♪ 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.
- Today we're gonna talk about tight calves.
We're not talking about cows,
we're talking about tight muscles in your calf,
and we're showing you three different things you should try
if you have tight muscles.
- That's right, two things or three that work well.
And should we get right at it, Bob?
- Yeah, we're gonna start off with the foam roller.
I'll go ahead and do this, Brad.
If you don't mind moving this stuff out of the way.
- So we're getting to do some soft tissue,
some deeper soft tissue massage, if you will.
We're using a six inch foam roller.
This is 36 inches long.
You could get the shorter one if you wanted to,
but this is nice because it has other applications.
- Yeah, what's nice about these foam rollers,
they're really pretty respectful...
As respectfully inexpensive.
Is that a good way to put it?
- And they'll last forever
as long as you treat them properly as they should be.
- Oh, just like your spouse, Brad.
If you treat her properly...
- Bob, I think we better not go there.
(laughter)
- All right, so what I'm doing is I'm getting...
You know, if you're in a hurry,
you can do both calves at once.
Which is a real benefit.
And you lift your butt up
and you'll get a lot more pressure.
If you're trying to really focus on one calf
and really hit an area,
you can actually cross your legs over like this.
- So a lot more aggressive
and you may not start out with this,
but start with two and then work your way into that.
- Now, a sign that your calf is tight
and the sign that it needs work
is if it's painful.
If you don't have a blood clot.
But you can also check it.
And I do this one every morning,
is I actually turn the foot out
and put a little pressure on it
because all of a sudden my calves are often really sore.
- So you're getting a little bit different
fibers of the muscle.
- And you can also turn it in.
This one doesn't bother me as much,
but this one for some reason gets me.
- Really? It's just the opposite for me.
- Is it really?
- Yep, the outer fibers are much more comfortable
than when I turn it in like you.
So again, you're probably not going to do this
on your bed or a soft...
It's gonna be done...
Carpeted floor works the best.
- It's gonna be a lot more intense
if you can do that.
And what's nice about a foam roller,
you can use it for the muscles then.
For other muscles.
- Right, you can do your hamstrings, quads, shoulders, back.
I really like it for my back.
- All right.
Next one, Brad, is slant board.
- Oh, this is not a slant board. There you go.
- You know what? I'm really impressed with this one.
It's called the Pro Slant, it's by OPTP.
O-P-T-P.
We'll put a link below.
But it's actually...
They had one that wasn't firm enough.
I'm providing this criticism now,
but they did correct it.
And this one is plenty firm.
- Yeah, I do like the feel of this one.
- Yes, I do too.
And they give you two of them for the price of one.
- Which is really nice
because if you want a little more aggressive slant,
you can stack them on top of each other
and you get a more aggressive angle.
- Right, or you can keep one, you know...
- Different locations. - Different locations.
- This is gonna to be good for the vast majority of people.
- Right, right.
And what I do, Brad, actually
to make it a little more...
I'm gonna get that out of the way.
To make it little more tense,
is I put it near my bed.
Can you catch me over here, Mike?
And I work it this way.
But when I wanna really get going,
I lean way forward like this.
And I can do it with the leg straight and the leg bent.
And you can see my heel coming up already
'cause I'm leaning over it.
This is a really intense stretch, Brad,
as opposed to just being straight up like this.
You can also go bring the one foot forward.
But this really...
This is more aggressive than me doing it on the stairs.
- He's going to get more into the soleus,
which is a deeper muscle
as opposed to when the knee is straight.
- But you can get the gastroc too
just by keeping the leg straight.
But leaning forward like this
really made a big difference for me.
Again, I really like this one.
Really comfortable.
- Very nice, Bob.
- All right, the last thing we're gonna talk about--
- Wait, your shoes even match the color.
That's a nice...
I didn't really realize that. - Planned that, yeah.
So last one is these pro pods.
Now this is a little plastic device
with little bumps on it.
- It's not plastic, Bob, it's rubber.
Air-filled.
- Rubber, air-filled.
Sorry.
So what I like to do with devices like this is...
It's a Kelly Starrett technique.
He wrote the book Supple Leopard.
And what he does is he'll find a tender spot on the calf
or whatever muscle.
- Yeah, so this same technique
that Bob is gonna demonstrate
could be used on any muscle in the body pretty much.
- Right, what you'll find is
muscles sometimes get adhesed down
to the structures below them.
And so what you do is called tack and twist.
See you hit like this and you actually twist it.
- [Brad] So the bumps are beneficial
to kind of grab the skin and you get a little more twist
and you get to breakup those adhesions a little easier.
- [Bob] I'ma hit the outside of my calf.
And see, I do feel that more on that area.
- And you know, these devices are made
more than just for this.
I like to use these on my bottom of my feet, actually.
- Bottom of the feet,
and also you can actually do tack and twist
on the top of the foot.
'Cause that gets it down really quick.
My wife loves these for her...
She was having trouble with her high hamstring,
and she sits on 'em.
- Didn't you say she's used it in her car?
- She was in her car.
Where I got these two, Brad,
I probably shouldn't even tell you.
- Don't, you're going to embarrass your wife.
- No, I'm not going to embarrass her.
But she had the two sitting in her seat on her office chair.
So she sits on these all the time.
- Really? - Yeah.
She sits on 'em like this.
- That's probably very beneficial.
- Yeah, it is. It is.
- Probably not as bad as putting up with you, I don't know.
- When she drives a car,
she would have so much pain there for a while,
she had to stop.
But now she's able to just...
She gets done, she has no pain at all.
I think it takes stress off the sit bones
and puts pressure on areas she can tolerate.
- Right, so spreads out that pressure
in the less effected or painful areas.
- So again, the calf muscles tack and twist.
- Oh yeah, we kind of got off--
- We got off on a tangent.
- Well, I thought it was important to mention
that these are not just for a calf.
- Yeah, and you get two of them.
So you can keep one in your car
and keep one by your desk.
- And if you put 'em like that, it looks kind of neat.
It's like they're glued together.
- Looks like a virus.
(laughter)
All right.
(upbeat music)