♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet. ♪
- 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.
- We're also the same height, Brad.
You notice that?
- Yeah.
- Today, we're gonna talk about balance exercise
for seniors, and we're gonna start off with the chair,
so we're basically gonna go from some basic beginner ones
to some more advanced ones.
- Right, so.
- And these are the things for, you know,
if you notice you're having problems with your balance,
maybe you have fallen once or twice,
and you're concerned,
it's like, "What can I do to make my balance better,
and be safe about it?"
- And that's what we're gonna emphasize here, Brad,
it's safety.
- Sure.
- You know, you're gonna wanna hold on the chair.
If you're really unstable,
maybe you're gonna have somebody there with you
to start off with.
- Right
- And they may, you know,
if you've got a belt on,
they may have to
hold onto your belt
on the back side.
- And by the way, Brad, if you guys,
any of you are new to our channel,
we wanna make sure you take a second just to subscribe.
Brad and I provide videos on how to stay healthy and fit,
and we upload every day.
- Right.
- And pain free.
- Exactly.
And we do from all ages,
from two to 102.
- All right, let's get started, Brad.
Let's start off with, you know,
have a chair or you're gonna use a cane for balance.
- Right, let's say, for example, you feel pretty steady,
but you wanted to work on some balance
to prevent some falls,
and you don't think you need a chair,
but a cane will be helpful,
so that's what I'm gonna be.
- You could even do it up against a wall,
have a wall close to you, Brad.
- Or a cupboard.
I have patients that'll have cupboard on one side.
That will work well.
- All right, simple one.
We're gonna first start off, Brad.
I dunno if you're gonna be able to see this,
but we're gonna just have people get up on their toes.
- So, you see that?
- And you're gonna go up as high as you can
while maintaining your balance.
And this is where, sometimes Bob,
you're gonna add the one
where you go rock back on your heels.
- Oh no, let's do that one then.
- Yeah, you can go up on your toes
and if you can rock back, so you lift your toes up,
that gets the other muscle group.
Ankle strength is real important when it comes to balance.
- And I would have trouble with this one, Brad,
without the chair, I think.
- Yeah, so this is one
where I'll have people stand by a a kitchen sink
and put their hands around the sink if they're unstable.
- Okay, very good.
Let's go to the next one, Brad.
It's just simple marching.
- Yep.
- Up two, three, four.
- Now, I'm gonna have a cane here,
and I'm gonna hold onto the cupboard here,
so I've got a little support on both sides.
- Okay, next one, Brad.
You're gonna step back and step forward.
So you're gonna step back
and step forward.
- With the same leg.
- Yep, step back and step forward.
And you're actually touching the ground.
- Okay.
Get your whole foot on the ground.
- Right, get your whole foot on the ground.
Stepping back, stepping forward.
Again, these are the beginner ones.
- How many repetitions?
- Again, I think we do 10, don't you think?
- Sure, I think that's a good number.
And we do both legs.
- Yep, and we're gonna reverse and go to the other leg.
- So this is replicating that walking motion.
And if you're having some problems with your gait,
maybe you're recovering from a stroke
and you're getting to higher level,
this is good practice (mumbles).
- Well, people who have poor balance,
what do they tend to do, Brad?
- They shuffle or they keep the leg real close
because they're trying to maintain contact with the ground.
- Right.
- They're afraid to go all out like this.
- Sure.
- 'Cause they're having to balance on to one leg.
All right, how about stepping out to the side, Brad?
The same thing.
You're gonna step out, touch
and then back again.
- If I'm using the cane,
I'm gonna just get it out of the way.
- And back, yep.
Good.
And then we're gonna go ahead and go out
and step with the other leg to the side.
- Yeah, so I'm just gonna turn around
because I'd be stepping into the cupboard.
Nine and 10.
- Good.
Now all I want you to do is sit to stands or squats.
- Okay.
- I mean, so you can do it from a chair if you want.
And you're just gonna work on going
and working on basically what it says.
