♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ the two most famous ♪
♪ physical therapists ♪
♪ on the internet ♪
- Wake up Brad.
Hi, folks, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- And we are the most famous
physical therapists on the internet.
- In our opinion of course, Bob.
- Today we're going to talk about calf tear, or strain.
Never do this!
- Mm.
- Never do this.
Do this instead, to heal fast.
- There you go.
So, Bob?
- Brad?
- We've got some work to do.
- All right, by the way, if you're new to our channel,
please take a second to subscribe to us.
We provide videos, how to stay healthy, fit, pain free.
And, we upload everyday.
And yes, sir ee bob,
you're gonna wanna join us on our social media channels
and our website because we're giving away
a SleepOvation mattress. - A nice mattress.
- So go to the give away section on bobandbrad.com
and you can sign up for that.
You can also go to BobandBrad on Facebook.
It'll be pinned to the top of the page.
Want a short version of us,
you're tired of us rambling on,
go to Twitter or Instagram.
We have a 60 second version of our program.
- There ya go. - Everyday!
- So a calf strain.
Often times occurs either from over use,
maybe you went for a walk and you have not walked.
You went three miles and you haven't walked more than--
- Too much, too soon.
- Too much, too soon. - Yeah, a lot of runners.
- Repetitive motion.
Or, yeah, maybe, in my case,
I ran a five mile race and I really wasn't prepared for it
but I thought I'll just do it.
It'll be okay.
Well-- - You can't get away
with that stuff anymore.
- At mile four my calves start talking to me.
And the, otherwise it could be a traumatic thing.
Say you're playing baseball.
You're accelerating from first base to second.
- The weekend athlete
and you hadn't been doing any sprinting
and all the sudden you sprint. - Right.
And then you, you know hopefully it's just a strain or tear
and you don't rip the achilles tendon
or something of that nature.
- Yeah, you could be playing basketball
and jump and land. - There you go.
- You know that's what's great for me at my age
I can only jump this high.
So you can't get hurt, you can't hurt anything.
- Well at 6'6" you don't need to jump much Bob.
- Yeah that's right.
- Anyways, yeah stand up and show em.
- That's right.
- So two things ya never should do
and right away the first thing is,
people think oh I strained my muscle I better
- [Both] stretch it out.
- Well you've already got the muscle tissue in there
that's been actually tore, slightly.
And if it's a bad tear, you've actually could have torn it
and if you take a muscle that's tore
and you actually stretch it, you just tear it some more.
- Right.
- So those first couple days especially,
and I'm thinking more depending on how severe it is,
you're not gonna go after it and stretch it.
- Right.
- You're gonna put a cold pack on it, not heat.
Particularly those first two days.
If you put heat on something that's already inflamed
and sore it might feel good
but the inflammation is gonna get worse as a result of it.
- Right, I mean the inflammation to some extent is good.
- Right. - But it over does it.
The body goes crazy and then it actually prevents healing,
because there's too much swelling.
- Right.
- So that's why we wanna put cold on it
for the first 24 to 48 hours, at least.
- Right, so those are the two big never things
that commonly are misunderstood.
Now we wanna do what you should do.
And like Bob said get a cold pack.
A nice gel cold pack.
I've gotta get these things out of the way Bob.
Ya know, I'm gonna talk about my,
I got these darn socks
and they're my work socks so it's not like,
I don't work out with gargoyle socks on,
let me tell ya that.
- [Bob] Argyle.
- Argyle, well I'll get it Bob.
So mine is a low calf strain.
It's actually in the soleus,
that's the lower muscle.
Then you got the gastroc up here
but, you know, it's nice if you can wrap a cold pack
right around it.
Get in the recliner, read a book, watch TV, whatever.
Give it twenty minutes and then--
- [Bob] Cool it down. - Yep, cool it down.
And if you're the type of person
that responds well to ibuprofen
makes sure you get on a regiment of that.
I don't like to get on that for too long,
three days, you know.
- And that's what the pharmacist had told us
is three days and they even said,
beef up the amount a little bit.
But we're not gonna recommend that.
You gotta make sure it's okay with your doctor.
I don't know what other medications you might be on.
- Right, exactly.
- But it's an anti-inflammatory
so it's trying to calm the inflammation.
- Right, so you combine that a cold initially
and then some gentle massage on that calf.
So you're not gonna get in real deep, right away.
- No, just trying to get some movement.
- Just get some circulation going, you know,
work it up this way.
And whatever feels good.
You're not gonna get after it too much yet.
- [Bob] Yeah and if it hurts on the spot where its tore
and it really is tender there,
just work around it.
You know, massage around the other area.
- It typically, you will find one spot,
about the size of a quarter or a little more than that,
that is that hot spot and that's where the tear is.
- I having gone through this Brad, myself,
this last winter and you've gone through it.
How long did it take you, like from start to finish.
Before you were back to running again?
- It's hard to say Bob, it's been awhile.
I just strained this one a week and a half ago.
And I ran three days ago, on and off, just about a mile
and yesterday I ran 3/4 of a mile straight.
- So you start to feel.
- Yeah, when, as soon as it starts to bother me
I start walking, I don't push it.
