♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
- Hi folks, I'm Bob Schrupp physical therapist.
- Brad Brad Heineck physical therapist.
- And we're the most famous physical therapist
on the internet.
- In our opinion, of course Bob.
- Musically talented too.
Today we're talking about two exercises
to quickly release tight hamstrings without forcing them.
- Right Bob.
- Now there is a lot of people this is important to
especially if you have back pain,
you wanna make sure your hamstrings are lucid
or not pull on that pelvis.
- Exactly, I know in my case,
I, years ago wanted to have loose hamstrings
so I can karate kick very high, head level kicks is..
- In that case it's really important.
- And these were part of the tricks.
- And certain other athletes too.
- Absolutely. - Right.
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- Oh, okay.
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Okay, here we go.
Hamstrings, and I think the big key here Bob,
get back in here, is without forcing them.
I remember way back in the day as I, my 20's Crowdy
and you wanna get those hamstrings loosened up
and people would talk about really foursome
and you'd be kind of almost grunting to get
that leg up and stretching it.
Then we found out I'll allow them to stretch.
Don't force them, when your body's relaxed,
your breathing relax, everything relaxes.
So that's a critical aspect.
And we've got a couple other things too.
So we need to prepare.
- A lot of times that's why it's nice
when you're in control to it to begin with,
because you won't push it beyond what
it should be pushed.
- Right yeah, you don't wanna tear a hamstring trying
to stretch it out.
So for those of us or who have tight hamstrings,
or really wanna link from them and get
that flexibility, prepared, do it in a quiet setting.
Think about your breathing.
That is probably the most critical aspect of it.
If you breathe deep and relax and push the stretch gently
while you exhale and mentally think about it.
I know I might be babbling here, but these...
- Visualize it.
- These are critical points.
One of my instructors and in Iquito actually said,
think about your muscles being butter on a hot summer day
in the sun, and they're just melting.
And when you get that kind of imagery,
you can pick out anything you would like to bet,
It's just works for me.
And then we're gonna actually,
we're gonna warm these muscles up prior.
So you can do that, let's say you wanna do your stretch.
You might wanna coordinate it in the morning
after you take a warm shower or a warm bath to get
the muscles relaxed and heated up.
If you really wanna go to a deep heat,
you're gonna have to go to a infrared.
- [Both] Far infrared.
- C heating system this is by Thermo techs.
This actually goes 2.36 inches.
Do we, we don't have the robot, do I?
It's over there.
- Everyone knows it's that fire versus a typical hot pack,
or waters only gonna go skin deep.
And the nice thing about this,
it wraps around right around your hamstrings.
And we've got this velcro strap that goes around
and you could lie there.
- I won't get it for just for this?
- No.
- But I would get it for pinkish roll
if you're having trouble back pain or...
- Arthritic, there's a number of things.
So, you don't need to assist an option if you want to,
and you have other things you use it for,
but it is definitely DP.
Now the other thing you can do,
and this is what I do presently.
- And I do this also Brad, I didn't mention this,
but I do this also.
- Oh, you do? - Yep.
- well, let's show them.
- Oh yeah, we get all the way up.
- Okay so, I lying down, just to get those muscles if,
you've got them warmed up already,
if you're gonna do that option,
but get in there and massage these muscles a little bit
and you could do it with your fingers
and work across on the side.
- Makes a big difference. - It does.
- [Bob] But I am surprised at how much more flexible
and pliable my muscles are when I do some type
of foam roller massage,
especially if I do the massage.
- The other thing that works well, your hands can get tired.
I use a massage gun.
They're very popular nowadays.
They're selling them left and right all over.
And we have one, that we liked so much.
We actually have our name on it, Bob and Brad.
They work very well.
The cost is great.
But I get in there and I'll work this.
And I don't do it for a long time,
but I'll try to find a tight spot and you'll find it
cause there'll be a little, little tighter,
a little more tender and after you massage it
just for 15 to 30 seconds,
you can get on that tight spot.
You'll feel it relax.
- And that's the advantage is that you might have,
maybe even scar tissue or something in the hamstring
or one tight area and this can focus on that where
a general stretch is general,
It's gonna hit the, it's not gonna focus on.
It's gonna actually probably focus on the weakest area.
- Exactly, so once you prepare the muscle, actually
the preparation isn't that quick,
it takes a few minutes to get the muscle prepared.
But once you do that,
cause you may take a week or two
if you're just gonna do it cold without any of this,
two weeks before you start getting a noticeable stretch,
but doing this, I think you're gonna cut it down
and that's the quick part we're talking about.
Not while you're stretching,
but how fast you stretch that muscle over time, so...
- [Bob] You'll see gains faster, I mean,
I pointed the time in.
- I like using, you don't have to have a strap.
You could use a belt with a loop on it and pull,
but because of my back issues
and a lot of people may have this.
It's nice to lay down, so that when you stretch right now,
knee must be straight,
I'm gonna pull up using the stretch out strap,
and right here, I'm getting a nice stretch.
