This article is a transcribed, edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in August 2024. For the original video, go to https://youtu.be/PJYGIlht6E4 Brad: All right, we're going to talk about the IT band and how to get rid of pain as a result of a tight IT band. Mike: We're going to go through three options that have been field tested by me, Bob, and patients we've had, and we're going to share them all with you. Brad: That's right, so get ready. We've got some good information today. We've decided to have Sam volunteer for a little anatomy lesson on the IT band. So the ileum is right here, and the green represents the IT band, which is a wide band. It is very thin, but very strong. Goes down to the side of the tibia and connects there. It helps stabilize your body, your pelvis when you walk, run, etc. Now it is important to realize that this IT band comes up and actually connects to muscle fibers up in the hip. Mike: So on the posterior side, your backside, it connects to your glute muscles, your glute medius, and your glute max, so your buttock muscles. In the front, it connects to your TFL. Brad: Tensor fascia latae. That's a smaller muscle toward the front of the hip. And knowing that is important. It can be helpful as well. Let's go to three nice stretches for this first. All right, the nice thing about having options to stretch this IT band is, it's different for different people. The first stretch is very comfortable and can be done lying down on the floor or in bed. Mike, go ahead and show it, and this actually is Bob's favorite way to stretch his TF, and take it away, Mike. I'm talking too much. Mike: You are. So the left leg is the one I'm going to be stretching here. I'm going to start by crossing over, putting my ankle in my knee. Then I'm going to let my knee fold down and relax. If you're feeling a stretch here, that's perfectly fine. Just stay here. For most people, they're probably going to feel okay if they have IT band syndrome. So what you're going to do is bring your other knee towards your chest, and this is going to start stretching a lot more. Just go to what is comfortable. You should feel a good pulling stretch. Breathe through it, relax, hold for 15 to 30 seconds, and you can repeat this two to three times. Brad: Very good. Nice, nice work, Mike. Now, this may not work for some people, or they may not tolerate it in their hip joint, or if you've had a hip replacement, but if you don't want to do it, one of the other ones will work out better for you. Mike: Now this next IT band stretch is the one I personally do. I actually got it from Athlean X. He's a physical therapist on YouTube, so I want to give credit where it's due. Now I do this at a countertop, so it's a little bit higher, and this is fairly aggressive, so if you feel like you can do it, give it a try. Otherwise, stick to the other ones. I'm going to be stretching my left IT band here. So I'm going to put my left side on the countertop. I'm going to kick my left leg out straight behind my right leg. As I go further out, I want to try to get my trunk as upright as I can, not feeling much stretch here. Once I drop that pelvis, get my trunk upright, I feel a really good stretch. Now, once I'm here, I like to kind of noodle around, maybe go backwards a little more, forward, wherever you feel the stretch. And I hold it here for roughly 30 seconds. Not going to lie, it's a little uncomfortable, but once I'm done, I feel really good. Brad: So this is something that you have actually done to increase your ability to run or even walk when you had a real tight problem? Mike: Yes, I do a lot of distance running, and I have had some IT band issues. Some of it was originally for my TFL. Now I feel it more in my glutes. But this stretch has really helped alleviate the issues I've had. Brad: And I think it's important for this bottom leg to stay straight and not flex that knee. Is that correct, Mike? Mike: Yep, so you want to have a nice straight leg. Again, 15, 30 seconds come back up. I just do it a couple of times periodically throughout the day because personally, I'd rather spread it out than do it all at once. Brad: There you go. Now the third one is aggressive, but not like this. So it's a good one, a good option between the three. It really mixes it up. Let's get to that. Okay, the third stretch can be done in a seated position in a chair, a firm chair, or in long sitting, which means you're sitting like Mike is. Now this stretch is actually brought to my attention by a person who did a lot of running, and his hip and knee, particularly the knee, became so painful, it was hard for him to even walk. He went to a therapist, showed him this specific exercise, and he said within two weeks, he was back to running pain-free. And he attributed it all to this exercise. In a seated position, if the left leg is involved with a tight IT