♪Bob and Brad ♪
the two most famous physical therapists on the internet.♪
- Hi, I'm Bob Shrupp, Physical Therapist.
- Brad Heineck, Physical Therapist
- Together, we are the most famous physical therapist
on the internet.
- In our opinion, of course, Bob.
- Today we got the two best exercises to fit, fix flat feet.
I knew it's gonna have trouble with that fix flat feet.
- Right, we gotta get speech therapy involved.
- All right. So the first one we're gonna start off with
or is that what you wanna start off the exercise or
- No, I wanna show a little bit about flat feet and
make sure you have it.
So people are oftentimes not really aware what it is.
Can you can bring the camera down by his wonderful foot.
- [Brad] How we doing Lonnie?
You got 'em zoomed in Bob.
- You're, now to check flat feet.
You can't do it in a seated position.
You should be standing.
So Bob get up and put some weight on there.
And actually, if you had that, if you watch that
when he put weight, his arch actually did come
down a little bit, take weight off of there Bob.
See, I can get two fingers in here.
Now go up and stand on it. And it collapses down
to a finger and a half. Now, if someone's flat foot,
they will not have any gap. You can't get
one finger in there. This part of the arch will be
right down on the floor or very close to it.
That's when you know you have a flat foot weight bearing
and this arch is down on the floor or very close to it.
- [Brad] Okay? Now that we have that established
we need to get to the exercises, Bob.
- [Bob] Stay down Lonnie.
- [Brad] Yep. Stay there.
- Okay. The muscles in the foot.
There's small intrinsic muscles.
- We call 'em. I'm not gonna go through the names
and bore you with them, but we need to strengthen
the muscles here to prevent that flat foot
from getting worse and causing problems.
You're not gonna get a flat foot to turn into an arch
like this. That just isn't gonna happen
but we can help prevent problems.
And I like, I call this one, the toe, the towel scruncher,
because you take your toes and you scrunch 'em in like this.
Go ahead, Bob. Pull that. See how he is pulling that in.
Now look at this joint right here. He's going up.
You wanna try and keep this joint, the ball, your foot
close to the floor, touching the floor and the toes
especially the big toe you wanna push in into that floor?
Like you're scrubbing. You're gonna wax that
little piece of the floor right there. Wax it Bob, come on!
- [Bob] I'm waxing on wax it off here.
- [Brad] Do you feel that? Do you feel those muscle?
- [Bob] I can feel it in the arch.
- [Brad] You feel it right in here doncha?
- [Bob] Yep.
- [Brad] Yep.
And you're gonna do this for about 30 seconds
to a minute until you feel tired in there.
If you start getting cramps, you're going too far.
Stop doing it.
Massage those muscles here and give it a break.
Okay. Then the next one you're gonna do
we're gonna try and strengthen the arch here
with a muscle that connects here and to the navicular bone
right here. Why don't you stand up Bob?
- [Bob] Okay. Lonnie, if you want to back off Lonnie.
Well, see how well she handles the camera there.
- [Brad] All right.
So we're gonna strengthen a muscle up in here that connects
to the navicular bone here, pulling that arch up
- and you stand on one foot like Bob has it here.
If it's your right foot, you're gonna take your right hand.
Just like Bob has it. He's gonna pull this hand
in towards his stomach. Okay. I'm gonna add resistance.
Okay. Now, to maintain your balance on this
your foot has to activate the muscle. We just talked about
- that pulls that arch up
- and you need a fair amount of resistance.
Now, if you look at Bob, he doesn't have good enough balance
to hold on, you're doing it arncha Bob?
- [Bob] Yeah
- [Brad] If you can do this on one foot,
but if you can do this and you tip over because
you don't have the balance bring a chair up.
Like Bob has over there and just try to do fingertips
on that. Bob, can you just put one or two fingers on there?
- [Bob] Sure.
- And then we're pulling, you feel that?
- [Bob] I'm actually doing it without it out now though.
- Good. You're getting better. So this is a good
balance exercise as well as working that, that
- [Bob] I can feel it in my arch.
- Right? Okay. Fun. Huh?
- Excellent.
- Now, and another thing I think I forgot to mention,
but if you have a flat foot in, in the medical world
we call that pronation, right?
- Right.
- Or over pronator. And if you wanna get a shoe,
that's gonna help because then you don't have
to do the exercises, but it's, it's
- Like a running shoe?
- Right? Exactly.
And you're gonna get a shoe.
That's char..
- Character? (laughing)
- (laughing) That's in a category of
motion control.
- Gotcha.
- If you go to a shoe store
and you say, that has running shoes or walking shoes
you say, I need a shoe for a flat footed person that is
in the motion con control category.
- I'll put that down below motion control
- And the sales rep, if they know what
they're talking about, right away (snaps fingers),
they'll say, yep. I'll bring it right to 'em.
And if you look at a motion control shoe, this is not one.
Because if you bend it, grab it at the heel, grab it
the toll, pull it down like this.
See in the arch, it easily collapses.
If you've got a motion control shoe, you're gonna
notice right through here. It's very thick.
And then the whole sole is actually quite thick
but it's mostly from here back to the heel.
- Right.
- It's like an inch to inch and a half thick.
And if you do this and you pull here
- Very rigid.
- Yep. And it'll collapse a little bit here,
but it will not collapse in here. And that takes up
that sloppiness. So that looseness you have in the arch,
Bob and they work you know reasonably well.
- Sure.
- They're a little more expensive for sure.
- It's a lazy man's way of controlling in your arch.
- Right. And you know, and it can help.
I've had patients that have 'em
and they definitely feel better with them.
It doesn't strengthen the foot though but it offers support.
- Right.
- What do you say, Bob?
- I think you got, I think you're onto something.
- Right, but what say you Bob?
- What should I say?
- So say goodbye (laughing).
- Bye. Thanks.