♪ Bob and Brad the two most famous ♪
♪ physical therapists on the internet ♪
- Bob today, I wanna talk about stretching the psoas
or the hip flexor, and as you know
there's like so many ways to stretch it
and oftentimes they're complicated
- right
- Like twisting into a pretzel.
Well, this is the easiest, in my opinion, hip flexor stretch
or psoas stretch that you can do at home at
- any age
- any age.
- All right. Brad how do we do this stretch?
- Okay. So the hip flexors, you know, they're, I always
tell my patients where you put your hands in your pocket
they're right in there,
- right there.
And they also go in deep up and
- yes
- underneath the stomach
- difficult To get at
- They are.
But this stretch, I would have to say.
And I, maybe you agree with me.
I, I think you talked about this before
- I concur Brad.
- Yes. So what we're gonna do, and I have a friend right now
she's I think she's 71 or 72 and she's having this problem.
And so I'm coaching her on this and
so on the edge of your bed
now, if you have a soft bed, this gets difficult
- right
- You wanna grab the throw pillow for me
- and You also, Brad
you wanna make sure you keep your shoulders well on the bed.
- Yes. So I'm moving this shoulders well on
move the hips to the edge. So one leg can go off
- there You go.
- Now I've tried my bed's a little soft.
I put a pillow underneath my butt and that works as long
as things don't get slippery.
- Sure.
- It just helps a little bit.
And you you're gonna have to use your judgment on that.
That gives me a little height if your foot hits the floor
as well.
So I'm just gonna let this leg hang and just
you'll feel the stretch here.
And if you don't feel it yet, grab this knee and pull it up
and that stabilizes the pelvis and puts a little stretch
on there.
And Bob, do you wanna talk about where the knee should be?
- Yeah.
The knee should actually be somewhat straight.
- Yeah.
Because we don't wanna stretch the Rectus femoris
- Right. And we wanna isolate that psoas
So if I go like this, that's not good.
We wanna keep that out and just relaxed then that
- Show Brad, how, when you pull on this
this leg actually comes up.
- Yep.
- So you can see he's stretching it.
- Yep. Now, if you wanna make it a little more aggressive
and it's really the most critical thing is
that you relax
- right.
- And breathe.
I'm gonna lock this in
with this hand and I can gently push down here.
We're gonna hold this for 15 to 30 seconds.
If that's too much, you know
take a break and bring this leg back up, let it relax
and then go back at it.
And do this, you know, three to five times
- Brad, can you use the massage gun when you're
in this position?
- That's a good point.
So the massage area is going to be where the femoral crease
is that's where your thigh ends and your
the creases where your belly starts.
You can massage by hand, but it's hard.
It's very, it's a deep muscle.
So if you happen to have a massage gun, I would say
use the one with the round head.
Now the big thing about this, it can work well.
And it feels really good.
Just stay away from your glands right here.
- Right
- Or lymph nodes, because they're
they don't like that beating on them.
So I'm gonna go here and start
on my thigh and just kinda work my way up.
I'm not gonna go straight in.
Although you may be able to depending
on how aggressive your massage, this should feel very good.
If it hurts at all, it's too aggressive.
It's not the right thing for you.
- And if you stay a little more to the outside
you're gonna be better off
- You know? And actually that's what I like to do.
I'll go here and I'll actually go back
and I'll get some of the glute muscles.
- Sure Sure.
- And it just relaxes me and it feels good.
So yeah.
- Now you can also have a partner come
in and get a little assistance.
- Right?
- I'm gonna give my leg a little rest before Bob helps.
And now it's really critical that your partner
who helps you, you trust them completely.
If you don't feel comfortable with him.
- Oh Brad, you trust Me.
- Well, I don't trust Bob for the video.
You know what I gotta do?
No. So Bob is gonna gently
- He's got witnesses.
- Yeah. So gently stabilize here
and then his other hand is gonna go here now, Bob
you're not putting very much pressure on
- No I'm not
- very little and I'd say that's good.
- Yeah.
- You should not stretch to the point of pain.
You should stretch to the point of feeling a stretch.
- You should be guided by the person receiving this stretch.
- Yeah. So if I say, hold, then Bob's gonna hold.
He's not gonna bounce on it or do any silly things
like that.
Again, that person has to be a very
confident person that you feel comfortable With.
- We'll show off the edge of the bed Brad.
- Yep.
- If you don't feel comfortable on the edge of the bed
we'll go to the other option is go to the end of the bed.
You know, sit down.
This doesn't work.
Obviously, if you have a big foot rail
or whatever you call that headrest first.
- Right?
- So here I am
I sit down and now you're, you don't have that.
feeling of falling off. I'm gonna grab here
and I'm just gonna let that leg hang again.
I can do it manually.
You can do the massage again the same way.
If Bob wants to come in
it's probably a little easier for someone to assist.
Hold, hold that leg, Bob.
Now push this one up a little bit.
Yeah. That feels better when you do it that way.
- Sure.
- And so that's what you can do.
You can, you need to be able to instruct
your assistant, how to do this
Bob and I have done this on patients over the years.
- Right. - `And we, you know, you learn
- We have a good feel for it
- Yeah. The Nice thing about the end
is you can do both sides.
- right
- Usually there one tight you can
- Flip around.
- Otherwise you gotta flip around in the bed
- right
and it's a lot of gyrations Bob.
My whole right hip is feeling
- yeah
- So much better
- You're a little offset now
- I'm walking circles.
- Yeah. - So very good, good luck
with that hip psoas and hip flexors.
You'll do well with this.
Take your time and be careful.