- Hi, I'm Bob Shrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist,
- Together, we are the most famous
physical therapists on the internet.
- Good job. In our opinion of course.
- Brad. Today, we're gonna talk about top three ways
to help yourself when you have foot drops,
something like that.
- Right?
- I don't really know the title, don't I?
- Yeah. This, this is something, if you're
like if you have a stroke
and that one leg you recovered fairly well,
and you're walking but that weak leg
has a tendency to drag on the ground
putting you on high risk for falls
and how to get over that.
Now I just worked with a stroke patient that had
- It's kind of a progression, isn't it, Brad?
- Right. It's pretty high, high level.
The person's already at home.
They're either walking with a, independently,
with a walker and they're going to a cane typically.
- I think it's really important to point
out Brad though, a lot of people
they have foot drag or foot drop and they think it's just
because they have weakness in the ankle,
And quite often they have weakness in the hip, too.
- Sure.
- So not only are they not able to bring the toe up
but they're not able to lift the leg up high enough.
- Right.
- So there there's a weakness somewhere
along the chain here, and it may be in more than one spot.
And that's why we're looking at
trying to strengthen both areas.
- Right? Okay, so how do we do that?
Like Bob said, a lot of times, if it's classified
as foot drop, that's usually because one muscle right here
the anterior tib, does not lift the toe up like that.
But like Bob says, it may be that
or oftentimes a combination of muscles from the hip
all the way down or in the hip.
So one simple thing you can do is while you're sitting here
you can do toe taps and think about lifting that toe up,
way high, just don't do a little baby ones
but get full range of motion.
And if you can't, you can take your cane and pull up on it
give a little bit of a stretch and then try
and hold it there for three seconds and let it back down
bring it up, hold it, give it a little stretch.
Hold it. We got a little eccentric strengthening going
on here for those
ATCs and
PCBs and everybody else out there that knows
what they're talking about with strengthening.
So the muscle strengthening as it goes down. Okay.
- Yeah, there's other just another little exercise
that you could try along. I'm sorry, I'm jumping in here.
- Go ahead.
- Actually, with a PNF pattern,
so you actually bring, while you're bringing the foot up
you bring it up like this, you're just going like this
and this is getting a little bit of the hip flex.
- Sure.
- If you have enough strength to do this.
- Right
- But while you're doing it, bring the
toe up at the same time.
- Sure. Yeah.
- And this is, that's kind of a PNF pattern.
- Yep.
- And that, that will actually a lot of times I have people
that can't really lift it in this position
but as soon as they go like this, they can,
- Sure.
- It's just all part of the PNF pattern.
- And, and if not a, you're not a therapist.
You don't know PNF, they don't worry about it.
- That's PNF, three letters, not P and F.
I'm just saying, cause I think people
misunderstood what I'm saying.
- Okay. So enough about P and F,
- All right.
- Well, cause the next thing, and this is really no
specific scientific information to go with this.
But when I work with patients, I simply say
when you're walking, take some time by yourself
or if you need something to walk with you,
but have it quiet. So you can think about what's
going on with this leg and concentrate on lifting it.
If you have a mirror full size mirror front of you
so you can see it, that can help
and have it come through and really focus
on a good walking pattern and go back and forth.
If you're in your hall, in your house,
maybe a hallway that's 20 feet long
and really focus on that leg.
So you're really aware of it.
Cause a lot of times with the stroke there's neglect.
- Exactly.
- And you just are completely unaware of it.
But if you focus on it
- and really focus probably on the hip, if you,
you know, at some point
- Sure.
- First to make sure that you're clearing it through at
but the visualization thing is a really important thing
with a stroke is to actually see it.
And that's why the mirror is really helpful to,
to set up a mirror on the wall,
and walk towards that mirror.
Because if you can see the leg
you're gonna do much better on trying to get that recovery.
- You better believe it
- And then trying to get it to
to work like you should.
- Okay. So number one is work on your dorsiflexion,
pulling up the, the ankle.
Number two is, look at yourself in the mirror
- Watch it, yeah. - Focus on your gate pattern.
- And then I like to do this because it gives a tactile
or something that touches your leg
and you got some weight there to helps strengthen.
And when that weight is on there, you feel it.
So it reminds you that it's there, you have the weight
which helps increase strength in those muscles.
And you simply, now, if this is a week late
the cane's gonna be on the other hand
then you probably already know that
and you're going to walk through here.
And with that weight on it,
it really turns things on and that side.
And really, I just move without any problems at all
that the weight of that, it's only two pounds
not a big deal for
- What he's trying, Brads trying to say,
it's not necessarily even that it's strengthening.
It's just giving you better feedback on the leg.
- Right, There you go. God you're smart Bob.
- Oh no, it just - I couldn't think of that.
- No, it's funny. I've had people
with a tremor in their arm.
- Yeah.
- And we just put a light weight on them.
- Sure.
- And the tremor actually goes away a lot of times
because they're getting a little bit of weight on there.
Just enough to give him feedback.
- Right.
- We had someone that had a terrible tremor.
All we did is put the weight
on his arm and he,
- he could actually smoothly. - More control of himself, yep
- So the same concept down here.
- Same concept down there.
Just gives you a little more feedback with you walking.
- Good.
- So three simple things you can do to
help that week leg and if you're forty and over
we've got a great channel here to subscribe to.
- That's right. We want you to do it.
We really do, and you do this or this or this or this
(uplifting music)