- Bob and Brad,
the two most famous
physical therapists on the internet.
- Hi folks, I'm Bob Schrupp physical therapists,
- Brad Heineck physical therapists.
- Together we are the most famous
physical therapists on the internet
- In our opinion of course, Bob.
- Today we're going to show you how to treat
a muscle strain or tear in the quad,
hamstring, or thigh adductors.
- Kind of like your upper leg.
- Right, well the muscles that attach into the knee.
So the thing is a muscle strain occurs
when one of the muscles gets stretched
or it gets pulled beyond its limit.
- And you get some tears in the tissue.
- You can get a tear, a strain, a they call it a pull.
You know, they have a lot of different terms
for the same thing.
- Yeah one way or another, it hurts.
- Right? And as a doctor or a therapist,
you might even give it a certain degree.
There's three degrees.
The first degree is sore, the muscle was just pulled.
You know, it wasn't really, there's no tearing.
It's just mild overstretching.
- Sure, they may call it micro-tears but whatever.
- Sure.
The second degree you actually,
you have a lot more pain and some swelling.
It's, you're going to have some overstretching
of the muscle with some tearing,
like you said micro-tear is possible.
Now third degree is severe pain and swelling.
This is where the muscle or tendon
is torn all the way through.
So this is surgery.
- And you're limping pretty good.
- Yeah you are if you're even able to walk
and so you can strain your knee,
especially when you get older our age,
just from everyday activities, it doesn't take much.
- It really, yeah.
I remember taking off running once in the spring,
cause I hadn't run all winter and I've always done that.
And all of a sudden I get in my fifties
and I get sore! - Right.
- And I get this strain in my groin, muscle.
Like I never had this happen before anyways.
- Things for you to look forward to if you haven't already.
So you have a higher chance
of a experiencing in a knee strain.
If you've had a prior one
a prior one before,
you have tight muscles that, makes sense.
You fail to warm up before an athletic event or a work event
or you attempt too much when you exercise.
- Too much too soon.
- Too much too soon. - That's it very much.
- So the signs and symptoms, swelling and bruising
Generally when there is bruising,
it's more of a damage is, has been done.
- Yeah. So it's like, you'll see-
- Discoloration. - Ecchymosis in other words,
blood is in there, but it's like, you didn't have trauma.
- Right.
- In a sense that you had a physical bang there
you had just had the muscle tear.
- The muscle starts to bleed as a result,
- Yeah, muscles could spasm
because they're trying to protect themselves.
If you, like you said, if you had a previous strain or tear,
if you can feel point tenderness, it's real simple.
You know, a lot of the quadriceps tears
occur like mid quadriceps.
So if you poke around and you find
a real tender spot in the middle,
maybe a minor tear or a major tear.
- And sometimes those aren't always easy to find.
I know I do it when I do that,
I get a system, I'll start and I'll go down
then I'll move over and go up.
And then, oh, I'll find a specific spot.
Even though you may not feel it right there.
- Well we're gonna be showing the massage gun later
and they often will find a spot for you.
- Yeah that's a little easier.
- Yeah.
If there's pain, when the muscle is used
or there's weakness when the muscle is used that's a sign.
And you don't believe in this one, Brad,
but hearing a pop sound when the muscle or tendon is torn.
- Well I do, I just always questioned it a little bit.
Depends who heard it? How far they are away.
- So we're going to show you four self tests
you can do for these muscles.
One, you can do what we just talked about.
You can try to find a tender spot.
So if you find a real tender spot,
there's usually something going on
and we want to work on that tender spot.
- Two, let's work on the quadriceps.
So to test the quadriceps
it's going to help if you have someone with you.
I'm going to do it on Brad here.
I'm gonna check his left quadriceps.
You go ahead and straighten your leg, Brad.
And very simply, I'm going to push down and you resist.
And I'm going to push hard because I want,
and if that hurts anywhere along up in here.
Yeah, you may have a tear.
- A normal quad for, especially someone active,
the person, the tester, should be able to push
as hard as possible
and it should not create any point tenderness.
- Hamstring, same thing.
It can happen in the mid hamstring,
or it can happen way up by the sit bones where it attaches.
So you can go ahead and bend the leg and
I'm going to go ahead and
I'm going to try to pull it straight.
