♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
- Hi folks, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- We are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- In our opinion of course, Bob.
- Today, we're gonna talk about knee pain problems.
Try walking backwards.
So I'm not the one that came up with this or invented it
by any means, but I just had Ben Patrick on our podcast.
- Sure. - And he's called
the knees over toe guy.
- Right.
- And he convinced me that this is worthwhile trying.
It makes sense anatomically- - Sure.
- And physiologically.
So we're gonna give it a go here.
And I've been doing this, my wife and I.
- Walking backwards? - Walking backwards.
Neighbors are talking.
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 and fit
and we upload every day.
Also go to bobandbrad.com, go to the giveaway section.
This week, we're giving away a buoy stick.
You know, a Buoy stick can actually be used
for walking backwards.
It gives you some balance.
- That's right, Bob.
- It also works really well for shoulder issues.
We have a lot of views on that.
- Yes, sir. Yes, siree.
- If you go to Facebook,
it'll be pinned to the top of the page.
You go to Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok
if you want a 60-second version of our program.
And like we said,
we do have podcast now. - That's right
and I didn't get to say it this time.
- Oh.
- That's all right.
We've got podcasts and wonderful ones.
Ben, Ben, we did a podcast with Ben
who's leading this whole knees over toes.
- Right, right.
It's a good podcast.
- I did. I listened to it.
Yeah. I like Ben.
- All right. Let's start off with,
what are some of the benefits of doing this?
First off, you're gonna increase the strength of muscles
that are lesser used.
When you walk forward all the time,
your body adapts and becomes efficient and it uses muscles,
the same muscles, each time. - Sure.
- You walk backwards,
suddenly your body has a new perspective
and strengthening muscles
that's not normally used to strengthening.
- I wanna say something Bob,
I don't wanna toot my own horn,
but just out I got done with PT school
back in the mid-90s, I ran a marathon.
- Yeah. - Train for it properly.
And I was thinking about this.
I thought, you know, when I'm running at a 20-mile run
on a Saturday, if I run backwards,
it would give my muscles running forward to break
and I thought that would be a neat thing.
- Plus make you work harder.
- Yeah, so I thought that just break it up,
every time you do a long run,
run a hundred yards backwards
for, you know, a hundred yards and then run a mile
then throw that in.
Maybe one day a week. - If I do recall this Brad,
somebody ran a marathon backwards,
I think. - It had to been because
of a bet.
Someone probably paid him a thousand dollars.
- All right.
Next thing it does help rehabilitate knee injuries.
And we'll talk about a study
a little bit later. - Okay.
- So, and that's where my wife,
she's was having knee problems.
And that's why she's doing it now.
I'm doing it as an experiment.
- Do you hold hands when you walk backwards?
No, we don't. - Oh, great.
- And we do pick a part of the neighborhood
where nobody will see us, hopefully.
So it does improve your walking technique and form
for going forward while going backwards.
It helps with balance,
but be careful because it can also cause you to fall.
- Right.
- So that's why we got the buoy stick
or there's other ways you can do this
without worrying about falling.
- Eventually they'll have some kind of thing you can put on
and have like eyes
behind your head. - Right.
- The digital device side.
- They'll probably plant it in our heads.
All right, next one,
you can burn more calories like Brad was talking about.
You can actually, you're saving certain muscles,
but you're working other muscles harder.
- Sure.
- So it's gonna burn more calories,
help you maintain the healthy weight,
strengthens bones and muscles, boosts energy levels.
- I'm amazed how you can remember all this.
- Help with the whole base body metabolism,
all right mental benefits.
You've got a increase sense of what your awareness
or body awareness.
You're working your body in a different way.
It's increasing your coordination in move and space.
And this is what I find interesting, Brad
it actually helps with workout boredom.
- Oh sure. - Just trying something new.
- Break things up a little bit.
- Step out of your comfort zone.
- Right, literally.
- Right, right. Very good.
- I'm killing myself. I'm hot today, Bob.
- Somebody wants to kill you.
All right, a study in the journal
of biomechanics trust source found that backwards running
reduced anterior knee pain better than forward running.
- Okay.
- So backward running actually.
So I'm sure to a lesser degree,
backward walking is gonna work
and we're gonna show you
some also backward resistant walking.
- Sure. I think if you're running backwards,
you should probably go to a, if you can, a track
where you've got some lines,
you know there isn't something to run into
like a car, parked cars.
- Running backwards is a lot more difficult.
I have to say. So I don't think you do on a treadmill.
All right, let's go ahead and start with the...
We're going to show Brad.
- Oh, sure.
We've got some exercises that we're gonna demonstrate.
- So, if you're elderly and you wanna start doing this,
I know Ben, he recommends 15 minutes of walking backwards.
- Everyday? - You can break that up.
- Sure.
- You can do it three days a week
or whatever you wanna do.
- 15 minutes a day or a week?
- A day. - Okay.
- Total. - But you start out with less.
- Way less.
Now you can use a countertop or a bar, you know,
and just walk backwards like this
and then turn around and walk backwards again.
- Oh, sure. In Wisconsin, that would work out fine.
- There's bars everywhere big round ones
that you can just walk all the way around.
