♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
(clapping)
- Hi folks, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- And we are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- In our opinion, of course, Bob.
- Today we are gonna go over three calf exercises
that will make your gastrocs rock.
- There you go, Bob.
Do people know what a gastroc is?
- Well, they're gonna know
- The gastrocnemius.
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 actually our giveaway
kinda goes along with today's
- Yes it does, Bob.
- So we got the, you wanna try this one again Brad?
You want to try to remember the name?
- Yah it's called the Pro-Slant, Bob.
- Yah you almost got it right that time.
- Yah so you can use it for stretching those gastrocs.
- Yup and they come with a kit of two actually,
it's nice because actually I gave one to my wife
and she puts it below her desk, a standing desk,
and she stretches her calf muscles while she's working.
- Yah.
- Doing double duty.
Multitasking.
So just go to one of our social media channels,
go to our website bobandbrad.com and we have
the giveaways section or you can go to BobandBrad
on Facebook and it's always pinned at the top of the page.
- Always pinned.
- So there we go.
- All right so Bob, the gastroc.
That's the calf muscle, it's the one that usually people
are showing off, that one right there, either
the gastrocnemius or the gastrocsoleus,
that's the two muscles.
- Right, gastrocnemius and the soleus.
- Soleus yah that's the muscle that's deep in
and it goes down in here.
We're focusing mostly on the gastroc on this particular
video, it's the most, it's the biggest one there
and that's what people like to
- Focus on.
- Yup, that you know, bulge out.
- Really you've heard the saying that people either have
calves or calves not.
- Yeah.
- I'm a calf not.
- Calf not.
- You've got a pretty good calf there.
- They're okay, you're not gonna put them on the cover
of the Rolling Stone but you know, anyways...
That's a magazine!
- I know but why would you put the calf on the cover?
Oh the cover of the Rolling Stones, yeah.
- It's dated okay.
- Well let's get started Brad.
- We're gonna start out three beginner and then a little
more advanced, intermediate.
So we're gonna keep our knees straight, that works mostly
the gastrocs and all we're gonna do, I'm gonna use a
stick for balance, you can hold onto the ball,
hold on to the stick, hold on to a friend,
your wife, whatever so you've got some balance.
Maybe you don't need it but alls we're gonna do is
go up like this, up and down, and if you get to
10 repetitions and you feel like you're pretty fatigued
then you're good, then you want to do three sets of 10.
Then you may want to stretch a little bit, if you happen
to have a slant board you can stretch a little bit
between while you're resting, rest for 30 to 60 seconds,
maybe up to 90 seconds and then go ahead
and do another set of 10.
If that's too easy, alls you need to do is go to one leg.
- Sure.
- So I'm just gonna go to one leg.
And up, and you know I need a little balance here 'cause
I want to focus on my exercise not my balance,
and then you do 10 of that and then rest,
stretch a little bit and do three sets of 10.
When that gets too easy do 10 if that's not working.
- Right, not getting any results.
- Right, then it's time to advance the technique
and what we're gonna do is get full range of motion.
- Do you have that other one over there?
- Yep, we've got a little exercise platform here.
I've got some shelf liner cause it's a little slippery
on here for this particular technique.
So with the gastroc, if I exercise from a neutral position
with my ankle up to here that's good, but there's also
- You get a longer range, a full range.
- You want to work that muscle through the whole range
so you get now you can do this on a stairway,
a step like this, whatever you have so that it allows
your heels to drop down and then all the way up
and you'll notice quite a difference doing this
compared to off the floor.
- [Bob] You're getting the entire range of motion.
- [Brad] Right, yep.
Takes a little more balance, make sure you've got
the shelf liner it's critical,
if you slip off it's really frustrating.
And again, do three sets of 10.
If it's too easy with one foot simply go to the other foot
and this, I can notice quite a bit of difference.
- [Bob] Yeah now you're working.
And you know these are nice to do on the stairs
for the reason that there's a rail.
- A handrail.
- You can hold on to the hand rail.
- You bet.
- You can do it off of the stairs so you can really be safe.
- Yeah there you go.
So, there's that and then finally
- For the advanced.
- Yep for when you really get stronger then one option,
where did I put my weight Bob?
- The green weights are over there.
- Well, the purple ones?
Yah there they are, how'd they get over there?
I put them there?
Oh Bob my mind is gone.
- You could use a kettlebell too Brad.
- Yep you could use one, why don't you grab a kettlebell?
- Sure, I will.
- You can use anything, dumbbells, kettlebells
- This is 30 pounds though.
- Thirty pounds?
- Yeah.
- Well I just got a couple five pounders
and just leave the weight hang here and you don't
have to be dressed up and pull your slacks up like mine,
you simply just do the same thing except for with weight.
Good posture though, make sure you're not slouched,
really critical to maintain your posture
so you're benefiting both ways.
Bob's a little lopsided there.
- Yeah a little bit.
- Normally you wouldn't do that but it's all right.
Switch hands between sets.
- Sure, there you go.
- And again, two legs, you can go to one leg.
- I will one leg that.
Oh boy now I'm burning.
- You feel that now?
- [Bob] Thirty pounds, thirty pounds.
Yep this is working now.
- So it's the same thing, you can do this off the edge
of the step too but you're really gonna
have a challenge with balance.
Let's see if I can do it, whoah.
That's not bad!
- [Bob] Well I think again you can hang on to one kettlebell
and hang on to the rail with the other one.
- Right, right.
If you don't happen to have dumbbells or kettlebells
the other thing that you could use, if you have some bands.
Now you're gonna need a fair amount of resistance,
I tripled it up here.
I got three bands on there,
you've got to find a place to anchor it.
Our wall anchors work really well for something like this
and you're just gonna go over like this to get some
pre-stress on there and the same thing.
Now I could do this on a step but it gets even more
difficult when you have the resistance.
- [Bob] Yeah the bands are pulling you off.
- But really, if I do this, in one leg now you get
to introduce some balance along with it and this
kind of helps stabilize you so it works out better
than just not using anything.
It's almost like holding on to the stick or the rail.
My calves are getting tired!
- [Bob] It provides resistance but yet it gives you
a little bit of stability.
- Right.
- It's interesting when I used to go
to a weight room, guys would
take the big 45 pound plates and do those.
- Yeah, sure.
- And also, crazy as it sounds and maybe they still do it,
one guy would get on another guy's back
and they'd do calf raises.
- Wow, yeah.
That must have been some
- Don't say it Brad, this is a family show.
I don't know where you were gonna go with that.
- Yeah I don't know where you were going.
- All right, remember Brad and I
can fix just about anything
- Except for
- A broken calf, no a broken heart.
We're working on it, you better believe it.
Day and night.
- Take care.