- Bob, summer is here.
That means increased activity.
People are out and moving,
and along with that, some aches and pains.
And, this is about the common calf strain.
Oftentimes from going on a hike
you haven't done for months. Running, walking...
- Well, this is very timely, Brad,
because I'm actually having this problem, now.
- Aha, so we'll show you exactly
how to take care of it in nine seconds.
- [Musical Narration] Bob and Brad,
the two most famous physical therapists on the Internet.
- Bob, it's funny, you mentioned that
because actually about six weeks ago, I just start running,
getting out of the winter mode.
- Yeah.
- And the third time I ran, I got a calf strain.
I ended up limping home, took it easy,
but the number one thing that most people do wrong
when they have a calf strain, is they start doing something
like this.
- Stretching, right.
- [Brad] Stretching it.
- Right.
- And, that's not what you wanna do
cause the muscle's been injured.
There's micro tears in there.
- It's trying to heal.
- Yeah. It's trying to heal,
and you're stretching it.
And, you're actually tearing the tissues apart again.
- Right.
- So, it's actually the opposite.
- Right.
- You know, and I was doing some massage
to mine, and I was working some things on it.
And then, I remember it, ah, this technique!
The strain counter strain.
So, this is what I did, and I noticed a big difference.
And then, I added a little treatment after that.
We're gonna show you that as well to enhance the speed.
But here's the strained muscle.
Okay. Now what we're going to do is instead
of stretching the muscle,
we're gonna put it on slack.
- [Bob] Complete relaxation. Right?
- Right.
So, lie down on your bed.
- Did I get it right?
- You got it right.
- Lie.
- Right.
- Make sure you flex the knee all the way.
It's important we flex the knee,
and then we're gonna take the ankle
and dorsal or plantar flexor and go down.
- [Bob] That puts the muscle on slack.
- Yep. Maximum slack.
And then, there's one more thing,
to fine tune it, we're gonna either point the toes inward
or outward depending on how it feels.
If you go like this and it feels,
You're looking for the muscle to feel comfortable.
- [Bob] Right.
- It's on slack.
There's no stress on it.
Should feel comfortable turning this way,
turning that way, in whichever way feels the best.
And, it may be just in a neutral position,
- Right.
- where you started. Now, the next thing is very easy.
You're just gonna hold it for 90 seconds to 120 seconds,
and you have to time it.
Do not do this and count.
- [Bob] That's two minutes for the highest count.
- Yeah. One or 1.5 or two minutes.
Okay. So, and I always go to the 90 seconds.
I get my cell phone out, and I hit the go and hold it.
And, you just gotta relax.
I would have a pillow now if I was doing this,
but it wrecks my mic.
So you're complete relaxed for 90 to 120 seconds.
- Muscle's on complete slack.
- Yeah.
- For two minutes.
- And I did this, and I had a knot that was bothering me.
and I was working on it, and this actually released it.
- It resolves it.
- Yep. Within the next day,
I noticed a big increase in recovery.
Now when you get
with your 90 seconds and you're done,
you take it off,
and you'll slowly lengthen the muscle.
- [Bob] Awesome, right?
- Yep. You're not gonna get up
and start running or anything.
You're gonna slowly open it up.
Walk around slowly, no aggressive activities.
You can do a gentle massage on it right after you're done.
I wouldn't not put the massage gun on it yet.
But as this gets better, that's gonna be step number two.
We're gonna get into that.
You can do this more than once a day.
It's not gonna hurt anything.
It's just gonna show improvement.
So, once it starts feeling better,
we're gonna show you the next step to really accelerate.
- Wonderful.
- Okay. So after things improve
and you can start walking without pain,
then we want you to start walking longer distances.
Don't overdo it. Listen to your body.
You can start to jog if you're a runner,
do a jog-walk interval. Maybe one minute, one minute.
- I'm back to that, yeah.
- You. You're not there. Oh, okay.
Um, but...
- Oh, I'm walking. But, it's called active recovery.
- Right.
But at this point, when you're starting to do this,
you could start to do more aggressive massage.
- Right.
- We wanna keep the...
- All it can tolerate.
- Right. We wanna keep the muscles soft and supple.
So, the continued circulation helps keep the muscle relaxed.
And, the healing process is accelerated.
And now Bob, you use a massage gun. Right?
- Right.
- Because your hands get tired and like anybody and,
- Especially on the calf, it's a tough muscle.
- Mhmm. I do, but Bob uses this head.
He'll show you in a minute.
I use like this big round one,
it's a little less aggressive.
And, you might wanna start with this and progress.
- Right.
- Bob, do you wanna show what you do?
- Sure.
So, it comes with six heads,
and you can find this at Walmart.
And, it's actually at 500 stores listed below in a link.
Not every store has it,
but I go along the fibers of the muscle.
- [Brad] Maybe show some leg there,
so we can really see that.
- [Bob] There we go.
- [Brad] Where you're getting into the skin.
- [Bob] It's exciting. Watch me.
- [Brad] Yeah! So, and you find that you normally have
like one area in particular that's tight?
- Yeah. Yeah. I find the spot.
- Yep. And, I had exactly the same thing,
and I think most people will.
Oh you?
- Oh, I'm handing it to you.
- Oh, okay.
Yeah. So anyways, there, look at that.
Turned right off.
I'm gonna put this big head on there. Oh.
- You can also order from walmart.com.
- What, what are you running a commercial here?
- Yeah.
(Bob chuckles)
- Actually it is a nice gun.
I, I personally tested this thing out very aggressively.
It's excellent gun.
See now if I get in too deep here it hurts.
So if I'm gonna go down and I'm gonna work it there
and sometimes you can work it at an angle
which is a little trick that only we...
- [Bob] Not as aggressive.
- [Brad} Yeah. Yeah.
So you can go like this or deep in whatever works.
You don't wanna produce sharp pain and you know
irritate the snot out of it.
You just wanna work it day by day.
Boy. It really feels good down here, Bob.
Wow. Wow.
Holy smokers.
- Oh your problem area apparently.
Might have a little tendonitis.
- Oh yeah, yeah.
No, I'm, I'm feeling good now from that.
I'm gonna turn this thing off.
The other option that again, hand massage your hand, do it
until your hands get tired.
I like taking a break, so you don't...
- Until you get carpal tunnel syndrome.
(both chuckle)
- Right. You can use the old,
if you have one of these around, they work
and you're just gonna work on it like this and you know
spend a minute or two on that
make sure you rotate so that you get
- [Bob] You can start one leg.
Yeah. Not leg on top of leg.
- Yeah. So I'm doing both, not so aggressive.
This you'll feel it.
It's clearly more aggressive and roll
until you get that tender spot.
Yeah. Yep.
- [Bob] It's a whole muscle.
- So one way or another.
I know my calf became very accelerated healing
when I started to contract relax and went onto the massage
and I'm back to running now and I'm feeling fantastic.
- Right.
- I never know which camera to look at.
They're pointing at me and I'm a little slow.
Thank you.
Sorry. I mean, whatever.
- (upbeat music)