You're gonna just go ahead and stand up.
If you need to use the arms, use the arms.
- Right.
- And you might need to, you know,
if your legs aren't that strong.
This is probably one of the most important ones to do,
Brad, won't you say?
- Right, it's so functional for getting out of a chair
which is where a lot of falls can happen.
- And a lot of weakness in the hips is what causes falls.
So this is gonna strengthen the hips.
You know, one of the worst things we see in people
is when they get one of those sit to stand chairs
because they get weak,
the lift recliner chairs.
So eventually you wanna see
if you can do it without the arms
and eventually, maybe,
even put your arms here on your chest.
- I wanna emphasize, Bob,
probably you wanna stand all the way up tall.
- Right, yeah.
- There we go.
- Exactly, sorry, I was not doing that.
- That's alright.
- And you're gonna have to lean forward to do this,
because people can't get up this way.
You're gonna lean forward.
- And why don't you,
let's bring up one more point, Bob.
We run into this all the time,
is if you slide your feet under the chair
or towards the chair a little bit,
it can make a big difference
on your mechanics for getting up.
- Sure, make it easier for getting up.
- Right, some people forget that and they leave their feet.
- Yeah, a lot of times their feet are way here
and they're like, "Oh, why can't I get up?"
So you could do, you know,
squats behind the chair too, like this.
- Right, you know, you may hold on to a cupboard.
- I like the chair because in case you lose your balance,
you can go right down into the chair.
- Exactly, you're safe.
- All right, now, phase two, Brad.
Now, these are a little more difficult.
Now you're gonna start doing some of the same stuff,
but you're gonna do it a little slower.
You're gonna go ahead and march
but you're gonna do it slower,
which means now what?
You have to balance on one leg for a little bit,
don't you? - Sure, yep.
- Now, if you feel pretty confident,
you can do it without the hanging on.
- Or even one more thing.
I'll progress, I'll have people put their full palm
on the counter and say, "Oh, they look pretty good."
I'll say, "Just go fingertips."
- Sure.
- And then if that looks good,
I'll say, "Go two fingers."
And I'll bring it right up.
Now I'll say, "Okay, now, I'll take your hand away.
So you can progress just from palm to fingertips
to less fingertips to without."
- Those are nice tips.
All right, next one.
- You're killing me, Bob.
- All right, Brad, next one.
We're gonna go ahead and just go out to the side
but this time, you don't touch.
- Oh, yeah!
- You go out and you don't touch.
A lot harder to do.
- Well, that makes a big difference.
- Yep, a lot harder to do.
I'm having troubles here.
Gotta bend the knee a little bit
to you make it out there,
don't you, Brad?
So then the opposite leg.
- Now, if you've got some arthritis in those knees
and this is painful,
you're gonna wanna avoid it,
because if you get pain in that knee,
the quadricep might wanna let loose
and then you could cause a fall.
So just avoid it if it's painful.
- Okay, then we can also go just leg forward and back.
- Sure, without touching yet.
- Without touching, exactly.
Forward and back.
- Use good judgment.
Just start with little motions
and as you feel confident,
then you can reach out a little bit more.
- Then we're gonna go with the opposite leg.
Leg forward and back.
- But you guys out there,
I don't want you to think you're real stud muffins
and reach out real far
'cause, you know, the farther the better.
- Right.
- Be cautious.
Use good judgment.
- Yeah, I can do the one fingertip, two fingertip here.
- Oh yeah, nice, Bob.
- And then we can go back.
- Same thing, don't touch.
- Yep, now with this, you don't want to lean way forward.
- Right, we're not ducking forward like this.
- You keeping good posture yet going back.
- And you won't be able to reach back as far,
but that's okay.
Better to have good posture and reach not as far.
- Okay, opposite leg, Brad.
- Yep, I'm kicking something behind me, Bob.
- Yep, good thing that wasn't Lonnie.
- All right, Lonnie's.
- Lonnie's safe.
