♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The Two Most Famous Physical Therapists on the Internet. ♪
- Hi folks.
- I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- Together we are "The Most Famous Physical Therapists
on the Internet."
- And in our opinion of course, Bob.
- I stumbled a little bit there.
All right, Brad.
Today we wanna show some advanced methods
for getting high kicks or higher kicks, right?
- Right, right.
- For, I mean, martial arts.
- Right.
- And if you just wanna be stretched
out more, I guess, too.
- Right. Exactly.
- For athletics.
- We're gonna focus on the front kick, Bob.
- Okay. - Okay.
In karate it's often times for many people
they want their kicks high.
They look pretty.
They're functional as far as self defense.
Typically, you're not gonna kick someone in the head.
You got other more easy, you know,
more effective areas to work with,
but it's nice to kick high,
and it's nice to be flexible.
- And you wanna just tell real quickly, Brad,
your background.
- Sure. Second degree black belt in American TaeKwonDo.
I practiced for 17 years.
I was an instructor for 10 of those 17 years.
I got four years of Aikido
which we never did any kicking in there,
but it is still some good helpful information.
I enjoyed it.
And we're gonna look at how to stretch
because now the physical therapy background really-
- Helps with this.
- Enhances my ability to educate people
on how to increase their kicks.
- And Brad, by the way, does have a book out
called "Martial Arts Manual: For Stretching, Strengthening
and Treatment of Common Injuries."
And I'll put the link down below,
and you can get this through Amazon.
It's only 4.99?
- Right, exactly.
- $4.99.
- Yeah. In there I do have
how you can focus your stretches
on both the front kick, sidekick, and the round kick.
We're gonna focus on the front kick.
It's always a pretty kick.
And, you know, like I've been retired for a while
so my kicks are not real high anymore, but-
(Bob laughing)
- Yeah. Here, put your head there, Bob.
- Yeah. Yeah.
And by the way, if you are new to our channel
please take a second to subscribe to us.
We provide videos on stay healthy, fit, painfree
and even on karate sometimes.
And we have a subscription button there-
- Over here.
- Or there and we upload every day.
- Okay.
- All right.
- So first thing we wanna do is
let's get some like therapists do,
we wanna get some measurements.
- Sure.
- And see if we're making progress.
- Gotcha.
- So that's what we're gonna do.
We're gonna look at my hip flexion
which correlates directly to the front kick height.
And then we're gonna do some stretches.
We got five stretches to do.
We're gonna do those, come back and measure again
and see if we actually did get the flexibility
and to gain the height on the front kick.
So Lonnie's gonna zoom the camera in here.
We need her to help.
And we've got a lot of our viewers saying, where's Lonnie?
We want to see her. - Where's Lonnie?
- Come on, Lonnie. - She's still working-
- She's doing that.
She's getting that perfect focus.
- Yeah.
- Okay.
So what I'm gonna do is she's gonna help me
do a passive stretch on that.
Bob's gonna measure my hip flexion,
Like I mentioned before.
That is gonna be a direct correlation.
Go a little higher, a little higher,
and she's gonna lift with a straight knee.
So I get the good biomechanics on that hamstring.
A little more because when we kick,
we want a full extension on the knee.
Okay. My foot would be like this.
- Is your leg straight?
- Yep. Go a little higher, Lonnie.
Okay. That's enough stretch right there.
- Okay. About 80 degrees.
- Okay. Good.
I gotta tell you when I was in the heart,
I was in my twenties when I was really working
on stretching and the goal was
to get my toe to touch ceiling.
- Oh, you gotta be kidding.
- Yeah. I was cheating a little bit.
- Wow.
- I had to compensate. - Oh, my gosh. Thanks, Lonnie.
- I couldn't do it anyways.
- Bye Lonnie.
- All right.
So let's go right to the stretches.
Now, you're gonna have to move, Bob.
- Oh, I'm gonna get outta the way.
- Yeah. The biggest thing about hamstring stretches
is people put stress on their low back.
If you got back problems, this is the way to do it.
First thing we're gonna do is you could take a belt.
I'm gonna use a stretch out strap
because it really works well compared to-
- It's really nice.
It's from OPTP.
- Yep.
- And I'll put the link down below for that too.
- See, it's got different loops in here
so you don't have to grab hard.
It's easy.
And the knees needs to be straight.
If you don't have your knees straight
if you're stretching with your knee bent,
you are not gonna effectively stretch that hamstring.
Now, I can go way up to here with my knee bent,
but if I do it properly and my knee is straight,
oh, right there, I'm starting to feel that.
And if you're going to get the hamstring,
the second thing is do not...
make sure you point your toe down like that.
That eliminates the gastroc and the calf muscles.
If you go up here and you go like this, it hurts a lot
because you're not only stretching extra muscles
but you're stretching the nerve in there.
- Yeah. Because they cross the knee too.
- Yeah.
- So they're gonna be stretching also.
- So you're gonna hold this and just relax.
My back is completely outta the picture.
I am not... you know, if you have a back problem
you're not gonna hurt your back with this.
Actually you-
- You look a little bit bent.
- Yeah. Oops, sorry.
There we go.
- You're shaking.
- Yeah. I'm shaking.
We're gonna hold this for 30 seconds.
Three times.
I'm not gonna go three times
for the video because we need some time.
So I'm stretching my right leg only.
Normally I'd stretch both,
but we don't have time for that here.
- Okay.
Now, the next thing you're gonna do is
contract, relax with a partner.
- Okay.
- So Bob, can you help me?
