♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
(claps)
- Hi folks I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
(claps)
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- We are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- In our opinion of course Bob.
- Today we're going to go over the best daily hamstring
flexibility routine at home the right way.
None of this wrong way stuff.
We actually showed you the wrong war already
and now we're gonna show you the right way like we promised.
- Right.
I shouldn't say right, correct.
- By the way if you're new to our channel
please take a second to subscribe to us.
We provide videos how to stay healthy, fit, pain free
and we upload everyday and we try to make you a better you.
Join us on our social media channels
because we're always giving away something.
We're giving away the Ergonomic Innovations.
- [Brad] There it is.
- Yeah it's right over there, Brad's gonna grab it.
Go over to Facebook and it's always pinned
to the top of our page, the giveaway
or go to bobandbrad.com and look under giveaway.
This is what we're giving away.
It's are good for people who have tailbone pain
or sits bone pain or you just uncomfortable in sitting.
- Particularly on a hard surface.
- Right.
- So, hamstrings wouldn't you say Bob,
I don't have stats on this
but they're very commonly injured.
- One of the most commonly injured muscles I would say.
- Very commonly cramp up and they're also related
to low back pain.
- Now let me show 'em that.
So when that hamstring is tight,
we'll show a little bit on the skeleton too
but if my hamstring is tight,
it's just gonna pull my pelvis like this.
It's gonna pull my pelvis underneath me.
- We call it that posterior pelvic rotation
which we don't like on the low back.
- So what happens is, there goes my microphone,
makes your microphone fall off too,
it actually rounds out your back
and instead of sitting like this with no stress on the back,
the back is stacked up right, you're like this
and it makes it very hard for you to sit up straight
and therefore you're gonna end up with back pain.
- And it also makes a big difference if you bend over
to pick something up.
If your hamstrings are tight it's very hard
to get good body mechanics.
- Absolutely, good boy Brad.
- So let's look at the hamstrings.
Here we use Sam I Am and we've got a little model here,
obviously it's not exact but the concept is there.
Oops our hamstring just popped off.
- [Bob] He has a torn hamstring Brad.
- Yeah (laughs) a ruptured hamstring.
If you look at this, it's connected below the knee joint
and at the ischial tuberosity
so when you extend or straighten your knee.
- [Bob] You can see it stretching there.
- They tighten or if you flex your hip they tighten
and if you flex your hip and straighten your knee
it's a double whammy, it stretches it from both ends
so to speak because it's biarticulate.
It crosses a hip joint and the knee joint.
That's getting a little technical.
- [Bob] But that's why Brad's gonna emphasize
how important it is to keep your knee straight
when you're stretching the hamstrings so.
- Thank you Sam.
- So you want me to jump into position here Brad?
- No I'm doing mine first.
- Oh you're gonna do yours first, okay.
- The stairway is a beautiful tool
for stretching your hamstrings.
It's got something to hold, balance and a good place
to put your foot.
If you have tight hamstrings you're gonna go here.
Now, the knee needs to be straight,
your back needs to be straight.
Bob's gonna help me out and show you.
- I got the Booyah Stik here and this is what's always nice
as a good indicator, a good measure of whether or not.
You should have three points of contact,
head, mid back and pelvis.
- If I do this, no good.
If I stay here we isolate the hamstrings versus trying
to round out the back and do harmful things to our back.
So I'm gonna maintain that.
I can feel a good isolated stretch here.
If you're a little more flexible you may go up a step
or you may go down a step but you do the same mechanics.
Now, for those of you who are quite flexible
and you really wanna work 'em you may have to go something
as high as this.
This is like the ballet has those bars
and you see them doing it a lot
and this on a cupboard for me it works really well,
okay keep my knee straight, keep my back straight
and now I'm stretching with very little movement
but I got a really nice stretch.
Bob has a really nice way to do it.
- Yeah this helps keep stress off the back.
I like doing this right away when I wake up
in the morning Brad this is the first thing I do.
