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- Hello, I'm Sara Meeks, physical therapist.
And I'm here now to go through exercise on the foam roller.
The second video on the foam roller.
With me here is Christina.
She came all the way from...
Where did you come from?
- I came from Jacksonville. - Yeah, Jacksonville
to be our model today.
And so we're going to go through different exercises
on the roller.
So, what I'm going to do is show you first
the starting position.
The starting position is with the feet flat on the table,
the knees and the hips bent so that we're focusing
on strengthening the back musculature.
We wanna isolate the back.
Her arms will be at her side with her palms down.
And as one of the principles,
the primary principle of the Meeks Method is
working with spinal alignment.
I'm also going to, 'cause she tells me
that she uses this in her own exercise program,
we're going to slide a small towel roll underneath her neck
to make sure that she has an arch in her neck
and doesn't flatten out or flex the cervical spine.
So this is the basic starting position.
Now, for the foam roller,
what I start with is a soft density,
usually vinyl covered roller.
This is the softest roller
that I've been able to come across.
It also is handmade, and it's got a zipper cover on it
so that if it's too hard on your body,
you can take it out of the cover
and then it's a softer roller.
Now, to get on the roller, what I have people do,
is to roll on one side.
So, she's decided to roll onto her right side.
And then I take the roller,
and I'm gonna take this towel out
because the roller will help support her neck.
And then I place this, so it's right behind her back,
and she's gonna roll over on to the roller.
And then she'll make sure that she's straight on the roller
by feeling where her sacrum is and also where her head.
They should be in alignment for this exercise.
Now, when I start someone first out on these rollers,
sometimes it's enough for them
to just learn to lie on the roller.
They can be uncomfortable on the roller.
It might be too much.
They might be able to only tolerate it
for maybe five minutes or something like that.
So, I just have them do what they can do to get started.
So after they become comfortable,
I want them to know that what we're working on
is primarily balance and strengthening of the back muscles
so that when I take her through a series of exercises,
such as I'll have her pick up one arm
and then the other arm, and then the foot, and so on,
it doesn't matter how high she lifts the extremity.
If she gets her arm only one inch off the table
or two inches off the table,
that's enough because as we start out,
she is balancing with four extremities,
both arms and both feet.
So she only has to lift it an inch,
or she could lift it up to her shoulder,
or she could lift it up towards her ear,
whatever she wants to do.
I let them do whatever they want to do.
Of course, the higher they lift,
the better balance they have to have to in order to do that.
So I'm going to take her through a series of exercise.
And as I do this,
one of the things that I do with my patients,
I don't tell them which extremity to use first
or to start with or anything like that.
I let them choose.
So the first exercise I'm gonna ask her to do
is to pick up one arm, don't do it yet,
is to pick up one arm off the table
and then put it back down.
And then we'll go through the other arm
and two legs and so on.
We'll go through a whole series like that.
And I let her pick which side she wants to start with.
Are we ready, Christina?
- I'm ready. - Okay, great.
So with that being said, begin to focus on your breath.
You wanna make sure
that you're breathing continuously through the exercise.
So take a breath in
and bring up one arm up and down three times.
Keep the elbow straight. (clears throat)
And then we do the other arm.
And I want you to notice now
if anything changes according to your balance.
You may notice changes in your body as you do this.
That being said, we're gonna start with the legs,
so I want you to keep your knee bent
and your hips bent on either side
and pick up one foot up and down three times.
And then the other foot.
Okay, so this is the first thing that we do.
Now, I'm having her do this
in the easiest position of the arms.
It's also possible as you learn to do these exercises
that you could turn your hand facing your body
so that you have your arm in a more neutral position,
or you could even turn your palms upward.
But the easiest position to teach people is
internal rotation of the shoulder
because that's the position
that they're used to being in anyway.
Okay so far?
- Yes. - All right,
take one arm and place it across your chest.
And then pick up the other arm up and down three times.
I'm taking her through three repetitions of each exercise.
I use the formula three, five, or eight.
Three for people who are first starting out,
five for those that have been doing it for a while,
and eight for the more athletic individual.
Keeping the arm right there, pick up one foot,
up and down three times.
And then the other foot.
And you might be able to notice that as she changes,
she's also changing her balance just a little bit
to stay on the roller.
That's the idea.
So you can put this arm down,
put the other arm across your chest,
pick up the opposite arm.
I'm sorry. Where are we here?
The other arm up and down three times.
There's a lot of exercises in this one.
Okay. And then one foot up and down three times.
And notice that she is staying balanced
with her opposite arm and foot.
That's called contralateral,
and that is the easiest position to balance.
If she were to balance ipsilateral
with the same arm and foot, that's a harder balance.
So now the other foot.
And put this arm down.