- Yeah, it, I would say it took me two months
before I got back to full out running.
Like you said, I would do quite a bit of that
little bit of run, little bit of walk.
- The walk, run, right.
- You can feel when it's just starting to get too much
and you back off.
- And actually, typically, after about a week or so,
it may be more or less than that,
it's time to get in there.
Your scar tissue's building up on the injured area
and you want to break that scar tissue up.
And this can be a really big thing
that's gonna accelerate the healing.
- Right, so, yeah, this is a very valid point
that you wanna make sure.
What'd you say after how long, would you say a couple weeks?
- Yeah, I mean, I just started mine about a week and a half.
It's gonna vary from person to person
and how you've been treating it.
But if you get, you'll find that tender spot.
Let's say that tender spot is right here.
Which actually it is, but it's on the other leg.
But it would be hard to show ya.
I'd have to sit in Bob's position.
But you're gonna get in there
and the fibers, the muscle fibers run vertical.
So you wanna do a cross fiber.
- [Bob] Yeah, so this isn't just regular massage.
We're talking a cross fiber massage.
He's really getting in there with his thumbs.
- [Brad] I'm pushing into the muscle.
It's gonna be a little painful
and I'm gonna work back and forth.
And I actually look at a clock
and if after thirty seconds the pain is not resolved
or feeling better or kind of numbish, I'm done.
I'll go back to a cold pack.
And I won't do cross friction for another day or two.
But if you start to feel, it feels better,
typically after fifteen to twenty seconds
I'll have people or myself say, oh,
your patients I'm talking about,
that feels better after a little bit.
That's a green light.
That means you can start doing cross friction massage,
you know up to three times a day or even more.
- Yeah, what I did is, I would do a little bit of that
and then I did use a massager like this because--
- Your thumbs get tired!
- Your thumbs get tired
and I would just do it while I was watching TV.
I'd just put it up and then you can go for 20 minutes
and not even think twice about it.
You know and it was a great time to do it
cause, that's usually nonproductive time.
And if you got, this is the Renpho massager.
We like this one because it's very inexpensive.
- Yeah and it does a nice job.
It reciprocates, it doesn't,
so it gets deeper in the muscle.
- [Bob] It percusses basically.
- Yeah percusses, yeah thank you.
You can see it work that muscle right there.
- [Bob] It's got different heads on it
so that it can really get in there.
Like that's a good one.
- [Brad] Yeah, this one would be a good one to work.
As a matter of fact I was using this
before the video on my other leg.
The other thing is the roller.
It's been very popular over the last few years.
This is a little aggressive for my calf.
I've been doing it with both legs on there.
And to get - [Bob] At this point
in the healing process
it's a little aggressive for you Brad?
- If I go like this to get more pressure.
Actually its better than it was yesterday.
So things are moving along.
I'm hoping to get back to running in another week.
Seven days, I'll give it seven days.
How bout a week? - All right.
You like that seven number.
- Yeah, so that's a nice one.
You could work this for a few minutes.
And we got the massage.
I think that is a critical point with a calf strain
is to get in there and do the massage on that muscle
as well as any other area.
- Yeah, that's probably the number one thing
we're gonna have you do.
The other thing is, when you do progress to walk and running
when you start walking you may even put a little heel wedge
in your heel. - Sure.
- Cause that'll take some of the stress off the calf.
You could take a, even a piece of carpet
and just cut out the shape of a heel
and put it in your shoe.
- You should do it on both feet.
Otherwise one leg gets longer the other.
- Yeah, it could throw you off.
- And then the goal is you'll take em out, obviously,
after a week or so.
- Move away from it after,
you can buy a heel cup too, you know.
- Sure.
- At just a regular one of the big box stores,
they have them.
- So the idea is once you start walking, you know,
in my case I'll go a mile.
I've got my walks, my run stuff all figured out
for my workouts.
I'll go a mile if after a mile there's no pain,
which I came on fairly quick
within a week, week and a half, whatever,
then I'll start to run
and as soon as I start to feel that pain
I don't push it.
I stop and start walking.
You gotta be disciplined.
Don't use that no pain, no gain
cause it's gonna set ya back
and then, you know, take two steps forward and three back.
It's not gonna help.
- Yeah, what I actually did when I was,
cause it was during the winter,
I actually was on the treadmill
and I would actually take weight on my arms.
- Oh, yeah. - And then I could run
a little bit further, you know,
because I wasn't putting as much stress on the calf.
And then I'd try to run without my arms, you know,
without holding on.
- Oh, I thought maybe
you were trying to run without your feet,
You just hold your body weight up
and let your legs go like Fred Flintstone.
- I just saw a funny cartoon, was a podiatrist cartoon
and he was seeing Fred Flintstone and he's like,
well you gotta start using your feet as breaks.
Old people understand what that means.
- Yeah, people fifty and older get that one.
- All right, remember Brad and I
can fix just about anything.
- Except for.
- A broken heart.
- But we're working on that as well.
- Yeah, it's about time you get to it.
- Well I know Bob, I've been busy lately.
I'm gonna get at it. - All right, thanks.