band, you're going to go up like this. So the ankle is above the knee joint, grab here. Now we're not going to twist the back. We're going to bring the knee to the opposite shoulder. You can grab and pull with both hands. You're going to hold 15 to 30 seconds. Make sure you breathe and relax. You're not going, aah, holding your breath. Nice, relax, stretch. Stretching is always better when you're relaxed and breathing deeply. Mike, you want to talk about that position? Mike: Same concept, I'm going to cross over. So my ankle's roughly going to go around my knee joint. I'm going to pull this side towards my right shoulder here. Again, I'm not twisting or turning. I need an arm for support so I can stay in this position like this. And again, just breathe, and you should feel a good pull. Brad: I'm going to show a nice option to make sure you don't twist. Just simply sit down back against the wall here. And this can be a really nice way to ensure you have good, proper mechanics. I feel that nicely in there. Brad: All right, I have to do the other leg just to balance myself. Okay, we do have one more thing that I mentioned earlier in the video, and that's to address those tight, knotted muscles, if that's part of the problem, up in the hip. Okay, now we're going to talk about, as I mentioned earlier, addressing the tight muscles that connect directly to the IT band in the hip area. A massage gun works very well. I have a family member who uses this on her tight IT band, and it works very well. So I would use nothing larger than a gun this size or a smaller gun, like Mike has, they call them the minis. This is the C2, and that's our? Mike: This is the AIR2, and that's the C2 Pro . Brad: Oh, thank you. So I would start out, if you just start with a round head or the air head, which we have supplied with all of ours. I'll show you lying down, where I would start. This is comfortable. Mike has much more experience with his. He'll tell you about a more advanced method. I like to expose the glute maximus, and I'll get in with this round head, and I'll work this, either straight in. If that's too aggressive, work it at an angle. That's the big advantage of using the round head. You're going to work that muscle. It should feel good. If you hit a tender spot and it hurts, stay away from that. You can work it to the side, get in that glute medius, and then even the TFL, which is about where you put your hand in your pocket, more in the front. Just make sure you didn't get into your femoral crease, because you do have some lymph nodes there. You do not want to massage lymph nodes. I would spend at least three to five minutes working. That should feel good. And after you get done, you should feel those muscles relaxed. Mike, talk about how you do it. Mike: So you can do this in a standing position. I've done it lying down, I've done it seated wherever I am. Personally, the round head is good, especially for beginners or if you're over the bony areas. Once you feel more advanced, I like the trigger point massage head. Brad: I call it the bullet head. Mike: The bullet head, and pick whichever area. Don't go directly on the bone with this. It'll feel very uncomfortable. For some people, the TFL region will be enough. If I'm doing that, I actually kind of like to stand up, get it in a little bit of a stretch position because I can get it a little easier, and I'll massage that region in the front of my hip. If I'm targeting my glutes, just find the area where I find that trigger point. If I'm up here, I don't notice much. If I get down here behind the femur region, I really start to feel that. For this one, I kind of do what Brad does and stretch a little bit, and then I really feel that. So this is what I like to do if I'm a little painful in the region, just get some nice blood flow and get the fashion moving around. And usually afterwards, I feel pretty good. Brad: Now, some people ask, can't we massage right on the IT band itself? And you can. You can try and see how it goes. But you have to be careful because right below that is your femur. There's not a lot of muscle on the side. I would use the round head or the airhead. You can do that as long as it feels good and it feels good during and afterwards. Brad: So I think now all three of these have been field-tested. We've got testimonies on them with great success. I would highly recommend working with these and having good success. Mike, is there something else we have? Mike: If you're still having some hip pain and you're not sure if it's actually IT band, you can check out our video " STOP HIP Pain; Best 5 Stretches For Over 55 ." These are five hip stretches to stop your pain. For this week’s Giveaway, visit :  https://bobandbrad.com/giveaways Bob and Brad’s Products Pain Management: A2 Pro Massage Gun A7 Pro Massage Gun with Heat and Cold Therapy Back Massager C2 Massage Gun (US) C2 