Now, if I have my knee bent, it's not hamstring.
You're really losing it so you have
to have the knee straight.
If you're gonna pull up and you can hold it for 30 seconds
and feel that stretch.
- [Bob] What I like about this Brad is
that it's easy on the back.
I mean the back is completely supported.
Like when people actually put their leg up,
don't move at all Brad and they go like this
and then they flex their back like that.
It's great for the hamstring
but it's not good for the back.
We don't like to stretch the back in the fluxion.
- There we go.
Now, the next option, you can hold...
- This one's important.
This next option.
- You know, you can do.
I like to hold and relax.
You can do that 10 times.
You can hold it for 30 seconds straight
while you're breathing relaxed.
The next one is what we call a Contract Relax.
This is an option.
This actually works better with a second person,
but you can do it with a strap or a belt or a taller
on your foot, like we're doing here
and what I'm going to do, I'm gonna push my foot, down.
And that is gonna happen with my hamstrings.
They're gonna contract, I'm gonna push down.
Ain't gonna hold.
- See how he's shaking because he's really pushing
as hard as he can or pretty much as hard as he can.
- Notice I'm breathing while I'm doing this.
I'm not holding my breath and grunting
and getting a red face.
And then I relax.
Now there's a rule, I don't know if you'd call it a rule,
but a kind of...
- Psychological rule.
- There you go, is when a muscle goes
under maximal contraction, when you release it,
it maximally relaxes.
So after that contraction isometric, you relax it,
take a breath and then you pull up and get the advantage.
Hold that again.
- So again, when he's pushing down,
Brad's not allowing them to come down at all.
And then when it relaxes, he pulls it even farther.
- And I pushed on for a count of six, six seconds.
You can go five to 10, some people count fast,
1010, that's too fast,
you can do the 1001, 1002,
and I'm gonna relax and I'm gonna pull it up again.
And I can just visualize those muscles.
Is it, am I getting a little farther, Bob?
- [Bob] It looks like to me.
- I definitely feel that, right?
- [Bob] This has given a head shake so.
- Up or down or no,
- [Bob] Yeah, she's saying, yeah.
I'm sorry yeah.
I just don't know what I mean by head shake.
- And you may wanna give it a break in between
and you can do a little more of a massage.
And I would do that three times, okay.
Three bouts where you're doing the Contract Relax.
Now, if you're happen to have someone around,
that would help you, as this again.
- As you put a hand here, right above the knee,
have one maybe on, right on the ankle itself.
And I'm gonna go ahead and I'm gonna,
you have to really be in tune with the patient.
That's why I have trouble with the Brad to some extent,
because if you have someone that doesn't know
what they're doing and they just bring you right up,
you'd have to make sure..
- Yeah, so the person lying down is in control.
So Bob, go ahead and push it up.
Okay, a little more, a little more.
Now this is, we're gonna do Contract Relax,
but first we're gonna do this stretch.
Keep going, keep going, you can see, I can go farther.
Hold it right there.
I will go faster this.
I'd hold it there for five to 10 seconds.
Now, I'm gonna push and he's gonna maintain that.
1001, 1002 and I don't do this normally,
but so you can hear and I'll go up to six and then I relax
and I'll go a little bit farther.
Keep going, keep going.
Hold right there.
Yeah, and you really have to be in tune,
don't and again, don't force it.
We're not trying to get it all in one day.
We don't want to tear a muscle.
We just wanna stretch them gently.
And I'm gonna do the Contract Relax again.
And that's up to six.
And a lot of times when I exhale is when I like,
well I'll signal.
- Shove it, then go ahead and push further.
Right there is good.
- Right there?
- Oh yes.
Okay, let's call it a day, Bob.
- I hope we get it down in your face.
(both laugh)
- And obviously you wanna do that with both sides.
So you're even writing, unless you had an injury on one side
and one side is much tighter than the other.
- And your focusing on that but again,
flexibility is so important
in a lot of different sports activities
and extreme flexibility is also important.
Like a high jump and, and like we say, karate.
- Gymnastics. - Gymnastics right.
I do, we do wanna mention,
you would not wanna stretch like this and then go out
and do an activity.
- Explosive activity potentially.
- Right, like a sprint or anything where you're tennis,
things like that.
Now I'm just gonna relax.
And you know, I could go for a jog.
- The muscle, because it's been stretched out
it's lost some of its power.
I mean, because it's been maximally stretched out.
You wanna get it stretched out enough till it's warmed up,
but you don't wanna it stretched out so much
that it actually takes away the power from it.
- Right.
- So, if you're a long distance runner, doesn't matter,
you can stretch it all you want, because your...
- Oh, right yeah, because you're not,
particularly if you're just training,
you can start out slowly and build up.
Well, Bob, we're starting to get into the bubble phase so..
- Remember Brad, I can fix it about anything.
- Except for?
- Broken heart.
- Broken heart, yeah, so be..
- we're coming for you.
- Be careful.
- All right, thanks.