- Yeah, the horseshoe bar. There's a lot of them.
That's a better story.
- All right, next one
and we're actually gonna show you this.
Mike, who's part of our team,
he went on a treadmill, you can go on a treadmill,
you actually unplug it or turn it off.
And you can actually lean against the,
where your arms are.
- Right. They got the arm rest.
- I just did this this morning.
It was raining out for awhile.
It's really stable, but you really got to push hard.
You got to have shoes.
- So your back is up against that framework?
- Right.
- So that you have something to push against.
- You can hold onto- - So, you're very stable?
- You're very stable.
You won't fall with this and you can push with the legs.
And I go for about two minutes.
- Do you get fatigued? You can feel it?
- I can feel it.
And you know, afterwards I can feel that-
- Oh, yeah. Well the average person might get fatigued.
- Right.
- I would absolutely unplug it though.
Just in case it- - We did.
- Turned on. - It was unplugged.
Good point.
The one that my wife and I have been doing,
we go to a certain part of our neighborhood
and when nobody sees us and we walk up the hill backwards.
- Is there a steep hill?
Not too much? - This is a very steep hill.
- Oh really? - Yeah. It's a workout.
- Is that what Ben recommends?
The grade of it is...
- I don't know.
I just like it because it's easier to hold your balance
and it is more of a workout.
- It is one of those things
where you may wanna have a cane
or a walking stick or Buoy stick, just to mean,
you don't wanna fall with these, obviously.
- No, if you're a larger, beefier person,
you might wanna get a sled,
you know those push sleds- - Yeah.
Like in football. - Yeah.
- Of course not like that probably.
- But we also have a way back here, Brad,
that we put a stretch-out strap through.
There's 50 pounds in that bag.
Just put it out, Brad.
And yeah, you just grab the two ends of that.
And you can walk backwards.
And you're gonna find out you're pretty stable, Brad.
- Yeah, yeah.
And you can just go like this
and you don't have
to grab something. - Right.
And I'm gonna keep my posture,
my back really strong and keep these here
so they don't, you're not spread out with poor posture.
- So you can take a duffel bag and do this
and you can pull it across your property.
- That would be nice on grass.
If you had a little more resistance to move along
because otherwise you're going back and forth
300 times in your living room or wherever.
- You could figure out how to cut the lawn that way too.
- Hey, that's an idea.
- Pull the lawnmower backwards.
All right. Next one is actually,
Brad's gonna show how you can do it
with one of our bands on a wall anchor.
- The stretch bands are very, very popular,
getting more popular.
That's all I use.
- While Brad is setting us up though
I wanna make sure again, safety first.
Do not walk backwards if you have any issues
with your balance.
Do it in a safe manner. This is a safe manner actually.
- Okay. So I've got on the wall anchor.
You'll have to anchor it to something very solid.
You know, a door knob can work.
The wall anchors work really well,
but whatever you have,
a solid piece of furniture can go on.
You used to go on your bed pole,
So I'm gonna just hold it here and walk backwards.
- And it steadies you.
- Yes.
- It'd be very hard for you to fall.
- Posture, posture, posture.
I like to hold these in close.
It keeps my shoulders back where they belong
and feel you go forward
and backwards. - I won't do this
for 15 minutes because you do resistance,
so you can certainly do a lot less,
but you're gonna be strengthening muscles
you haven't strengthened ever before.
And now Brad has got the big loops.
- Yeah. I really liked doing...
We did indoor running
with loops. - Right.
- Actually, it really works well.
And you'll see what I mean.
So your anchor that, I'm gonna go right around my waist.
And so I can walk backwards here and forwards.
Now, if you feel steady doing this
and you don't have an issue with your balance
or a walking gait, you can simply go backwards this way
and with these loops, you simply turn around
and you can just keep going back and forth like that.
And it works really well.
It's kind of fun actually.
So yeah, you can just go back.
You'll count how many times.
- You did well.
- 30, 40 times, whatever it takes.
- And again, I would start off very slow with these
because your muscles get sore and you know-
- You're doing eccentric contraction,
which makes muscles sore, inherently. So be careful.
- But you know, if you want to check out his channel,
"Knees over Toes", he talks about doing a lot of these.
He first talks about the zero weight exercises.
So the zero weight exercise for this
is to just be walking on a flat ground, walking backwards.
There's no weight, there's no resistance,
but you're starting to get the walking backwards.
- I don't think it needs to be said,
but I don't think you'd ever do this on uneven terrain.
- Right. You don't need the challenge of that.
So. All right.
Check it out. Remember, Brad and I can fix
just about anything- - Except for,
- A broken heart.
- Maybe we should ask Ben,
he might be able to help us on this.
- I doubt it, but I- - We still should ask him.
The question I have for you, Brad
in your younger days when you were somewhat good looking.
- When I was 20? - Yeah.
- I wasn't good looking then
either. - Did you break any hearts?
- No, no, no.
- They broke your heart? - Yeah, absolutely.
- Me too.
- I hope no one's watching.
- I'm gonna start putting out a list of names
of who broke my heart.
- Yeah.
- (indistinct)
Let's cut. Cut. Cut.
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