- Oh man Bob, look at those muscles,
bulging on those forearms Popeye.
- I'm pickin' on your big hamstrings.
You can also just push the heel down into the ground.
- Yeah you can can kind of do that one by yourself.
- Yeah.
The last one for the hip adductors or the thigh adductors,
you just put your hands or your fist in between your thighs
and push them, squeeze them together.
- Now, some of those muscles don't cross the knee
and some will cross the hip.
So you might, but either way, it's going to be painful
and you need to find out where it is.
- Right.
So treatment is, we like to do cross fiber massage.
You can use your hands.
So let's say the quadriceps it's in the mid quad.
Like we talked about, you can work around a little bit
I like to go across.
The fibers, go this way, like this stripe does.
I like to go across the fibers.
And you know, the problem is fatigue.
- Yeah especially when you get older,
it seems like my fingers fatigue easier.
But the other thing is to do this,
you're not doing superficial. - No, you're getting in there.
- You have to get into the muscle, and work it.
And that even fatigues the fingers fast,
like I'm doing here I put both of them on together which is.
- You probably want the knee straightened.
That'll relax the muscle more
- Yeah for sure I know what you're saying.
- But you can start by doing this.
If you can tolerate going
right over the spot, go over to the spot.
If you can't work around it.
But what's going to work much better is a massage gun.
Here Brad, I'll give you one.
- And it needs to be a massage gun
that doesn't just vibrate.
It has to - Have percussion.
- Yeah, reciprocate back and forth.
And you're going to use that.
- So it has travel.
And you know, all these massage guns, the ones that
you know, we like Bob and Brad's massage guns,
but they have five different heads
and five different speeds.
So you can really get quite intense with some of the heads,
especially the one that Brad owns here.
That is a screw on a stainless steel head.
- Right
- Now that one can really get aggressive.
And these are big muscles so sometimes they can tolerate it.
- Right, and it's an individual thing, right?
- Right.
So I would start off if you use the massage gun,
now I would definitely start off around the painful area.
I wouldn't go into the painful area right away.
Just work into it. Yep.
Let's start around it and then slowly work your way in.
- Just, just be careful when you get around the knee cap
or a bony area, with these guns you want to be,
it's not gonna do any good to massage your bone
and it's gonna hurt.
- And I have no qualms whatsoever, Brad,
about recommending a massage gun because you know,
the thing is they are, they're a little bit pricey,
but the thing is you will use these your entire life.
- You will.
- I've had, I've given away
probably 50 of these now to friends.
- Really? Wow.
- Yeah. I want to make sure they stay my friend.
- No it's true because
if you've got other people in the house,
they're going to take them and use them as well.
- Exactly. Exactly.
And you can do the cross fiber
and Brad likes to use the round head.
- Yeah, not that I'm around, but yeah,
It really offers some good control.
You can see I'm doing this one sideways
because if I go use this one directly on my quad,
it's a little, my quad muscles not thick enough.
And it kinda, it's not, it all depends.
I definitely like it on my hamstring.
- You get hamstring.
Surprised how that feels on mine.
- Good.
- Wow. I think they might hamstring maybe needs this.
- Well yes, the old hammies.
- Oh, both of them, but yeah.
And then you can hit the side to it, you know?
So again, rule of thumb,
you're going to start around the painful area.
Eventually you get to the painful area
and go across the fibers if you can.
And can work it, you can do this like 15 minutes,
three times a week or 15 minutes every day.
You can split it up.
You can do five minutes at a time,
but this is just a good investment.
What else can I say, Brad?
- Well, I don't know.
You could, we could talk about making cookies,
but I think we should stick to the topic.
- Alright?
So this video is part of a series of videos
on treating knee pain.
So if you go to bobandbrad.com
Bobandbrad.com go to the program section
and you'll find one on knee pain
and check out all the videos,
watch the ones that pertain to you.
- [Brad] And then you can click on the PDF printout.
I really, like this one has a really nice
looks like two or three pages
of review and the exercises, the tests.
So you really can't go wrong. You know, there is a cost
Bob, it's a big fat zero doesn't cost you anything
we don't even ask for your email.
It's really a deal.
- You have to send us good vibes.
- There's nothing else out there like this I think.
- Right, right.
- I think it's a one of a kind.
- Thanks.
- Be careful.
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