- Lonnie's in a safe zone right now.
- She's our camerawoman.
- All right, let's go some more advanced ones here,
Brad, now.
Now these are ones that you're doing pretty well.
These are good, actually, for Parkinson's disease too
because we're trying
to get everything stretched out and moving.
So you wanna do 'em with me, Brad?
- Sure.
- So we're gonna do the hallelujah threeway.
So what we call, you go hallelujah.
- Okay.
- And you're stepping forward while you're doing it.
Hallelujah.
And then you go to the next one down.
You go, hallelujah.
Going down a little bit further
and then hallelujah down here.
- This is, obviously, for someone
who's got fairly balance here too.
You got pretty good balance.
You're walking around without a cane out in the yard
and you just want to get.
- So now I did it with the opposite leg, Brad.
The other leg down,
going down and going down.
- So if you're gonna do this one out in the backyard
and the neighbors are watching, have them join in.
- I'm sure you're doing your Tai Chi out there, Brad,
aren't you?
- Well, of course.
- Okay, next one, Brad,
is figure eight and you just get, you know,
basically, you're getting some arm movement
and it's forcing you to keep your balance
while you're doing the figure eight.
- And you're getting some rotation in the trunk,
which can be really helpful.
A lot of people get stiff in the trunk
as we age and we wanna keep everything moving.
- Okay, then we're gonna do reverse windmills, Brad.
So we're going back like this.
- Oh one arm at a time.
One arm at a time.
- Now, if you've got a history of some shoulder problems
and you're not able to do it,
you can just work the good arm, the good side.
- Or you can go lower.
- Sure, yep, that's a good option.
Yep, you know, your gait could be down in here
as a matter of fact.
- All right, this is one I'll do, Brad.
You can just watch coz you need a chair.
- I'm getting tired anyways, Bob.
- So this is kind of another different version
of the sit to stand.
Now, in this one, you're gonna go ahead
and again, spread out like this.
Like you're doing a breast stroke.
- Like you're reaching.
- And again, this way we're working, you know,
getting motion in the arms and shoulders and chest.
And we're also getting the stand up here.
- And I think a good point, maybe, Bob,
is so people don't lunge too far forward
and stay forward.
You wanna think about getting up into that tall posture.
- Right, and you can reverse, right.
You know, Brad,
so I was going forward on this side,
and then you can also go forward on this side.
- Good, see how Bob is up.
He's tall, he's pulling the shoulders back,
chest is out.
- Yeah, as you get older,
things all up get tightened down here.
So we wanna work against that.
- Exactly.
- All right, Brad, the Russian half dance.
You wanna try this one with me?
The half or the hat?
- Half.
- Half?
Oh, that half dance.
Oh, I thought that was a Russian hat dance.
- All right, you can go the other way.
- We need some music.
(Bob humming)
- Okay, ski poles.
So we're just doing this.
- Oh, you get a little bouncing.
- A little bounce in there.
- You could get a little music going here.
- Yeah
- And have a little fun with this.
- Now, rock and reach.
So you're gonna go opposite arm, opposite leg.
Rock and reach.
- Right arm, left leg.
- Yep.
- So you're talking about,
I thought you were gonna say rock 'n' roll,
but no, we're not going there.
- Opposite arm now, the other arm.
Rock and reach.
Okay, now step back and spread arms.
- Oh yeah.
Make sure there's nothing behind you.
- Good posture.
- Oh, so you alternate, right?
Leg back, the left leg.
Good.
You know, I like that.
- Okay, and the final one, Brad, is the big square.
So you're gonna go big square.
I'm making a big square as I go around.
- So he is talking about a square
by his feet position on the floor.
- Yeah, and then you can also go reverse backwards,
to the left, forward, to the right.
Definitely need some music with the (mumbles).
- All right.
You guys come up with the music.
We came up with the exercises.
Enjoy.
- Good luck.
Just leave your comments below.
- Have fun.
- Thanks.