♪ 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, if you have a fear of falling,
we're going to show you simple and safe balance exercises.
And by the way, if you are, have or are
at a risk for falling, you should fear falling.
- Right. - Because you can
really get hurt.
I had a patient,
I'm just going to tell this story really quickly, Brad.
- Okay. - She had broke her arm,
and then she was stepping off a curb,
and she misjudged it,
and she fell, hit her head, got a subdural hematoma.
From that day on, she was disabled.
- Oh. - I mean,
and she was in her 70s
I think, but - Sure.
- she lived until her 90s, and so.
Anyway, by the way if you're new to our channel
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- Way better, that's good English.
- Normal heating pad only heat up surface, skin surface.
- Yeah. - Very little.
- Yeah.
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- Right.
That's the same as 2.36 inches.
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- of our program, and we also now have podcasts.
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- Yeah, they have people that are smarter than us on there.
- Alright, so our first concern again,
is that you're not going to get hurt
while you're doing these exercises.
- Right. - Nothing worse than
doing a balance exercise and then falling.
And so, - Right.
- no falling on our watch.
- So are these ones you can do by yourself,
or you do you need someone with you?
- I think you can do it by yourself.
You see what you think.
- Right, use good judgment.
- See, there's people that
shouldn't perform any balance activities,
so they should have somebody there.
- Right.
- But I want to know for many of you,
you're going to have a tendency to fall one direction.
Do you have a tendency to lose your balance forward?
- Mhm-mhm.
- Side to side?
- Yup.
- Or back?
- That back one is a-- - A real common one.
- a common one. - Yeah.
- So also, do you tend to fall when distracted?
That's a really common one. - Sure.
- My mom,
she's fallen at least three, four, five times.
- Yeah.
- Distracted. Every time.
Somebody will say, call her
and she'll turn her head and boom.
Down she goes, so. - Down she goes.
- Well we're going to work on all these.
Let's first talk about doing the one forward, Brad.
- Okay. - So what you're going to do
is you're going to go next to your bed,
and you're going to have the bed right in front of you
so that if you fall or lose your balance,
you can just put your hands right on the bed.
- Sure.
- So first what you're going to do
is just start off with both feet
by the bed.
You don't have to be touching the bed,
but I would just want you to start reaching forward.
And I'm keeping good back posture here, Brad.
You notice that? - Yup.
- I'm always-- - Keep it straight.
- You can try just reaching forward one hand,
both hands, like that, and farther and farther.
Just get used to taking some weight on your toes.
- Right, so you can feel your toes kind of,
dig into the floor. - Right.
And then when you're doing this,
you can start turning like this.
Turning your head, that's the distraction part.
- Right.
- When you get distracted, you turn towards that person.
This, you're going to find this is harder.
- So I'm assuming if you're the type of person that maybe
walks around your house with a pair of slippers on
most of the time, you would probably want to do this--
- Right. - with the slippers on.
- Use the footwear that you normally use.
- Sure.
- Alright another one is you're actually going to
have one foot forward and one foot back.
And now you're relying all on the right leg.
And you're going to do the same thing.
You're going to do some reaching forward like this.
And you can also do turns.
And finally, you can do the other side.
Split squats, reach forward.
And again, if you lose your balance,
you just go down like this.
- If you feel like you're going off to the side,
or away from the bed, obviously do not do it.
- Right, right. - Be very safe.
- Again, very careful.
About falling backwards like Brad talks about.
- Yeah.
- So now in this case you're going to be have your legs
against the bed or near the bed.
And you're going to start just doing a squat
where you kind of lean back onto your heels.
- I think falling backwards is probably--
- More common I think. - More common,
and maybe more dangerous because you don't have
your hands to-- - Right, right.
- to catch the blow, you land right on your hip,
or your sacrum, or your coccyx, it's no good.
- Yup, so when you're going back,
you want to feel like the pressure is going on your heels.
- And if you happen to have a walker or a cane--
- Yeah, have it in front.
- Yeah, have it in front. - Exactly.