Pro Massage Gun with Heat and Cold Therapy C2 Plus Massage Gun with Heat C2 Max Massage Gun with Metal Head D5 Pro Massage Gun D6 Pro Massage Gun D6 Plus Massage Gun with Heated Head D6 Pro Max Massage Gun with Metal Head EyeOasis 2 Eye Massager EyeOasis 2 Plus Eye Massager with Remote EyeOasis 3 Eye Massager Eye Massager with Heating and Cooling EZBack Massager   EZBack Massager With Remote Fit Glide Foot Massager G100 Pro Vibration Therapy Massager Hand Massager HandSpa Pro Hand Massager Holy Cowabunga Cream   iNeck Pro Neck and Shoulder Massager Knee Glide   Lite Foot Massager M7 Plus Mini Massage Gun with Heat Therapy Posture Pad Q2 Mini Massage Gun (US) Q2 Pro Massage Gun with Heat and Cold Head Q2 Plus Mini Massage Gun  Q2 Max Massage Gun with Metal Head sWAVE Massage Gun with Belt T2 Massage Gun  T2 Pro Massage Gun with Heat and Cold Head T2 Pro Max Massage Gun with Metal Head TheraPanel 4 -Headed Massage Gun Weighted Heating Pad for Back Weighted Heating Pad For Neck and Shoulders Weighted Heating Pad-Long X6 Massage Gun with Stainless Steel Head X6 Pro Max Massage with Heat-Cold and Metal Head Zero Pro Eye Massager with Heating and Cooling Fitness: Hanging Handles​ Hand Grip Strengthener Kit   Pull Up System Resistance Bands​   Wall Anchor​ Stretching: Booyah Stik   Stretch Strap Bob & Brad Amazon Store   and other products Bob and Brad Love Check out our shirts, mugs, bags, and more in our Bob and Brad merchandise shop Medical Disclaimer: All information, content, and material on this website are for informational purposes only and are not intended to serve as a substitute for the consultation, diagnosis, and/or medical treatment of a qualified physician or healthcare provider. Affiliate Disclaimer: Keep in mind that we may receive commissions when you click our links and make purchases. However, this does not impact our reviews and comparisons. We are highly selective in our products and try our best to keep things fair and balanced to help you make the best choice for you.

This article is a transcribed, edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in August 2024. For the original video, go to https://youtu.be/jEPvQ2ZRB8U Brad: All right, we're going to talk about hip stretches today. Now, general stretches for the hip are good for mobility, but if you really want to stop pain and get to the cause, you need to focus those stretches. Mike: So we're going to show you five different stretches that target different muscle groups within the hip, and some are going to be more for beginners, and others advanced. Brad: There you go. Let's get to it, Mike. All right, now the best way to follow along, so you know what's best for you, is to do the stretches with us and see how your body responds to it. Go through all of them, and you'll clearly find out there's probably one or two that'll hit the right muscle groups that are tight on you, and we'll help you out. Mike: So keep doing the ones that work for you each day, and try them all out, like Brad said, because you don't know which one's going to work, and we'll kind of explain what muscles are being stretched with each. Brad: Right, right. That's kind of what I said. All right, number one, this is my favorite that I do on a regular basis. I call it the seated clamshell. Now, if you haven't done this before, you're going to do it the way Mike is doing it. And then I'll show you the more advanced way that I do it on a regular basis. This can be done on the floor, carpeted floor, or even on the bed. I prefer the floor myself. Mike: So first, what you want to do is cross your legs. If you're new to this or have really tight hips, your knees may be up here. The goal is to try to get them to relax over time and go down towards the floor. This would be the beginner phase. Again, I have a nice, upright posture. If this feels tight early on, you may have to lean back a little bit and then get your legs down, and eventually, over time, try to bring your trunk forward. Brad: Right. Now, that may take some time to get to. If you're already flexible enough, and that's easy, same thing, except put your feet with your soles together, and I start out, I grab my feet, and I pull them in towards my hips, and then at that point, I relax. I may do a little gentle bouncing with my knees, that's up to you, or I'll grab my ankles and I use my elbows, sit up tall, and then I'm pressing down. It's stretching those hip adductor muscles, getting those hips to spread out and relax, and it's really important, no matter which one you're doing, you need to be relaxed and breathe deeply. Mike: Roughly hold them for 15 to 30 seconds. You can do it two to three times if it feels good. Brad: You bet. Very good. All right, now, the next one is a little more advanced, so we'll get to that in a second. I need to change position. Mike: Now, for this next stretch, you're going to be stretching