- ♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ the two most famous ♪
♪ physical therapists ♪
♪ on the internet. ♪
- Howdy 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.
- Alright, today Brad.
- Good catch.
- We are gonna talk
about the 10 best ever calf muscle stretches,
and pain relief.
- With a little bit of a bonus in there.
We're gonna show you the extras that are really
gonna make the difference,
so you get those calf muscles and you get...
this is gonna be a lot of people running and walking
a lot 'cause this is where this happens, oftentimes.
- Sure.
- They're gonna benefit extra for this.
- Sounds good.
- Okay.
- Let's get started Brad.
- Right, and there's some new people that haven't
seen our channel as well.
So if you're new to our channel,
please take a second to subscribe.
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- Or to your right.
- And we provide videos on a stay healthy fit,
pain free, and we upload every day.
- Excellent job, Bob.
- Thanks.
- Okay, so before we get going,
I do wanna review the anatomy a little bit,
with what's going on with the calf muscles,
you know, calf muscles get injured,
they can get tears in them, Achilles tendonitis, cramps.
This is gonna help all of those, sometimes.
- I'll tell you, it's one,
it's not hard to tear when you're weekend athlete.
- Right, right
- I mean, when my brother got back into running,
that's the first thing he injured was his calf muscle.
- Sure, right. Let me take that ball.
And I know people who play softball on weekends.
You know, they're in a desk job all day,
and then they do softball and they sprint,
from first to second and they take
off from first and there goes a calf muscle tear.
- Sure.
- Why don't yo lay your stomach?
- Stomach?
- stomach please.
That, that would be prone, Bob.
therapy talk, you know what I'm saying.
Okay. Just take a nap, Bob.
Okay. Calf muscles right here.
They connect from
above the knee all the way down to the heel.
Okay. There's two major calf muscles,
the great gastroc-soleus,
or the gastroc and the souleus.
And they're responsible for pushing.
So you can go up and down like this,
which is really important for running and walking.
And that's why we have these injuries here as far as
cramps and tightness as well.
But we cannot forget, that muscle group right above it.
And that's the hamstrings, because they all work
as part of unit when you're walking or running.
As well as the bottom of your foot, the connective tissue.
This is what I was taught in school,
and I continue to remember it, and I use it.
And my train of thought, if you look
at this green strap.
Starts at your toe,
goes around the heel and to below the knee.
But then we got the hamstrings,
and we're going all the way up to there.
And we wanna look at this whole train of muscles
and connective tissue and not just treat one section, okay
we're gonna focus on this,
but we're gonna do a little bit here,
and a little bit there to make it complete.
Okay.
- Now, if your hamstring is tight,
and if the fasc on the bottom of your foot is tight,
it's all gonna affect the calf,
during functional activities.
- Exactly. So it's like, what is that saying?
You know, the hip bones connected to the...
But now we're talking muscles and that bone,
- It's all like I said, it's all a chain.
- Exactly. So let's start
from the bottom of the chain and work up.
- Okay.
- Again, focusing mostly on the calf
but we cannot forget about the plantar fascia.
That's the connective tissue.
- Underneath the bottom of the foot.
- From the base of the toes to the heel.
Yeah, go ahead and show 'em there, Bob.
- From here to here.
- Do you wanna do the stretch, Bob?
- Whatever you want me to do.
- Go on your hands and knees.
Quadruped, go in the Quadruped, the other side though.
Yeah, so they can see your bare foot,
your stacking foot.
This is just one way to stretch that plantar fascia.
Curl your toes up, like this,
and now just go down and you can
put your butt to your ankle.
- That's actually a good way to stretch Brad
I've never tried this one before.
- Are you getting a stretch?
- Oh yeah.
- Yeah.
You can fairly aggressive with it, can't ya.
- This is a great way to stretch it.
- Oh yeah.
And it is not a lot of work.
This doesn't matter if go on your hands and knees...
