♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists on the internet ♪
- Well, hi there, folks.
I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- Okay, we are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- In our opinion, of course, Bob.
We're different heights, though.
You might notice.
Today, we're talking about seven best balance exercises
to stay upright, both beginner and advanced options.
I'm gonna be the beginner, Beginner Bob.
That's what you did, had the name.
- And I'm gonna attempt the advanced ones.
But this is great.
You can do 'em at home, easy to follow,
no special equipment, and all ages.
- Right. - Just do what fits for you.
- All right.
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Well, look at that.
Anyways, Bob, let's get on with this, right?
For the thing.
Now, these are, you're gonna do the easier ones.
I'm going to do the harder ones.
There are seven of them.
Pick out which ones work best for you, or you like to do.
You don't have to do all seven, although you could.
And we're going to do 'em at home.
The goal is 30 seconds on each of 'em.
- Sure. - I'm not gonna time this.
It's not gonna be real time,
'cause we want to take a little time
to make sure they're done properly,
and we'll do a little explanation.
The first one, I'm going to use a stick.
You don't have to use a stick.
Hold onto a chair like Bob does.
- Yeah, I'm using two feet.
He's using just one foot, right?
- Exactly, so,
we're just going to go up on your toes
and then back on your heels, ankle strength.
I thought that might be a problem, Liz.
- Ah. - Ankle strength
is a big part of balance.
So, that's why we're working this.
Now, I've got something to balance.
If it's too easy, simply let that down
and put your hands up like this.
Okay?
And, you know, for the advanced,
you can go to one foot. - Sure.
- And that will challenge, I think, pretty much everyone.
Now, the next one, number two, the single leg balance.
This is a standard test therapists use.
Like, Bob's holding onto a chair.
You could use a cupboard.
For advanced, just use your fingertips, if you can.
Yep.
- And once you get it down,
you can maybe let go for a little bit.
- Sure. - And come back to it.
For the advanced person, do the same thing.
Probably it's gonna be pretty easy.
So the next thing you do is close your eyes,
and that makes it quite a bit harder.
The other option is get a piece of foam, you know,
a cushion off your chair.
We've got, actually, a foam one made
for this from Pete's Choice.
They work really well, but then, that becomes much harder.
You probably won't even have to close your eyes.
- Yeah, and-- - But you can do both,
if you want. - We want wanna mention,
right now, too, that, always safety first on this.
- Yes!
- If your balance is poor,
you may wanna have a belt around you
and have someone behind you
holding on. - Yep,
someone right there
to keep it safe. - Don't attempt these things.
I mean, we don't do want you to get injured
while you're training to have good balance!
- (chuckles) Right. - So.
- You know, if you're a young 25 year old,
and if you fall, you just bounce right up.
But there's a lot of people who may not be that.
- Yeah, right. - For the beginner
or the geriatric.
So let's go, where are we at?
Number three?
- Yep, number three. - Now, this is a nice one
to do.
With your right foot,
you're going to balance on your left foot,
you're gonna cross over and touch.
At nine o'clock, if there's a clock in front of you,
then you're gonna touch in front with your toe.
And then you're gonna reach out to the side,
I gotta get that chair out of the way, with your toe.
And then you're gonna reach behind you.
So, there's four locations.
And then you're gonna start all over.
So, it's one,
two... - Now, you can,
you can use a countertop,
or I'm using the boo-yah stick, here, as a balance.
- Yeah, if you got a walking stick or a cane,
or, again, have someone hold.
For the advanced people, get your foam out,
and that makes a big difference.
Here, and make sure you do both legs.
You'll find one leg will more than likely
have better balance than the other.
And you can feel your hip working.
This is great for strengthening.
Great for balance.
Okay. Next one. - Awesome.
- Sit to stand.
This may say, what does this have to do with balance?
But they found, particularly the seniors,
this particular exercise is the number one
exercise to prevent falls.
It strengthens the legs
and your working balance at the same time.
So...
And it's simple.
Yeah, and if you have trouble sitting to stand,
doing multiple reps, you can use your arms to start.
- Yep. - And then progress
to, maybe, your thighs.
- Yep. - And then progress
to just doing it.
- There.
We don't have chairs with arm rests,
but, you know, get a chair with armrests
and you can assist. - Right
- And now, go ahead, Bob.
You can just start.
You can, ten of these is a good number,
as opposed to the 30 seconds.
If you're young and this is, like, way too easy,
simply do it with one leg.
