- All right,
Bob.
Flat feet,
fallen arches and over-pronated feet.
- Right.
- They're all the same thing.
Our feet are flat,
they can cause foot pain,
they can cause problems with your walking.
We're gonna show you some simple
and yet surprising ways
that you can correct this
and increase that arch,
become normal again.
- And might I say,
at the end of this video
we're gonna have a fabulous giveaway.
- Say no more,
Bob.
And it's all related.
Let's move on.
♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
Okay,
Bob.
First,
let's talk a little bit about
what is a flat foot,
pronated foot?
- Right.
- And if we look here,
we got,
now my foot,
I do not have a flat foot,
so I'm gonna show you and then you'll understand.
Here's the red arch
with the white mark right there,
Bob.
- There's plenty of room there for my finger.
- Yep.
So,
you know,
I got a normal arch.
Now,
if my arch falls or flattens right there--
- Where I squish my finger--
- [Brad] Yep.
- [Bob] Right there.
- Yep.
And then we have problems.
Now some people's arches are so severe
that this is,
there's a navicular bone here.
And if they're so flattened out that that bone--
- [Bob] Is down on the floor.
- Yeah.
You definitely are not gonna,
you're gonna need arch supports.
- And plus if you're of the older age.
- Yes.
Yep.
And so then you will,
this is not a true arch support
but you know,
you put that in there.
It will support here.
And that may be what you need.
However,
a lot of people,
we want to avoid this--
- Right.
We wanna strengthen the foot.
- Right.
This does nothing more
than actually supports the foot
and weakens the intrinsic,
those small foot muscles
as well as the posterior tibialis.
- The good and the bad.
- Yes.
All right!
So we're gonna get on to
the first thing to strengthen your foot.
Okay Bob,
now you and I know this,
but not everyone is aware of what is going on
with the whole,
the foot,
the knee and the hips.
- They're all connected.
- It's all connected.
So we've got,
we're gonna show the tibia.
And the green line is the edge
of my tibia,
the anterior aspect--
- Right.
There's the edge.
- [Brad] Yep.
Now if I flatten my feet,
look what happens right there.
- [Bob] Yep.
The tibia internally rotates.
It turns in,
which is bad.
- [Brad] Right.
- [Bob] Right.
It's actually bad on the knee too.
- Right.
As well as look what happens here with my hip,
If I show my hip here,
and I internally rotate,
there's motion going this direction
in the hip joint.
And we want to,
we could have weak hip muscles here,
but we also wanna address this.
And we're gonna do that too.
- That'll be later.
- Yeah.
A little bit later.
So again,
this motion,
we get knock kneed a little bit,
flattens the foot,
works the hips.
- [Bob] So this is the right direction
we wanna move the tibia.
- [Brad] Yep.
So this is the exercises,
and this is an option.
You can do this with your shoes on.
It probably works a little better,
but you can see what's going on without.
- [Brad] Right.
- And all I'm gonna do is stand.
I may need something to hold to balance,
and lift those arches,
lift those arches.
- And kind of turn the leg out.
- Yes.
- Right?
A little bit.
- [Brad] I'm thinking about
bringing the knees out.
You can see the tibia rotating.
- Can you turn a little bit,
Brad,
towards me?
- [Brad] Sure.
- [Bob] Now you can see the arch here--
- [Brad] Oh,
right.
So that's what's going on.
- [Bob] It's flattening,
it's increasing.
It flattens,
it increases.
- And it really gives you awareness
of what's going on with your feet.
- Right.
- Some people are completely unaware of it
just because they're not therapists
and don't think about it all the time.
Okay.
And then we're gonna
go right into the next exercise,
which is very much related to the one we did.
But instead of both feet working together
we're gonna just focus on one foot at a time.
It's a little more intense.
- [Bob] And provide a little resistance.
- Yeah.
And--
- Right.
- You might be wondering,
why am I doing something
with my arm and shoulder?
It offers resistance,
and makes my posterior tib
and those small muscles work.
So I'm gonna stand here.
I may need to hold onto something for balance,
and I'm gonna pull out like this on one leg.
So my left foot is down.
My left arm is pulling away
from the wall,
and you can anchor that.
We got the wall anchor.
You can hook it up to a doorknob,
a piece of furniture,
whatever you need,
'cause it doesn't need much resistance at all.
- Somebody you trust can hold it.
- Yes.
And now what's going on is my foot,
that forces my foot to actually supinate,
or my arch goes up.
- Again Brad,
maybe if you go ahead and turn out.
- Yep.
Let's do that.
- Towards me--
- Yep.
- A little bit.
- Okay.
Let's see what's going on.
- Again as,
there.
- So anytime I pull on that band
with my left arm,
this motion is forced.
So I hold my balance,
and it's really a nice way to do it
without thinking about it.
The right thing happens.
- Right.
- And then let's go right to the next one.
Hey,
all right.
And exercise number three
for those ankle and foot muscles.
You go on a stair like this
and it works well if you have handrails.
- Yes,
exactly.
- To hold onto.
- I really prefer that.
- Yep.
So,
and shoes work best by far,
heels should be off the edge
like I have here.
We're gonna go down.
Not real far,
it's not important
how far down you go.
But what is important when you go up,
watch what happens.
