- Today we are gonna show you
how and why hip stretches are gonna help your back pain.
Stick around.
- Excellent Bob.
♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous physical therapists on the internet. ♪
- So, Brad, if your hips are limited
you can't get full movement out of them when you're bending
or squatting or straddling.
- Oh, they're limited in range of motion.
- Right.
So, if I go down like this and I can't go any further.
What's gonna happen to get down to the floor?
My back is your gonna round out.
- So the back will compensate
for the loss of range of motion in the hips.
- Same with a straddle.
If I straddle like this and I can't get
down any further than this, I will round out.
- Okay.
- And that's not good.
- No, no.
So we wanna make sure the hips have a full range
of motion and it's healthy for the hips regardless.
- Right, so Brad's gonna show us a full routine on the bed.
- Oh, excellent.
I didn't know that.
(Bob laughs) I'll help.
- Okay, when Brad wakes up in the morning
the hips are gonna be a little stiff
so we want to warm up them up.
- Yeah.
- So Brad, what do you do?
- I'm gonna bring my knees up like so
bring my feet together and my knees together, gently.
And maintain that position with touching,
but then we're gonna do this motion and keep them together.
And keep my shoulders flat to the bed
and my head on the pillow.
And this is stretching the hip as well.
Little bit of low back range of motion.
- Yeah, incidentally, you're getting the back too.
- Yep. - So double bonus.
- Yep, so you go back and forth 10 to 15 times.
If you happen to have pain one direction
just go up to the pain
and go as far as you feel comfortable the other direction.
And more than likely they'll loosen up
with, you know, after repetitions.
And there you go.
- And what's your name for this, Brad?
- My name is Brad. (Bob laughs)
Oh, well I call this the windshield wipers, actually.
- Very good.
- I've always did that with patients
so they could relate to it.
Easier to remember.
- All right, next Brad, we're gonna stretch the hip flexors.
- Okay.
- Which, you like to say, are right where
your front pocket is.
- Yep, right in there.
- So how you gonna do that, Brad?
- Well, if you're lying on the bed, a nice easy way to
do it right here.
My right hip is here.
That's the one that I'm gonna stretch.
My shoulders will stay on the bed fully.
I'm gonna slide. - Right.
- [Bob] No falling off the bed.
- Yep. - Safety first.
- Slide my right hip,
so my butt cheek is just off the side of the bed.
And then allow that leg to go down and stretch.
Now I feel a stretch here.
Now if I want it a little more aggressive
I'm gonna grab this leg
and I'm gonna pull this knee towards my chest.
- [Bob] And you could see how
the leg lifts, while he's lifting this leg.
- So as I do that, that's promoting
a stronger stretch on this hip flexor.
Now, if you're having a hard time grabbing
this knee, you can take a belt like this
under your knee or over the top, whatever works out best.
And that's a little easier.
What works even better
particularly if you have, like, arthritic hands.
- [Bob] That's a stretch strap.
- Yep, and then you simply will do the same thing.
But with this, there's loops every six inches
and then you don't have to grasp, you can use your arms.
It's just an option if you have that situation.
- [Bob] Awesome, Brad.
- Yep.
- Alright, this next one is quite simple, Brad.
All you're gonna do is bend the hip.
- So, in the therapy world we call it flexing the hip
like this.
We're gonna go up like this and-
- [Bob] One at a time. - Yep, one at a time.
Pull here.
Now you can do it with this knee up
or down will be a little more aggressive
and it'll help the opposite hip.
- [Bob] Right.
And so we're gonna pull and relax.
If you wanna hold it.
- [Bob] Pressure on, pressure off.
- Yep.
- [Bob] Pressure on, pressure off.
- You know, you can hold it for longer duration
if you wanna do it that way. 15 to 30 seconds max.
I like pressure on, pressure off.
- A good 5 to 10 times.
- Do both hips.
You can, again, use the strap or the belt
as we talked about in the previous stretch.
- Very good.
Alright, this next one has a number named after it, Brad.
- Yes.
- It's called the figure four stretch.
- That's right.
So this is a really nice one, it's one of my favorite ones.
You can do this two different ways.
Start out with your legs flat.
I'm gonna stretch my right hip.
I'm gonna bend the knee, take my ankle
go on top of the knee over here, above the knee cap.
And if you're looking from the ceiling down
it looks like a figure four.
That's why we got that name.
- [Bob] Right.
Let gravity pull that knee down.
If it feels okay there, and you want more of a stretch,
take your hand put some gentle pressure down like that.
If that's easy, simply bring your other leg up like this.
It'll make the stretch a little more aggressive.
Again, you can put some pressure here if there's no pain,
just a nice healthy stretch feel.
And if you're really flexible, you can do this.
And you know that will be, you know, for the more-
- [Bob] Advanced.
- Yep, and again, you want to do this on both legs.
Get done with one, do the other.
Hold, stretch and hold for 10 repetitions.
Or hold for 15 to 30.
- We have one more, Brad.
- Oh, one more what?
- Stretch. - Oh good.
Excellent, I'm stretching out.
- The final stretch, Brad is actually hip internal rotation.
- Ooh.
- We just did kind of external rotation.
Now turn it in.
- Right, so we're talking about what's going on.
I think of it with the femur.
This is internal.
We want it to go this way.
So the foot -
- [Bob] No, that's external.
- Oh yeah. (laughs)
I get that mixed up all the time.
I used to do that in school too.
So what I'm gonna do is make sure I have room over here.
And I'm gonna bring this foot over like this.
And I'm gonna let the knee go down.
So the foot is actually
on the outside of the body, so to speak.
And just do that.
You know, if you're on a bigger bed
it actually works better.
You can kind of finagle your body
around to see how it works.
Again, you should not create any sharp pain in the hip.
If you do, you should not do this stretch.
It just should feel like a nice stretch.
- Brad, another way you can do it is actually
keep your legs together and bring this one over like that
and pull it into an internal rotation.
- Actually, this one I like better.
I forgot about that, initially.
This gets that IT band, the hip, a little more.
- [Bob] A little more aggressive.
- And it's easier to do in general.
I wanna do the other side to balance myself.
But yeah, nice.
Yeah, I kind of- - There you go.
You finish that up and you'll be ready for the day.
- That's right.
Be careful.
(upbeat music)