♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ the two most famous physical therapists ♪
♪ on the internet. ♪
- Hi, I'm Sarah Meeks, physical therapist
and this is Christina,
who's going to help me demonstrate
a exercise called the Core Lift Bridge.
It's a little different
than maybe you've ever done bridging
as they call it before.
And because it involves stabilization
and also holding it once we get into the position.
So what I'm going to do
because my major focus
is always on alignment of the spine,
no matter what exercise we're doing
that she likes to use just a small support
underneath her neck
to maintain the curve of the neck
which is of course the upper part of the spine.
Now the starting position
is in the decompression exercise position.
So she brings her arms out to the side
bends her hips and knees
and places her feet on the flick triangle support.
So she's got the support of her feet.
We want to have the knees apart
about hip distance apart there.
And there are many people who are unable
to keep that position.
If they can't keep that position.
For example, it's common for people try
to put their knees together
to have one knee support the other.
So in that case,
I can take a rolled up towel
or something like this, which is a yoga block
and have them hold the yoga block there
and keep the legs apart.
Now she doesn't need this,
but the yoga blocks are nice
because I have three different dimensions.
I have a narrow one and then a medium one
and then a long one.
So depending upon the width of the pelvis
of the person you're dealing with,
the yoga block is very handy
for this exercise,
if they can't control the position of their knees.
So the first thing I have people do
is to focus on their breath.
I always want them to start
by just focusing on their breath.
And I did pick up an idea
from another therapist recently ,
is not to try to force the breath
but just let the breath come naturally to you.
Your body will breathe,
whether you think about it or not
just let it do it.
But when you're starting to exercise,
what I like to have people do
is to breathe in as they're getting ready to do the movement
and then breathe out as they're doing the movement.
And when they're holding the movement
then they breathe evenly during the movement, okay?
So this Core Lift Bridge
involves some stabilization first.
So I'm going to have her do the shoulder press,
so if you'll breathe in and as you breathe out
you press your shoulders down
in the shoulder press position.
Then the next thing you do is stabilize
with your abdominals,
you just draw your belly button away from my hand
without rounding your lower back,
your lower back should not change.
And then we also squeeze a little bit
in the groin so we can hold our legs
in the position that we're starting with.
And then we have the feet on the foot triangle,
so we're using that for stabilization also.
So as we do this movement
what she's gonna do is take a breath
keeping the stabilization points.
Then she's going to lift her hips up
to the point where if I were to take this Booyah stick;
go ahead and lift up,
and put it next to her body here.
This line would go through her shoulders
her hips and her knees,
she has a straight line.
And just to make sure that you get that idea
I'm just going to move around
and show you on the other side
where you can see it a little better,
that we want this.
And there may be a shift
in the pelvis a little bit,
depending upon the strength
that we can see that she's a little bit lower
on this left hip than she is on the right.
So she wants to lift up a little bit more,
so we have this straight line
so you wanna maintain your breathing.
And then I do something by I call re-posturing,
this is a yoga posture.
And so I have her go back
and make sure that she's got a little arch in her neck,
she's got her shoulders pressed down,
she's got her hips lifted,
she's tightening her abdominals.
Her palms are turned upward
and she's pressing with her feet
and breathing evenly.
You okay with this?
Okay.
Now this is a very strengthening posture
for the lower back, the hips,
the lower extremities
even the quadriceps and so on.
So take another deep breath
and then slowly lower down to the table.
Now, sometimes people get cramps in their legs,
if they do an exercise like that.
And if they do, they may need to use...
they may need to put some kind of a roller
or something under their legs for starters.
So usually when people come out of the bridge
I have them straighten their legs, press out.
We've had this on earlier videos
and lengthen the legs out and stretch out,
stretch out
and then just let the legs relax,
breathe as you integrate the effects of this posture.
So that's a demonstration of the Core Lift Bridge.
And if you try it and you have problems
please do not hesitate to send me an email
and we can discuss any problems you might have with it.
Thank you for watching
and thank you, Christina
for being an excellent model today ,every day.
- I wanna say thank you to you, Sarah
for your many years of dedication,
to researching and studying
and teaching all about Osteoporosis.
- Wow, thank you so much.(laughing)
Thank you for watching.
(upbeat music)