♪ 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 together we are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- In our opinion, of course Bob.
- Brad you wanted to talk today
about seven balance exercises for seniors
and to help prevent falls.
And we're the experts right here
that we're gonna give you the right information.
- Right, I mean physical therapist, this is what we do.
I mean, we work with people
that have balance problems all the time.
- All day long.
- And we have tricks and one of the things about therapy is
we give homework.
- Right. - We say,
we know you don't come in,
and get balance and then leave.
It's not like taking a pill. - Right.
- You have to work with it.
We show you how, give you the tools, you go home.
- It just doesn't happen magically,
you gotta work on it. - Right, right.
- Just like anything. - So, and that's why you guys
are watching these YouTube videos,
so that you learn what you can do at home to help yourself.
- By the way if you are new to our channel,
make sure just take a second to subscribe.
We're gonna provide you lots of videos
on how to stay healthy and fit;
wide range of videos.
- Exactly. - And wide range of topics.
- Not just balance.
- And we upload a video every day.
- Right. - Usually around nine o'clock
at the evening, actually is it.
- Excellent Bob, excellent. - Okay.
- So give an example, someone's had a stroke,
they're recovering quite well.
This is a good time when they're
walking around. - I would say
beyond that even Brad.
I'd say just the average elderly person
who is starting to lose their balance
and we don't want them to fall.
The amount of people that fall as they get older
is incredible Brad.
- Right, and actually, we're both in our, almost mid-50s
and I notice my balance
is not what it used to be. - Oh, I do too.
- Exactly. - I notice too.
I'll be on even ground and all of sudden,
whoa, what happened there?
- Yeah this isn't right.
- Yeah so wait 'til you add 20 more years onto us.
We're gonna be doing
these exercises. - Okay let's get
to the exercises.
Now we're gonna start out with some basic ones.
This is gonna look easy but it's harder than it looks.
Believe me you're gonna want to have
a chair next to you for balance.
You may wanna have a cane or something on this side
so you have-- - Maybe a countertop
or something. - A countertop.
So on both sides you have some balance.
Good posture.
One thing about falls is as people get older they,
this happens and that throws your center of gravity off.
And that can be one of the reasons
why you fall more is because
your, your, (mumbles). - Yeah, you're displaced.
- Exactly right.
We could go a whole video on that, Bob.
- Right.
- Okay so it's simple.
We're just gonna march slow.
You're not gonna do this.
We wanna use good control up.
- It's making you balance on the foot for a little bit.
- Exactly. - 'Cause if you go really fast
it's easier than if you have to
actually balance for a while.
- Exactly right, so up and down, up and down.
We're gonna do 10 of 'em, five on each leg, okay?
If it's too easy with both hands
simply just go to one hand.
And like Bob he's doing it with no hands.
Okay now the next thing hip stabilization.
The hip abductors, Bob.
All therapists know that this is a key, okay?
- Of balance, hip strength over all.
That's the first thing we'll look at
when someone's losing their balance,
it's usually in their hips,
they're hips are weaker.
- And often times the abductor's I think,
are probably often times the culprit.
Now we're gonna do this.
Now it's not straight in front of you.
It's straight off to the side.
Get something for balance and work it like this.
And you need to get out, if you're too close to the cupboard
you're bumping it's no good.
You may have to go just the other side.
And do 10 of these.
If you do 'em slow with your
toe pointed forward. - Show 'em the wrong
way too, Brad.
- This foot, oh, right. - Oh, the wrong way to do it.
- If you're doing this. - Yeah, like the penguin.
- Yep, it's no good.
You gotta good posture up tall and just the hip moving.
And if you look at my foot right now
my toe is straight ahead.
That's important.
If you point your toe out like this,
it's easier to do and it's strengthening
that incorrect muscle, it's not gonna help as much.
Okay.
- Can we show a subtle sign that your hip is weak, Brad?
- Sure. - When you do that,
if you stand here and without holding onto anything
and you lift up this foot and it drops
down like this. - Yeah.
- That means this hip is weak, if you do it the other way.
And you see people walking like this.
That usually means their hips are weak.
- That's known as a Trendelenburg gait.
Okay so you're gonna do 10 of these on each leg
only with the amount of support that you need.
Okay, then the next one.
This is critical because your ankle strength
is really important for your balance.
We're gonna go up on your toes, hold onto that cupboard.
Come back and pull your toes back this way.
We're gonna go up on the toes and back.
And do 10 of these.
- These are difficult to do
unless you're holding onto something.
- Right, yeah.
- You're definitely gonna wanna
have the support. - If I put one finger
on there it makes a big difference.
Okay, now after you go through that.
Well you're gonna need something to support yourself.
This is kind of a test,
as matter of fact-- - You wanna use
the cane, too, or on that or not?
- Yeah we can, whatever you need.
You're gonna do a single leg balance test.
In other words stand up with good posture.
Hold onto something and see if you can stand on one leg
for five seconds.
If that's real easy
take one of the supports away.
And if that's real easy,
go like this. - Let's see if you do
with the other one, yeah.
- And if this is really easy
time yourself for 30 seconds and see how many times
you need to grab the chair
or put your foot down to balance.
And then that's a 30 seconds balance test.
I don't think we need to get into that right now,
'cause I wanna get into the more advanced techniques.
