♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
- Hi folks, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- And Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- We are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- In our opinion of course Bob.
- Today we're talking about
the top five hammer toe stretches and exercise,
how to avoid surgery.
It's basically a toe extension stretch
which I'm gonna demonstrate Brad.
And I am not a podiatrist as you know.
- No you're not.
- I'm a physical therapist.
- Right.
- But I have hammertoes.
So I've done a lot of research on them and I've,
these are the ones that have worked for me or helping me.
- Right.
- So-
- When it's at home it just makes...
it's easier to talk about, isn't it?
You just-
- That's right.
- You're just more passionate about the subject.
- When you've dealt with it yourself
you come to solutions.
- Right.
- By the way, if you're new to our channel
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This week we're giving away-
- Oh the books.
- Your selection of books.
- Oh nice.
- It'll be Lotus publishing,
- Yup.
- And you'll go to it and they'll have quite
array of books, lot of medically oriented.
- Related to health.
- Yes.
- Health and fitness.
- And great books.
- Yes.
- Brad will be talking about so-
- Yeah it's right.
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go to Twitter, Instagram or TikTok
if you want a 60 second version
of our program and Brad, we have what?
- Podcast.
- Yes oh why isn't that exciting?
- Yes absolutely Brad.
So you get your shoes up here and everything.
- Yeah, I got my shoes.
So I don't know.
Can you see these are hammer toes.
Now, they're not terrible.
I mean, I still have mobility here
but do you see what I'm talking about?
- Yeah, so can you see that Liz?
- [Liz] Yup.
- So they kinda, a little extension on the first joint
and then flection on the next two joints.
- That's exactly right Brad.
- Right there, like this.
- So you have, if you look at a leg here.
- Whoah.
- These come down here, these are the extensors.
They bring the foot up like this.
- So you're saying the tendons go through here
and you could see those lines and then-
- Yeah, these lines right here that's the tendons
I hope you see.
- So it's like a pulley system here.
- Yup.
- And then the muscle belly is up in there.
- Yup, up in here.
- Up in the shin.
- Now and then on this side you have the flexors
and they're coming down and they're flexing the toes
and they're trying to offset this one.
- Mm-mmh. - It's a tug of war going on.
- Sure.
- This one's winning.
- Yeah.
- The extensors are winning, they're overactive.
- You have it on both feet?
- I have it on both feet yes and what will happen
is the extensors start winning
and you actually have trouble firing
off the flexors after awhile.
- Okay.
- 'Cause you know how agonists or antagonists work.
- Right when one's contracted your other one has to relax.
- Exactly.
- It's a neurological, not a phenomenon
that you can understand but it's neurological
and you can't really control that.
- That's exactly right.
So this one's firing too much.
- Mm-mmh.
- And instead shut my calf muscles off
my calf muscles were getting really weak.
- Yeah.
- So, it's a whole situation Brad.
- Yeah, this is a conundrum.
- Yeah, conundrum.
- How many people get this, is it fairly common?
- I think I'm fairly common.
- Yeah, I think podiatrist is not rare by any means.
- No not by any means and it gets to the point
where you can actually I mean,
where it starts to bother you
it starts to wear away at the top of the shoes.
You wanna show it on mine how-
- Yeah you wear instead of wearing just your sole off
you wear the sole out and it comes through that what's-
- Can you see that?
- I don't.
- Yeah I can see that hole there.
- I gotta push my finger through there, right there
and see that?
- Yeah and that's from running.
My, toes are rubbing up against the top of the shoe.
- Now I've got another point to make
and I have a feeling that your toes are really involved
with your balance in the worst it gets
it probably affects your balance.
- Yes it did and you maybe have noticed
that Brad my balance has been really crappy.
- I noticed.
- Yeah. - And you're a taller guy,
so its even already more pronounced.
- I know and so I've been working on it
but it was getting worse and worse.
Now, I think I've plateaued it.
- Okay.
- And it's getting a little bit better.
- Plateaud.
- Yeah.
- No pun.
- It's reached plateau, yeah plateau.
The other thing is shoes are designed.
It actually makes this problem worse
because you look at it
and there's a 10 to 15 degree angle there.
- Yeah, let's use this.
- Yeah, look at this.
Look how much it's sticking up there.
- So that-
- No it should be down like this.
I don't know why they designed shoes.
Maybe somebody can tell us why they design shoes like this.
- Shoe designers they don't trip.
- There you go.
- I don't know what would it be?
- I don't know Bob, I'm not a shoe designer.
- So let me show you some of the things I've been doing.
So one is going to, you're actually gonna grab the toes
like this and you're gonna stretch them.
And I got my thumb in the bottom of the foot.
- Yup.
- I need you to grab like this.
- Wooh.
- And you should be able to see the knuckles here.
