♪ 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 therapists
on the internet.
- In our opinion, of course, Bob.
- This video is part of a series on plantar fasciitis.
This particular video is called
The Five Things Anyone With Plantar Fasciitis
Should Do Every Morning.
There's also a printout that you can find on our website.
- Sure.
- All right, the tell-tale signs of plantar fasciitis
is pain after rest.
And the reason for that is, the belief
is that there's tears that have occurred.
Yes, in the plantar fascia, and they start to heal,
they begin to half heal overnight
or when you're sittin' in your chair,
you stand up and start to walk
and it breaks them open again.
- Right.
- And the process has to start all over again.
- Overnight the fascia actually tightens up a little bit
with time, and then that quick stretch
when you put weight on it, it's painful.
- Yeah, and that's the sign that everybody mentions
when they have plantar fasciitis.
These are the five things you're going to want to do.
Two of them for sure, if you have a lot of time.
I should say three of them for sure, two of them
if you don't have time you can always--
- You're going have to set your alarm
for five minutes earlier. - Yeah, set your alarm.
So the first one is, so remember the plantar fascia
extends from the heel all the way up into the toes.
You want to stretch this before you even get out of bed.
So what you're gonna do, is you're gonna grab all the toes
kind of with your hand like this
and pull it forward like that.
So I'm bending the ankle, and I'm bending the toes,
and I'm stretching the fascia.
You can probably see that even.
Can you see that, Mike?
Yeah, you can probably see that the fascia's
being stretched that way.
So you know, I'm not sure
what I recommended on the sheet
for how many seconds to do this.
Why don't you look it up, Brad?
- [Brad] Okay.
- I'll go on, go ahead and do the next one.
Oh I'm sorry, I have it Brad, nevermind.
Five times and hold for 20 seconds.
Five times you're gonna do this,
hold for 20 seconds.
- Be gentle on the first one,
it might be painful. - Right.
Right, now, if you're in a chair and you've been sitting
for awhile, you're gonna wanna do the same thing.
You're gonna want to stretch it before you start walking.
- Right.
All right, the next one, Brad
you're gonna show the massage.
- So if you're in bed, you're just gonna--
- [Bob] You can do it a number of ways.
- Yeah, typically, probably the best way is just
bring your foot up like this
and, you know, as long as you can get in this position
and I'm gonna show what we call the splain
and you just thumbs together and then you spread out
like this and stretching the skin, you're really pushing in.
Can you get into that, Mike, and see what's going on?
- [Bob] If you can't do it laying down,
you can do it on the edge of the bed like I was doing it.
- Sure, yep.
- [Bob] And generally, the sore spot is right in here.
So, Brad's, often you want to work this area first
and if you can tolerate working this area,
but you may not even be able to handle that
the first couple times.
- So we go into the--
- [Bob] Yeah, more of a circular.
- I like to use my knuckles just because it's easier.
- [Bob] You can use your thumbs or your knuckles.
- It's like this, the thumb knuckle, you'll know
once you work it a little bit 'cause if you just go like
this that works too, but your fingers will get tired.
'Cause you gotta push in,
you gotta work the tissues under the skin.
Get into that fascia.
We wanna increase circulation, stretch it out.
All those things help the healing process.
- [Bob] Again, with time as a factor,
we usually say one to two minutes.
You can do it longer, obviously, but--
- Typically your hands or fingers will get tired.
- Right, Brad, while you're in that position,
do you want to go ahead and show the next one?
Now this, again, I'd like you to be doing this one
but if you can't do it every time,
you can't do it every time.
So go ahead and do a calf,
a calf stretch and a hamstring stretch
at the same time, basically, you can.
- You can use a belt, that's handy,
typically in the bedroom.
- Yep, look how he's going around the forefoot there.
- There we go and I'm stretching it.
- The calf, and he's stretching the hamstring there.
- And if I straighten my knee,
you even get a better hamstring.
And depending on your nerve loss,
you may get a little bit of a nerve stretch.
That's a different pain.
- [Bob] So 30 seconds to a minute.
Here's a towel, Brad, or a sheet might work better.
There you go.
- There we go.
- So you're gonna have to have these things, obviously,
by the bed before you even start.
Otherwise, you're gonna walk and you're gonna break it open
before you even, before the day's even started.
All right, next one, Brad, this is probably a better one
to do off the edge of the bed, would be, basically,
just to do the alphabet.
This is gonna warm your foot up, warm the ankle up.
Brad, you mentioned before, you take a,
it's like you've taped a marker to the big toe?
- Yeah, imagine you taped a sharpie or a piece of chalk
to your big toe and there's a blackboard,
whiteboard, whatever in front of your foot,
and you're gonna make a capital A.
Like you're drawing it, cross it, and then a B.
The only reason we do that is because you get
a complete range of motion with your foot
and it gives you something to think about.
It's just a really nice way to get
range of motion on the foot,
which does stretch that fascia a little more as well,
preparing it for,
and you're not gonna do the whole alphabet.
You'll probably get up to C or D or E or F.
- Warm it up a little bit.
All right, the final thing now.
The first two things we call them quick wins
because we try to come up with things that
give you the most benefit for the least amount of effort.
This number five is also a quick win.
Basically, before you get out of bed
you're gonna want to make sure you put some shoes on
or some slippers on.
Especially slippers with some good arch support.
- Right, not the flat ones that just have a little
fluff on there to keep your feet warm.
- Because, and this is even, people have asked,
"In the middle of the night?"
Yes, in the middle of the night.
Now, in the middle of the night, you're probably
not gonna do all the stretches,
but you can stretch it and actually break it open again
in the middle of the night and there you go,
you're behind already.
- It's nice to have a pair,
a nice slip-on slippers that are easy to put on.
- You could even take an old pair of tennis shoes that still
have pretty good arch support,
take the laces out of it and it'll be just easy to slide on,
and you're good to go.
I just had a patient right now, Brad,
that I've had to recommend this.
And this is the same that's true, again,
if you're working in your office,
or maybe even driving for two hours,
before you get out of your car make sure
you're gonna have good
arch support, but also, you might do the stretch before
you even get out of the car.
- You can do it with your shoe on.
- Yep, you can do it with your shoe on.
- Hopefully, you've got a flexible enough sole
that will allow the stretch.
- All right, if you want to watch the rest of the series
go to BobandBrad.com, it's under the plantar fascia,
free plantar fascia program.
- There you go.
- Thanks.
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