♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
(upbeat music)
- Hi folks, I'm Bob Schrupp physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck physical therapist.
- Together we are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- In our opinion, of course Bob.
- Today we're talking about how to fix tight hamstrings
without static stretches.
These are more effective, I think
the method we're gonna advocate.
- Right Bob, this really kinda gets right to me
and I'll talk about it a little bit,
as soon as we get into it.
But this is a fascinating subject on how
to really work things well.
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- No.
- Okay.
- But it doesn't matter.
- Okay.
Okay, let's go on.
Hamstring flexibility is, at one point in my life
was one of the nearest and dearest things to me,
because I was in karate.
And if you could kick head level or above,
you were just feeling like a champion, you're a rock star.
And you had to have extremely loose hamstrings
to do a front kick at that level.
- Sure.
- So, and people were successful at all the time
in our in our studio.
- Despite their age?
- Right and then I got into physical therapy,
and they said, "If you wanna stretch,
"you need static stretching, hold it for 30 seconds."
And I'm thinking, we never stretched our hamstrings
for 30 seconds.
So we did really well and plus,
I don't have the patience to hold for 30 seconds,
so I didn't like that idea anyways.
Anyways, so--
- We're gonna show you a different way to stretch.
- Some options and successful options.
It's anecdotally from my experience,
but a lot of experience between myself
and all the people that stretched.
That you can stretch and relax
and release your hamstrings without static stretching--
- You got a listing of an article there too Brad.
- I do, so I got some science too behind it.
In September 2018,
National Strength and Conditioning Association
released this article, I'm not gonna go through in detail,
but the bottom line was negative performance issues
related to static stretching.
It's like wow.
- So it actually was not even it's not only not helpful,
it's harmful?
- Well, they didn't say it wasn't helpful.
You could still do it, but it wasn't, you know,
it could be harmful to athletes
getting their peak performance.
- Sure.
- So anyways, how do you stretch those hamstrings
and how did it work for myself as far as other ones
other people.
- Okay.
- Bob, come over here once.
- Oh, I thought we're gonna do this one first.
- Well okay, let's do that one first.
The number one way to do, number one option
not the number one way,
but the first option is you can go up to an area like this.
Knees straight, back straight and hold and relax.
Hold, breathe, this is a big thing about stretching
if you don't breathe properly and relax,
the muscles are never gonna stretch.
And in karate you always think about breathing.
It's just pounded into you.
- Yeah big part of it.
- Right, so this is one option, okay.
Laying down on your back with a stretch out strap
really works well too
- This is the stretch easy, by the way.
- Stretch easy, yes.
- Yep and what's nice about it is
you actually stretch your foot a little bit too
at the same time.
- Right.
- And it works real well because it hooks onto your foot,
and holds onto it.
- Right.
- It doesn't--
- You don't have to have one of these.
You could use a belt, you could use a sheet or a towel.
Anything that goes around, the knee must be straight.
And this works well because you can relax laying down.
Now if Bob was really doing this, he needs to get a pillow
for his head so he can--
- But the thing about this Brad,
we're not doing a static stretch here.
This is where we're going into contract, relax, right?
- Right.
- So what we're gonna do is we're just gonna bring it up
to the point where you start to feel resistance.
And now I'm gonna actually push down like this,
I'm not gonna let it go down.
- Right.
- But I'm gonna push, that's what I'm doing here,
if I would allow it.
- Yep.
- So I'm gonna push down, but you see I'm holding it
and then I go further.
- Right.
- And then I push down and then I go further.
Then I go push down and I keep going further.
- And we always go about 10 second a 10 second push
or count of 10 push.
- Okay, push.
- And then pull for approximately 10 seconds.
- Sure.
- And we did that three times.
But you know, you could vary that a little bit.
- Yeah, and this is where the stretch out strap is
to be really nice or to the stretch easy or easy stretch
because, one of the three, all right.
Because you really can hook it through your wrist here.
And it's easy, it doesn't take much work.
- Yeah, it really helps.
Now you can do with a partner and a partner can hold here--
- Sure
- And we used to do this quite a bit too
cause in karate class you had partners to work with.
- Sure.
- And then you could, instead of using the easy,
can you let go Bob?
- Sure.
- He's gonna push into me and I'm gonna hold
with my shoulder and it's easy for me.
And then we'll do the contract.
And then as he relaxes, that's when you push forward.
