♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
- Hi.
- Hi folks, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- And together we are the two most famous
physical therapists on internet.
- In our opinion, of course.
- Today, Brad, we're gonna talk about
the 10 best knee pain exercises ever created,
stretches and strengthening. - That's a big mouthful Bob.
- Yeah, that's a big, you know, promise.
But Brad and I have been doing this for,
combined, probably 50 some years now.
And you know, over all those years
we've kind of culled and picked out which ones
we thought were the best exercises
and you know, - Sure.
- And this is taking to account, Brad,
that your knee pain can be caused
by a lot of different things. So.
We're gonna show you some exercises, give them a try
and you can see which ones work for you.
- Right. And only use them if they clearly
give improvement, if they create pain you stop
and put that one off to the side.
- So hi to the folks on Facebook that are,
we're going live right now. - Sure enough.
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Cause we do these live events.
We do lots of fun things and we like to be light.
- Yeah. Back and forth. And, can they say
if they like me better than you Bob?
- Oh, I don't think they can. Sorry.
Anyway, first exercise, Brad, this is a technique.
If you are having something going on in the joint,
sometimes even a little bit of,
if you have a meniscus tear, even a cartilage tear,
sometimes this helps out. - Okay.
- Or if there's arthritis and there's, you know,
things flicking off and flaking off,
this actually can help somewhat. So.
- We're talking inside the joint,
not your skin. - Right.
So what you're gonna do, what you may not realize is
when the knee bends it also turns.
So that, when the knee is bending,
this bottom bone here is actually turning.
- Yeah. It rotates slightly. It's not,
it's not significant, but it's subtle, but it's important.
- So especially if you don't have
as much knee bend as you should have
and it feels like it's getting blocked somewhat,
after arthritis or after some injury,
what you can try, and this should be pain free,
by the way. - Sure.
- I don't want pain with this.
So I'm gonna actually, yeah. He's gonna grab on here.
I'm grabbing the lower part of the tibia here.
I mean the upper part of the tibia.
And I'm turning it, I'm turning it this way.
I'm turning it towards the other leg.
- So you kinda get a hold in the front.
That's the bony part.
You can do that. - I'm turning it.
- His thumbs are in the back behind him.
- Yep. And then as I turn,
I'm bending the knee. - Right.
- And I'm going back and forth
and I'm doing this turn the whole time.
I'm holding the turn the whole time.
Now again, this should not increase pain.
This should not cause more pain. It should sometimes
actually feel better. - Right.
- Then you know that you're doing the right thing.
- And you can bend it further,
then you're right on the money.
- Yeah.
- Less pain, more range of motion.
- And you can do two sets of 10 of those.
- Sure. - So,
another common problem that people have, Brad
is that they are having pain underneath the kneecap itself.
- Sure. - Underneath the patella.
So one thing you wanna do is you wanna stretch that kneecap.
- Okay. - So that it has more motion
and it's not grinding down under the bone as much.
- Right. - So.
- Basically we're doing a patella mobilization,
we call it. - That's right.
So you're gonna have to take a look at my ugly leg here,
but - Oh, it's not that ugly Bob.
- Oh, it is. - Yes it is.
It is pretty ugly. - It is that ugly yeah.
So Brad's gonna show on, we're gonna get
a little close up on Facebook and Lonnie's gonna
kind of go in on the camera there.
So the first thing you wanna do is, you know,
you're gonna make sure the leg is very relaxed.
You know, the quadricep, if it's not relaxed
you can't move that kneecap at all.
So you're gonna let it, support it on something.
And as you can see, I'm using my two thumbs
and I'm pushing down like this
and I'm pushing the kneecap down.
And for some people, this is kind of a
icky feeling, Brad. - Right.
- Which to say they don't like this.
- Yeah. You have to be relaxed and just let it go.
- And now I'm gonna take my other two fingers
and I'm pushing it up. So I'm pushing it towards me.
I'm giving it a stretch.
- Yeah. I think your hands are in the way
to see from this spot. There you go.
- So I'm stretching it this way.
