♪ 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're the most famous physical therapists on the internet.
- In our opinion of course Bob.
- Back in action again.
We were off for a week.
- Yeah, yeah, but we just kept on putting the videos up.
- Yeah we did.
- We backlogged 'em.
- Top three reasons people fall in their home
and we got five exercises to stop their falls.
This is based upon my experience.
It takes the patients I've seen.
And you're gonna back it up with a little bit
of research. - Yeah, we've discussed this
and I concur and I think most any therapists
would really say this is the right line.
- And this video, by the way, is dedicated
to one of our followers, Karin.
We kinda did her a raw deal there
and we wanted to make it up to her.
She wanted a video on exercises
she could do to prevent falls.
She's pretty young yet, but she's looking ahead.
- Right, very wise person.
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- There you go.
- Okay let's get started Brad.
Quite often falls are due to medical reasons.
There could be impaired eyesight or side effects
of medication, but I'm gonna talk
about the things that we can change.
So one of the top reasons I see people fall,
my mom unfortunately, this happened to her
and my mother-in-law, is when they get distracted.
- Sure.
- So my mom was at church, she's walking along
and someone yells her name and she goes like this.
And that turning of the head, it's very difficult,
that's one of the challenges to your balance
is when you turn and avert your eyesight.
Because your eyes are what helps provide balance for you,
one of the senses.
- Right.
- If you take that away, put it under stress,
it puts you under stress.
- Plus you got the vestibular system
on the other-- - Exactly Brad.
- So you work with two different systems
and changing things quickly and it's a problem.
- The other thing, I always warn people when the holidays
come up, always make sure someone is keeping track
of the elderly, because there's a crowd
and everyone's distracted and I've seen people fall
on the holidays a lot, because of that.
Number two, a lot of times people,
a lot of patients I've had fell
when they were trying to pick stuff off the floor.
- Sure.
- So one answer to that is just to use a reacher.
- You know they're about three foot long, you squeeze it
and it works good for picking up
light objects off the floor.
- So yeah, what we're gonna do is show you the ways
to pick, work on picking stuff off the floor
so you maintain that strength, so you're able to do it.
All of our exercises today
are gonna be based upon these faults basically.
- Sure.
- These problem areas.
And the third area that we see, in this one
you can back up a little bit Brad, with the research,
is that they're just weak in the legs
and quite often it's the hips and the ankles.
- Yeah I just took a continuing ed course on geriatrics
and falls last December and that was,
one study showed the number one reason for falls
was not the balance, individual, but strength,
like you said in the hips and the quadriceps.
So you know getting out of a chair,
bending over to pick things up.
If you don't have the strength, or ankle too, you know.
If your ankles are weak, it all ties together.
- And that's what I've seen too.
It seems like those two areas if they're weak,
you see a lot of falls with those type of people so.
We got five exercises, we're trying to keep it simple.
And they're all addressing these issues.
- Sure.
- The first thing, just to even have people
warm up a lot of times, this is to show you
how difficult it is.
You can just walk along and what I want you to do
is look up in all four quadrants.
So I want you to look up there, there,
down there and down there.
The four quadrants.
So you're walking along, you look here, there,
down there, down there.
Up, up, down, down.
- So if you're walking somewhere and people observe you
it looks like you're pretty confused.
- Right. - But.
- And I am.
- (laughs) But it really does make a difference.
And if you have poor balance and feel at risk--
- You're gonna probably want to use the Booyah Stik.
- Yeah, stick or a cane or walk with someone
or you know, if you're really unsteady,
you may not be appropriate for this.
- Right.
Safety first.
Have somebody with you, holding onto your belt
if that's a concern.
But I have patients work on this all the time
and we do, we have a hand on them while they're doing it.
- Great.
- Alright the next one, number one then,
this is the first one we're gonna do.
This is a lot safer, because you can hold onto a chair
or in Brad's case he's got the Booyah Stik here
and what you're gonna do,
we're gonna get some strengthening here.
So we're doing marching.
So we're strengthening the hips a little bit.
But while you're doing it, I want you to turn your head.
And that makes it harder, doesn't it Brad.
- Oh yeah.
- I mean, you'd be surprised.
Now we're putting it under stress.
- What I may suggest is that you actually pick out a point
to look at at the right and then a specific object
on the left so it gives you something to focus on.
- Gotcha.
And that's generally what you're gonna be doing.
You're gonna be focusing on something when somebody--
- Right.
- You can do 15 to 30 of these.
- The marching?
Right.
Assuming you don't get fatigued.
- Right.
You can also advance that.
Why don't we do the other one first
and then we'll show you how you can advance that
with the band. - Sure.
- That's one of the hip strengthening exercises.
The second one is going out to the side.
Now with this one, you want to keep
the toe pointed straight that way.
I'm not going out this way,
I'm going straight out to the side.
This is a very important muscle for balance.
This is the one where you see people swaying
or what they call trendelenburg gait deviation.
So you want to make sure that one's strong.
Start off by doing these.
And yeah, don't dip like this.
Nothing like that.
Eventually you can work up,
you can use a counter top too, that would work.
Eventually you want to start turning your head with this.