the exact same muscle group, but it's going to be more advanced. You're going to stretch your inner groin muscles, and you're going to be going into kind of an external rotation or abduction range. Brad: Right, it does come at these muscles at a little bit different angle. You'll feel a little difference, but you're going to use the wall, and then with this, I recommend you have shoes on so you get a little grip on the wall. Make sure they're clean so you don't smudge up the paint on the wall. Now, you're gonna go about like this, 90-degree bend in the knees and the hip. You can adjust how close you get your hips to the wall is going to change the stretch a little bit. You have to experiment with what feels best for you, and then I'm going to go at this position. Now, also, where my feet are positioned on the wall, we can start with them together and do a stretch here that's not very aggressive, or you can get out a little farther, and this is the way I'd like to do it right about here, and then I'll go here, and I'll push out and get that stretch, and then after it feels good there, I'll go in a little tighter, maybe go out a little bit more. Brad: Now, if you're one of those personalities that really thinks, if it hurts a little bit, we should make it hurt a little bit more, don't have that. Change your personality. These stretches should be gentle, comfortable stretches, but we are not creating any pain. No sharp pain for sure. Just relax. Mike: We should mention that Brad's tall angles will come into play as well, so if you turn your toes more in or out, it's going to adjust how the stretch feels, so you can play with that as well. Brad: Good point, Mike. Thank you. My body actually feels comfortable like this. Brad: If I point my toes up, ooh, that definitely changes it. Excellent point, Mike. There we go. I'm feeling better already. Mike: So this next stretch, we're going to work on your hip rotators. You can do this in bed or on the floor, like Brad'll show. Again, I'll kind of start for the beginners. Brad'll show how to progress this. If you're really tight, I'm going to stretch my left leg here, simply crossing on an ankle for someone may be too much. If this seems easy, slowly bring your ankle up your shin, and try to eventually get over your knee at least. Once you can comfortably get into this position, lift your right leg up, and we're making what we call a figure four stretch. Some people, this may be enough progression, and this is where they stay, but Brad, you want to show how to advance this? Brad: Sure, at this point, you can put your hand on your knee and push it away from you. Again, the same rules apply: relax, breathe. No sharp pain should be experienced. If it is, you're going to aggressively and back off, so at this point, like I'm getting here, that's about as far as most people will get, and then you can see, both Mike and I'll do this together. So you see two different angles. I'm going to pull the opposite foot off the bed or the floor. You can reach under the knee and give it a little extra stretch. You'll really feel this. Brad: I personally feel this is right down in the buttocks. It does get that IT band if you want to work with that as well. Deep breathe and relax, and again, you should do this on both sides. You probably will feel one hip is tighter than the other. Spend a little more time on the tight one. Mike: Again, with all these stretches, 15, 30 seconds, two to three times, and try them all out. Brad: Yeah. Mike: We still have two more to go, though. Brad: Yeah, I would say don't get more aggressive on the tight side, just spend a little more time on it. It's different. All right, now that stretch actually segues into this stretch. That one does a little IT band. This focuses more on the IT band by far, and the hip adductor, the hip gluteus medius. Okay, you can use a wall. Mike is going to show a more aggressive technique in just a second. I'm going to stretch my right side. The IT band goes right where that stripe is. I'm going to bring my leg a foot or a couple of feet from the side, and I'm going to lean in like this. I like to put my forearm against the wall, and then I can get a little more aggressive simply by doing this. Brad: Don't get all flexed over. That's not going to be nearly as good as an up tall posture. I put my hand here and think about just relaxing, just stretch in, and again, 15 to 30 seconds. If you haven't done it before, 10 to 15 is probably a great way to start, and again, do both sides. Mike, how about that more aggressively? Mike: So I typically do these at a countertop, something a little taller than this, so I'm gonna be stretching my left leg here. I'm going to kick it out behind me, I'm going to put my elbow on the countertop, and then try to get as upright as you can, letting my hips sink down, and you may have to push your leg out a little