- That's not lipstick on his knee there.
That's, I put that on. - Yeah, he put arrows there.
- So we know the direction we're moving it.
- And the final one is, I'm gonna go this way.
I dunno if Lonnie can see this or not,
but I'm gonna push the kneecap this way.
'Cause quite often it's tight
and it wants to go out, to the outside
and that's why it's giving you troubles.
So I'm gonna push the kneecap over this way.
You got any of that Lonnie?
She actually is smiling so I don't know what that means.
(Brad laughing)
- Bob you oughta see this from our view.
- These are stretches you can do a lot.
- Right. - I mean, these are,
especially if you're getting pain underneath the kneecap,
if you feel like grinding when you do that,
it's a good one to do.
- Now they call that a lateral release
if they do the surgery. So we're trying,
doing this could actually save you that
- Right, that surgery. - That surgery.
- Yeah. So if you have patella femoral syndrome,
that is what the, one of the things
you're gonna wanna do is that stretch.
All right the next one, Brad, is this,
this is a good one for people who have
maybe some arthritis in their knee.
and their knee doesn't straighten out
quite all the way. - Sure.
- It, you know, and what they have found,
Brad and Lonnie, is that if,
- What about the people out there?
- And subscribers, (Brad laughing)
if you actually increase the knee extension
a little bit even, it helps decrease the pain.
- Sure. - So,
even if it's a modest amount, so,
you can tell whether or not your knee
is not as straight as the other one is,
you would just put both legs up
and if one's down straight like this
and the other one's up a little bit,
you know that one needs work, cause
that one's not straightening as much as it should.
- Exactly. - So what you can do,
is you're actually gonna put it up on a stool like this
and you're gonna actually take both arms
and you can just go pressure on,
pressure off, pressure on, pressure off.
- Now they might be asking,
how much pressure Bob? Bob, tell us how much.
- Well, I don't want pain, but, you know,
you can bump into the pain a little bit.
- Right. So after repetitions,
after four or five, the pain should be reducing
and maybe a little more range,
then you know you're doing the right thing.
- Right. And I would do the first day,
I would only do 10 of these and see how it is the next day.
- Sure. - Or how you did that night.
I had one guy, that got a little too exuberant on this.
- Oh. - And he did like 30, 40.
And he was not even gonna come back to therapy.
- Yeah. - But.
- He overdid it. - He overdid it.
It was, he couldn't sleep that night.
Which means that he did something, you know.
- He actually, - He got things moving,
but he irritated things. - But in the end,
it did work for him by the way,
- Sure, okay.
- Just, it did work really quite well.
All right. Next one, Brad.
The same is true if the knee is not bending
as well as it should. - Sure, yep.
- We did that one, but you can also just do
a straight old lay down and do some of these,
pressure on, pressure off, pressure on, pressure off.
- And where you put your hands on this
can make a difference. Sometimes it's a little better
if you go up closer to the knee
and or sometimes down here, but,
- A little more leverage. - Do which way feels better
and it makes the knee move better with less pain.
- You can do that one in a chair too,
or on a higher bench like this.
You can put it up, if you can get your leg up there
and you can do a pressure on, this way too,
and pressure off. - Sure.
- Pressure on, pressure off.
- That's a nice one you can do into a stairwell.
- Sure. - If you got, specially if
there's arm rests or handles on both sides,
you know, what do you call those? The banisters.
- Railings? I don't know.
- Yeah. The railings. I lost it there, Bob.
- Oh, do you wanna show a quad stretch Brad?
- Sure. Yep. You know if you've got good balance,
you know, use something to hold onto
if you got a balance problem.
As long as you're capable of stretching like this,
those quadriceps will stretch really nice.
- If your quads are really tight,
they're gonna pull on that knee cap
and it's gonna grind it up some more.
So it's important that this is, you know,
you just stretch this muscle out.
- Right. If the knee's up like here,
it won't be stretching. You wanna bring it down here,
but not like this either. Good tall posture,
knee down, everything in line.
And then you're gonna feel,
those quads stretch right there.
