♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet. ♪
(groans)
- Minus 27 degrees this morning, Brad.
- Oh yes.
- Hi folks, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- And Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- And we're the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- In our opinion of course, Bob.
- Why do we live in a place where
the cold..the face.. the wind
I just...totally screwing this up.
Why the wind makes my face hurt.
- Bob, because --
- The air makes my face hurt.
- We are tougher and strong like bull.
- Alright.
- We are just tough people.
- Today we're talking about five simple exercises
for knee osteoarthritis that you can do at home.
- Yep.
- These are ones that do some involve equipment
and some do not.
Right? - Right.
- Right.
- Okay.
- So, you know, we have this all the time.
When we're in the clinic, people have arthritis.
Often times, they'll say, can you go to a therapist
get some exercises?
To either prolong before you have a knee replacement
or in preparation before you get the knee replacement.
- Or after the knee replacement.
- There--
- Some of these are good too.
- Exactly.
- And some cases you can extend it for years
where you don't have the knee replacement.
- Sure.
That's the goal.
- Yeah, it's amazing.
If you start getting some movement
and exercise in there the difference it can make.
- Sure, yep.
- By the way, if you're new to our channel,
please take a second just subscribe to us.
We provide videos on how to stay healthy,
fit, pain-free and we upload everyday.
And we're very proud to say
that we've hit a million subscribers.
- One million.
- Very nice.
- And you have to join us on our social media platform.
It's Instagram is our latest one.
And you definitely wanna join us
on Facebook BobandBrad because
Brad and I have decided,
we've made the executive decision.
We are gonna give away something
every week for the whole year.
- Yeah.
- It's gonna be the giveaway challenge.
- Right, and we're just not giving away trinkets either.
We're giving away some good, healthy--
- That's right.
- Tips...gifts.
Wow, okay Bob, knee pain.
- Can we talk about the first thing
that we generally tell people?
- Right.
If you have a flare up,
your knee is hurting you.
This is one thing that some people
are reluctant to do,
but it can be really helpful
and that is pull out the cane.
- Yeah.
This makes a huge difference.
I...for some people, honest to gosh,
all day I have them do is this,
and they come back and they go
the pain is gone.
- Sure.
- I mean, and it's not something we're telling you
you're gonna do on a permanent basis.
- Right.
- Knee pain tends to flare up and it calms down.
And sometimes just by using the cane,
you'll get it to calm down.
Stop using the cane and it stays calm down
for a...for a while.
- Right.
- And you can use a crutch,
you know, a single crutch.
- Right.
- You wanna look like more like an athlete
that got hurt.
(laughs)
Or you know, you can use a walker,
but anything to help take some of the weight off there.
- Right.
So, you know, if you...
if you are gonna do that
we're not gonna go through it here,
but we have a ...
Couple videos - a video on how to use it.
- Adjust the cane and use it.
- Right.
- Because if it's your right knee
you're gonna use it in your left hand
and the sequence and all that
will be clear in the video.
The second thing that goes along with this
but not least important, probably equally is,
range of motion.
- Yeah.
- You wanna start getting some movement in that knee.
- Right.
And these exercises like the title says they're simple.
- Yep.
- The first thing, you know
I've had a number of knee patients
in the last few months work this.
And successfully.
In a chair, you know,
posture, posture, don't be a slouch in the chair.
Get up and good posture and--
- And Brad, do you mind if..
When we say movement,
we're saying non-weight bearing movement
to the large extent if you can.
- Right, right.
- So, Brad's not putting weight on it and moving,
he's...he's sitting down and taking the weight off
and moving it.
- Precisely.
So, and you wanna do these
you just don't wanna kick your leg.
We call these you know,
kicks or long arc quads in the therapy world.
You're not just gonna kick it out,
but with good motion and good control motion.
So, we're gonna kick out to here
and you wanna try and get full extension
this last few degrees could oftentimes
be the most important part of the range.
So, if you're having a hard time getting up there,
you can use that cane that you're walking with
in here and pull it up.
And that little bit right there,
you wanna make sure you get,
if you can get it.
And then down,
and bring it down to here
and work at least 10 of those.
Okay, and do those two or three times a day.
- What's nice, you can do this at your office chair
or in your living room.
I mean you can...
You know, and that's why it's nice
cause you can do it anywhere.
- Right.
- At anytime, but just nice and controlled
so start building up that quad strength.
- Sure.
Exactly.
Getting that range plus some strength
and then also you wanna get the knee to bend
and foot flexes as far as it can.
It's probably not as important to straighten it
but you still wanna get it.
And you can, you know,
pull your foot underneath the chair.
Now if you..
If you got a shiny floor
you can put your sock on
and that'll help so it doesn't drag on the floor so much.
You can pull here with your hands,
and gently pull.
Sometimes, you know if you're comfortable,
bring it up, up to here like that
you can do that.
Depends on your hips and..
- Yeah, and really nice.
Again, you can do this anywhere.
You can do it throughout the day.
And we recommend in fact that,
this isn't something you do once a day.
- Right.
- This is something you can do...
This is maybe a little exaggerated but
you could do this every hour.
- Sure.
- I mean yeah but certainly
three to five times a day.
- Yep.
And that's what's gonna make the difference.
That's when you're gonna start seeing the magic happen
when you start getting a little bit a gain.
