♪ 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 that we are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet. - In our own opinion,
of course Bob.
- Stop strengthening hamstrings.
Do this instead.
Now this is, we evolve
as we go along.
We try to always learn, Brad and--
- Right. - We've done some videos
on strengthening hamstrings and there are
people that should be strengthening their hamstrings.
- Sure. - But there's a lot that
should not because the hamstrings are strong enough.
And we'll get into that.
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All right because we, as a nation,
as a people, sit a lot
and because we develop poor back movements,
a lot of times what happens,
our glutes are not firing like they should.
Our glutes maximus, like minimus and medius.
- Those butt muscles.
- And when they aren't firing,
you get is what is called gluteal amnesia.
It's also called pelvic crossed syndrome,
it's also called lower crossed syndrome,
it's also called dead butt syndrome.
But basically, the butt muscles aren't firing
like they should be.
And that's your biggest muscle on your lower extremities
and you should be relying on that when you're lifting things
and doing functional activities.
- For sure. - And if you're not,
what happens is, I'ma give this example here.
Let's see I'm gonna bend wrong.
I'm sorry Mike, I probably through you off here,
gettin' so tall.
Let's say instead of lifting correctly,
if I lift correct here, you can see
the butt muscles are gonna be working.
If I'm lifting incorrectly here,
now the back is firing up more
and I'm also relying on more of my hamstrings.
They're firing off, so.
What happens after, over time,
you develop this pattern,
these muscles actually get to be fairly strong,
but they're also putting the back under stress,
and the hamstrings become very strong.
And they become overactive.
- So you're saying by firing,
they've done electoral--
- EMG. - EMG studies to figure out
which muscles are actually contracting
and which ones are not,
and to the degree they're 'tracting.
Is that a partial contraction,
are they workin' hard? - Well even how
the sequencing.
Like you can actually do this,
but I'm gonna do this spontaneously.
Brad and I didn't plan this.
But you can actually lay down
and you can feel your butt and your hamstring
at the same time. (chuckling)
And lift up your leg and the,
you want the butt to fire in first before the hamstring.
On some people, the hamstring's gonna fire first.
And it was on me.
And I've changed it now so that my butt muscle fires.
I'm tryin' to keep this simple.
I wanna, basically we're gonna show you
the exercises you should do.
I guess you're gonna have to trust us
that it's important that you're gonna
strengthen these muscles here.
You can read more about it,
but when the hamstrings are over-firing,
it causes all sorts of problems.
It can actually cause hip pain
'cause of the way the are situated on your femur.
- Changes the mechanics of joint.
- Changes the mechanic of the the joints, yup.
And it can cause that sit-bone pain
'cause the hamstrings are getting too much stress on them.
- Sure, sure.
- All right, they first one we're gonna do,
I want you to actually stretch your hip flexors
'cause if they're tight,
they can actually inhibit the glutes,
the glutes maximus from firing.
Simple way to do that, you're gonna go ahead
and throw a pillow on the ground.
Which way should I go, Brad?
This, probably this way?
- Yeah, I would do the-- - Like that?
- Left leg, yup.
- So, you're gonna have really good posture here
and I'm gonna lean forward.
The key to this is not just leaning forward like this.
I'm leaning the hip forward too,
extending the hip. - Right,
so you can see the angle of the femur here.
We're at relative the angle of the torso,
which is vertical.
And he's gettin' that stretch right where that pocket is.
And that's where that hip flexor is
gettin' that stretch. - The hip flexors,
three major muscles there that can really shorten up
when you do a lot of sitting.
So in addition to,
the butt getting the pressure,
it's also tightening up muscles
that are inhibiting us.
Obviously, you would wanna do both sides.
- Right, so you're gonna hold that for 30 seconds
to a minute, whatever you have time for.
(laughing)
- All right, next one.
We're gonna go ahead and do some glute squeezes.
I'm gonna go ahead to start off,
this is kinda for a beginner.
You're just gonna lay prone, on your stomach
and I'm gonna bend the leg,
and I'm just gonna lift it up like this.
And before you do that, even squeeze your butt together
like you're puttin' a quarter between the cheeks
and then hold it there.
Butt stuff like that. - Little squeezers, yup.
So he's flexing the knee like this
because it helps take the hamstring out of the,
the contraction. - The equation, right.
- [Brad] And helps emphasize the glutes.
- Yup, now the glutes are doing most of the work.
- Again if, you know if Brad I were
to tell you to strengthen one muscle in the body,
it'd probably be your glutes,
'cause they are so important
in all the functional activities,
take pressure off your back.
And so this is a great one to do for nearly everyone.
I'm sure there's exceptions,
but I can't think of too many.
(laughing)
- [Brad] Well you figure, you're walking,
everyone walks or most everyone walks.
- Everybody walks, everybody's, most everbody's bending
forward and picking stuff up.
Very functional movements.
- This is a more advanced one, Brad.
So again, you'd be squeezing the butt together,
but you'd be lifting up towards the sky like this.
