♪ 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 the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- In our opinion of course, Bob.
- Well, what should we talk about today, Brad?
How about how to fix plantar fasciitis while you walk?
Seriously?
- Well, Bob, as we know, plantar fasciitis, foot pain,
typically on the heel,
but it can last for weeks, months,
and actually up to
a couple of years- - Even years, yes.
- It's a real debilitating type of a problem.
- Right. I'm gonna mention, Brad, by the way,
we're always doing a giveaway.
You can check it out at bobandbrad.com.
Go to the Giveaways section,
and we are giving away-
- Oh!
- You're not even ready for this.
(sticks clatter)
Boohyah, boohyah. Our Boohyah Stik.
- I'm feeling strong today, Bob.
Anyways. - This has nothing to do with
plantar fasciitis,
but you'll find other reasons
to have it- - And you don't really hit
with them.
We use 'em for exercises, balance,
and some real good therapeutic things.
- So, do you want me to show where plantar fasciitis occurs?
- Yeah, let's talk about some of the symptoms,
and what people, if their experiences,
and I bet you anything,
people are gonna say,
"It hurts when I get out of bed in the morning,
and I put that initial weight on it,
and it kinda makes you walk like this for a while,
but it gets better with a little time-
- It's very typical, yeah.
Actually what we're dealing with is subtype fibrous material
that runs on the bottom of the foot
all the way up into the toes.
And during the night it begins to start to heal.
And then in the morning when you step on it,
you break open the healing.
- [Brad] Yeah.
It's actually like this,
and then, 'cause your foot,
or at least your plantar flex,
you sleep kinda like this,
and so things tighten up, and then you step on it,
and it pulls apart.
So, it's like pulling the scab off of a wound.
- Right. Very common right in this spot right here.
That's a telltale sign.
This right here- - Yep.
When I have a patient, I will actually,
I'll kind of push around that area and look at their face
and see if it hurts.
But usually when you get right in there,
their eyes open up, and it's like, "Ow!"
- So, do we wanna start with
how we're gonna treat it, Brad?
- Well, yes. Yes.
Oh, yeah.
People are probably interested,
seeing how that's what the title talks about.
- So, one thing, in the morning,
the first thing you should do before you get out of bed,
all of these things you should do before you get out of bed.
- Yeah, this is really critical.
- But the first one is you're gonna stretch
the plantar fascia.
So, I'm actually gonna take my hand,
I'm gonna grab the top of my foot here, the forefoot,
and I'm going to pull back the toes and the foot
this direction and give it a good stretch.
- You can do it while you're lying on your back in bed.
You can sit on the edge of the bed while you do this,
but do not get up and walk around yet.
- I'm impressed you said lying right.
You didn't say laying in bed.
- Well, yeah,
because I watched another video, and they said it too,
so I knew the English majors were correct.
- Yep.
And then you wanna do a little bit of massage to the area.
Now you can do it with your fingers or your thumbs.
Now a good way to start
is actually not hit the painful area to start,
maybe work around it.
Start hitting the spots,
circumference around the area.
And you can actually do splaying massage,
where you put your thumbs together
and pull them apart like this,
eventually get onto the spot.
- [Brad] And you can see where you're pushing in deep,
the plantar fascia is really tough material.
You gotta get in there and work it.
Your thumbs will get tired if you're doing it properly.
- Right, now, if you wanna splurge,
go ahead use a massage gun.
And we got one here
that actually has the ball on attachment.
And Brad came up with this,
'cause you think about when you start one of these
that you would go right on here like that.
And you can,
but it's a lot more effective
if you actually come in from the side
and work it this way.
And again,
I would work around the painful area,
and then if you can tolerate, hit the painful area.
- Now you don't have to do the gun massage.
If you don't have one, simply do it manually,
and then we'll go to the next step,
which we'll get to in a second.
But this really does feel good, even-
- Well, it's easy to do.
- It is.
You don't wear your thumbs out,
especially if you have arthritis
in your fingers or your thumbs,
if you're like Bob's and our age,
where that kind of starts to happen.