- This I'll tell you, is critical with plantar fasciitis.
- Oh yeah.
This, in fact, I've saw some of the
studies on this, Brad, too.
That greater toe, is the
tightness of the fascia connecting into that,
is often, quite often, responsible
for the pain that you're getting.
- Right. So the greater toe that's the big toe.
- Yeah.
Okay, so you go on a stretch like this,
you know what, we'll go down like this 15 to 30 seconds,
and do that two or three reps to get a nice stretch there.
Now you can get up Bob.
- Wow, I learned something today, Brad.
- Yes. Every day we learn something.
- Brad is it guru.
- Okay, now.
Lets go right to that calf muscle
which the heart of it is, the old wall stretch.
Can you come over this way, Lonnie?
- I'll get Napoleon outta here.
- Ah, Napoleon, good old...
- you might want to stay back.
- Yeah, back off Napoleon.
Okay. Calf muscle,
I'll even show a little calf here,
toe like this, not out to the side,
straight in,
- Straight forward.
- Heel down to the floor,
we're gonna lock the knee out,
and we're gonna lean forward.
And then to be complete, we're gonna bend the knee,
and then go forward with the knee bent.
Why is that, Bob?
- That gets the soleus.
- There you go.
- And it also gets some of the other
muscles that could happen with some of the other lower
extreme injuries that you get.
- Exactly, like shin splints.
- Like shin splints, yep.
- Yep, we got a video on that as well, okay.
- Very critical with shin splints.
- Right.
- And that's the one you wanna really
add with the knee bend.
- Sure, yep.
All these things tie together.
Where's our stairs, okay.
- Okay.
- Now another option for the cast stretch.
- Before you do that, Brad
you may want to use this to,
- Balance?
- Yeah, 'cause that thing isn't really stable.
- Now, oftentimes you have some
stairs at home, inside or out,
there's a handrail, which is really nice.
I'm gonna use this stick 'cause I don't have a handrail.
You're gonna put your foot, just like this.
And this, you're gonna need to have shoes on.
Don't do it barefoot.
A nice pair of running shoes or walking shoes
works really well. Just shoes,
not so well, but this'll be okay.
You're gonna go up here, and you simply put your
foot right at the, the ball of the foot,
so your heel and half your foot is hanging
over, and just let your body weight stretch it out.
Now, if you've got handrails on both sides,
good balance, you can do both legs at the same time.
I like to do one.
- I start off, I do this one every morning, Brad.
- Okay.
- I did it this morning.
I do both start off with, then I do the one,
and then I go to the, the board,
the slap board you gave me.
- All right.
- Yep. I do all of those.
- You combine it.
- Yep.
- So Bob really does a nice job
of stretching his heel cords.
And on this, you're gonna hold it
for 15 to 30 seconds. Personally,
I don't have any patience.
I hold out about five seconds,
and I do the other one and I do a few more.
I'm not a good therapist for myself
but that's my personality.
- I just think it's a good time to breathe and relax.
And it's almost meditative, you know?
- Right.
- I mean seriously, I mean I,
- No it is,
That's a good time to reflect.
- It is.
- Kind of plan out the day.
- Exactly.
- Is that where you're gonna go next?
I'm sorry, didn't wanna pull that off.
- Yeah, no that's exactly,
- Yeah.
- For me, I'll do these stretches right before I run,
and I'm so excited to get out and do my activity.
I'm not a,
I don't practice what I preach,
and I have to be honest about it.
But Bob has got the right idea.
These are absolutely the best
cast stretching tool, there is
in my opinion, and Bob...
- Right. And that's, that's exactly why I added in.
- Yep. You can relax,
your foot is very relaxed, It's very comfortable.
And you know, you can buy these,
for 20, 30 bucks for a good one,
and you can make one for yourself.
Actually we have a video on how to make one of these.
This one I made in, in my garage.
- You made one for me,
- Yep
- made one for my son.
