♪ 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 most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- In our opinion of course, Bob.
- Today, we're gonna answer the question,
is your ankle way too tight?
And we're gonna tell you how to tell and how to fix it.
- Right, an ankle range of motion flexibility
is absolutely critical for activity, balance, strength.
- Well, especially for squatting.
And it was a friend of my daughters who contacted me.
We'll say his name is Kyle,
because that's his name, Kyle.
(Brad laughing)
He's doing CrossFit now.
- Oh.
- And he needs more ankle range of motion.
So, this video is for you, Kyle.
- Yeah, those CrossFit people are aggressive.
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- Yeah we got the podcast, now.
- This won't be on a podcast. But...
- So Kyle, the first thing you want to do
is you wanna know whether or not you're improving.
And I know you, we talked about this,
but what you want to do is I want you to take a ruler.
If you have a ruler.
- Yeah. Yardstick.
- Yardstick.
- You'll see exactly.
- Put it up against the wall.
Like this one through 36 goes this way.
So one starts by the wall.
And what you're gonna do
is you wanna see how close you can get to the wall.
I'm gonna put mine at a little less than six inches
and I'm gonna bend my knee forward.
And if my heel comes up.
- Right here,
- [Bob] That means I got to get closer.
- Yep.
- [Bob] But right now I'm at five and a half inches or so.
And I'm keeping my heel down
and I'm just making it to the wall,
without my heel coming up.
- It's just barely starting a little bit to go.
So, at the tip of his toe is what we're looking at.
It doesn't-
- [Bob] That's five inches isn't it?
- [Brad] Yeah. It's five inches.
- [Bob] Okay.
- [Brad] Make sure you got your glasses on.
- And five inches is the normal.
I mean, if you can, most people can do five inches.
- Sure.
- If they have decent range of motion.
- Sure.
- But you know, you wanna get more
if you're gonna be squatting.
- So, and then you're going to check both feet.
- Oh, you can check both feet
and then you're also going to check it before
and after you do the stretches.
So you can see if you're improving.
- Absolutely.
- It's a motivational thing.
- Yep, this is a really good objective way
to measure it for, at home, for the layperson, especially.
- So Brad's gonna show the first two stretches.
Hopefully, you have some stairs nearby you.
- Oh, you're gonna show...
- Show the the stairs area.
- I was thinking... I wasn't ready,
I didn't practice.
- Yeah, I didn't think you were. (laughing)
- You could use a stool like this,
but we're saying
if you've got a stairway with a handrail, is ideal.
- Absolutely.
And Brad's can use a Booyah Stik there to-
- Just something to balance.
- Balance, right.
- And you should do this with shoes on, not barefoot.
- I'm gonna hold this too,
to make sure it doesn't move on you, Brad.
- And so, I mean, you can do this with both feet.
But I, you know, you can get much more aggressive
on one foot.
So this foot is just here for balance
and actually what I'm gonna do, I'm going to-
- It's the double Booyah Stik.
It's a double Booyah Stik situation.
- Yeah, then I can really get into it.
So you get it. So your foot doesn't want to come off.
It feels like it's on there and then just relax.
My knee is straight. You can see here, my knee is straight.
You can stretch it that way.
And then do it-
- [Bob] Also with the knee bent.
- [Brad] Yup and that's gonna be more relative to squatting.
- One of the keys to getting more ankle range of motion,
I'm sorry, stretch, is that you wanna stretch the calf
in as many ways as you can think.
And that's why we're gonna show you seven ways today.
Used to be your favorite number, now I think eight is.
- Well, yeah, I still like it.
(Bob laughing)
- But yeah, so this would be number one.
- Right, number one.
- You're gonna hold that for, you know, 15 to 30 seconds
or you can go on and off with it for two to three.
- I failed to mention Brad.
- Oh yes.
- By the way, if you really want
to improve your range of motion
and flexibility of any muscle, I would heat it up first.
- Sure.
- Even if you heat it up
for only five minutes or 10 minutes,
but you know, I use a far-infrared heating pad.
This is way overkill for most people.
- Yep.
- I wouldn't go out and buy one, for that reason.
If you had other pain issues, you might,
'cause it penetrates deeper.
- Yeah, that's gonna get into the ankle,
over two inches that heat radiates in.
- Right, right.
But you can just buy a inexpensive heating pad.
That you can put in your microwave heat it up,
put it on there, warm up the muscle first.
And then do some of these exercises.
- Yeah, or take a warm bath, warm shower.
- Right. Right.
- Anything to warm it up, get things to relax.
- You'll get gains faster.
So, now Brad brought a PVC pipe here.
I wanted show you
that you can do these things inexpensively.
So what would this cost, Brad, maybe?
- Well, if you go to a place that will cut it off.
So you only have eight.
- Yeah 'cause you usually have 10 foot lengths.
- 10 foot lengths.
So if you cut it off to 18 inches and they'll do it,
they may charge you a dollar for the cutoff fee.
It's probably gonna cost you a buck or two, couple bucks.
- Yeah, so as opposed to a foam roller,
which is gonna cost more.
- A lot more.
- So I want you to try this first.
It can be decently aggressive.
So what you're gonna do is you can just roll on
and you can take pressure on the leg
depending on how much pressure you're taking on your arms.
- This actually works really good for the calf.
- Yeah, it works good for the calf.
Probably a hamstring too.
- [Brad] Yep.
- Probably quad.
- Yeah. And you know,
and you'll know if the diameter is, for me
the hamstring, this looks good.
A four inch diameter would probably work better.
- Yeah and you want to get more aggressive.
You can just cross your leg over
and you can really put some weight on there.
And then I also want you to roll back and forth like this,
roll the foot in.
- [Brad] Roll this way.
