(upbeat music) ♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet. ♪
- Hi folks, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- And were the most famous
physical therapist on the internet.
- In our all opinion, of course, Bob.
- Today, we're gonna present to you
the single best balance exercise
for seniors and for fall prevention.
We like to keep this,
you know, you guys are busy people.
- Right? - Right.
- So you don't always have time
to do a whole regimen of exercises.
So we're just gonna give you one to work on.
Probably one of the best ones.
- Right.
And you know, this correlates
with the kind of, relates to the video
we just did last week
about the study saying
there was, they had six specific exercises,
and this is one of them.
We like it.
And we're gonna tell you why.
But. - Alright, if you are new
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- Look at that.
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You're gonna set you for the day.
- Say no more Bob.
- So this probably shouldn't be a 12 minute video, Brad,
If we- - Yeah.
Maybe we should give them a short one for once.
But anyways,
the single best exercise,
you know, this doesn't have to be for seniors
or, you know, it could be someone
that's coming off of an injury...-
- Or illness.
- Right.
Whatever reason you don't feel steady on your feet.
One of the biggest reasons people fall
is when they transfer from a chair,
either getting onto a chair or getting off of a chair
or bed or something of that nature,
high fall risk there.
- Right.
- And that's where this relates to.
So what makes the best exercise?
Number one, can you do it alone or independently?
That's important
if you live by yourself,
and you wanna practice something,
you want to be safe with it.
As therapists were always thinking-
- Right.- - Can I have-
- What's the worst-case scenario-
- Right.- - that can happen here?
You could get hurt trying to prevent falls.
- Right.
Yeah. If you're a therapist and you send someone home
with exercises and they fall...
- You kind of fail - Because of your exercise,
you know, it's not a good thing.
Number two is we wanna work a lot of muscle groups.
Cause the muscle groups,
the stronger you are the safer you are, typically.
It's one of the components
of staying tall on your feet, and not tipping over.
So quadriceps,
hips, core, those are all three,
that this really works as well.
And this works, the balance, static balance,
while you're up.
And then the last one of course
is can you progress it?
Can you make it easy for a beginner,
and progress it too,
as you get stronger, more balanced and whatnot.
So,- - And let me guess this.
This exercise contains all three of these.
- It does just like that. - Okay, very good.
- Okay.
So what is the exercise?
Everyone's waiting by?
- Right. - Okay.
Should I show them? - I think we should start
on the bed though.
Don't you think? - We can start.
Yep.
You can start to make it easier.
- Right.
- Well, let's just do this.
Let's just show them the exercise.
- Okay. - We're driving
these people crazy here.
This is it.
This is the final product.
You sit good posture,
arms across like this,
and simply stand up, and sit down with good control.
- And again, you may not be able to do that yet.
- Right.
- But we're gonna progress you
to the point where you can. - Right.
And you know, the thing is about this.
It's a real functional exercise.
And also it's one that everybody can do
because they have the equipment.
- Right.
- You know, it's very easy.
They either have a bed or a chair.
- Right.
And if you have a chair,
one with two armrest
solid armrest, a solid chair, not one that's wobbly.
You're gonna want that.
And you'll see,
sometimes you can adjust the height of a chair,
which can be helpful.
Lift chair on this case where your using a foam
you can use a pillow,
cause the higher the chair
the easier it is.
And that makes a big difference.
- A big difference. - Very big difference.
So you can start on your bed.
The beds are typically higher than it chair.
It's a good place to start.
If you're having a hard time doing this one.
- Some people even go to the corner like this.
- Sure. - Just gonna,
you can get the legs back
behind you a little bit better.
- Yep. - Because in order
to get forward
you do have to bring your nose over your toes.
- Right. - You know,
you can't stand up straight
like this, is difficult. - Yeah.
- Push off a low surface like that.
So you're gonna lean forward
and you can push off your legs to start off with.
- Right.
- And you know, do these into the point
where you can do comfortable five to 10
probably 10 reps is the goal.
Right? - Right.
Exactly. - Yeah.
- Exactly.
And then eventually, you know, when that becomes easy
maybe it's gonna be a couple weeks down the line.
Then you can go to the crossing, the chest like this.
- Right.
And you know,
aside from the bed,
you may have, depending on your level
if you're real unsteady
and you feel uncomfortable
you may wanna have something in front of you to hold.
Now you may have a Walker.
You could put that in front of you.
That's a, a real good option.
You could have a chair.
If you're starting in a chair,
you're gonna push up with both hands
and then see if you could stand
and balance for about five seconds.
And then when you sit back down
make sure you don't plop.
- Controlled sit.
- Right.
And if you need to,
you know, reach back with one hand,
we encourage that all the time.
But as you get stronger,
if you can sit down nice and slow
and control like this,
that's the ideal situation.
- And this, is probably a good time
to mention this, Brad,
that, you know, this is why Brad,
and I have sometimes trouble with the lift chairs.
- Right. - Because when people start
to become reliant upon them,
now it's fine to use a lift chair
just to bring it up high enough
that you're able to stand.
Let's say you can't get out of the chair.
- Right. - But if you're using
the lift chair every day
those muscles are gonna get weak,
and you're gonna fall more.
- Sure. - And I see it
on people who own those.
- The lift chair he's talking
about the recliners,
they have a button and it- - Yeah.-
And it lifts the recliner up.
And they go up quite high.
They work really well,
but you don't wanna overuse them.
- You don't wanna become dependent upon them.
- Right. - You wanna try to,
you know, use your own muscle strength.
- Sure. Yep.
So the progression from a chair here is two hands up.
Good control stand for a few seconds.
Sit back down.
When that gets relatively easily, go to one hand,
and push off with one hand,
and get up stand.
You know, if you need the walker
or chair in front of you use that,
you get to 10 of those and it feels easy.
Then you can start
going to pushing off the arms
or- - Off the legs.
- Off the legs. - Yeah.
Same thing, 10 repetitions.
When you can do that,
then you can start going
to the final product
that really works well in here.
And if you wanna even make it more challenging
you can bring your feet close together.
So they're touching and try it that way.
That, that adds a little bit to it.
Make sure the chair's behind you.
If you lose your balance, the chair's there.
The worst that happen, you could fall into the chair.
- The final thing would be to take the cushion out though.
- Ah, good point, Bob,
lower the chair.
So if you,
like, I started with this cushion on here.
I'm gonna take that off.
And that's about an inch and a half.
Boy that'll make a big difference.
- A big difference.
You'd be to shocked, there's people
that literally can't get out of a chair,
and you put this in, they can.
- Right.
At home you can just use a pillow.
You know, you may wanna start out with a pillow.
Once you get through the whole series,
we just want take the pillow out,
and see if you can get that way.
And again, this is where falls happen a lot,
is either getting into chair or out of the chair.
You strengthen that up with repetition,
and strength, and confidence,
makes a big difference.-
- If your not an exercise person,
and you just want to kind of spread
this out through the day.
- Sure. - Every time you go to a chair
when you get up, do three reps.
- Sure. - You know,
if you don't feel like you're that person
that wants to do 10 reps,
you know, just every time you use the chair,
do a quick three reps,
and you're gonna keep your strength up that way.
- Sure. - And that way,
you know, you save a lot of time.
- Sure. - Right.
So, and time is money.
(Brad chuckling)
(Both laughing)
- You're killing me, Bob.
- All right.
Well, do we have anything else to say, Brad?
- No, I think we covered it well
- Okay.
We can fix just about anything.
- Except for a broken heart.
- Thank you.
- But we're working on it.