♪ 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.
- In our opinion, of course, Bob.
- All right, today, we're gonna talk about
way better than stretching.
- Way better.
- This is the fourth one in a series of these,
for plantar fasciitis.
- On the foot.
- This is gonna be way better
than stretching for that, right.
- Well, it feels better too.
- Pain on the bottom of the foot.
- Easier.
- So you can do this without spending any money.
You just got to steal some things from little kids.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Or from your, you know.
- You could get, at the dollar store
you can get some of these pretty cheap.
- Sure. - Yeah.
- So by the way, if you're new to our channel
please take a second to subscribe to us.
We provide videos how to stay healthy, fit, and pain free
and we upload every day.
- Every day.
- What are we giving away here?
The Booyah Stik.
- Booyah.
- Go to the bobandbrad.com.
Go to the giveaway section.
This week, we're giving away the Booyah Stik.
- Here, give me that thing, Bob.
Booyah!
(chuckling)
- I don't do it well enough apparently.
Okay, go to Facebook.
It'll also be pinned to the top of the page.
Go to Twitter, Instagram, TikTok,
if you want a 60 second version of the program.
- That's right.
I just wanted to be part of the booyah.
And we have podcasts available.
- Yeah, there we go, we have podcasts, great interviews.
In fact, we interviewed this guy, Kelly Starrett.
- Yes.
- Now he's not the one that came up
with these mobilizations.
- He's Dr. Kelly Starrett, isn't he?
- Yeah, Dr. Kelly Starrett.
He's not the one that came up with these
but he certainly--
- Promotes them.
- Promotes them, popitalized, popularized?
How do you say it?
- How 'bout promote?
- Promote.
(chuckling)
Promotes it.
And he wrote the book, The Supple Leopard,
but this is a common method.
There's everybody in the know uses--
- Well, yeah, if you're in the know.
- Yeah.
- But don't get confused by The Supple Leopard.
It's not about animals.
- Right.
- It's actually about muscles.
- It's becoming supple like a leopard.
- Yeah, very fast, quick.
- So Kelly gives the example in fact of,
let's say you're gonna stretch a muscle.
And the reason why stretching doesn't often work
is 'cause you're gonna stretch the part
that's already stretched out.
- So this represents a muscle.
- This represents a muscle that thicker on one end,
thinner on the other end,
or maybe it's adhesed down on this end.
- Sure.
- So it's, you want to get this,
this is the part of the muscle you want to work,
is the thicker adhesed down part.
- When you stretch it.
- Yeah, so when I stretch, look where the stretch
is occurring though.
- All in one spot.
- Yeah.
- This is a real good testimonial or demonstration.
- It's stretching on the thin part and right there
instead of the thick part.
So to get this thick part,
we're actually gonna want to use devices like
such as a ball and put pressure
right on that muscle right there.
- And make it supple like the leopard.
- Yep.
So where does it, where is the spot that you want to hit
with the muscle?
Or the fascia, which we're gonna talk about
on the bottom of the foot.
You want to hit the spots that are tender.
Now on the foot, there's a lot of room there.
So let's, I'm gonna go ahead and show on my foot here.
This is normally where you feel plantar fascia.
- Right by the calcaneus.
- Yep.
And often it is, those are some minor tears.
So we want to mobilize all these tissues here,
the plantar fascia, in order to take less stress
on that area.
- [Brad] Right.
- So one thing we can start off with very simply
is when you're on the floor, a good focal pressure point
to use is a golf ball.
- Golf ball, yeah.
- Now, if that's too much for you to start off with it,
you could use a lacrosse ball or a tennis ball.
But just start by rolling your foot.
Avoid the tender spot if that hurts.
Just work in the area that doesn't--
- So, with your hand or are you gonna put it on the floor?
- No, put it on the floor.
- Oh.
- You can do it while you're working at the office.
You can just--
- So a golf ball is smaller in diameter, it's very hard.
So it's pretty aggressive.
It's gonna get in.
And if it's too aggressive,
now you're gonna that tender spot right by your heel.
You don't want to work right over that
if it's really painful.
You're gonna work around it.
And actually you'll feel kind of good.
And you get that fascia loosened up
as well as the tissues around it
and the muscles underneath it.
Those little, small muscles that are in your feet
to help control your foot motion.
- Now, Dr. McGill recommends three different methods.