more, and you're going to feel a stretch in your IT band, but you're also going to get your pelvis and your oblique muscles over here, your low back. It kind of stretches that whole chain. Mike: Again, you can hold this for roughly 30 seconds. Make sure to do both sides. For the other side, you're going to have to switch directions. Brad: Now, you can tell Mike is very relaxed with this. He can talk comfortably, and that's how you should be able to do it, too. Take your time with it, get a feel for it. Probably the first time you do it, you're not going to be nearly as aggressive as Mike is. Doesn't this used to, or does it still help with your running? Mike: Yeah, it helps with my IT band. My left side is tighter than my right. My right feels pretty good, but when I'm here, I kind of like to noodle around. You can feel different kinks and aches and pulls in different ways if you just kind of fidget in the area. Brad: That's noodling, huh? Mike: Noodling, that's a Kelly Starrett term. Brad: Right, noodle. So we do noodle here. Mike: So for this last stretch, we're going to actually stretch both hips, and you're going to kind of get into a lunge. You're going to need some stairs, preferably with two railings. Ours is just off for filming's sake. For beginners, you're going to want to start on the bottom step. If this feels easy, you can certainly work your way up to new heights, literally and figuratively. So when you're getting into this position, I'm going to start going forward. I'm stretching my hip flexor on my back leg here because it's going back into hip extension. My right leg is going into flexion. I'm kind of stretching my glutes a little bit and my knees as well, so you're just going to kind of oscillate in this spot. You can kind of rock back and forth. When you're here and you're not feeling much of a stretch, try to squeeze your glutes together. You're really going to feel more of a hip flexor stretch on that side. If I don't engage my glutes, look how much more forward I can get. I engage my glutes. I feel a good pull about right here, and once you're here, you can kind of noodle around a little bit, too. Mike: Say your front hip is feeling a little tight; this can kind of loosen things up. Make sure, when you do one leg, to do the other. You may notice one hip can get higher up than the other, too, so maybe focus on that side a little bit more. Brad: Good. Can I show one little trick that helps me out? Mike: I suppose. Brad: And one thing that Mike did a really good job on, I just want to emphasize, he kept his back up like this to stretch that hip flexor as he pulled, leaning forward. Once that's done, and I want to get even more aggressive on this hip, and it's really not aggressive, it just gets different parts of the hip, I'll lean into it, and actually, that noodling term comes again, and I'll work this, and it actually feels good if it hurts or gets a clunk in there. Brad: Maybe it's not for you, but if it feels like, oh, this is a really good feeling on that hip while you're doing it as well as you get done and you're walking around, then you got the green light to do that one a little more. It may be that one side needs it and the other side doesn't. So that was it, five stretches, all kinds of customized for you, so you feel good about it. Mike, what else do you have to say? Mike: So we want to talk about some other things. If you're still having some tight muscles and you can't get them fixed with stretching or exercises, we have another solution you can try. Brad: Really? Mike: Yeah. Brad: Oh, good. Now, when it comes to the hip, you have a lot of muscle mass from the glute max, one of your largest muscles in the body, to the front all the way around, and this is something I personally like to use a massage gun to get into those muscles, massage them, get them relaxed, and then you can do the stretch. It's a good way to work it. As far as what size gun a person should use, if you're a larger person with a lot of muscle or soft tissue to get through, you can use a gun. This is one of our bigger guns. What is it, the X Max? Mike: That's the X6 Pro Max . Brad: X6 Pro Max, and it's max because it actually has a head that either goes hot or cold, two different settings. It's very nice, or if you're a smaller person and don't want so much power, this is an excellent option. Mike: This is the Q2. They come in a variety of colors. They have three settings. Pretty simple to use, not as aggressive. Obviously, the cost is going to be a little bit less, being less aggressive, but they all come with a carrying case, five different heads, they're rechargeable, and they come with a two-year warranty on our website. Brad: That's right. For your hip, I would use either the hot-cold head, that's if you want the heat or the cold, or the round head, or the air head, which is soft. I would start out with one of