- I got one for my wife, and I've
got one for my daughter.
- Yeah, my son, they use it in his house,
they're a house of runners.
- Oh, yep.
- And so, they all use it.
- It gets well used.
- Yeah.
- This is a great investment
If you're a Walker or a runner,
or if you just want to get those muscles,
and you're having cramps at night,
that's a good way to do it.
All right, we can get rid of the stick, Bob.
Man, Bob, I'm starting to feel strong like bull already.
- There's some bull being full flying around here.
Okay, what's next, Brad?
- Now the next thing is soft tissue mobilization.
How to get the muscles to stretch out with soft tissue.
Now, I'm gonna take my shoe off for this one, Bob.
And for this you're gonna need, all's you need is,
a tennis ball works really well,
but it can be a lacrosse ball,
which is what I'm gonna use.
- Sure.
- It's gotta be fairly hard.
It's not gonna be a Nerf ball.
It has to be something that's pretty dense.
Are we down there?
Now, we're gonna do that plantar fascia.
And this typically is one of those things that
just feels good.
- Right.
- At the end of the day, you get home from work.
Not only is it going to stretch,
and relax the plantar fascia,
but it's gonna make you feel good about the day,
and how to finish out the day.
And you simply just work on it,
and you'll know where to go, cause it feels good.
And you'll do that for, you know, a minute or two,
- If you're having trouble with plantar fasciitis,
I'd probably do it in the areas that don't hurt too much.
- Well, that's a good point.
- I'd work around the area probably
- right.
If, yeah, if you're dealing with plantar, if you're just
trying to relax the tissues and it's not so critical.
It's a good point, Bob.
- Yeah.
You can use a ball like this,
and do the same thing on the calf muscle.
Bob, where did I put that other ball, here we go.
And...
- Which other ball?
I got it over here.
Can you see that?
- Yeah, you can see it.
- Okay, And you simply, it's a deep, soft tissue massage
and you're using your body weight against a firm ball.
Now this is pretty aggressive,
if I go like this,
this hurts.
If you get a bigger ball like this,
it's a little squishier.
It's not so aggressive, more comfortable
and it works well, and now I can do this,
and now this feels like a good massage.
So, the kind of ball that you use.
Wow, this is fun, Bob.
Okay. Now, we also want to get up into the hamstrings.
Same thing.
Now you can't see it,
because my fat leg is covering it up
along with the soft, the soft ball,
but we cannot forget.
- Yeah.
- The foam roller.
I think Bob and I have discovered this
in the last few years, we just fell in love with them.
- Yeah. And this is a nice foam roller from OPTP.
- Right?
- It's it's not as, quite as hard
as a lot of the other ones you can really press in.
It's really a nice one, isn't it?
- Yeah. If you want to get a good foam roller,
OPTP is the place to go...
Okay so, with this nice lower density foam roller,
I like it. You can get the hard ones,
and they're a little more aggressive.
And I think it's, it's overly aggressive.
I think for those younger people,
the real hardcore type of people they might want,
they might appreciate that.
But while you're doing this,
I talked about the hamstrings being
part of the whole chain.
It's really nice to go up, and roll those hamstrings
out as well and get those to relax.
And also,
- Yeah, it looks like it would work out really well.
- Oh yeah, and then you go,
if you wanted to work on the one hamstring, there you go.
And you can finish out with just laying down and relaxing.
Get one of these stretch straps, here,
the stretch out strap,
and relax and finish out
your workout with a little more hamstring stretch.
- You know actually, you can get a little calf stretch
with that too at the same time.
- Yeah, yeah.
Pulling on there,
- Now you're stretching the whole chain.
- Oh yeah, yeah. It's a complete unit.
See how everything works together in life.
First, you start with the toe, the hamstring and the calf.
And then it works into the whole unit with a...
But once again, I'm feeling strong, like bull.
- All right, thanks for watching folks.