- The white side of your knuckles.
- Well, it's not great 'cause mine are tight.
I like to see you do yours first.
- Do I have to take my socks off?
- I don't know.
- My socks don't even match really look at that.
- Oh, they don't match.
- Well, they're the same kind,
they're nice socks you know that.
But anyways, I gotta do this and I'm gonna pull-
- You see the knuckles?
- This is one of those stretches kind of hurts
but it hurts so good you can tell its a good-
- Yeah, I can see the knuckles are right there.
- Don't touch my feet Bob this is COVID time.
- So anyway 30 to 40 seconds throughout the day
you wanna do it a lot.
- You mean.
- Hold it for 30 to 40 seconds.
- Right.
- That's a whole, that's a timer.
- Now if you're at work, just slip your shoe off.
and no seriously Brad.
- So you can do this?
- No, you can do it through your socks
or also do it on a floor like this,
can you see that Liz?
- [Liz] Yep.
- So you actually, you just can apply the stretch like this
and nobody's the wiser and when you're doing it.
I guess if you had socks or you slip your shoes off
and you could put a little cushion or something
and then it wouldn't hurt if it was hard floor.
- I think you need to have the hard floor Brad
so you can get a stretch, quit being a wuss.
- But, I'm thinking of other people.
- All right, next thing Brad that's been helping me
is these tendons got kind of bound down.
- Yep.
- So I actually took it, you can take a lacrosse ball,
this spiky ball works really well.
- It gets to the skin.
- Yeah, it gets to the skin so you push down on the skin.
- Yup.
- And you twist rotate.
- Yep and you can feel, all these tissues
are supposed to move really well.
- Yes.
- And they don't on me.
They're kind of tight down so I actually will twist here.
I'll go all the way through the foot here
and then I even do it on the toes
'cause it's tight right here.
- Yup.
- The flection is pulling it down
and the attendants are taped that way.
- So this is interesting , cause I've got a video coming up
we're doing later today that's gonna relate
the same treatment but for different problems.
- Different area?
- Yeah and we'll see.
Everything in this therapy kind of relates.
- This actually fees pretty good
but when I get done and I walk,
it's funny my feet are flatter.
- Mm-mmh.
- And I feel a little more balanced.
- And more connected?
- Yeah, now, it'll take a while
this is not gonna to be something that you change in a week.
My feet had been this way for 60 years.
- You mean, you were born with hammertoes
or did it develop higher?
- I remember I haven't kind of a size nine foot
when I was six foot six for awhile
'cause I think it was already starting to jam up.
- Oh, maybe your shoes are too small.
- They might've been-
- That might've been might have an influence on it huh?
- Sure, I think so.
- Another one, you can do a strengthening exercises
surely Solomon.
- Basically you bend the toes down
and did you bend the the ankle down too.
Strengthening the flexors?
- Sure.
- And you're stretching the extensions at the same time.
- If you happen to get a toe cramp doing this
just stretch it back.
Yeah you could absolutely could.
- Toe cramps hurt.
- Yep, and then finally when you get up out of a chair
you really want to focus on actually pushing
the toes down into the floor.
- Okay.
- You know that's-
- You mean with your shoes on or off
- With your shoes on or off, yup.
You don't get up like this.
You'll notice somebody who has hammer toes,
when they get up they go like this.
- They pull the toes out? - They pull the toes out
- Why is that it feels better? - I don't know.
- You do that?
- I do that, I did that
but now I tried to do like this
and think about digging in there.
- You flattened right out there.
That's that's nice.
- Yeah. Hmm.
So it takes some time and I'm in the midst of it.
I'll let you know how it's going,
but it's definitely helped already.
- Now if this gets bad enough
that you're to surgery for it isn't there?
- Yeah there's a surgery, usually if it's really rubbing
against the top of the foot and-
- Causing some- - some pain.
- Mechanical problems, yeah.
- The other thing is when these are tight, Brad
it actually puts increased pressure on the fascia.
Oh, you know, these are pulling up all time
so you can see how the fascia would be tighter.
- So you're saying there's a little more potential
for plantar fasciitis.
- Absolutely. Absolutely.
If you can get that back
down again and you've got the pressure go
on to the fat pad here, instead of all onto here.
So lots of problems with this and you know
you can solve all of them
but just by doing these exercises.
- So we've never had this video before, right?
- This is the first time.
- This is amazing.
We've never touched this subject.
- Well, and you don't remember.
Brad and I can fix it about anything
- Except for-
- A broken heart.
- And we've been working on that.
But if we don't get too far, but we're done
this is not going to relate to it at all.
- No it's not.
- But they say that reflexology, there's a certain spot
in your foot for every part of your body.
- For your heart?
- Well, I don't know.
Maybe someone could comment reflexologist out there.
Take care. - Take care.