But if you're working with a partner,
make sure you respect the person wants
cause you could injure a hamstring, tear it even
if you get aggressive with that--
- My leg as long as you are.
- I know Bob that's a heck of a leg.
Now, there's another way to do this contract, relax
and this is the way, we did it very commonly was standing.
So I'm gonna put my leg up like here,
my knee is gonna be straight my back is up against the wall,
I've got good posture because the wall is there.
And I'm gonna be completely relaxed
and now I'm gonna push down 1001, 1002,
I'm gonna count up to 10.
And then I'm gonna completely relax and Bob's gonna lift.
And I say, "Hold."
Then I'm gonna repeat it, I'm not gonna go through
the whole thing, but do this at least three times.
Now, this is where I started
when I was a white belt in karate.
After about six months, I don't know exactly,
but it was more than a half a year,
I could literally get my toe to touch the wall behind me.
- Crazy.
- And I wasn't the only one, there was a lot of us
who could do that, but we worked at it pretty aggressively,
more than the average person.
I was, you know, I didn't have a family at the time.
I worked, I did karate, that was my life.
- Sure, that was your life.
- And that was kind of a badge of honor,
if you could get your toe--
- Let's do it right now, what do you say folks.
Lets do it right now.
- Yeah, then we'll go to the ER--
- Yeah right.
- Re-attach my hamstring.
- Yeah.
- So that's another effective way to do it.
You have to have a partner with this way though.
Okay Bob, that's good.
I am amazed how tight I am now compared to 30 years ago.
And now the other way, and this was always done in karate
is a dynamic stretch.
- A dynamic stretch is good.
- Right, was there another term for this?
I thought there was, a technical term.
- I don't remember, I do know that they do these
in basketball a lot now, like my son did it,
he's into basketball.
- Sure.
- They'd be doing them on the court.
- And it's we call, I call it in therapy,
a straight leg raise.
And the reason you have to keep the knees straight,
so you isolate the hamstring stretch,
and as I go up here, the hamstring is stretching
and then we go back down.
And with this breathing is absolutely critical too
as you bring the leg up, you're gonna breathe out
and bring it come down, you're gonna breathe in.
I recommend this only for athletes.
If you just wanna get your hamstring stretched out
you're not an athlete, really doing some you know,
I'm talking--
- Yeah the--
- Football, basketball, tennis.
- Exactly anything where you need explosive action.
- Right?
- And to be honest you don't want to over stretch
your hamstrings before events.
- Sure.
- You actually want them to be a little bit tight.
Cause you jump further.
- Sure.
- I ran to this anecdotally,
but I have now seen studies on it.
When I was a kid, I was a long jumper
and I always had a big meet,
so I stretched and I stretched and I stretched.
I did the worst jump I've ever done.
I mean, you want them a little bit tight.
- Sure.
- You know to give the spring.
- Yep, I don't know if that would be true in karate
when you're aspiring because--
- Its not true in karate because you want all the strength
that's coming from like the quad right?
And the hip flexor.
- Well, perhaps in this kick.
- Yeah.
- But anyways, so this one again,
the whole point is don't only do it
if you're an athletic person,
cause you don't wanna, you could injure your hamstring
if you overdo it.
But we're just doing straight leg raise.
So it's a dynamic stretch and you can feel them stretch
as you do this.
I'm not gonna get too carried away.
- You wanna warm up slowly and you wanna make sure
the muscles are warm while you're doing this.
- Exactly, that's a good point.
You're gonna do your jumping jacks.
- Yeah, right.
- And have already stretched.
- A little bit of sprinting.
- Right, we would warm up,
we would do all of our group stretches
and we'd always finish--
- With the dynamic.
- With the dynamic stretching.
- Sure.
- Completely warmed up, it's the final stretch,
and then we'd start sparring
and see if we could kick each other in the head.
- Sure, that sounds like a friendly environment.
- No we'd never make contact.
(jovial laughing)
So anyways, there's some really good cues and tips
on how to just elongate--
- You don't make contact?
- You don't try to Bob.
- Yeah, but it must happen at times--
- Oh yeah, I saw--
- And don't you have gear on?
- Yeah, I saw stars a couple times.
It's not fun getting kicked in the head Bob.
- Now we're starting to understand what happened.
(jovial laughing)
- It all make sense now.
- Thanks, everybody for watching.
Be cool out there.
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