I'm gonna lift my toes up and separate.
- [Bob] And you turn in.
- [Brad] Yep.
- [Bob] Right.
- And that works those muscles
that help lift the arch.
Oh yes.
And you know,
10 to 15--
- [Bob] Definitely,
you'll really feel it.
Right Brad?
- Oh yeah.
Yeah.
You know,
if you get advanced,
I mean,
for maybe the athletic people,
they might wanna do--
- Do one foot.
- Yeah.
My left foot's doing most of the work,
this one's here just to touch and to balance.
- [Bob] Right.
- And you know,
that would be the end process,
when things are really going well
and you've completed the other ones.
So,
those are three options
from the easiest to the hardest.
The next thing I wanna talk about is footwear.
- Right.
- 'Cause footwear is,
you change footwear
and you're doing your foot exercises
without even thinking about it.
- Yes,
exactly.
You can be doing foot exercises all day long.
- And the first thing,
the easiest thing to do
is simply walk barefoot.
- [Bob] Right.
- Obviously not all day long,
obviously not outside in the gravel,
but inside your house--
- Or stocking footed--
- Yeah,
or stocking footed,
on the carpet.
Maybe only for,
you know,
half an hour.
If you haven't walked barefoot--
- Yeah,
see how it tolerates.
- Yeah.
You'll find those foot muscles get tired.
- Right.
- And the next step up from there,
Bob,
you wanna show 'em your shoes?
- Yeah.
We got zero drop shoes.
So,
the sole is the same width all the way along.
We don't have any heel at all.
- Right.
- So they're somewhat of a flat shoe.
- Exactly.
- And also wide shoe.
- Yeah.
- So you got plenty of room.
- Lot of room in the toe box.
- So I use these for walking.
I'm not yet to the point
where I can run with 'em yet.
So,
but I definitely can use 'em walking.
- And you'll wanna take your time,
because I know I have a pair
and I was walking with them for like a week,
and then I said,
"I should start running!"
It was too early.
(Brad laughs)
- What a shock.
Brad tried something too fast.
- I pushed the envelope,
as my personality always does,
I'm working on that.
- And your calf muscle got--
- Strained.
- Torn.
- Yeah,
it's better.
It wasn't torn.
It's better.
I mean,
I can now run.
It only took me a couple weeks.
(Brad laughs)
- Okay,
so they're called minimalist shoes
with zero drop.
- Right.
- That's a nice,
easy way to do it,
so you can strengthen the foot.
And we've got number three,
and we're gonna get into the hip.
Okay.
And this is what,
a key thing that a lot of people forget
is the hip external rotation,
external rotators,
I'm sorry.
And you're gonna,
they're the muscles that make you
pull out like that to get the alignment
proper throughout from the hip to the foot.
Bob's gonna show a good beginner way.
- Yeah.
But also for the knee,
we're gonna start with lining up your legs.
You line up your hips,
line up your knees,
line up your ankles.
- [Brad] Yep.
- You have a slight bend to the knee,
and you're just gonna work on
opening the clam shell.
- Sure.
Wait,
can we get that camera on here?
So as we do this,
Bob,
you'll feel these muscles right back here
in your backside of your hip working,
they'll start to burn a little bit.
- But if you don't,
we can add some resistance.
- [Brad] There you go.
- All right.
We have our pretty band in place.
So,
if we want some resistance,
put the band in place and,
yeah,
this is a lot more work,
Brad.
- Right.
Yep,
this is for if going without the band
is too easy.
You can change the resistance of the band.
He's got it out by his knees.
- I can move it up further.
- [Brad] And then you have variable resistance.
Not near so hard there.
- Yep.
That's hard.
- Yep.
10 to 15 repetitions--
- Both sides,
of course.
- Yeah.
I do wanna say,
you can do a standing or weightbearing
exercise version of this.
I have the band,
loop band around my knees,
just above my knees.
Separate my knees.
I'm gonna bend my knees just a little bit,
and I'm gonna work.
I'm gonna bring my feet a little more.
- He's gonna do the Charleston.
- Yep.
- There we go.
- There we go!
But no,
that is a nice way because
in your weight bearing,
that's how your body experiences
and your hip experiences this activity anyway.
So it might relate to walking better.
So you know,
progress to this when ready.
All right.
Bob,
what do you say?
- I think we got to go
and do our giveaway now,
Brad.
- Well,
yeah,
but Bob,
I do wanna say,
flat feet is something that you can work with.
These exercises need to be worked with,
you know,
at least five days a week.
Takes some effort,
but you can do it,
and you're gonna find yourself.
- You can do it!
- Yeah.
Everyone will be doing the Charleston.
- Right.
- All right.
The giveaway.
- All right.
This week's giveaway is the fabulous
SleepOvation mattress spread!
- There you go,
Bob.
Yeah.
We've been promoting these for quite a while.
We love 'em.
We sleep on 'em,
and so do our wives.
- Right.
- So,
700 tiny mattresses--
- Air channels.
- Nice and cool.
- That's right.
- And it's very comfortable.
It's the mattress for people who have pain.
- Right.
Or if you just wanna sleep well too.
- [Bob] That's right.
- Or both!
Take care and have a good day.
Sleep well.
(upbeat tone)