- Yep. And you can actually do this laying down too.
You can do it laying flat on your stomach
but you can also do it this way, Brad.
You can bring your leg back like this.
You can lay on your side and this is an easy way to do it.
- This is a simple way to do it.
And here I can pull it back and give it a good stretch.
- Right, right. - So next one, Brad,
if you're having a lot of pain on the outside
of your knee. - Sure.
- And it might be coming from your IT band.
- Right, which is at a wide band down from here.
And it goes up to the muscle.
What's that muscle again called?
TFL? - TFL, that's right.
Tensor fasciae latae, there we go.
Good job, Brad. I blanked out on it for a minute.
And a good way to stretch that,
Brad, is just to actually lay down
and you can do this with a stretch out strap,
Brad but you can also just bring the leg up
and you're gonna bring it over to the side here.
And I'm now, that's stretching here
and you can hit different angles of the TFL,
of the IT band, attaching the TFL by how you move it.
- Right. So in other words, you're saying,
if you bring the leg up this way, further
or down this way, and normally,
I guess we're gonna have to remove the cupboard.
Cause your foot's sitting there.
You're gonna have to get cupboards removed at home.
That's okay. (Bob laughing)
- We don't mind, just tell your wife.
All right. Next one, Brad.
Hamstring and heel cord stretches.
You wanna show a hamstring stretch?
- You better believe it. My favorite one is,
I just simply like to go up to something about this height,
a stairwell's nice with a handrail. I remember it now.
And keep the back straight and just lean into it.
I'm getting good stretch right now.
Don't get all caught up in rounding your back
and trying to touch your nose
to your toes, your knee or whatever.
That's not what you want. Good posture.
Stretch it out. Are you gonna show that Bob?
- Yeah, I thought I would. - That is a nice tool.
- Yes. I think some of the, do you know that,
I think some dog collars and leashes are like this?
I think they have a thing and then
they have a lot of handles on them.
I think I've seen that. - Really?
- Yeah. But anyway, this is a stretch-out strap.
It's from old PTP and this works out
really well for doing hamstring stretches.
Cause you just put it on here,
and you can grab through the handles here
and it's just real easy to pull up
and get, and do a stretch, easy on your back.
- Sure. - And you can do.
- Keep the knee straight as you can
to emphasize hamstring stretching.
- And you can do contract, relax where you actually,
pull, push down, - Ready?
- Pull, push down. And as you relax,
you pull it up further. - Sure, yeah.
- So you push down, then relax, push down, relax.
So this is the contract and this is the relax.
- Yeah, and that will give you more
range of motion and more flexibility.
- How about a heel cord stretch Brad?
A lot of people don't realize the calf muscle
actually crosses over the knee too.
So you wanna make sure that you're doing that too, so.
- Right. So he's saying right here,
this, the gastroc goes up over the knee joint,
crosses the knee joint and we want
to keep that muscle loose as well.
This is my favorite way, although
a lot of people don't have an incline board.
- Are we catching that on Facebook?
- Oh yeah. Can they see it down there?
- [Bob] No. - No?
- [Bob] Okay. Now we do. - Oh, thanks Bob.
Now we got some, and I'm gonna keep
my knee straight till I get that gastroc muscle,
that does cross the knee and I can bend the knee.
If I don't have one of these, you know,
you can simply go against the wall
or a chair and stretch it like this.
It's a little more work. Doesn't work quite as well.
Oh Bob, you walked right in front of the camera.
- [Bob] I know, but I had to do this.
- Okay. Okay. So we're stretching there
and make sure you do both legs.
Otherwise you start walking in circles. Bob.
- [Bob] I'm just gonna say hi to Alexandra Hutchinson.
- Oh really? Well hello.
- [Bob] Yeah. Also Leanna Croll.
- All right. Well thanks for watching.
I hope you're enjoying this and maybe
learning something new and, yeah, we gotta.
This is a good, this is working out pretty well, Bob.
- All right. We gotta keep moving. Next one.
We're gonna do just a straight leg raise, Brad.
Now we're getting into strengthening.