This really is a nice hand-saver and finger-saver.
So, actually, you'll get out of bed,
you'll do the stretch,
that'll take 30 seconds.
You'll do this. That'll take a minute or two.
So, you got maybe two minutes total of preparation,
and then what we're going to do is, like the title says,
"Heal it while you walk,"
so, what we're gonna go to is Kinesio tape.
- Right, K tape.
- K tape.
And this is a product that,
a process that Bob and I years ago were kind of poo-pooing.
It's like, "Well, does it really work or not?"
And we've done more investigation into it.
And then we got a hold of this, John Gibbons.
- Yeah, he was on our podcast,
and he convinced me to take another look at it.
And he does a lot of it.
- And he's been doing it for over 20 years. He is an expert.
- And he gets involved in a whole lot of areas too,
not just K tape, so...
- So, we're gonna use his recommendation
on how to K tape for this.
And I'm gonna show you now, what I did is,
actually yesterday, I thought,
"I wanna see how this really works on my feet."
So, I taped myself yesterday,
and I wore my shoes and whatnot all day yesterday,
and all night.
And I got up this morning, I went to the pool.
I went swimming- - And you went swimming-
- I went swimming with it,
and I thought it held up very good.
You can see it's holding on-
- It's curling a little bit on the bottom though.
- [Brad] It is, right down here. It did come off.
Before I went swimming, that was tight as could be.
So, I'm walking across the pool, wet and whatnot, swimming.
- [Bob] So, it's still hitting the area
where you want it to hit?
- Right. Exactly.
So, I'm gonna pull this off,
and I'll demonstrate how you apply this properly,
according to John.
You know, this is a nice book.
We do have this, if you want it.
He goes over all the parts of the body.
- "A practical guide to kinesiology tape
for injury prevention,
and common medical conditions."
- Yep. I've been using this on my wife's shoulder,
and she's been happy with it-
- And trigger finger too.
- Oh, that's right.
We just did it with that.
I really don't think it's something
that's gonna cure everything just like that,
but I think it assists.
- It helps.
- Accelerates the healing process.
- Right.
Protects the joint
and the area.
- Yep, exactly.
That tissue that we're supporting.
So, you get done with your massage.
Oh, the stretching of the big toe, like we talked about.
Do your massage.
- Do your massage.
- About two minutes into it.
Then, you do have to have clean skin,
that is a really key for this.
There is one precaution I do need to mention.
There is adhesive on this,
it's made so that there's a least chance
of having a reaction to it,
but it's possible that you have a reaction
to the adhesive tape.
If you don't have a problem with Band-Aids,
or any other things, you're probably fine.
- What I've found, Brad,
is it usually doesn't bother the first time,
but maybe after you've done it for a couple of weeks,
then it becomes irritating.
- One way or another, if your skin gets irritated,
you can't use it- - Yeah, you gotta stop.
- But the vast majority of people
do not have any problem with it.
So, there's a little trick to using this.
When I cut it off, I had a roll of tape like here,
he recommends this Rocktape.
We don't have any affiliation with it at all.
But he says it's good.
Actually, this is not Rocktape,
and what I had on, and it worked fine,
but you take it off the spool,
and then you're gonna cut-
- [Bob] You round the edges.
- Yep, rounded edges.
Just a regular pair of scissors, whatever you have.
So, that's what I did.
I'm using two different colors.
There's no reason, it's the same tape.
The first, and the way I did it,
I just went like this and it worked pretty well.
So, sitting on the edge of the bed,
what you do is, it's really nice,
you don't have to sit there and kind of peel it off,
you just-
- [Bob] You rip it.
- You rip it, and you pull, and it's a stretchy tape,
works really nice.
Get rid of that.
Now, at home, you may wanna put it in the garbage,
depending on, you know,
my wife would not be happy if these were laying all over.
- [Bob] My wife would be-
- So, here we go.
We put the first one right here,
just at the base of the toe.
No stretch, at this point.