All right, so that's the beginning of the program.
Now what we're gonna do is
we're gonna have her lift opposite arm and foot,
and we're gonna do five reps, then three reps,
and then one rep of each movement.
So you can pick opposite arm and foot
and pick them up simultaneously and down three times.
And then the other sides.
Mm hmm, okay, so you've got that idea.
So now we're gonna move it up a little bit
so that we get to the marching.
So go back to your right arm and your left foot
and do it five times.
We're getting ready to march.
Okay, then the other opposites.
Good. Okay, pause and take a breath.
(Christina inhales)
And now do the right arm and the left
'cause that's where you started with, three repetitions.
And then the other sides.
And then take a breath again.
And now you're gonna march.
So, you're gonna pick up your right arm
and your left foot one time,
put it down and then go immediately to the other side
and do five reps on each.
Okay, up. So this is the marching, we call it.
So she has to change very quickly.
And if she's not careful and if she doesn't put her hand
and her foot down at the same time,
she can end up with all four extremities off the table.
And that can be where she loses her balance.
Remember, this is all about balance.
I tell people that they can squeeze
between their shoulder blades to maintain balance.
Also, when they pick up one extremity,
they can push down on the table
a little harder with another.
It's all about maintaining their balance.
So now we're gonna move on to
a few more difficult exercises.
So let's put both arms across your chest like this.
And then pick up one foot up and down three times.
So she's balancing with one extremity instead of four.
When she finishes with that one,
then she does the other one.
Good. And then you can put your hands down and relax.
So, what we're doing is we're taking away points of support,
which means that she has to focus more on her balance.
So the next exercise,
I take her through a little bit
of learning how to pick up her legs
and then put 'em back down.
I do not want my patients picking up both legs
at the same time and then putting them down at the same time
because it's too hard on the lower back for a lot of them.
So, I want you to pick up one leg and hold it there
in the, what we call, the 90/90 position.
We have her knee and her hip bent at 90 degrees.
And then we pick up the other leg next to it.
So we do one leg at a time,
and then we put down one leg at a time.
So put down one leg and then the other leg.
So I don't have them pick up both legs
and put them down at the same time.
Okay, so go ahead and pick up one leg again
and then the other one.
And then pick up one arm up and down three times.
Now she's balancing with one arm.
And then do the other arm.
And then one foot down and then the other foot down.
So, we've gone through from four points of support
down to one, down to one foot or down to one arm.
Now, we do have some other exercises.
I'm going to have her fold her arms across her chest.
And then she's going to pick up one leg.
So she's balancing on the other leg.
And then she's going to straighten this leg out
but not touch the table.
She's gonna press out with her heel
and then leading with the heel a little bit,
slide the leg out into what's called abduction, a-b-duction.
And then back in.
This requires quite a lot of balance on the roller.
And then bend the knee and put this foot down.
Take another breath and pick up the other leg
(Sara clears throat)
and straighten out that leg,
but don't touch the table, press your heel out.
And then slide the leg to the side and then come back in.
All right, and then bend the knee
and put your hands down on the table and just relax.
So, that's a full exercise program right there.
And when you start out, you wanna start out,
it may seem a little simple at first,
and you start out with a half soft density roller.
Now, as you progress,
you may want to use a roller like this.
This is a half roller, but it's a hard density.
So it's harder to balance on than the soft density.
And then you also might want to go
to a six-inch round roller, which is also more difficult
because now of course it doesn't have a flat bottom,
and it will roll more easily.
And the hardest one to do is a three-inch diameter,
which you use, right, Christina?
- [Christina] I use that one. - Yeah, she uses this at home.
She lies on this. This is three-inch diameter.
And the idea is it's more site specific on the spine.
So, we have it right on the spine as processes,
which are encouraging the spine to lengthen more
as we get more sight specific.
Now, one of the things that can happen in this exercise
is some people will get muscle cramping.
And so what we might wanna do,
or you might wanna do when you start out
if you're getting cramping
is this is a eight-inch diameter roller that I use a lot
with my patient population for different things.
But this, now she picks up her leg
and keeps her knee in this position,
she doesn't have as much knee bend,
and she's less likely to have cramping in her legs
if we support the legs.
So that's a demonstration
of the exercises on the foam roller.
So, what I'm gonna do is take this out now.
I'm gonna have her turn on her side,
and we're gonna take the roller out
and lie back on your back.
And you can lengthen out your legs if you want to,
or you can keep them bent.
And then I usually let people just sort of, (clears throat)
I call it just resting and integrating
what you've done with your body so far with the exercises.
So, that's a demonstration of those exercise.
and thank you for watching.
And thank you for coming here
and doing this for us, Christina.
- Thank you, Sara.
(upbeat music)