- Sure. - So we're gonna lay down.
This is just a good universal strengthening
of the knee without really bending the knee
and putting stress on the knee.
This knee is bent, I'm strengthening this one.
And you can just go up and hold it for a count of 10.
And you know, after a while, you'll start to feel these.
- It looks easy, but you'll be amazed.
So you want to keep the knee fully extended here.
- And the toe pointing up, don't go out this way
or this way. - Exactly.
- And you can do some power ones too, Brad.
Finish up with some power ones
where you just, it's up and down.
- It's kind of like a plyometric that way
which is, you know, fancy exercising.
And it's important to have this knee up
and the foot. It really helps the low back
- When we get some of the young girls
who have patella femoral syndrome I tell them
they can do thousands of these if they want to.
I mean, that's how often you can do them.
I mean, you can do lots and lots of strengthening on these.
So Brad, do you wanna do a hamstring on the ball?
- Sure. Hamstring. Strengthening?
- Strengthening. Yeah. - Oh yeah.
(Brad grunting)
- Okay. - Brad's money's falling out.
- That's the tip for you, Bob.
- Yeah. - All right.
I'm gonna stop that from happening so you don't get anymore.
Okay. So hands here, lift the buttocks
up in the air and simply roll the ball towards you.
And that is a great deal of hamstring work
being done right now. If you can do 10, 20
of them like these without much problem,
to make it harder you can emphasize the right leg
by putting the left one across on the top.
And then make sure again, you do both sides.
So you walk in a straight line.
The right leg on top of the left.
And if you're really one of those
- [Bob] I'm saying hi to Alexandra Hutchinson
and also Fred C. Dobbs who thinks
we look like two old women.
- Fred does? - [Bob] Yeah.
- Well Fred, how could you say such a thing.
Anyways, let's do hamstring right here.
Oh that is really aggressive.
- [Bob] LH says hi. - Oh good. Hello.
So that's a great way to work
and focus on those hamstrings.
And I would do three sets of 10,
three sets of 20 of those,
depending on how aggressive you are.
- And I love doing those. Those are one of my favorite ones.
And last one we're gonna do, Brad,
is the ball on the wall, - The ball on the wall.
- Yeah. You can do shallow squats with those
and I'll go ahead and handle this Brad.
So you're - Yeah.
- Brad's gonna go on the wall.
- The ball on the wall. Back on the ball.
Feet shoulder width out in front of you.
Good posture. Not rounding forward,
shoulders back, head up, chin in
and all that type of thing. We're gonna go down
until our thighs are parallel with the floor.
If you're not able to go that far,
do not, just kind of make a short one
and build up to the deep one. Do not go down this deep.
- [Bob] Yeah. Now Alexandra Hutchinson was asking
if she's had pain in her meniscus
after having surgery years ago,
she could do these. She can do shallow ones of these.
- Okay. You know, pain free.
- [Bob] And straight leg raises too.
- Okay, perfect. Yeah. That's exactly
what we're looking for after surgery.
And these, if you wanna make them more difficult
for those people that are really strong,
you can cross over like this,
same as when we did the ball
on the hamstrings, laying down.
And again, you're gonna watch, do both sides
so that we keep walking straight line.
You can see, I cannot go down with one laying.
- [Bob] That's working hard, aren't you?
- Right. You can get really aggressive
with this particular exercise.
- [Bob] All right. Last comment, Chris Middleton Vawn
says she thinks we are great, Brad.
- Oh, thanks Chris. That's a wonderful comment.
We got one person out there that likes us anyways.
I hope she liked us on the Facebook thing.
- [Bob] All right, Brad. - I'm just gonna keep going.
- [Bob] Well, I think we can wrap it up here.
So, well, thanks everybody for watching.
And remember, Brad and I can fix just about anything.
- Except for that broken heart.
- [Bob] But we're working on it.
- Exactly right. We got some duct tape here.
We've got, we've got a lot of tools
that we're gonna keep working with.
Remember Thomas Edison he took
10,000 times to make that light bulb.
- [Bob] All right. Thanks Brad.