do this, three sets of 10.
Like I see at the Y.
- But you can start off that way,
and as you fatigue you could have the stick,
go all the way down here and finish off.
- Honestly, if you're advanced,
you could do that with all of 'em.
Have the stick up, and do the lunges with it up.
And that makes the balance more challenging,
more strength required.
I'm getting tired Bob.
- And what's nice is if you have a zombie attack
while you're working out. - Oh! Oh yeah!
- You can just take the stick to 'em.
Brad knows all the moves for that.
So, I gotta watch him,
he's gonna wack me one of these times.
- No, Bob. I've got good control.
Don't worry Bob, don't worry.
- All right, thanks for watching.