♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
- Hi folks, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- And we are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- You're not kidding, of course Bob.
- Don't leave me hanging Brad.
- Oh, ya, ya.
- Today we're talking about the best five-minute
walking and balance exercise after stroke or foot drop.
This is to help prevent falls.
- Right.
- Which is a real danger after you've had a stroke
or if you have foot drop you're very high-risk for that.
- Right, and it'll help improve your walking and gait.
- So if your new to our channel, please take a second
to subscribe to us.
We provide videos how to stay healthy, fit, pain-free
and we upload everyday.
Also, if you get a chance go to bobandbrad.com.
This week we're giving away a knee glide.
This is a device you're gonna need if you just had
a knee replacement, or knee surgery,
or are preparing for that.
- Right, absolutely Bob.
- You talk about it Brad.
You go to bobandbrad.com, go to the giveaway section
and you can sign up for the contest.
Go to Facebook, the contest'll be pinned to the
top of the page.
And if you go to Twitter, or Instagram, or TikTok
We have a 60-second version of our program.
Brad's showing a little bit of the knee glide
it can actually go up on the stand here
and get different angles.
And you can turn it around do the hamstring
- Bonus!
- It's got all sorts of cool things.
- Bob, can we get on with the program?
- Ya, let's go.
- All right, here we go.
So, you may have noticed I have three sticks here
with some, I guess we're gonna call it pink
actually duct tape on there.
- I thought you had four sticks?
- Four!
Did I say three?
- Three, ya.
- Ehh, things are happening Bob, upstairs for me.
Anyways, these are key for the technique
and the exercise we're gonna do.
Very simple, you could just...
- Tell 'em how they make these Brad.
- Ya, they're just wood.
Or actually, these are that other plastic material.
But I just went to a local box store,
like a Menard's if you know what that is
where a building supply, you can buy these for about,
I think three dollars for eight foot.
- Oh, they were eight foot because it looks like you have
the thing on there.
- Oh ya, you do have to cut 'em.
- Cut 'em, sure.
- About two foot long.
And then I just put a piece of tape on there.
Depending on the color and the color of your floor
you wanna make it so you can see 'em clearly.
- So you put some tape on it all.
- Right, exactly.
- All right.
So I'm gonna step out.
- Ya, so you know if you're having problems
when you're walking.
You know, if you've had a stroke sometimes you have
foot drop as a result of a stroke.
You may have foot drop as a result of another issue
which, you know, there is a number of different things
- [Bob] Neurophathy or (mumbles)
- Right, and you have to be to the point where
you're actually up and walking, but your quality of walking,
your not feeling steady.
And that foot may be dropping.
- [Bob] Dragging.
- It's dragging, or you find yourself kind of
circumducting to get away from it,
and you just feel unsteady, you may be using a cane,
or a walker transitioning to a cane.
This would be a nice exercise.
- [Bob] Ya, you wanna get in the habit of picking
that foot up enough that your clearing the floor.
- Right.
- [Bob] Because if you don't your gonna catch
and then your gonna go down.
- Right, particularly like outside,
you know if on the sidewalk you got a little...
- [Bob] Uneven surface.
- Exactly.
When you drag that foot your toe catches
and that's all it takes for a fall.
- [Bob] Ya.
- So what you'll need is four of these two foot long,
roughly, it doesn't have to be exact.
A chair, it would be nice if you had a chair
with a armrest, that's optional.
And a smooth floor works best.
Carpeting'll work, but best to start on a smooth floor
for a couple reasons.
It's easier to balance for one, and it works best
with the sticks and you'll see.
So you put one stick here, right below the chair
and then the other one position like this,
and then like this, and then like this.
- [Bob] There we go.
- Now to start this out, I highly recommend you're
either gonna use a cane, a balance stick,
and someone to help.
- [Bob] Right.
- And you can see I have around me, this is not for style,
this is a gait belt so that my helper can grab that
if I lose my balance to prevent the fall
versus grabbing clothing or an arm.
- [Bob] So, right now I'm not gonna grab the belt Brad,
but that's what I would do normally, is I would...
- Right, Bob would be standing here, actually for the video
here and we don't have enough room.
And one hand on the belt your helper does and just
walk alongside and make sure...
- [Bob] In case you lose your balance.
- Exactly.
I'm gonna use the Booyah Stik because that works well too,
but you can use a cane, works well.
So, this is how the system starts.
You start in your chair.
And, just do this.
Now this does not have anything to do with your walking
or your gait, but falls often times happen as a result
of weakness and getting in and out
of a chair is where to do it.
So you wanna practice sit to stand.
You know, if you can stand like this
and come back down with good balance.
If you need your cane or your stick, go ahead.
Try not to use that.
And just do that three to five times.
You don't want to get fatigued, if five times is too much,
even two or three is just to get that practice
to sit to stand, help your strength,
then we'll get on to the actual training.
