♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
- Hi, I'm Sara Meeks.
And this is the second video on the use of the TheraBand
for shoulder strengthening.
So I have Barbara here again
to help demonstrate the exercises.
And she's going to do the exercises with a red TheraBand.
So Barbara, here's your band.
And the first thing she's gonna do
is wrap it around her hands,
as I talked about in the first video,
so that we don't have any issues with the fingers,
or the thumbs, or anything like that.
Now that does look a little narrow.
You might give yourself a little bit more
because you're gonna pull this thing apart.
The first exercise is called the side pull.
So what she's gonna do is bring her arms...
She already got them up here in the air.
I'm gonna ask her to keep her elbows
as straight as possible.
And she's going to pull the band apart
and bring it down across her collarbone.
not down near the breast, but more near the collarbone.
Hold it momentarily and then slowly relax.
And I'm gonna ask her to do three repetitions.
And just see if you can keep this elbow
just a little bit straighter, okay?
So go for number two.
And relax, and then one more time.
And then also, if she comes slowly back from the movement
she's getting an eccentric contraction
of the same muscle group that she uses to pull it out.
So it's like two in one.
You're gonna now do it with one arm.
You're gonna keep one arm stable
and do the pull with just one arm.
Okay, you're choosing your left,
and then the right one moves out to the side.
Keep the elbow nice and straight.
Two. And keep that one nice and steady.
Keep the elbow little straighter.
Three, okay.
And then you're going to come back up and do the other arm.
That's right, keep this one stable.
Okay. All right.
Now, what you're gonna do now
is you're gonna bring your arms down
and you're gonna put one hand on the same hip.
Left? Okay, you're picking your left.
And then you bring the right arm over
with your thumb facing down.
And we are gonna pull at a diagonal,
leaving the left hand where it is
and straightening the right elbow.
And you're gonna go on a diagonal across your chest,
right between the breast.
Keep the elbow straight and keep that wrist long there.
No, not down, but just straight there. Nice and neutral.
Okay, that's one, and back down to the start.
And then two.
Straighten the elbow, keep the rest nice and neutral.
That's it, two.
And then three.
Remember in the Meeks method, alignment is the key, okay?
All right, now you can take your right hand
on your right hip and we'll do the same exercise.
Turning the palm down a little bit,
straightening the elbow all the way up
on a diagonal across your body.
This is called the sash.
One. Good.
Two.
Okay, you're letting that wrist kind of collapse
a little bit.
Keep your thumb facing the way it is right now.
Don't rotate your arm.
Just come straight up. That's it.
You can do this exercise with the hand facing down,
with it in neutral.
I've never done it with my palms turning up.
Okay, that's three.
Okay, so you're gonna stay right here.
And straighten your elbow
so that the band is now across
the upper part of your thighs.
And then pull the band apart.
And you're gonna keep the same tension on the band
as you bring the arms up and the band back behind your head.
Keep the tension the same,
keep the wrist neutral and then come back down slowly.
So you're getting the exercise called two for one here.
You're getting eccentric and concentric contractions
of your muscles.
Two.
And feel how that opens up your chest.
Make your breathing easier.
Okay, good.
Keep that tension the same and then come back down.
Okay. All right.
The next one we're gonna do is the head cradle.
So what you're going to do is bring...
You're gonna keep the left arm where it is
and bring the right arm over, bend the elbow,
and you're gonna keep the elbow bent and the wrist neutral.
And you're gonna pull up on the left side
and cradle your head.
One.
Two.
Keep that elbow bent. That's it.
Keep it bent the same.
And three.
Okay.
All right, now put your right hand on your right hip,
bend the left elbow over.
Bend the elbow.
Bend the elbow. That's it.
And you're gonna pull up
and cradle your head with your left arm now.
One, keep it close to your ear as you can.
Two, that's it.
And you're heading...
On the next one you wanna see if you can head your elbow
toward the table.
Three. Good.
All right, and then come down.
Okay.
The next one is called the bow and arrow.
Okay, good. Thank you.
Okay, so bring your arms up in the air.
You're gonna hold one arm stationary
and then you're gonna bend one elbow and pull straight down
as if you're shooting an arrow out of a bow.
I'm gonna help guide the left arm.
Do you do the left arm first? Okay.
This is like a real therapy session, you know?
Two.
That's it, keep that wrist.
Ah, good, you fixed it. There you go.
All right. Good.
Okay, come back up and then do the other side.
Good.
Two.
And three.
Good.
All right, now put your arms down at your side.
Gonna bend both elbows.
Bend them up a little bit more, okay?
And then what you're gonna do
is you're gonna rotate both of your arms out to the side.
And I want you to tighten your abdominal
so that you're not arching your back
or using any other part of your body, if you can.
Turn your palms so they face each other.
That's usually the starting position.
Okay, and so both arms out to the side.
One.
Two.
And one more.
And if you can go this arm more.
They don't have to be the same, okay?
And then back.
Okay, now you're gonna hold one arm stationary
and do one arm at a time.
Out to the side. One.
Keep the elbow bent. Two.
And three.
And then the other arm.
Keep that wrist nice and steady.
No, don't bend your hands down.
Just keep 'em nice in that neutral wrist.
Good. Okay.
All right, so that's the series of the exercises
with the TheraBand.
Now I had Barbara do three repetitions.
And as with other exercises, I use the formula.
This is my own formula that I found really worked well
with my patient population.
Three, five or eight.
So when I'm starting somebody out,
I'll start with three repetitions.
As they get better at it we'll go to five and then to eight.
And then when they get to eight repetitions,
I'll say, okay, let's go to the next color.
And so we will keep getting more resistance
and more reps up to eight.
If they wanna do two sets of eight,
that's fine with me also.
And I have found these exercises,
even though they're gravity-assisted,
they're very effective at strengthening the muscles
in the back, in the shoulder blades
and in the shoulder itself.
And the other thing that I wanted to say again
is that we want to not only look at the repetitions,
but then, as you get better at it,
then you can increase the color.
So I wanna say thank you to Barbara
for being our model today.
And thank you all for watching this video.
(upbeat music)