- You get out of bed and go down on the steps?
- I honestly do. - Wow.
- Well actually what I do is
and you can do this in a doorway,
you could do this, my steps are actually going down
like this and my railing's right here
so am I at the top of the steps
and I put my leg up like this
and so this leg is going down the steps.
Does that make sense?
- [Brad] It even puts a little more stretch on it.
- Yeah so I get a little stretch of the hip flexor.
What's nice about this is I could just lay here
and kinda wake up, you know I'm groggy
and I'm not a morning person.
- [Brad] It's a very relaxing stretch.
- Yeah it's a very relaxing stretch.
- And there's no stress on the low back
so you eliminate that.
- And if you wanna stretch it more you just get closer
and closer and you can stretch it more and more.
- Now people are already asking questions
I can tell they're gonna say well how many times
do I stretch?
How long do I hold it?
If you hold up to 30 seconds,
that's an accepted good time length to hold it
or Bob and I like to do the pressure on, pressure off,
in other words if I'm stretching here, stretch on
and pressure off.
And relax when you stretch.
If you breathe and relax your stretch will be significantly
more beneficial as opposed to holding your breath
and keeping tight and it's no good.
- Here's a stretch out strap.
What's nice about this it's got the loops
so if you have trouble holding onto the strap
you could just put your hands inside
and it gets very easy to grip
and what's nice about this is you can actually push down
and then relax, that's called contract relax.
Push down, relax, push down, relax
and when you're pushing down you really don't let it go.
I mean you don't let it go down like this,
you hold it while you push down.
- [Brad] As if I'm doing this.
- Yeah and then relax and it starts
to move further and further.
That's just a physio logic. - That's a little bit
more advanced stretch. - It is.
- Otherwise you can just go but look how nice Bob
keeps his knee straight.
I mean that's critical to get a good hamstring stretch
and now if you're starting out,
your leg may be way down here Bob.
- Right.
- You know so if you got tight hamstrings you're down here,
as you get more flexible or you're like Bob.
- I've seem 'em down here.
- Yeah right.
- It's amazing.
And you can use a belt too.
Well I hear people use a dog leash.
- Oh sure that would work.
- Yeah so you could take a belt like this,
just wrap it around like that
and go ahead and do the same thing.
It just takes a little more to hold onto it so.
- Right that works good.
I had a cane but someone took it.
You put it?
- Liz put it away, she's like.
- That's okay.
- When Alex comes back in the bed in the middle
of the night it's already made.
(laughs)
Oh here it comes.
- It's not the right one but it'll work.
If you have a cane you could just use that around your foot.
- This actually works pretty good Brad.
- Yeah I was looking for the flat handle, the pistol grip
but yeah this is good.
- This actually works out really quite well.
- Nice job, Alex.
- You got a lot of different options, give me the hook.
- Yes.
Now and the third and the most aggressive way
but you really need to be careful is have a partner
that you trust.
- Right.
- So this isn't gonna work out.
- This isn't gonna work at all.
- Actually this works good for Bob
because he's got these long legs.
I don't have to do.
I don't have to bend over
and so he's gonna keep his knee straight.
That's his job and I'm just gonna go forward
and when Bob says stop.
- I'd say stop right there.
- And I can hold it for that 30 seconds.
If you wanna do contract relax or works really good
with a partner. - I can push into Brad.
- It's easier for Bob than with the strap actually.
- Yeah it is.
- To work together.
We used to do this when I was in Karate
to get really high front kicks.
We always did this contract relax stretch.
- I could see that with a partner that you trust.
(laughs)
- All right so those are some really good ways
to isolate and get just a hamstring stretch
without injuring or irritating your low back
and just to stay relaxed.
Bob, I like this.
- Yeah I imagine you do.
- Is that what happens when you stretch your hamstrings?
You get a little shorter?
(laughs)
Just kidding.
All right very good.
- Thanks for watching.
(upbeat music beat)