these first and then go to the hot or the cold. I personally do mine lying down with my leg crossed over like this, and I'll work that here, and that really helps for me on my SI joint, which is part of the hip, and I'll work with that, not with the hot-cold head. That's a little bit too strong, because you have a lot of bone in that area, but with a softer head, and you can work it here. You can work it wherever it feels good, get down to the hamstrings, the calf, or the thigh, even the calf. Brad: One place you do not want to go is work into the femoral crease, which is right in here. There are actually some lymph nodes in there, and you do not want to massage lymph nodes. It's not good for you; it's a bad thing, so stay away from the femoral crease. Mike: We also have one more option when it comes to heating and cooling we'll talk about in a second. Brad: Oh, really? More steps. Mike: Yeah, you wrote it on there! Brad: That's right. Mike: Now, another option to help loosen up some of your hip muscles before you stretch is using some heat. You could certainly just take a hot shower, bath, or use a hot tub, sauna, all of which are great options. If you happen to have a heating pad, that is also a good option. This is the Bob and Brad heating pad . You can use it on numerous body parts. You can actually wear it on your back, but you could take it anywhere, place it on your hip, run it for 10, 20 minutes, and then do your stretches, and things will really loosen up. Brad: Right, I have had some patients use that while they're in the recliner, relaxing, watching TV, doing that, so you're getting a little entertainment with a nice, warm hot pack. Again, use whatever you can: shower, bath, stretch out afterwards. Mike: So if you want to check out more videos on hip pain specifically, watch " Extreme Hip Pain Gone INSTANTLY ." Brad: There you go. Good luck with your hips. For this week’s Giveaway, visit :  https://bobandbrad.com/giveaways Bob and Brad’s Products Pain Management: A2 Pro Massage Gun A7 Pro Massage Gun with Heat and Cold Therapy Back Massager C2 Massage Gun (US) C2 Pro Massage Gun with Heat and Cold Therapy C2 Plus Massage Gun with Heat C2 Max Massage Gun with Metal Head D5 Pro Massage Gun D6 Pro Massage Gun D6 Plus Massage Gun with Heated Head D6 Pro Max Massage Gun with Metal Head EyeOasis 2 Eye Massager EyeOasis 2 Plus Eye Massager with Remote EyeOasis 3 Eye Massager Eye Massager with Heating and Cooling EZBack Massager   EZBack Massager With Remote Fit Glide Foot Massager G100 Pro Vibration Therapy Massager Hand Massager HandSpa Pro Hand Massager Holy Cowabunga Cream   iNeck Pro Neck and Shoulder Massager Knee Glide   Lite Foot Massager M7 Plus Mini Massage Gun with Heat Therapy Posture Pad Q2 Mini Massage Gun (US) Q2 Pro Massage Gun with Heat and Cold Head Q2 Plus Mini Massage Gun  Q2 Max Massage Gun with Metal Head sWAVE Massage Gun with Belt T2 Massage Gun  T2 Pro Massage Gun with Heat and Cold Head T2 Pro Max Massage Gun with Metal Head TheraHeat Heated Knee Brace TheraPanel 4 -Headed Massage Gun Weighted Heating Pad for Back Weighted Heating Pad For Neck and Shoulders Weighted Heating Pad-Long X6 Massage Gun with Stainless Steel Head X6 Pro Max Massage with Heat-Cold and Metal Head Zero Pro Eye Massager with Heating and Cooling Fitness: Hanging Handles​ Hand Grip Strengthener Kit   Pull Up System Resistance Bands​   Wall Anchor​ Stretching: Booyah Stik   Stretch Strap Bob & Brad Amazon Store   and other products Bob and Brad Love Check out our shirts, mugs, bags, and more in our Bob and Brad merchandise shop Medical Disclaimer: All information, content, and material on this website are for informational purposes only and are not intended to serve as a substitute for the consultation, diagnosis, and/or medical treatment of a qualified physician or healthcare provider. Affiliate Disclaimer: Keep in mind that we may receive commissions when you click our links and make purchases. However, this does not impact our reviews and comparisons. We are highly selective in our products and try our best to keep things fair and balanced to help you make the best choice for you.

We will provide some suggestions on how you can treat knee bursitis at home. But the first question that needs to be answered is “When do you need to see a doctor for knee bursitis?” When you have bursitis, we highly suggest seeing a physician to rule out infection, fracture, or autoimmune disease. Infection can be more likely if there is a break or abrasion on the skin over the swollen area on the knee. Also, if you have a knee replacement, you will want to see the doctor. Once you have seen a doctor and it has been determined you do not have an infection but rather some form of knee bursitis, you may proceed as follows. For the first 24-48 hours, apply ice to the knee. To prevent ice burn, place a damp towel between the icepack and your