- All right, Bob,
we're gonna talk to our seniors,
but this is okay for anybody actually.
- Sure. - But these exercises,
these three exercises, once you get a little system,
they'll take you five minutes or or less,
and you do 'em every day,
and they're gonna help you negotiate steps better, safer,
it's gonna improve your balance,
and it's also gonna improve your posture.
- So, seniors in high school?
- Yes, seniors in high school should do 'em as well.
So they have good habits for the rest of their life.
- Gotcha.
- And us seniors who don't have good habits
we're gonna develop 'em.
So hold on.
♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
- Well, Bob, between you and I,
we have worked literally with thousands and thousands
of seniors with therapy exercises over the years.
- Yes we have.
- I think we could be considered experts.
As well as the books we've read
and continuing ed, we feel very confident
that these three exercises are excellent.
So let's get right to it.
We're gonna start with the first one.
The first two are from a seated position.
The last one is standing
and this particular one we're gonna talk about
is gonna be great for balance
and strengthening those legs for getting up and down steps
over a curb, et cetera.
- Number three.
- So what you'll need is a chair.
A firm chair with armrest is the best.
The next thing we're gonna do is sit in the chair.
All right, Bob.
Now this particular one - Wanna use a pillow, Brad?
- Yeah. We're gonna use this actually this, actually.
Oh yes.
- Later on.
- I mixed one and two up in my head. So thank you.
So this is a postural exercise.
Now, as seniors, posture's gonna help you breathe better.
It's gonna help you balance better.
- [Bob] It's gonna keep pain away.
- Yep, the shoulders, everything about posture,
I think there's no more need to be said about that.
But in a firm chair, you can use the backrest.
To lean into and squeeze the shoulder blades back
and bring the chin in and back.
Now this motion here for some older people
will be difficult.
So do the best you can.
- [Bob] They won't get very far.
- You wanna do a little over pressure here, do that.
Two or three of those, a little more if you want,
but then we're gonna do the Ws.
So the arms are gonna come up.
Hopefully your shoulders,
if their shoulders are tight or painful,
just go as far as you can and squeeze,
there we go, look how Bob
and you can do it standing, but you know,
it's safer seated and you can use the chair.
See how his shoulders
or shoulder blades are coming together.
Ah!
- [Bob] There we go.
- Yep. So five to 10 of these,
you know if they're a little uncomfortable at first,
you know do five and then work up to 10.
And these are good to do more than once a day.
- [Bob] Yeah. throughout the day.
- Yeah. You might get sore the first few times,
If you haven't done 'em.
The next thing is you can take a pillow,
a throw pillow, like this works best.
And if you can get that
or have someone help you put that behind your upper back
and then you're gonna use that to accelerate
or even make this a little bit more of a stretch.
- Yeah, exactly, 'cause these muscles
tend to get tight on you.
- Oh yes.
- I mean they curl you up.
- Yeah. If you spend too much time watching TV
watching Grit, you know, and things tighten up.
We're reading papers. - [Bob] Watching Grit?
- Yeah.
- [Bob] (chuckling) Okay.
- They'll know.
- [Bob] I know. I know what it is.
- Yeah. Good old Grit.
And stretch back with that pillow.
And then we're gonna go on to number two.
Okay, number two, again is with the same type of chair
and Bob, I think you're gonna agree with this full-heartedly
this sit to stand is...
- It's essential.
- Yeah, absolutely.
- [Bob] I concur.
- Yeah. A lot of falls happen
and we've worked with a lot of broken hips, femurs, legs
is when they people get up from the chair
and there's a stumble.
Leads to a fall.
If you happen to use a walker
keep the walker in front of you, you may need that.
- As a fail safe?
- Yep. Yep.
Nice to have something there.
Now what we're gonna do, is ideally,
again, good posture scooch to the edge of the chair.
If you can stand up without using the arms, great.
- Bully for you.
- Yep. That's really good.
However, a lot of people will not be able to do that.
Then you use the armrests,
push whatever you need,
use your legs as much as possible.
And then, you know it might be just one hand, to start.
You might need two.
Now I've done this with people
that have difficult time getting up,
is either put a pillow or some kind of cushion on the chair.
It'll only need an inch.
- Right. Makes a huge difference.
- It does.
And then start going with that.
You can put your hands on your thighs, wherever it is.
But by the time you get to,
you know if five is your,
if you're fatigued at five, that's fine.
The goal is 10.
When you get to five or 10 you should feel like,
"Oh, I'm tired. I had enough.
"I need to rest."
That's where you wanna get to.
If it gets too easy with this
and you don't need to push here or push with one arm,
you can then
put your hands there. - Put your hands this way.
Or like this.
- Yep. Here.
And again, the goal is 10.
It's nice to have a walker, if you have a balanced issue
'cause then you have something to stop and rest on.
- Right. Exactly.
- Just in case you get unsteady.
So that's exercise, number two.
- Great exercise.
- Yep. You did your postures.
You did your sit to stands times 10.
And now we're going to the final.
Number three, this is really a balance exercise
and ankle and foot strength,
which is directly related to balance.
Well, if you have a walker, it can be good.
Like Bob is holding onto that.
But I really encourage you
to have something to steady yourself.
- Right. Solid.
- And you'll see why.
Now, I've got my handy dandy skeleton socks on.
So you'll be able to see
my movement of the ankles while-
- [Bob] How attractive, Brad.
- [Brad] Yeah. Thank you.
(Bob chuckling)
You know, do 'em with shoes on it, like Bob has, is good.
Whatever works best for you.
Hold onto the cupboard, a chair, a walker.
You're gonna go up on your toes
as far as you feel comfortable and then come back
and then you're gonna pull your toes up.
So we get both muscles.
We want dorsi flexion muscles and plantar flexion muscles
which are really important for walking, steps
and balance. - Balance.
- Now these, if you can do 10 fine.
You may wanna go-
- [Bob] 10 up 10 down?
- Yep, you may wanna go more,
because these are endurance for your walking,
you may go up to 20. - Start off with 10.
- Yep. And you know, you listen to your body
you will feel those ankles.
And this is great range of motion
for the ankle joint as well.
- These are all good, Brad.
- Yep, oh man.
I don't know, Bob, how do you feel about these exercises?
- I feel like a senior.
- (laughing) Yeah. No they're a wonderful exercise set.
I would recommend once you get up in the morning,
you've been around a little bit.
Maybe before you eat breakfast or after,
go through these, take your five minutes to do 'em.
Once you get used to 'em you have 'em memorized.
I would suggest doing 'em at least twice a day.
- And remember Brad, we can fix just about anything.
- Except for...
- A broken heart.
- Yeah. But when we're talking to these more senior people,
they've probably got it figured out.
- Yeah. They know what to do.
- Maybe they can write some comments
and maybe we can put that
into that- - Help us out.
- into the pamphlet that we're writing.
- Pamphlet? Booklet I thought.
- The book. Well, yeah, whatever.
It's turning into a pamphlet, - Encyclopedia.
'cause we're not getting very far.
But anyways - All right thanks.
- Good luck and be careful.
(musical flourish)