You do need something to balance.
Well, most people do.
And do the one legged sit to stand.
- I think I'm too low to do one leg.
I'm going to try to, I guess I can do it.
But this is, you know, for, you gotta be
30 years old to do that. - Impressive.
Yeah.
- But anyways, do it with both legs.
For the advanced people,
10 times on a side will probably be good enough.
Those real tough strong people get up, put some,
you know, pick up your daughter and hold her, and...
No, I'm just kidding. (Bob chuckling)
No, there's always options to increase resistance
for those people.
Heel to toe walk.
Now, this is a really good one for proprioception.
In other words, your body knows where your legs are
without looking down.
And I'm gonna demonstrate.
So, here, the heel needs to touch the toe.
It's like you're walking a tight rope.
Now, people that are beginners,
you may have to look down
and see where you're at. - Yeah, look down,
you may have to grab onto a counter top or something.
- Yes, be safe.
'Cause this one is a lot harder than it looks for seniors.
I've worked with a lot of people,
and I'm typically holding onto 'em
the first time they do it.
Especially if they feel like they can go backwards.
'Cause then, even if you can look down,
you cannot see what's going on.
For the advanced people,
probably, will be able to do it without a cane or a stick.
And again, the way to advance this,
for those people, close your eyes and do it.
It makes a big difference on your balance.
But it's really working your balance.
- Safety, again. - Exactly.
Bob, you're like my mother.
- Yeah, yeah. - Always worried
about falling. - Someone has to.
- I, yeah, that's true.
I always feel safer.
Okay, and the next one.
This is a simple one.
You're gonna need something... - The chair behind me?
- To hold onto, yeah, a chair behind you.
- Or hold on to.
- The safest thing to do it is a chair behind,
for the beginners, and in front of you is a countertop
or another chair. - Oh, I see.
- Have a seat, Bob. - Sure.
- So, now, go ahead and stand up.
And you could just do the rest of 'em from here.
And we're gonna go up like this, but you're gonna go
up on your toes at the same time
and hold it. - And I hit the ceiling.
- Yeah. (both chuckling)
We've gotta knock the ceiling out for Bob.
But the, the thing with this one is,
it's more challenging for you to balance with your arms up
than with them down.
And for seniors, when you're reaching up into the cupboard,
that can be a good
practice exercise. - Well, you wanna,
you're gonna to have to, maybe, start with one hand.
If you gotta... - Good point.
- If you have to hold on to something,
you may have to
reach up with one arm. - Yeah, exactly.
- But it's good to look up, too.
- Yes. - While you're doing it.
- Your balance changes, depending on where you look.
So, for beginners, or the senior people,
that's a really good option.
For the advanced people, you probably won't need that.
You're gonna go up to here.
And again, if it's difficult, if it's too easy,
close your eyes and do it,
or do it on one foot and that will challenge you,
I have a feeling.
So, very good.
Now, the last one.
- I'll let you do that one, Brad.
Yeah, that's it.
- For beginners, it's gonna be advanced beginner,
almost getting to the advanced stage.
- Sure. - Throw the ball.
And, yes, you get a bouncy ball or a basketball.
I've done it with this, with people 70 years old.
- Sure. - But I'm holding onto 'em.
- Sure.
- And just simply start bouncing the ball,
for the beginners and see how you do.
If that goes good, and you have someone holding on,
or right next to you, you can try to bounce off the wall.
And this can be a big difference for that level.
For this, people who are advanced,
and, you know, they're athletic and whatnot,
then you're gonna go one foot for sure.
And then, you know, get that foam out
and go one foot balancing,
or bouncing off the wall, which is even harder.
You can't do it with your eyes closed
unless you're really good, 'cause you need to see the ball.
But turn 90 degrees sideways.
That really changes...
- Yeah, that makes it tougher, yeah.
- Yeah, yeah.
Do that for 30 seconds.
It's gonna improve your balance.
Gonna improve your everything.
Flexibility, not so much flexibility.
I was thinking, uh...
- Proprioception. - Yeah, proprioception,
and reaction time.
- All right. - Wow, Bob, once more!
- Brad and I can fix just about anything,
- Except for...
- A broken heart.
- But!
- We can fix your balance.
- Oh, yeah, that's right.
But we're working on the heart thing too.
- Oh, yeah. - We've been working on it
for 10 years now.
We haven't gotten very far, but we continue to work on it.
- We're advancing. (chuckling)
Thanks for watching.
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