skin. Apply the ice pack for 15-20 minutes to the hip every 3 hours (if able). Limit icing sessions to 15-20 minutes to avoid causing tissue damage or irritation to the skin. If your physician approves, you might also take an anti-inflammatory medication such as Ibuprofen. You can purchase an ice pack or use a bag of frozen vegetables from your freezer. You can make your own cold pack with two-gallon freezer bags, a cup of rubbing alcohol, and 4 cups of water. Put the four cups of water and one cup of rubbing alcohol into one of the freezer bags. Get the excess air out. Place the bag inside the second gallon freezer bag and freeze for several hours. It makes a nice pliable cold pack. Avoid activities that irritate the bursa of the knee. Prolonged kneeling, repetitive activities (walking, biking, running). If it hurts, do not do it. Infected - Goosefoot or pes anserine Suggested exercises: 1. Knee range of motion - bend and extend the leg every half hour if pain-free. If painful, use the opposite leg to assist. 2. Stretch calf muscles 3. Stretch hamstring muscles 4. Stretch quadricep muscles 5. Stretch hip adductors. Strengthening Exercises: 1. Straight leg raises. 2. Hip abduction (side lying) 3. Hip adduction (side lying) 4. Hip extension (2 is Glute Max Isolation) 5. Isometric quadricep over two pillows or folded pillows 6. Isometric hamstring strengthening (heel into floor). Massage: Sometimes a bursa gets stuck down with adhesions. This is sometimes the case with the suprapatellar pouch or bursa. Try mobilization with massage or mobilization with a ball or gun. If the pain increases and increases, stop. But after 30-60 seconds, if the pain stabilizes or even improves, you may continue. Check out the full Knee Pain Relief Program series of videos, along with downloadable guide sheets, here: https://www.bobandbrad.com/health-programs/knee-pain-relief-program

This article is a transcribed, edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in August 2024. For the original video, go to https://youtu.be/EUmKx5V19vc Mike: Are you finding that your legs are getting weaker, making everyday activities such as walking or household chores more cumbersome? Brad: Well, we are actually going to show you some very helpful tricks so you can strengthen your leg muscles in 10 days, and you'll notice a difference in things getting easier. These are some things that I think are very common with people who lift weights a lot, but not for the average person. Mike: No. So let's get into it. So before we get into the exercises, we want to take a little bit of time to explain something that most patients overlook. Brad: That's the mind muscle connection, and that's what I was referring to: that you get in tune with your body and get those muscles to work the way you want them to. Mike: So with the mind muscle connection, you actually wanna focus on contracting a muscle you are utilizing. So, just a basic example, if I'm going to use my bicep muscle here, its main action is to bend my elbow like this. Mike: So if I start focusing on contracting, feeling that bending of the elbow, I'm specifically focusing on feeling this muscle group shorten and then lengthen. And if you put more energy into a specific area, you can actually help something called neuroactivation, right, Brad? Brad: That's right. So neuroactivation is the part of the strengthening curve that happens first. Your mind and the nerves that connect to the muscle become more efficient, and you'll feel that strength gain quite rapidly within the first 10 days. And that's why we want to focus on that. Then you continue to actually get some hypertrophy, or the muscle starts to grow after that phase. Mike: Once you get into this, you'll have better control of the muscle you are trying to develop. So, we're going to focus on legs. If you get better engagement with that muscle group, recruiting the correct muscles, they're going to grow like Brad said. But you're also not going to use as much momentum, which is common for new people. Or if even a weight is too heavy, you oftentimes see just for bicep curls, again, people sway. I'm not getting as much muscle activation. We want to control that muscle force output. Brad: Okay, let's show them, and then it'll be clear to them. Mike: Clear as mud. Brad: Okay, we're going to focus on three different exercises that work on the legs. We're going to do the quad muscles, hip abductors, which help stabilize you when you walk. And then, of course, the glutes, which propel you forward, as well as up and down steps, for example. Now Mike's going to show, and we're going to actually implement some of the things that allow the neural part of the equation to become more evident. Mike: So the first one, we're just going to focus on quads, get in some sort of long sitting position. You could possibly do this seated, too, but what I'm going to do is