♪ 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.
- Today, we're gonna show you how to stop knee pain
with seven at home exercises,
it includes strengthening.
- Right.
- This is good because a lot of you can't get out
to your therapist yet.
- Right. - So we're trying
to include a lot of home exercise videos
so you can try some things on your own.
- Exactly.
And Bob, are we gonna continue on or?
- Yeah, let's continue on.
- Okay, go ahead.
- Oh by the way if you are new to our channel
please take a second to subscribe to us,
we provide videos on how to stay healthy and fit pain free,
and we upload everyday.
Also if you get a chance go to bobandbrad.com.
This week we're giving away a Knee Glide
which actually kinda fits along with this.
- It does Bob. - You wanna show them
the Knee Glide real quick? - Yes I do.
- You can also find it on Facebook,
the contest that is.
It will be pinned at the top of the page.
Go to Twitter or Instagram or TikTok
if you want a 60 second version of our program.
Here's the Knee Glide,
great after surgery especially after a knee replacement.
I think it's almost vital after those Brad.
- Right, good for those arthritic knees as well.
Anyways so--
- And even anybody can lift it.
Great-grandma could lift, I think with her fingers.
- You bet, 3.1 pounds.
All right, so Bob I gotta be honest with you.
This is excellent for anybody any age.
But actually, the person,
someone I know,
she's in college. - For sure.
- Young and she's complaining of knee pain
and she's concerned about strengthening her legs
to help her knees.
I thought, I can help you out.
- Yeah, we'll give you some. - We'll make a video for you.
You are not the only one in your situation.
- So you're gonna say her name?
- Allie.
- Allie and she's at Ace Hardware.
- Yeah and she's working there,
working her way through college,
you know the routine.
- So it sounds funny Brad wrote Allie at Ace
and so I thought it was Alice. - Right.
- I put the two together.
- Right. - Allie and Ace.
- Let's get on with the program.
- Okay let's go.
- First thing with your knees,
if you're having pain with your knees.
In her case it's with weight bearing.
And she says they kind of feel like they lock up
or they're painful.
We need to make sure
that your knee has full range of motion
- Yes. - In both ways.
In other words, does it go fully straight
and does it flex or bend all the way?
Typically, if you have knee pain
and one side's more painful or just one side's painful,
often times that knee will not have full range of motion,
in one way or another.
If it's just walking it's almost always with
getting fully straight.
So we wanna check that out.
I'm gonna actually use the ball here.
You don't have to do,
you could use a stool or--
- Another chair. - Yeah, another chair.
But look at here and does the knee go all the way straight?
Now what you'll wanna do is compare to the other knee.
Now, if this one,
you can see goes all the way down.
You can feel it's down to the end range,
we call that.
And this one goes down and it doesn't quite make it
and there may be a little pain associated with that pushing.
We wanna get that straight.
So we are not going to force it straight all at once.
I guess that could happen but typically--
- Typically, you're gonna have probably a lower stool
than this Brad because-- - Where is our stool?
- Your hamstrings might pull too much.
- Yeah, this is too tall.
There it is.
Right behind him.
- I can go get it. - Yeah.
Well you can do it on the floor as well.
Bob, you're in the camera a bit weird.
- That's all right, I want the camera time.
- I'm gonna (chuckles) push down like this,
pressure on, pressure off,
just until you bump into that pain a little bit
and do that 10 repetitions.
Don't get too aggressive be nice to it.
- Once again, we show how organized we are.
- Yeah, exactly.
- This is more, would be more appropriate.
Now your hamstrings aren't gonna be as tight--
- Yeah, that's a good point.
- And you won't strain the knee.
- We don't want it to high.
And do 10 repetitions.
You can do that two or three times a day.
- Sure.
- Within a, you know of couple days you should notice
some improvement.
It's possible that your knee it won't straighten
because of other problems but you gotta give it a try,
and usually it will get straighter.
And as it gets straighter the knee pain will often times
go down along with it.
- Well, if it's not straightening
or it is completely straightening
then it might be that it's not bending as well.
- Right, absolutely.
Then you're gonna-- - Work on bending.
- Yeah, so go pull up here and see.
Now someone who's in, you know,
in her 20s like Allie,
healthy person usually can get all the way back to the heel,
as pretty close to the buttocks there.
But again, compare one to the other.
If there's pain when you get up here
and it kinda locks up there
and there's a distance here then
again, you could use a stool or you could go without it.
But we're gonna actually do the repetition
where you just bend and relax,
pressure on, pressure off.
- You can have people just stand on it,
you know put it on a chair like this.
- Go ahead Bob. - Stand like this and bend.
Whoa this chair is slippery.
- Yeah, don't use one of these chairs.
- Yeah, don't use one of these chairs
but you can get a little stretch like this,
going too.
- Actually works really good into a stairwell
where you can hold on to the rails.
You know the other thing that you can do
doing the pressure on, pressure off,
what are you looking for Bob? - I'm looking for a towel.
- That's right, it was right here.
Boy we are really on the ball.
- Just keeping talking Brad, keep talking.
- Okay, the idea is to get it fully bent
and when you get it fully bent,
and I recommend you take a few days doing that,
two or three times a day.
You may luck out and it will get straight sooner than that.
But then, then you're good to go,
if by the way you have full extension or full flexion.
- One more flexion. - All right.
- You can put a towel underneath like this
and gap it like this.
This really works well Brad. - Yeah.
- Especially for people who are having problems.
- Yeah. - Just stick a towel on there
and it gaps the knee a little bit and helps with flexion.
- Sure. - Sorry.
- If you have full range of motion,
one and two that we just showed you,
you don't even have to do any of those.
- Don't even need to do it.
- Just skip all that last two or three minutes of babble.