This is all too easy.
- And you can do that on both sides.
- Right, yeah, you gotta compare one leg
to the other. - And then you can see
if there's improvement over time.
- Exactly. - You can retest it later on
and so on. - Exactly
- Okay, what are we into now, Brad?
- All right, now this is more advanced.
If all that's too easy
and you wanna get yourself more advanced,
you're gonna put your feet like this.
And then, why don't you face this way Bob.
- Sure. - And do what I'm doing.
You're gonna take, it doesn't matter which foot.
And you're gonna do your left leg.
Come forward a little bit.
And then you keep sliding it forward.
And now you're gonna bring your heel in front of your toe.
And go right.
- And it gets harder.
- Yep.
- I'm already moving a little bit.
- Right, so that's a progression of balance
like this. - Sure.
- Okay.
Now if that's too easy
then we're gonna to go to the next part,
and that's, heel, toe.
Why don't you walk right down
on that red line, Bob? - Sure.
Hopefully this isn't in the middle of the night
after I've had a few drinks.
- Yeah. (laughs)
Yeah, we're not testing for sobriety here.
- I don't have the best balance, Brad.
I'm very tall and I have short feet.
- Sure. - It's not a good combination.
I could do it fast but slow--
- Most people particularly people with problems,
I give 'em a cane,
and they're holding onto the countertops
so they have support on both sides.
And then you progress as accordingly that you can.
Maybe just take the cane away
and just hold onto the countertop.
Okay.
- Okay. - Now the next thing you do,
is if you go and get some shelf liner
from the hardware store.
It's grippy, you can cut it very easily.
Put it down on the floor and this makes for--
- [Bob] You actually made a circle?
- Yep. - You take a plate?
- I did, I took a plate right out of the cupboard,
and I just took a--
- Circle around it and--
- Cut it right around there.
And then you put 'em like this on the floor.
You'll see this is self-explanatory.
All right.
We're going to go
to this right here to stand on this one,
and we're gonna use a cane to start with.
I'm going to touch out to here.
This is much harder than it looks.
It really works
the muscles hard. - You want one behind you Brad
or is that too hard?
- Yeah, well you can put one back there.
- Yeah. - There you go,
and over here.
- So you need five of 'em?
- This is a really hard one over here.
- Yeah?
- Over here and then behind you.
I know you can't see it,
but we have one behind it and you're gonna touch.
It's important you do both legs.
Touch.
And if it's too easy or if it's too hard
you're gonna bring 'em in closer.
If it gets too easy to do this
you simply bring 'em farther away.
- This is what we do for ankle retraining too.
After someone sprain an ankle.
So it's a good one to do, it's very difficult.
So then you do it, you said the other leg, Brad?
- Yep.
There.
You know and if you're pretty advanced
you take the cane away,
and then you're kinda doing one of these things.
But be safe, do not get carried away
because you don't need to fall and have a broken hip,
while you're working on your
balance exercise. - Exactly.
All right then you're gonna do some step-ups, Brad?
- Yep, now this is a real functional one
for anybody that has some stairs
to get in and out of your house.
- Be nice if you have stairs with a railing. (laughs)
- Right.
In this case you can take a step stool like this.
Again. - Sure.
- Make sure you have something--
- To hang onto. - To hang onto or a cane.
You can go right up the stairway like you said, Bob.
- Yeah and hang onto the railings.
- If the stairway is going in front of you.
You're gonna touch here.
And this is just simply all you start with.
- Tapping.
- Just so you know--
- Stair tapping.
- Your body gets used to
getting your foot up to that step in the right place.
And I wouldn't go here.
I like to have the patient go all the way up
for their foot is on the right place,
because if someone--
- Get in that habit, right?
- Yeah, get in that habit,
'cause if you go upstairs and your foots like that,
There's a fall.
- Down you go.
- Once you get good with this,
and it's easy to do,
you have proper placement of your foot.
You can go to one hand like we talked to before.
The next step is to go all the way up to here.
Not only are you working with balance
but then you're working strengthening of the quads, Bob.
And you know that's what you need
to get up and down the steps.
So that's how these fit together.
- And you can progress from two rails to one rail
while you're doing these, too.
- Exactly.
- To improve that too.
- Now in our therapist mind I'm thinking
we strengthened the ankles before,
now we're strengthen the quads.
We strengthen the hips with the other exercise.
This is a complete package, Bob.
- Right, you're getting
the whole works. - That's why it works.
This is getting exciting isn't it, Bob?
- It's good to spend the time.
You spend a little of time right now and prevent a fall,
or you spend a lot of time later rehabbing from a fall.
- Exactly.
- So we're all about prevention.
- Now there is one more thing.
I just wanna touch this.
If you really wanna work advanced.
Then you do the single leg balance.
Have someone there with you that can hold you
if you need to.
But this is advanced.
And then you close your eyes
and see if you can single leg balance.
Much harder than with your eyes open.
But be careful on that one.
Make sure you got a partner to help you and be safe.
- Bob I just one functional one you can do
is when you brush your teeth at night.
Just go ahead and brush your teeth while your on one foot.
(Brad laughs)
It actually is good training.
Time to remember it every day, too.
- Well sure.
Brushing teeth.
- All right thanks for watching.
(Brad laughs)