- So you're also working, contracting your core muscles.
So you got good stabilization of your core and the pelvis.
- Am I going straight up?
I can't tell.
- [Brad] You're doing pretty good, Bob.
Yup. - Okay.
- So you're just gonna go up and down 10 times like this.
- Yeah and I'd probably do a five, six second hold or so.
One two three four five six seven eight nine 10.
They count fast, it ends up being about five seconds.
- [Brad] Right. (laughing)
- All right, another one.
We're gonna go ahead and do, let's do bridging, Brad.
So this is a different way to go at it.
Really the same issue.
We're gonna go ahead and lift up like this.
And the same thing, you wanna squeeze your butt together
before you lift. - Sure, yup.
- And when you get a little more advanced,
you're gonna go ahead and go with one leg.
And this is one of those signs.
If your hamstrings are a little bit overactive,
they start crampin' on you easier.
- Yes, right. - And mine used to cramp
on me fairly quickly and now I'm,
I can tell my butt muscles are--
- Are doin' the work. - Are takin' over.
- [Brad] I like that.
- [Bob] They're not cramping as easy.
- I do exercises like this.
One thing I found that,
I don't use a pillow.
I just let my head rest on the floor or get a pad down
'cause otherwise you can develop neck pain.
I mean, it's got nothin' to do with your butt.
We don't wanna develop a neck problem
'cause you're looking up. - It's funny
'cause I've been doin' some core work out
and I've been doin', the lifting the shoulders up
and my neck too originally gave me problems with that.
So you gotta really watch it.
All right, we're also gonna go ahead and do some of the,
we're gonna get the gluteus medius and minimus,
the side muscles here.
So we're gonna go ahead and do some,
I'm gonna do some clam shells.
So you're now on the sideline position.
And you're just gonna go up like this.
Now these are small muscles,
and I'm speaking from experience here (laughing)
'cause I started working these.
And I start off with a black band, I'm like,
I'm a strong guy, I can go ahead and,
(Brad laughing) and I, one of those loop bands.
Brad's gonna show it.
I was doin' it every day.
I got so sore, I literally had to stop
because doin' it for like a week
(Brad laughing) because I got those muscles.
I think I even had minor tears in them.
So that, you wanna start off with just,
without weight when doin' it.
That'll be enough, these are small muscles.
And then eventually, you can add the band in.
- [Brad] So you're doing 10 to 15 reps typically?
- So I'm gonna show this figure four one, Brad too
'cause this is interesting to me.
This is a very difficult one for me.
So I'm gonna lay flat,
and then I'm gonna go ahead and cross
my left ankle over my right knee.
- [Brad] Can you see that, Mike?
Is that pretty clear?
On top of that knee? - Now what I'm gonna do
is I'm gonna lift up my knee.
And it's really hard for me to do.
- So yeah, right here he's lifting straight up.
There isn't much space there.
It isn't a big movement, but there's a lot of--
- A lot of work going on. (laughing)
- [Brad] A lot of glute, you feel it in that glute, yeah?
- Oh god yeah. - Feels good.
(grunts)
So I have a feeling someone 20 years younger
might be a little more pliable.
- Yeah exactly, they're gonna go,
"What's wrong with this old man?"
But if you're nearing the
sixth decade of your life,
give this a try once and you're gonna find out.
(laughing)
I'm curious, Brad.
You go ahead and try it.
- [Brad] Yeah I'm going to.
I haven't done this one yet.
- I'm serious.
I wanna see how he does. - Let me take my glasses off,
Bob. - You better not
make it look easy.
Oh look at this.
(laughing)
- Bob, you gotta remember how I walk.
- Yeah that's right. - My feet are out like a duck.
- That's right, Brad is, it externally rotates.
(sighs heavily)
- [Brad] Yeah, I definitely feel that right in there.
- Yeah don't lift up too much now.
Stay down.
There you go.
You're better on the other side.
- [Brad] Yeah I can feel that.
My left side.
- I think it's a function of also how much
motion you have in your hip.
I can feel that.
I can feel it after the fact of doing it now that
the muscles have been workin'.
My external rotators are really week on my hip.
Yeah I'll try it again. - This will let you know,
give you some information on your hip as well.
- After I've been doing this,
my running got easier and my squats have gotten easier.
We were just talking about this beforehand.
It really, and again, it's gonna help you functionally
as you goin' through life,
less likely to hurt your back,
less likely to hurt your hamstrings.
- I'm still--
- You're still tryin' to-- - I'm digesting all this.
It's a new concept.
I haven't read that part of the book yet.
- There's been a lot on this.
Once you see somethin' and then you see a lot of it,
it keeps hittin' you in the head and they're like,
"Oh okay, I got it.
"It is something."
At first I was like gluteal amnesia?
But so. (laughing)
All right, remember Brad and I can fix just about anything.
- Except for. - A broken heart.
- There you go. - But we're workin' on it.
- Glutes and the heart.
- There ya go.
(laughing)
(light synthesizer music)