- Right.
- And strength and range.
- Bob, do you wanna..?
Get the next...the next thing?
Now, this is a little step up,
this is a something that helps out quite a bit.
- Especially if you're headed towards the knee replacement.
- Right.
- [Bob] You're definitely gonna wanna have one of these.
- [Brad] Right.
It's called a knee glide.
We do have a blow on our favorite products.
We're partial to it because as therapists
we got sick and tired
of having people trying to do this,
especially on carpet at home,
it's hard to slide your foot on carpet.
And so we do this and we actually invented this
and it works really well
and it doesn't cost very much.
And then you can do some consistent motion.
And you do this two to three to f...
You know
two to three...
Two to three minutes.
You could go up to five minutes but
you're gonna get tired.
But that's the other thing.
It increases the strength.
- And generally what I recommend to people, Brad is
you know, you move it like that
you go ahead and move it
and warm it up.
- Yeah.
- And then every so often you take the other leg
and you pull it back.
And if that gets too easy, then you go off the toe.
Put it on the toe and pull it back.
Just..I have two people using this right now
and they're doing it exactly like we just said.
- Sure.
- It just gets...so much better
so much better results than it does on the floor.
- Right, yep.
That...
It's a tool made for that.
The other nice option it has is
you can out it up at a angle like this.
- And that works out really well
cause it's just the way the ankle
is angled and especially with some people.
This really makes it a lot easier to do.
And you're going downhill now.
- Yep.
- So...
- Yeah, when you got a flare up
it's amazing what a little change in resistance
or on the angle can make and---
- Now he's got the angle towards going up
towards the back
and now he's working the hamstring a little bit more.
- Right.
So good, that's a real nice product.
That can help you out
and like Bob said especially if you're gonna get
a knee replacement cause you're gonna use it before
the surgery and afterwards, it's...
- Yeah, I just have to tell you a quick story.
I have a friend that's my age
that got a knee replacement
and I ended up getting him all this stuff he needs.
You know, commode and I don't know
a sliding board and a...
You know, one of those pick up sticks
what do you..?
Grabbers?
- Leg lifts.
Leg lifts.
- Oh, and the grabbers.
I gave the knee glide, he gave me back everything
he kept the knee glide.
(laughs)
cause he still wanted to get a little more range
and he never did come back.
(laughs)
So...
- Well.
- Must be his favorite product.
- You bet.
Okay, now the next thing.
Not just in a seated position but
you know, particularly before you
get outta bed in the morning
you gonna be stiff--
- [Bob] Yeah, here's a great morning routine for you.
- Those joints are stiff.
So the first thing is just straighten that leg out
and see if you can get that little bit again,
the end range are all the way straight
is important, you can pull your toes back,
feel these muscles work,
and do 10 of those.
- [Bob] Well, I would even say Brad
you can go ahead and--
- Put a pillow under the ankle?
- [Bob] You have a pillow,
throw a pillow underneath the heel.
- Yep.
- And then, then work on pulling that knee back.
- Yep.
- [Bob] That's a great exercise to do.
Now you're strengthening the quad and
you're stretching it into extension.
- Right.
So you get a air gap under here
so that you can get full range.
Good point, Bob.
And then, you also do straight leg raises
for more strength to the quad
and you know, hip flexers as well.
- What's nice about that,
you're strengthening the knee
without putting stress on the joint.
- Right.
- So you're strengthening the muscles around it,
stabilizing it--
- Precisely.
Okay, and then, after that
you wanna get the knee to bend.
Now you can do the single knee to chest like this
and you can grab here or here
wherever it works out
to see if you can get the knee to flex
all the way to the end.
And work it like that and you know
do what, 10 reps of that as well.
Great thing to do before you get moving
just to get that joint ready for weight bearing.
If you do happen to have the knee glide
this is where it really shines as well.
You wanna grab that, Bob?
- Hello.
- Because, if you could do heel slides
and this is one of the exercises they always...
Always recommend after surgery.
But you know, you're sliding across
and this doesn't work well.
Now, if you have this
- And sometimes we even take a towel.
- Right, cause you probably not
gonna have a shoe on in bed.
- You won't have a shoe on
so this ...this just helps to---
- Little cushion there
and this is just wonderful.
It just slides back and forth like you're on...
You know just...
- [Bob] On ice.
- I was gonna say ice
but its too cold for that.
- [Bob] Yeah, I don't even wanna mention that.
- We had minus 29 degrees below this morning
where I live so---
- [Bob] Oh my gosh!
- We're thinking...
You know Bahamas--
- [Bob] And some wind.
- Yeah.
- There was some wind chill too.
- So again,
with that you can do 10, 20 or 30 reps.
Whatever it takes
and its exercising the muscles plus working the knee.
You're gonna feel much better
when you get up and start walking around.
So, Bob what say you?
- I think that's covers it, Brad
and the key is getting some motion
what you may not realize is that
your knee kinda produces a synovial fluid
which is kind of like a lubricant.
- Exactly.
- And that produces it when there's movements.
So that's why the movement is the key--
- Right.
- To trying to get this knee pain to calm down.
- Joints love the move, Bob.
- That's right.
- Keep 'em moving and they'll be happy.
- Alright, lets move on out.
(laughs)
- Wow, Bob.