This article is a transcribed, edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in April 2025. For the original video, watch Walk Easier & Pain Free—Try This First!

Mike: Before you head out for your next walk, there are a couple of simple exercises you can do, which can help improve your mobility in your legs and reduce your pain.

Brad: That's right, it only takes a minute or two, and we're actually going to show you a couple of things that make a big difference, especially for seniors, but it is for all ages. And if you're 55 and older, I guess you're a senior; if you've joined AARP, otherwise it's 60 and over.

Mike: Otherwise, Medicare is 65. Before we get into the golden rule of walking and how to progress, we want to show you a couple of simple exercises you can try at home to prime your legs. And the first one, we're going to really focus on a very neglected muscle called the tibialis anterior.

Brad: Ooh.

Mike: Which is located kind of basically in your front shin area here.

Brad: Yeah, not the bone, but the muscle there.

Mike: So, in order to do this, you can do it a couple of different ways, but the primary way I like to do it is to stand against the wall, walk out a few feet as long as you feel stable. The further you are from the wall, the more challenging it'll become. My back is up against the wall, and then you're just going to lift your toes up towards your nose like this, going on my heels. And then back down.

Brad: Do that again. You can actually see his anterior tib muscle. Not very much.

Mike: It's huge!

Brad: Yeah, I see it bulging. But no, you can see some definition come out.

Mike: So, what you do is you can do 10 repetitions. We suggest working up to 30 repetitions total. You can do that however you want. If you want to do three sets of 10, two sets of 15, burn out all 30 at once, whatever works for you. But most people, especially as we age, do not use this muscle very often. So it's very important to strengthen it, and Ben Patrick taught us this one.

Brad: Right, and it actually does help stretch the muscle behind the calf muscle. So you're getting two exercises, or two stretches, in one movement. And I'd like to mention you can do it with your shoes on, and I would recommend using your shoes on. You can do it without, like I'm doing here. I'm just doing it that way because I'm really happy about my socks. See, Route 66. You know, people my age know Route 66 and the history behind it. So, you can put that in the comments. But the red part, you can see how this works.

Mike: This is an important exercise, especially if people don't really lift their foot up when they clear and they kind of drag their ankle. This, a lot of it comes from your hip, but also your ankle dorsiflexes, so it's a good way to strengthen it. Now, the next exercise we want to do is the opposite group. So we're going to work your calf muscles here. You can do this against the wall. I would recommend starting with both feet together. And, again, the further away you get, the more challenging it'll become. But you're just going to go up on your toes and then back down and try to control it nice and slow. Again, work up to 30 reps total, however you want to get there. If you're new to this, maybe just do 10 reps the first day because your calves might be sore the next day. If this seems way too easy for you, you can try varying it a little bit by having your knees bent while doing it. This works your other calf muscle called your soleus.

Mike: Or if you're stronger and younger, you can also just go on one leg and do it as well.

Brad: Boy, your calves are doing well. You must be really working out, Mike.

Mike: Well, all that running, it just works those calves.

Brad: There's one thing I really want to point out that's really important as far as your balance and walking is: when you do this one, think consciously about your toes. I want you to think about taking your toes and pushing them into the floor. So when you're going up your strengthening, not only your ankles, but your toe muscles, because toe muscles are so critical for balance. There's not a lot of muscle there, but it's really critical for balance and when you walk. So, keep that in mind. Get those toes working, going down into the floor.

Mike: So, those are the two most important exercises. You should try to prime your legs before going for a walk. However, many people, if they're not walking, want to talk about how to progress safely without injuring themselves.

Brad: Right, and I wanna say, even if you're not a walker, these are good exercises to do just on a daily basis to keep those ankles stretched out and strengthened to keep your mobility and balance at a premium.

Mike: I should mention, if you're more sedentary and standing and doing this seems unachievable, you can do them seated as well.

Brad: Right.

Mike: It's just a good way to do some ankle pumps or even lying down, but you're not going to get as much resistance as you will with standing.

Brad: Right, and for some people, maybe you're just sedentary; you don't do a lot. Or you're recovering from, maybe you had the flu for the last week. Do 'em in a seated position like this and then progress back to that.

Mike: Now, when it comes to walking, the basic rule is to try to only do a 20% increase max per week. You don't have to do that much, but that would be the maximum amount. So we don't want you to say, "Oh, I walked two blocks my first week, and then the next week I walked a mile." That's way too much. So, you can either do distance, or you can do time. So, if I was doing time, we would say week one I did 10 minutes. Say you're going on a treadmill; week two, 20% more would just be 12 minutes. Week three would be 14 minutes, and so on and so forth. Obviously, you're not going to keep progressing because then you're going to end up doing a marathon, but.

Brad: And if you're not a math person or an engineer, you don't have anybody in your family that is an engineer, they work with numbers all the time. Just increase it, but not a lot. And set a goal. If you're going to go one block, if you go two blocks, that's double the amount. That's way too much. It's a block and just a little bit more across the street, actually, and then come back. So, just use good judgment as best you can. The big thing is not too much too soon and getting sore.

Mike: Now, if you miss a little bit of time, whether it's due to illness or weather conditions, don't just automatically think you can return to where you were. I've done this naively with running where I've, like, "I can run five miles," and I could run five miles, but I'll tell you what, the next day, my legs were ridiculously sore.

Brad: Yeah, it doesn't take long to lose your strength. If you built up to, say, 10 blocks and you were sick for a week, you didn't eat much or whatever goes along with the flu, etc., you're probably going to go back down to four blocks or even less before you get back up to that 10 blocks again. So, yeah, be cautious and careful with your body.

Mike: I think we hit all the tips for this video. Is there anything you want to mention?

Brad: No, I'm feeling pretty good.

Mike: Oh, well, that's good. If you want to check out more videos specifically on how to walk correctly, watch "Physical Therapist Shows How to Walk Correctly." We go much more in depth with heel striking and forefoot walking in that video.

Brad: Right, that's going to make a difference in how long your joints last. Or if you have painful joints already associated with arthritis, it can make your painful walking become less painful, and everything lasts better, works better, and whatnot.

Mike: It may even keep your shoes lasting longer, who knows?

Brad: All right, very good. That was a good job, Mike.

Mike: Well, thank you.

Brad: Take care, be careful, and once again, we can fix just about anything except for...

Mike: A broken heart.

Brad: There you go. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

Mike: We can fix your walking, though.

Brad: Take care, be careful.

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