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 Brad we're going to talk about best balance exercises. You must know this it's a seven step system. We got kind of a hidden
Understanding in here that a lot of people we think probably aren't aware of, right as therapists
You study the body systems and how you balance and we're not gonna go through it in detail
But there's one thing that we really feel oftentimes is neglected,
People don't realize that it's an issue and so they don't work on it, right
We got a really pretty name for it that doesn't make any sense to most people that's right it's called proprioception
In other words it's the nervous connection between
Your feet or your legs and your brain and how that all works together
And it's used all the time
And that's what keeps us one of the big keys that keeps you upright and after an injury particularly
That's one of the systems that a therapist will really address
So that it gets you to your to the top of your game, a good example Brad is when you sprain your ankle
A lot of times people think
I've heard people say this a million times is that I've sprained my ankle and now my ankle's weak because it keep spraining and
The fact is the ankle is not weak when we tested it's really strong
But the proprioception is off and you want to show maybe just an easy test for that Brad?
With the ankle sprain I'll have them stand on one foot
Their good ankle first, and then have them step on the sprained ankle
And they're like this, and it's not because the ankles weak. It's because the ankles not responding correctly
You know through its nervous system to the brain
We just gotta fine tune it and that's what we're gonna show you
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Can we get on now? Yeah now we can get on.
So what we need is something
Squishy and that's gonna challenge your balance, now at home
If you don't you have anything what you can always do is get a piece like this of some foam
Like that's from a piece of furniture or wherever you may get it from you know two or three inches works good
That's a little bit firm and you're gonna stand on it, and you'll find
It's a little harder to balance and you'll see that your ankles are gonna be wiggling and that's kicking that proprioception
And they're working constantly in all the different directions, so it works really well for that
But if you don't want your spouse to be mad at you because you just ripped that out of the couch
Maybe you want to go ahead and consider one of these, these are by AirX
These are really high quality
Exercise mats, if you're a therapist
You'll get these you'll be happy you have them in in your clinic because they're gonna hold up a long time
They clean well, and they work really good. They got kind of little grippy things on here too, you notice that Brad? I did notice that Bob.
We're gonna use that they're about two inches thick and they have a really nice density
Yeah these are high-quality. Yeah, okay, so first thing we're going to do
Now you could do this whole seven step system
Without the cushion okay, but we're going to start with the cushion because it's a little harder
And we're gonna assume that you need the challenge, you mind if I go right alongside you Brad?
I can try this too? You're gonna take the blue or the green one? I'm gonna take the green one
Cuz I got blue shoes.
We're color coordinating, this really is fun
Yeah, it makes a big difference, and you kind of feel like you're floating a little bit
Okay, so if you can stand for 30 seconds like this
That's the first test, this is very low level, if you've had a stroke or brain injury or
Something whatever, this may be where you're at, something compromising your system, sure
And then you can go to the next step actually try standing on one foot
You may want to have a balance stick or something to hold
Lonnie can you point down at the ankles here?
This is what we're talking about when we're talking about
Proprioception the body knowing how to compensate and correct your balance of course you need strength with that as well
Yeah, it's responding so like when Brad's ankle starts to turn this way
That way the body responds by making it coming back, right
Readjust and if it's not doing that you're gonna sprain your ankle because it's gonna turn all the way over
My ankles are getting tired and that whole leg is getting tired so
This is something that is very simple, but very important
Okay
You could put this up next to a counter top too or a wall
And you'd have something to balance if you start to run into problems. Yep, and then go from hand to fingertip to one finger
That's a good progression
But we don't just stand on one leg and balance when we do things in real life whether it's sports or just cleaning the house
We're always moving so the next step is
Is simply throw some squats in there, so you're gonna get strengthening along with balance
You can do real shallow ones too just to start off with but because this is going to be a little more challenging
I'm going to turn mine this way actually
Yep that's why it's a little bit wider, and you know if you want it more challenging you can put your feet close together and do your squats and that makes the balance
Concept to make it more difficult. Put your arms out give you a little bit
I thought you were gonna hug me, no that's not gonna happen Brad
Often times we just don't squat unless you're exercising
But you want to pick something up off the floor
So we want to make that functional if you're recovering from
An injury you were to go home and clean the house so you're gonna practice
Squatting and picking something up off the floor which can really for a healthy person you say well
It's no big deal, but as a therapist we know
This is a whole different story than not picking something up, plus with the the Air-X mat, you're being a little more challenged
Yeah that really has a nice spring to it. It's really doing the job that we want now
The next thing we don't stand in one spot all the time always one foot at a time running walking
So you start out with simple marching
Boy we're right in tune Bob. Yeah excellent. I got off beat there Brad
Okay the next thing
You want to play catch?