- Roll the foot out.
- [Brad] You'll feel the difference.
- And you might even move your ankle up and down
while you're doing this.
That'll be even a little more aggressive.
- [Brad] And they call that?
- I don't know. What do you call that? (laughing)
- [Brad] Yeah, the Kelly Starrett thing, you know.
- Oh yeah. Kelly Starrett does that.
Oh, flossing.
- [Brad] Flossing, that's the term I was looking for.
- So you can really noodle around as he likes to say.
- [Brad] Noodle, flossing.
- Yeah and you find tender spots.
Those are the spots you want to work on.
So, really great idea, I think.
Works out really well.
Next one, you just need a chair.
And what you're gonna do
is you're gonna actually put your foot up on the chair
and you can actually grab the seat pan.
This is right here and you can pull down,
pull up I should say,
and put pressure on the knee at the same time.
So you really can get a good stretch on that, Brad.
- Sure, you get your chest involved there.
- I'm gonna put it back a little bit further.
And really (grunting)
- This is not the ideal chair for it.
It's a plastic chair for outside or what ever.
- Yeah, but it works.
- It works.
If you've got a solid one, it's a little better.
- Okay. You can do the same thing just by going on the floor
like this and leaning forward like this
and really leaning into it.
- [Brad] Yup.
- I'm really putting my body weight into the knee
and really putting in,
this actually almost is better than the chair, Brad.
- Yeah, and I think if you concentrate on being relaxed
and breathing, just to let the muscle relax,
you're gonna have better stretches over all.
- Yes, very good point.
And Brad prolonged stretches are really the key here.
You want a pretty lengthy period of time,
you want to hit it for.
- So we're talking like 10 minutes or 30 seconds?
- Whatever. Yeah. (laughing)
I mean more is better.
- Yep.
- So this is an instance where let's say you do this, Brad,
and you feel a pinching on the front of the joint.
- Mm-hm. Yup.
- You don't feel the pressure in the back of the joint,
where you're stretching.
That could be then that the capsule is being pinched.
So there's a joint here and it's covered by a material
that material actually can get pinched.
- [Brad] Sure.
- In this here.
- [Brad] Like the old impingement
that we talk about, in the shoulder, all the time, similar.
- So what you want to do is you're gonna take a belt
and you're gonna loop, it like this,
and you're gonna put the knee on one side
and the ankle on the other side.
Now this one, it's very important
that the belt be below the ankle bones.
Here's the ankle bone. Here's the ankle bone.
Let me move this up.
And you're gonna be moving the talus back.
You don't need to know what you're doing,
(both laughing)
but you're moving the talus back.
So I'm actually using this leg right here to push back
and put pressure on the belt.
And then I lean forward like this.
- So that's anchored - This is mobilization.
- and this is moving.
And you will feel that force going this direction
to help break up that,
if there's scar tissue in there,
or if the capsule is interfering to help free it up.
- If you're not getting enough force,
you shorten up the belt even more yet,
but this is enough force of me, Brad.
- You know, the width of the belt,
I'm thinking a thinner belt
might be a little more comfortable.
- I don't know that actually-
That feels good?
- Yeah. I wouldn't go any thicker.
- Is that your belt?
- An old one, yeah. It got retired.
I like a bigger one now.
(both laughing)
- Yeah, your old belts can always be used for something.
- All right, the last one is you can actually take a weight.
This is probably more advanced.
I've seen some guys actually take a 45-pound plate
and they do a prolonged squat.
And I think the best way to do it is against the wall, Brad.
So get your ankles pretty far back.
You wanna hand me the weight, Brad?
- [Brad] Oh, this looks like a kettle thing.
(Brad grunting)
- Careful.
- Yeah.
So the distance that your heel is from the wall
is gonna vary the flexibility.
- And I can put my elbows on my knees.
- Yup, right here.
- And I can just sit here.
- Do you feel a stretch right now?
- Yes, I do.
- So to intensify the stretch, do you lower your butt?
- I'm going further down, yes.
- Further down and you can feel that?
- Yeah and it's as you said,
your quads start to get a little bit tired too.
So, you know...
- But if you're a squatter or one of those people,
you probably have strong quads.
You don't mind that workout part of it.
- Right. Right.
- You kinda enjoy it.
- When you're 61 years old, this is a little more difficult.
So I got what, 30 pounds here?
Yeah, 30 pounds.
- 30 pounds.
- All right. That's the seven Brad.
So now I'm gonna come back and measure and see what happens
- Oh yeah, let's do this. This will be interesting.
- All right.
- Our carpet's falling apart here, Bob.
- What if it's worse?
- Oh, I'm sorry.
Sorry, people, we got a chair issue here.
- All right I'm gonna go for seven inches, Brad.
See if I get there.
- Well there, you go.
- No, I didn't get there did I?
- I thought you were at five last time.
- I was a five last time. I was really gonna be...
Oh, look at that. I hit six, no problem at all.
- Whoa. So you gained a whole inch.
- Yeah a whole inch.
- So the further your foot is from the wall
and you can still touch without your heel coming up,
the better you are.
- The more improvement.
- Sure.
- And I stretched my ankle this morning.
So this shows you, even after that,
doing these seven things or five things, which I did
really made a difference.
- So it seems like you could actually,
after you do this one day and you don't get sore from it,
you could do this two or three times in one day,
if you really want to get after it.
- If you really want to make some gains,
but yeah, you're gonna find out,
you're gonna be able to squat better
when you got the ankle motion.
So Kyle, good to hear from you again,
take care and get those ankles moving.
- You ever call him Eric?
- Why?
- I don't know.
I got a friend who's name is Kyle,
but I used to call him Eric.
Just wondering.
- You would.
all right guys. - Take care.
(musical flourish)