- ♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ the two most famous ♪
♪ physical therapists ♪
♪ on the internet ♪
- Hi folks, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist,
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
Together we are the most famous physical therapist
on the internet.
- And our opinion, of course, Bob.
- Today we're gonna show you the best exercise
to heal Plantar Fasciitis,
according to science.
And you don't need any equipment.
At least you don't need anything that
you won't already have at home.
- Nothing fancy.
- Yeah. By the way,
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- Say no more Bob. - Believe it or not, Brad,
we are constantly evolving and learning.
So this is a study I came across
'cause I wouldn't say
that we were always doing things like this.
- Sure, well, things change. - I'm gonna read
the name of the study.
It's pretty dry, the name, even.
But some of you may wanna look it up.
We'll try to put it down below too.
High load strength training improves outcome
in patients with Plantar Fasciitis.
A randomized control trial
with 12 month followup.
It's Rathleff et al.
- Say no more Bob.
It's really a, yeah.
It sounds academic. - So in other words,
they found out that strengthening the Plantar Fascia,
that's that band, I'm gonna show'em Brad.
- Oh!
- I'm gonna show'em. - Yep, Bob is really going
all out on this one. - You can really see it on me.
I got a band aid here, by the way.
- Don't worry about it.
We won't talk about it. - So,
the Plantar Fasciitis, fascia starts merging
in with the heel here. - Yep.
- And then it actually goes up into the toes too
and, this'll be important in just a minute.
I'll explain to you why it's important
that the fascia extends up into there.
- And indirectly, it connects up
to the Achilles tendon - Right.
- to the heel cord as well. - It's all kind of all
one unit here.
- Which comes into play with this exercise.
- So they compared stretching the Plantar Fascia
along with strengthening the Plantar fascia.
- Right.
- And what they found out,
after a control trial with a 12 month followup.
They followed up in 12 months,
that this high-low progressive strengthening
was much more effective.
- Oh
- So what I'm gonna say to you, personally,
I would do both.
And plus they also included arch support
on the off the shelf.
- Oh.
- I think on both of them.
- So they were even.
- Yeah, yeah.
- So they try to keep it
consistent. - So in other words
they felt like it was important
to use an arch support.
And I think we would support that.
Won't you Brad?
- If it feels good.
- Yeah, if it feels good, yeah.
If it makes a difference. - You gotta get the right one.
- Yeah, it should feel good right away.
I wouldn't pay money to have one that's...
- Custom. - Custom made.
- Right.
- So the stretching, what they did,
I just need to show you,
they were doing it three times a day.
And basically, they're just grabbing the toes like this
and pulling the foot into dorsal flection,
which means this way.
- Pointed up.
- And you're stretching like this.
And I always like people doing this stretch
before they even get out of bed.
That's what I'd like to see them do.
And they do a 10 times,
just like just kind of reps like this.
- It can help
if you have those symptoms,
where you get out of bed
and as soon as you put weight on it
it's very painful and uncomfortable.
This stretch will help settle that down
before you get out.
- And then you could, probably should do it,
like if you've been sitting for awhile.
- Sure, yep.
- And then do a stretch like that too.
All right. - You can do with your shoe on
if it's a flexible shoe.
- Let's just describe real briefly Brad,
how this strengthening works.
- Okay.
- 'Cause they use a term I had never been familiar
with called Wind Las.
Wind Las.
- Well, if you were a sailor,
you would probably... - If I were a sailor,
I'd probably know a W-I-N-D L-A-S.
What Wind Las means is you're tightening the cables.
- Right.
- So what we're going to do
because we're doing this exercise off a step,
you're gonna need the staircase.
Probably the best way to do this
with a railing. - Sure, yep.
- You're actually pulling
on the Achilles heel,
which is actually pulling on
the Plantar Fascia from this side.
- Right.
- Now, we need to pull on from this side also
so that it's really getting the full load.
- We're gonna take the slack out of it.
- Yeah, so that's where the Wind Las comes.
You're actually tightening this side
and tightening this side.
So what we're gonna do is we're gonna put a towel
underneath the toes.
- So you take a towel like this.
This is a nice decoration towel, I like it.
But you're going to roll it
(Bob laughing)
and the size that you roll it to
is going to vary.
And I've done this before,
so I know if I roll the bar to that size,
it's gonna be fine.
I've got some extra towel,
I'm not going to
worry about there. - Worry about it, right.
You need a chair,
if you have a step
and you don't have something to hold onto,
you're gonna need...
- We've got a four inch,
a wooden step here that we use
for something else, but it'll work fine.