This one- - Sure.
- Obviously you need two people because, yeah,
I got a partner.
Okay. So go up a little higher, Bob.
A little more, a little more.
Come on, Bob.
Gimme something.
There you go.
You can see I'm stretched out-
- Yeah.
- Already compared to the wall.
Now, I'm gonna push down with straightening
as hard as I can.
- So he's pushing against me- - 1001.
- and I'm giving resistance.
- 1002, 1003, I'm pushing hard going that way.
- Yep. He's pushing this way toward me.
- Yep.
- And then as he releases, - I relax.
- I start going further.
- Yep. He pushes a little more.
Keep going, Bob.
There you go.
And I'm gonna go again.
1001.
- He pushes again. - I like to go
to eight or 10 seconds and then relax.
One more time.
Actually it feels really good.
Don't overdo it- - Yeah, because you can-
- If you're stretching- - You can-
- If you create sharp pain,
this is the biggest thing with martial artists.
They think no pain, no gain.
No. And that can get you injured.
- Yeah.
- You need to be smart.
So train smart.
That's what the book is all about.
- Not hard to tear a muscle.
- Exactly.
- You know, a micro tear especially.
- Yeah. Okay.
And we're done with that one, Bob.
- Okay.
- Yep.
- And we're done.
- Okay.
- And the next one.
- Standing now, this is really not high enough right now.
I would need to go up a little higher.
We don't happen to have that right here right now,
but I'm still gonna get a stretch.
And again, the knee needs to be fully extended down.
- How about the countertop?
Would that be high enough?
- Oh, that's a good idea, Bob.
That's what I like. Bob's always thinking.
(Bob laughing)
- There you go.
- There. I'm gonna get my knee nice and straight there,
there back straight right here, Bob.
Tell 'em about why the back is important to be straight
when I'm stretching.
- Well, one thing you're actually gonna get a little more
of a stretch if you-
- Right.
- Otherwise you're stretching out the back,
not stretching the hamstring,
but also we're trying not to injure the back.
- Exactly.
- We don't want to have you
in that rounded out position, which is often harmful so-
- So good posture here.
It's not head to the toe.
It's sternum or chest- - Yeah.
- Which keeps you in that good direct posture.
- Yeah. I'm trying to stretch the hamstring,
not the back on this one.
- Exactly. So that is a good three times 30 seconds.
And then we just do the exact same one that we did
when we measured, Bob.
But we'll use you, Bob.
- Oh, sure.
- Yeah. Right there. - Let me get on this side.
- Go ahead and push up.
- All right.
- Keep going. Keep going.
Keep going. Keep going.
You might wanna go with your hook.
- Okay.
- There you go.
Yep. Keep going, keep going.
Keep going. Keep going.
There you go. A little more.
Now this was probably the most important thing
about stretching that I found is learn how to relax,
learn how to breathe and just visualize those muscles
on a hot summer day,
like they're butter outside on a picnic,
and that they're just melting away in the hot sun.
Go ahead, Bob.
A little more.
And when you do that, when you learn to relax
and muscles will definitely stretch more.
Whew. Now I'm getting to that part
where it's a sharp pain so-
- Sure.
- That's good. - A little bit.
- Yep. Down a little bit.
- Okay.
- Sharp pain means the muscle...
Your body's telling you the muscle's starting to get
to that point of tearing.
- Would you do a contract relax in this position or not?
- Yeah, you could.
It's just I like it.
I like it over there because it's easier.
You could relax more when you're standing-
- Sure.
- I'm worried about my balance-
- Sure.
- And that, but you could, you know.
- Your back is-
- If I was 25 years old.
- Yeah.
- I'd do it here more than I would there.
- Sure.
- But at 55 it's different.
Okay. We can go down.
All right.
Now, the last thing, once you get it good and stretched,
we can do some dynamic stretching.
Okay. So that's just doing some kicks.
- Come on over here a little bit more, Brad.
- Wow. I'm afraid with the rug slipping.
And this, you know, this will get your heart rate
up a little bit too.
We always finished out class with this
keeping the knee straight.
Okay. Lonnie, can you come over here and get us?
- Okay. We do this- - Yeah, the measurement again.
- Let's see how much progress we've made.
Did we really stretch those hamstrings?
That's the question.
- All right.
- You know, you can talk about it all you want
but until you get the numbers,
you really just don't know how successful.
You might have to do the same thing, Lonnie.
Either that or put your shoulder underneath my ankle.
- Squat. - On my shoulder.
- Yeah.
(Bob laughing)
Now push. Push with your leg.
There you go.
See? Yeah, it's easier, isn't it?
Bob, people can't see.
- Okay.
- Can you go to the side?
A little more, a little more.
There you go.
Up on your toes.
There you go.
Now we're about the same stretch.
- Is that it?
- Yep.
- Okay. So we were 80.
Now we're 110 so gained- - I'm thinking-
- 30.
- 30 degrees.
- 30 degrees in less than 10 minutes.
- That's impressive.
- And then you could actually do a nice study.
You know, that's the way...
that's what's nice about when you combine,
you know, physical therapy with karate
and the philosophy of it.
You get to learn what works and you get to, you know,
think about it,
and it's makes it a little more fun,
you know, especially for people like me.
- Remember, go out and get the book today,
"Martial Arts Manual: For Stretching,
Strengthening, and Treatment of Common Injuries,"
by Brad Heinick, physical therapist
and second degree black belt.
- Exactly. So very good.
Stretch away
and let's get those kicks up there.
- Thanks for watching.