- That takes a little co-ordination.
- Yes it does.
- It's like doing this thing and this.
- But it's a lot harder.
You're gonna find it very surprising
that's a lot more difficult. - So in all these
10 to 20 repetitions would probably work out well.
- 10 to 20 to 30, it depends how strong you are
and where you're at in your advancement.
You want to go and slip that band on Brad.
- Sure.
- And I'll show the next one.
Number three is actually, this is one where
you're probably again would need somebody to help you.
You can start by just walking the tightrope.
So you just pick a line on the floor.
I'm just walking between the tiles.
But, then if you want to make this more difficult
you actually turn your head back and forth like this
and you can see right away I'm starting to lose my balance.
Again, that is one that you would probably do,
this one you can maybe do on your own.
If you want to make it harder you go actually heel to toe.
I'm actually gonna struggle with this one.
(both talking at the same time)
So Brad's gonna show the advanced version now
of the hip-strengthening exercise.
- Even that one or this one, if you've got a cupboard
to hold onto or a cane or the stick, one or another.
Make sure it's safe and if you feel wobbly
you should not be doing it right.
- You can walk along a cupboard.
- Right, one hand on the cupboard or just above the cupboard
so if you do lose balance
you just simply catch your stabilizer.
Oh be careful!
Alright, so, we're talking about--
- Strengthening hip flexors.
- This will be for more advanced people.
Your balance is fairly good,
you want to maintain it or improve it.
You get the band, we got a SYNC band here
that's stretchy round just above the knees
is where I like to usually put 'em.
But you can go lower, it makes it more difficult.
And again, the same biomechanics, good posture.
Not doing this.
And this will make quite a bit of difference.
If you were doing 30 before, depending on the resistance
you might drop down to 10
and feel the same amount of fatigue.
I can already feel my hip abductors
starting to burn a little bit here.
- Yeah, this probably could be Karin,
because Karin's in pretty good shape she said.
You could also do marching.
- Yup, yup.
And that adds that little bit of resistance
which definitely you can feel the difference
with or without it.
Much easier without it.
Especially when you get up into the 10 to 20 repetitions.
This is not a real difficult one, this lighter color.
- Right.
But it makes a difference though.
- Oh yeah.
- Next one again, we want to address the issue
of being able to pick stuff off the floor.
There's two ways to do that,
one is just gonna be the pure squat.
So we're gonna work on doing squats.
We try to have it that you keep your back straight
while you're doing it.
I'm gonna reach down like this
and you want to actually probably take your hand
and reach down like you normally would.
Now, watch your head
because a lot of times you bring your head forward
you start bringing your body forward.
I prefer that you look down, see where it is
and then reach like this.
But you can do repeated squats here.
And if this is too difficult for ya.
Start with the shallow ones.
- Sure.
- But in any case, even if it doesn't get to the point
where you can do the squat, pick something off the floor
it's gonna strengthen those hips.
So we really want you doing it.
We've had some people do it in a chair.
Let's say you were afraid you were gonna fall.
You can do squats like this.
And then if you do fall, you go into the chair.
- You're safe, the chair's behind you.
You can have the cupboard here in front of you.
I've had that with people that are marginal
and that just makes sure that they're safe.
- Lots of squats are gonna be really good to do.
You can even use your arms
to start off with if it's difficult.
Eventually you can even work to the point
where you don't have your arms at all
as you get stronger.
- I'd just say repetitions on that, 10
probably not 30 on that.
- Yeah you're probably not-- - That's pretty aggressive.
- Gonna do 30 on that. - Probably 10, maybe 20.
So 10 to 15 to start out with is a good number.
- By the way at the end of the video here
we're gonna show one fun secret for improving your balance.
I forgot to mention that Brad.
- It will be fun, funny. (laughs)
- So last one we're gonna do is lunges.
And this is a great way to pick stuff off the floor
is actually go like this
and dip down and grab it like this
and then come back up again.
It's easy to keep your back straight.
But again, you can do it with a counter top
and work on going down.
And you're gonna want to switch legs.
So that you strengthen both sides.
- This is one that you can step backwards
and do a backwards lunge as well.
If you've got a stick or a cane, that really makes a big
difference on your stability when you're practicing this.
You can alternate.
It works a good quads too.
- It works a good quad.
It's a single leg, you're really working that one.
It's taking all the burdens.
- That front leg is working double time.
- Alright Sam.
Oh, you gonna help me out.
So Marcus, I want you to cue up the polka music.
(polka music) Ready.
- Oh Bob.
- Dancing is one of the best ways to improve your balance.
- Oh really?
- Well, one you got somebody supporting you,
so if you start losing your balance they can help you.
- There you go. - Unless you both go down.
Boy Sam you are a handsome man.
Also, so you're working on side-stepping and stepping
forward, turning, twisting, you're turning your head,
you're watching other people.
Cue it up Marcus.
Here we go baby.
(humming)
- It's a polka.
- Yeah it's a polka.
- When you're in this part of the country, everybody polka.
Bob you are incredible.
Oh the major dip.
(Bob laughs)
Oh man.
You got him dizzy there.
- Well thanks everybody for watching.
See you later.
- Adios.