- [Bob] How many times do we see patients Brad, that
they just plop in the chair.
- Yup
- [Bob] And they have trouble getting up after awhile.
- Exactly.
- [Bob] And even with the act of walking, those muscles,
that'll strengthen the muscles you need with walking.
- Exactly
- [Bob] And so it serves a lot of purposes.
- Everything in this whole technique, this training,
fits together and has a purpose.
- [Bob] Ya
- So that does, now we're gonna start to walk.
Now, the whole key is I don't move one of these.
If ya even moved it a little bit, your foot was
too close to the ground, 'cause these are only
a quarter inch high.
- [Bob] I don't know if you can see,
Brad because he's having to straddle that a little bit,
this is gonna prevent his foot from wanting to cross over,
or scissors as we call it.
- Ya, crossin' the midline.
- Ya, like this.
Some guys wanna go like this when they're walking
so that's another flaw that would be pointed out
with this system here.
- Right, you know we should really name this system,
and maybe it will become very popular.
- All right, let's call it the, I wanna say Heineck,
but I'm not gonna say Heineck.
I think the Brads.
- The B and B?
- Oh sure, thanks, gonna include me.
- Okay, so now we're gonna stand up
and we're gonna walk through it, walk through it.
And it's important that you practice your turn around.
Okay, because that's another common fall.
- [Bob] A common people fall.
- Lose your balance.
And then you walk again, walk again.
Now, I put this close to the chair on purpose.
Because when people turn around to sit on their chair
is extremely a high place where falls occur
'cause they get their feet tangled up
or they don't line up with the chair.
So this is here so that you make sure you lift
and you don't drag your foot across.
Lift here, we lift here, turn around and sit.
Now, you could get more of these if you wanted to
and make a longer train.
- [Bob] And a longer trail, sure.
- Obviously because of the camera this is plenty good.
So, I'll demonstrate the whole thing.
- [Bob] What's nice about these, which I don't know if
you pointed out Brad, but when you hit them it
shouldn't cause you to fall.
- No, right.
- You know what I mean, it's not like I'm hitting something,
basically it's gonna do that instead of falling
and that's why these are good training tools.
- Right, they're very effective and the cost is,
they're very cheap.
Okay, so I'll do the whole thing.
Someone would be here to help me out,
make sure I don't fall.
First we'll practice the stands.
If you have armrests you may wanna push off if you need it.
If you don't need it, don't use 'em because it's
gonna be better for your strengthening and your balance.
Am I on three?
- [Bob] Ya, that's right.
- Okay. I'll do five.
You could do less or you could do more,
depending on your condition, okay.
And then I'm gonna take my time and step through,
walk around.
- [Bob] Now, these are also making you step
a little bit longer.
If you're kind of a shorter person, you could make these
sticks in between a little shorter, right Brad?
- That's a good point Bob, absolutely.
Turn around...
- [Bob] It's having to take a pretty good stride.
- Right, and you...
- [Bob] Good thing to work on.
- 'Cause you could do a step two pattern,
but that's gonna give you bad habits for walking,
but in certain conditions that might be right.
So ya, then if that's the case, you might wanna even cut
these in half and shorten up the middle ones
so they fit you properly.
So that's a good point Bob.
- Your therapists out there probably should have
a variety.
- A variety, exactly right.
So, let me see, was there anything else
we wanted to cover Bob?
- You talked about turn around and you know,
again, this is gonna, if you have foot drop
either your gonna use a brace to help lift it up over these,
or your gonna learn you gotta pick your feet up
a little bit higher.
- Exactly
- To get that foot through.
- And hopefully your anterior tib muscle will get
better with time and then you will get that dorsal flexion.
There is one other thing I wanted to mention Bob.
But I can't remember.
- Okay
(laughing)
- You'll remember right after the videos over.
You'll say, darn it that's what I wanted to..
- Oh, I know what you can do.
And this is probably more for a therapist,
actually time it.
- Oh sure.
- You know, if it takes me the first time
I'm going pretty slow and you have to think about it.
- We do have a time test, that you know...
- Yup, it's called a "get up and go" test.
- Get up and go, ya
- And this would be like a modified get up and go.
But let's say the first time it took you 45 seconds,
which is possible, and you bumped two sticks perhaps.
You'd write that down and then two weeks later,
after practicing, it might be down to 20 seconds
without bumping any sticks.
Then you know you've made progress.
'Cause a lot of times you can't remember.
- Right. It gives you a goal that to shoot for
and it makes you, you know, proud when you do reach it
- Absolutely, absolutely.
- By the way, Brad and I can fix just about anything
- Except for
- A broken heart, but we're working on it.
- And we're gonna continue to work on it.
- We're gonna call that the B and B, heart break fix system.
- I took the weekend off, I didn't work on it this weekend.
- Not at all kidding.
Thanks so much.