Okay. I'm gonna hold there, and I'm gonna pull.
There we go.
That takes the- - You're pretty good there,
Brad.
- [Brad] Yeah. It's kind of fun. I've been practicing.
Yeah. Once you do it a few times, it gets real easy.
Now, you can stretch it to 100%.
You'll feel it stop.
And then we're gonna go back down about half.
So, we're at 50% stretch,
and you know, have some alcohol wipe,
or a bottle of isopropyl alcohol,
get all the oils and whatnot off your skin-
- [Bob] Yeah, prior to putting the tape on.
- [Brad] Get it clean. That's critical.
And it feels good on your foot.
Nice, cool, as it evaporates.
There you go like this, and you rub it on.
And then as you get around the heel, the calcaneus,
as you're keeping that 50% stretch,
and then when you get to the last inch, no stretch.
So, no stretch here, no stretch here.
And that helps the tape
stay anchored- - Stay on, yes.
- [Brad] Exactly.
And then you take the tape cover, or the adhesive covering.
You're gonna go to the one side.
- [Bob] Then you can warm it up.
- [Brad] Yep, One side is a little sticky,
and the other side slips better,
and you go on the slippier side,
and you do this for 20, 30 seconds,
and that helps seal the adhesive to your skin, so it stays.
Then you take the other one. Okay.
- [Bob] Oh, that's gonna be like a stirrup.
- Yeah. Now this is, I think this is the key.
- This is the one, right. - This is the key.
- Really helps.
- Yeah, now when you do this,
you wanna have your foot dorsiflex.
I wanna mention that, when you do this.
Don't have it down here,
dorsiflex- - Bring it up that way.
- Before you put that on.
I apologize. I'm a little out of order there. Okay.
Now, so I'm gonna pull that off, and do the second one.
Now, make sure you get this right.
So you might wanna look.
You're gonna start on the medial side.
In other words, this ankle,
as opposed to this ankle- - On the inside.
- [Brad] And we're gonna go here.
Again, no stretch to start with.
Now on this one, I'm gonna get that off.
You go all the way 100% and then back off just a little bit
so you get 75% stretch.
A little bit stronger,
go right over like where Bob has that red spot on his ankle,
you're going over the sore spot.
You come around.
And when you get to the anklebone on the other side,
then you back off to 50%.
And at the very end, maybe we can get it here.
Can you still get that?
- [Bob] And again, no stretch at the end.
- [Brad] Right. So right here, there's no stretch.
We anchor that down.
And again, you're gonna take a few seconds
to seal that baby in there.
- So, how many days does it last really?
We don't know, maybe, yet?
- It's gonna vary from person to person, 'cause-
- How active they are,
and how much they sweat- - How much
your feet perspire,
and if you go swimming every day.
But really, it's one of those things.
I think, typically, I'd use this on other parts of my body,
and I've got two to three days on it.
On my hamstrings, I just used it this summer.
- I would put it over your mouth.
- Well, yeah. That's been mentioned at home.
- That would be sort of the best purpose of all.
- Yeah, exactly, so. - But you look like
an Olympic athlete now,
with the tape on- - Yeah. You know.
Yeah. I felt pretty cool walking at the pool.
"I've got tape on my foot, what do you say?"
So, anyways.
You'll leave it on as long as you can.
Now 'cause you can massage over this the next morning
by hand.
- And put shoes on before-
- Before you- - Head off.
- Thank you, Bob.
- You should wear your shoes all day long
when you're dealing with plantar fasciitis,
because we're trying to get to heal.
Once it heals, then you can stop wearing shoes again though,
or whenever you walk around on it as well.
- Exactly.
So, there you go.
I think- - There you go.
- Once again, Bob,
we've covered another part of the body, but-
- We can fix just about anything.
- Except for...
- A broken heart.
- But we continue to work on it.
And I really think that we can use kind of this
for some kind of an adjunct to-
- Oh my God.
- Be careful in everything that you do.
Thank you.
- Thanks.
(bright music)