One is the smash method and that's static.
- Like say--
- You mean Starrett.
- What did I say?
- McGill. - Oh!
- He's he's the back man.
- Dr. Kelly Starrett, yes.
Thank you for correcting me.
- It's all right, I just want to--
- So the first method is just called the smash method,
and that method, you're just gonna push down on it
and find a tender spot and just hold it.
- I got one right there.
- And you hold it until you see improvement hopefully.
So, and if it's not tender,
you really don't need to do the smash method on that area.
- You'll find it.
Even on a healthy foot like mine, I was on a tender spot
and it's already feels better by that static pressure.
- The other thing is we want to work the entire
posterior chain here up into the calf here too,
and that's what he calls
working upstream from it, the problem.
- You think he's a fishermen?
- I don't know, maybe.
- But yeah, so that all these muscles here
connect directly to the heel through the calcaneus
and which becomes part of the fascia.
- So that needs to be mobilized also.
So you might take, here I have a a softball
and I might smash on that and let that put,
find a tender spot.
I might even do some flossing.
I might move my ankle up and down like that.
That works really well for that.
- If you need a little more pressure,
you could put your other leg over the top
and just use gravity.
- And you can go back and forth.
- Yeah.
- And there's what he calls the pressure wave
where you actually roll back and forth on it.
And that's what I think people are accustomed to doing.
- Sure.
- So. - Yeah.
- But I'm gonna show you another one, Brad,
that is actually a different one.
- I liked this technique.
I do want to say, when you're doing that smash method
where you've got that constant pressure.
Typically after about 30 seconds
you should feel a release or it feel better.
- Right.
- If it's really tight and tender
and it just is hurting like crazy,
it may not be ready for it yet.
- Here's a different method.
You can start with a lacrosse ball if you want,
but you actually push on the area
and then you twist the ball.
Push on the area and then twist the ball.
- So you're twisting the skin kind of.
- Yeah, you're twisting the tissues
and it just gives a different feel.
And it helps the tissues that are adhesed down.
Here's a little prickly ball.
- Yeah, here.
Do this, see it lights up.
It's more effective that way.
- Yeah.
Now this does really nicely on this.
- Yeah, it really does.
I am sold on those.
I did get that from a dollar store.
- Yeah, right.
He's selling these all over, I don't know.
- Yeah, I just saw, I was walking through there.
I got to get that for, and it feels good.
- You even want to get up into the toes here
'cause that fascia extends up into the toes.
So this is just a great way to work those toes.
I actually do the top of my foot too.
- That's for another issue.
- Issue, yeah.
- Yeah, if you use a ball like this,
it doesn't work so good because it just slips.
But if you get something a little grippy.
- Lacrosse ball works but not as well as this.
This one really does the work.
And you could, you can actually roll your foot
on top of that too, if you want.
- Oh yeah, I'm not gonna touch it after you got it
on the bottom of your foot.
(chuckling)
Yeah, this, I mean, this just feels good
and it's not so aggressive as the lacrosse ball.
You might start with this one
and go on to a more aggressive one.
- So again, you're gonna get the bottom of the foot.
When it allows you,
you're gonna actually hit the painful spots.
And then you're also gonna work it in the calf muscle.
Now, you can't do this in bed, unfortunately,
because it's just gonna be too soft.
- You got to get on the floor like this.
- You're gonna have to get on the floor for this one.
Or you gonna have to, what's nice about it,
even if you can't get on the floor,
you can quite often just put the foot
down and work on the bottom of the foot.
- Yeah, you could actually do this with a chair
and then a stool.
- Sure.
- And then you don't have to get on the floor.
- Yeah, then you can hit the calf muscle that way.
And you might use the--
- There we go, we solved another problem.
- Yeah, you might use the bigger ball on that one
if it sinks in a little bit.
- Oh, there you go.
- All right, so when the neighbor kid hits the ball
into your yard, just keep it.
Don't don't give it back.
- Well, if it goes through the window,
that basically is a freebie.
I mean, that's a given.
- It's on my yard, it's my ball.
- Well, yeah.
Well, you know, it's--
- I be that crabby old guy.
- Yep, it's like the movie Sandlot.
And if you haven't watched that, it's important.
No matter how old you are, Sandlot's a classic.
- All right. - Be careful.
- You're killing me smalls.
(laughing)