- For a little assistance.
- Don't worry about having too much assistance.
- Right, yup.
- Now you can also do one foot forward, one foot back.
Same thing again.
Now I'm mainly on the right foot.
- Sure.
And I have a feeling,
and maybe you can speak for this Bob,
if one leg forward or the other one has better balance.
- Right. - And then you can isolate
which leg is the problem. - Exactly.
If the one is-- my right one has more trouble,
that's the one I'm going to work on more.
- So if that, the one the back is getting more,
- Yeah. - more exercise, more stress.
- Yeah, and the same with the other way.
There I almost lose my balance.
- So it looks like your left one is--
- Yeah, my left one is the problem more.
- Sure. - Problem child.
- I think this is one of those things,
if people have neuropathy--
- Yes. - in their feet
where they have problems feeling,
there's some numbness there. - Yes, absolutely.
- These would be a good option.
- Yup, and you can start turning your head with those two,
if you want to add onto those.
- And that makes a big difference, not only visually,
but your vestibular system in your ears
all plays with your balance,
so you're really challenging all your systems.
- So Brad's going to show us
side to side now, - Oh, sure.
- because you're a little shorter,
and you can reach this better, but you're going to
use a countertop. - Yup,
at home, there's no countertops this low I hope.
But usually, - Yeah.
they're about this high.
So hands on the countertops,
and I'll have my patients just like fingertips,
or slide your hands and just side to side.
- [Bob] Yeah.
- And you can look straight ahead and see how that goes.
A lot of times people will start looking at the countertop,
it seems natural.
Try it looking straight ahead,
when you feel-- - [Bob] And then you can start
turning your head.
- Yup.
I was going to say, you can start right.
- [Bob] Yeah. - And then left.
And then you can start,
like you said, - [Bob] Yup.
- progress, because that makes a big difference.
- Yeah, big difference.
- Then if you happen to have some of that dizziness feeling
that could turn it on, if you have those symptoms.
- You could do braiding too if you want.
- Oh, yeah.
- If you really want to put to forth the challenge here.
- Now this is called braiding, grapevine, or carioca.
- [Bob] Yeah that's right.
- That's where you cross your feet.
If you've had a hip replacement,
you probably don't want to do this.
- [Bob] Right.
- Or if you just feel like your feet are getting tangled up.
I have a number of people,
sometimes they forget which foot goes in front,
or goes to the back. - [Bob] Right.
- Don't worry about it. - [Bob] Don't worry about it.
Just-- it's just making it a little bit harder.
It's making you balance on one foot for awhile.
- If you're getting caught and you're stumbling, just stop.
Don't even do that one.
- Sure.
- You should feel confident with it.
- Now, again, this is one to be very careful with.
If you just want to have one that you do throughout the day.
- Sure. - I do when I brush my teeth.
- Yup.
- I just leaned against the wall like this.
- Yup. - And I get up on one foot,
and I brush my teeth
while I'm doing it. - Oh really?
- Yup. - Actually I've had
patients do that.
- Yup. - I say brush,
or do other things like washing dishes.
- Yeah. - See if you can do it
on one foot.
- But make sure,
you got a safety valve there. - Right.
- So like, if you lose your balance,
you know, you can go against the wall,
or you can hang on to a Booyah Stik or whatever.
- I think if you're doing dishes or brushing your teeth,
you're probably,
a high level already. - Yeah,
you're a little bit higher level.
- If you're using a cane or a walker,
you're probably not going to do that.
- But I was amazed just by doing that,
my balance improved on the one leg.
- Oh, good.
- Yeah. I mean, it actually works.
(both laughs)
I thought the stuff we told you was,
(both laughs) just made up.
- Yeah, it's a big difference.
You know,
- When you actually see it works.
- when you have your patients
do it versus you.
- You, right.
So again, be safe, no falls on the Bob, Brad watch.
- Right.
- And if you have any ideas,
put them down in the comments below.
- That's right.
Very good.
Be careful in all that you do.
- That's right.
(upbeat music)