- Yeah.
- Then we'll go to long arc quads.
- Right, so now we're gonna do some range of motion
and some early strengthening.
So just hold like that,
fully straight hold it for a second or two
and then down.
We don't wanna do this.
- Yeah, nicely controlled.
And the thing is you should do this throughout the day
whenever you're seated.
- Yeah. - Do a couple, you know,
do a good rip off
and a good set of 10 of them. - Right.
- Because that's how you're gonna get stronger
and that's how you're gonna help that knee
from not locking anymore,
is to get some smoothness in that joint.
- If you feel like this is just way too easy,
don't worry we've got some
harder exercises coming. - Sure.
- Make sure you do both legs.
The next one,
that did the hamstrings,
now we wanna get the,
oh that did the quadriceps, I'm sorry.
Now we wanna do the hamstrings.
This is an introductory level for hamstrings strengthening
if you don't have any equipment,
weight lifting equipment.
We're gonna show a little advanced exercise
in just a minute or two using the ball,
which works really well if you're at home.
But if you do a, whoop.
Are we clear, Mike?
We do a bridge.
Right now I'm working the hamstrings just a little bit.
So you may do that.
We're working the glutes as well.
People will be saying,
oh you're doing more than the hamstrings,
but if we bring my heels away from my buttocks
about to there,
now you can feel those hamstrings kick in.
- Yeah, you gotta be careful,
you could actually cramp them up a little bit
when you're doing this way.
I often will feel cramping when I go all that direction.
- Exactly.
And I can feel my hamstrings working.
If by chance you do get a cramp doing this,
simply straighten your knees out the best you can,
and then sit up and that will release the cramp.
And then give it a break.
Come back the next day and do some more
cause we don't want a cramp.
Now,
this is,
the only thing is you do need,
this is the best way that I know of
to strengthen your hamstrings particularly for
higher level people, younger people like Allie,
is you need a ball.
You know they are not a big expense which is a nice thing
they're $15, $20.
- Yeah, exactly. - You can get them online.
So what I'm gonna do is laying down like this
simply go up into that bridge position
and then I'm gonna simply roll the ball towards me.
And we do 10 of those.
That is a lot.
I would say not all but mostly hamstring activity right now.
And do 10 of those.
If it's way too easy and it's like,
oh that's not very hard,
simply cross one leg.
Now we are emphasizing the right leg, definitely harder.
You can definitely tell.
But then you have to cross over and do the other leg
so that you balance out.
If that's too easy, you can do 10 on each side.
It's like, oh that's too easy.
I guarantee you when you go to one leg,
like this,
as you can tell by my voice,
I'm straining.
- Now you're maximizing.
- Yeah. - You're going--
(groans)
- Wow.
That's for the athlete.
- Right. - So the range is here.
You will definitely get your strengthening.
So that's the hamstring strengthening aspect.
Now we wanna do quadriceps.
- Sure, got you Brad.
- All right.
Now the nice thing about quads
is you can really strengthen them well
without the ball or with the ball.
We're gonna show you both.
- So you're gonna do some lunges Brad to start off with?
- Yeah, you can use a chair to hold on if you need balance.
I'm gonna use the Booyah stik because I'm fond of it.
I'm gonna show it from this angle.
We're gonna step out like this.
Plus I can use a stick for sure mechanics.
- Yeah. And I'm gonna go down to here.
I'm not gonna let my knee go past this vertical line
above my toe shown by the Booyah stik.
- Yeah, look how he's gonna dip down basically.
- Yeah, like this.
Now you can just go like this and do five to 10 of these
and you will feel quadriceps
working big time.
You know, get deeper if you wanna increase it
or you can do,
what I call stepping motion.
Here and then alternate.
Left and right.
Either way whatever works or trips your trigger.
You can do both.
Do one and then do the other,
the other day just to break it up.
10 of them is usually good.
If you can't get to 10,
start out with three or five,
whatever you can get to.
Now the thing about the ball for the quadriceps is,
it's easier to modify the resistance, I think.
- That and I think it's easier
to keep your knees out of trouble.
Like you can stop your knees from going past the toes
a lot easier. - Sure, great.
- I mean because you can lean back against it.
Like when I do a squat like this,
see how my knees starting to go past my toes.
- Yeah, yeah.
- So I had to stay way back in order not to do that.
The ball let's you do that.
- And then I'm gonna work on my posture.
Simply squat down.
Now you're not gonna squat all the way down like this.
That puts a lot of stress on your knees.
We're gonna go down until your hips
are even with your knees,
your thighs are parallel to--
- Well to start you might even do less than that.
If you're having knee pain, - Yeah.
- you would actually just do shallow squats.
- Yeah, you may start out simple.
- Yeah, just like that.
- And then work your way down.
Again, we are shooting for 10 repetitions.
As you get stronger if you are more athletic
and you want more of a resistance,
you know, you can cross over like this and do them.
That works my right leg
or then we're gonna cross this way.
And if you wanna go, you know, to the advanced level,
the one legged squat. - Sure.
- Give me that stick. - Now you're working.
- Yeah, so I'm gonna use the stick to help me balance
as well as a little assistance to get me up and back.
So that's a nice advanced rate.
By that time your knee pain is probably gone
and you're really working towards that
advanced strength. - Yeah, so now
between those two, you know,
the hamstring and the quad,
you're getting the major muscle groups
that cross the knee. - Exactly.
- And it will help stabilize the knee.
- There you go. - So--
- This is quite a range. - Yes.
- We went from range of motion to early strengthening
to advanced strengthening.
But it's all for Ally and we wanna be--
- Ally, Ally,
Ally. (laughing)
- All right.
- Enough of that.
Thanks for watching.
(upbeat music)