You could do this off the edge of a step
like Bob mentioned, okay.
- [Bob] Which would probably be the best way.
- [Brad] Yeah, probably.
So I've got my roll there.
Okay, I'm not taking my socks off Bob.
- [Bob] That's fine.
I'm gonna put this through - [Brad] I'm gonna put
my foot here so that the ball - [Bob] there.
- [Brad] of your foot is well over the edge
and my toes, you can see,
these are nice toe, socks cause they...
- [Bob] Yeah, they do, they show it well.
- [Brad] Yep, I'm gonna put it on the edge,
so my toes are extended or pulled upwards.
So the towel is gonna maintain that.
So that's gonna help pull
that tight and then I'm gonna...
- [Bob] Hold the Plantar fascia tight on it from that side.
Now I'm just gonna pull it from the other side
by actually putting some pressure.
Now, for many of you,
you're gonna probably have to start
with both feet like this.
- [Brad] Right.
- [Bob] So why don't you show us one Brad,
just to show what you're doing.
- [Brad] So I'm gonna go here.
- [Bob] He's gonna go up for a count of three,
one, two, three, hold for two.
And then down for three.
One, two, three.
Hold, one, two.
One, two three.
One, two, three.
Hold, one, two.
One, two, three.
- Now you really notice the towel roll
under your toes,
particularly when you're in the up position.
- [Bob] Right, right.
- [Brad] You can feel the stretch.
- [Bob] I did the same thing when I was doing these.
- [Brad] Now you may not be able to do this on one foot,
depending on your strength.
I've had a lot of particularly older people
who'd never be able to do this on one foot.
So you're gonna maintain the towel position,
get both feet on.
If you have something to hold onto.
If you're in a stairway it is nice
if you have a handrail on both sides.
- [Bob] Right. - [Brad] But one side's
better than nothing or a cane and a handrail
and then work these.
- [Bob] Again, same thing.
One, two, three,
up.
One, two, hold.
One, two, three down.
- [Brad] And if you can only do five of them
and you get tired.
Well that's okay.
Just work with it over time.
- [Bob] Work your way up.
You're going to start with actually 12 repetitions,
you can.
Again, you might wanna look up the study.
It gives you the specifics,
I don't wanna get too much into details,
but they start off at three sets of 12.
- Okay.
- And then they actually,
especially if you're a younger person,
they start adding weight.
And the way they do that,
they have you wear a backpack.
- Sure.
- And then you put books in it.
- Right.
- So, remember your kids,
I remember my kids, I mean,
their book packs would be like,
backpacks would be like 70 pounds.
- Yeah, they load them down. - They load them down.
- Yeah.
- They don't wanna go back to the locker.
- Probably not so much nowadays
because they just put a tablet or a computer.
- Yeah, right, right.
- It takes the place of a lot of books I imagine.
- But anyway,
they start with the 12 reps.
They eventually work down to only eight reps
but they do more sets.
- Sure.
- But they only do eight reps
because that's all they can do
when they have enough books in there.
- So they're working on really strengthening.
- Right, right.
They're really trying to progress
the strength of that band.
- Right.
- And they're also,
they're saying one of the other affects of it is,
especially if you start using the book,
you're probably stretching your Achilles tendon more.
And they found that seems to help Plantar Fasciitis.
- Sure. - So we have more
mobility here.
- Right. - You can bring the foot
up better.
So it was an interesting study.
I thought again,
I would definitely do the stretching
along with it anyway.
- So, they did every day or...
- Oh, sorry, three times a week.
- Three times a week.
- To strengthen. - Monday, Wednesday, Friday
or something of that nature.
- Right, three times a week
for the strengthening.
For the stretching you do every day,
three times a day.
- And that's this one.
- Yeah, that's that one.
- Yep,
Which is, that's not that - No, no, no.
- inconvenient. - That's, right, right.
This one takes a little more effort.
And interestingly enough Brad,
I was doing something like this.
I didn't do the Wind Las position.
- Yeah.
- I was thinking,
this is really a good idea to do this.
I was doing it on my stairs every morning.
I was doing stretch.
I do like 10 reps.
- But you didn't have plantar foot.
- I didn't have Plantar Fasciitis.
- You just were...
- I've felt it in the past,
like it coming on.
And then that's why I had to change my shoes,
but I thought...
I just thought I'd try this as an experiment.
I was on the right track,
but I wasn't doing all the tightening.
- So you could have done this study.
- I'm a genius and don't even know.
All right. - Unbelievable.
- Thanks for watching.
- Say no more.
(upbeat music)