Sure, I'll throw you something? You want to stand or throw? I'll throw.
I'm gonna go on the green one see because this contrasts. We got green black green
What do you think? I can throw you a green ball too if you want.
Oh, yeah, there you go look at that. Okay, so the next step up now
There's someone who may be an athlete they might start at this level sure you know they're very healthy
Except for their fine tuning for
High-level events go ahead Bob, I'll throw another ball, but as you can see you probably want to start off throwing chest passes
And then you know you want to make it a little more difficult
But you start throwing up in the different quadrants, so I'm up in the upper quadrant
And then I might start throwing in a lower quadrant
Now this is one of those things where this is what I'll do with patients that maybe had a
Injury to the ankle knee or hip one side is weaker
I'll start with two feet and they have to respond quickly right
So and then I'll say can you stand on your good leg the leg that wasn't injured so they get a feel for
Just doing one leg and they can see
The chain, they can compare the two sides
To see what it's like, now you go to the injured side, you say what's the difference and oftentimes
It'll be, then they got to start back up and go back up the chain to maybe number three or four
But eventually you can get to the injured side and on one leg only
Now if you're doing an activity that's involved like football
Where you're pushing against something or you're pulling something out on the worksite
Then we've gotta traverse from throwing to
Pushing or pulling something, so we're gonna use some resistance here, so he's got the wall anchor
Let me adjust this one a little bit here
I've got a couple handles the wall anchors
Solidly connected to the wall
And this is nothing more than a sanct
Band that we use and you stretch it apart get it on there so you have a nice system to work with and
Now we do the same thing
And we're gonna work postures we're always thinking about therapy aren't we Bob, then you can do this one-legged, now this is a big difference
From this
But again
We want to go this direction as well, so now we're gonna push
You're finding it really taxes you, yep, and then you can do this one-legged
But you think we're done huh? No, there's a lot more. Now we're gonna go sideways
And we're gonna work some core exercise
So that's kind of that peel off press, or if you're a ball thrower
We're gonna stand on here we're gonna throw and we're gonna get the right distance so as if you're throwing the ball
But now you add the single leg
Because you know when a pitcher throws they don't have both feet on the ground. No that's exactly right
One thing I would recommend with this Brad
I would go through the top and the bottom like this so that's gonna make sure it's secure, it's not gonna go anywhere
Easy to do doesn't take any more time
So we've got that, now my daughter's a javelin thrower and this is what I want her to start doing and
She's up for it, we just gotta get her set up at her school for it
Well let me show you the one I'm gonna do Brad. You know my sport is golf
Believe me you balance is so important in golf so I'm gonna start this way
And I'm gonna work on my core
You know and so I'm bringing that club down, and this really is making me work, now of course
I'd maybe be a little wide based. Maybe I'd use two of these and
I'd maybe use even a little more resistance, I'd maybe go double on that
This is fantastic for working that core with golf and balance. Would you do it with one leg?
Sure I'd try it, yeah without a doubt
It probably wouldn't be so important on golf because you always stay both feet on the ground. It no
I think though it's a good idea Brad because you'd work one and then work the other because balance is really important
in golf and so is core strength so
The people that have that good swing is that it's a good balanced swing they always say
So no this
We're gonna do a video actually Brad where we're gonna do all the different sports you can do with the wall anchors,
That all comes together, you just don't do one thing you're always on our feet
We're always thinking about balance so whether it's from a stroke to a high level athlete
You know you really want to work that proprioception and combine it all together. Sounds good nice job Brad. Thank you. Thanks for watching