take a pillow, fold it up, and I'm going to put it under my knee here. Your back position will be due to comfort. Whatever works for you. If you have to lean back more, that's fine. If you can come more upright, you'll get a little more stretch. All I'm going to do is keep my heel down and push the back of my knee into the pillow. Here, what I'm focusing on is engaging my quad muscles. These are your front, big thigh muscles. There are four of them. As I push down, I'm imagining that muscle engaging. I'm going to hold this for three to five seconds each time, and I'm going to try to do 10 repetitions. Again, just try to focus on those quads, engaging, right, holding, breathing, and relaxing. Brad: And you should feel those quads when you're pushing down. You'll probably feel those muscles start to fatigue and maybe burn a little bit. So you're starting to develop that connection with your mind. The other thing you can do is what I call getting some bio or tactical feedback. You can take one hand, put it on the muscle, and when you push down, feel that muscle contract. You can squeeze it a little bit, and that will also help that muscle to contract more. Just getting that connection from the mind to the muscle, very much in tune. And that's where that strength can develop more than you'll think if you haven't done this type of thing before. The other thing that I like to do is have people on a couch. So you can lean up against the shoulder or the armrest of the couch. It can be a little more comfortable if you're starting this. Mike: Also, it's important to work both legs obviously. And this exercise is pretty safe for people who are older. Maybe you have some arthritis or knee pain. This is a good, safe exercise that won't add a lot of force impact. Brad: Yeah, nice. Good, good. Let's go to number two. The hip abductors and muscles on the side of the hip. We're going to show you two options. The easier way to do it is in a seated chair. Use a firm chair that you can sit up tall in. Armrest can be helpful. And we're going to actually just bring the knees apart. For resistance, you can just use your hands, push on your knees, and then resist that motion so you're actually getting a little arm and shoulder strength along with it. Push and back in and resist. Brad: Now, the other thing you can do is if you happen to have any bands around the house for other exercises, use them here. I like to just bring them across like this and squeeze them together and work that like that. And again, 10 repetitions. Go out as far as you can. And again, remember, out slow and slow back together. It's not as fast as you can; it's good, meaningful motion. The more advanced method is what Mike is doing in sidelying. Mike: I'm not just napping over here, so I'm going to work my right hip abductor. I'm going to actually kick it up towards the ceiling. My spine is in a nice straight line here. It's probably hard to tell from that camera angle, but don't be too far forward or too far back. My bottom leg is bent. It just helps you stabilize a little more. You could certainly keep it straight if you want, but this keeps me nice and stabilized. I'm going to kick up as high as I comfortably can. Notice my foot is forward. I'm not rotating out. I'm going to hold it here for a second or two. Come back down. Slow and controlled. Mike: Try to work up to 10 repetitions. If you're really weak in the hip muscles, this may be challenging for you. It's not something we isolate quite often. You should feel the muscle contraction on your outer hip and your buttocks muscle a little bit as you go up and then come back down. We don't want to rush through it. This is not good for the mind-muscle connection. Obviously, to work the other side, you're going to have to rotate. I can't really show that right now because my mic will go right into the pillow. Brad: So the other common mistake that I've had with people is they'll allow their leg to go forward and go up and down. That's not what you want. Keep it back. So when you look down, you might be able to just see your toes, and the rest of the leg is actually in line. So you can't see it. Not out in front of you, but in line, up and down. Alright, let's go on to the next one. The next one, the glute maximus. The muscles in your butt that I talked about are really doing some work for you. Mike's going to show an exercise you can do on your back. You can do it on your bed, but it's probably best on a carpeted floor. Sometimes your feet have a tendency to slide on the bed, so wear shoes and, you know, make sure they're clean. Mike: So you want to start in a bent knee position. Now, what you want to think about before you even do a bridge exercise is activating the glutes. You could start that by doing a butt squeeze. You could see my pelvis is lifting a little bit. I'm squeezing my buttocks. If you're really new to this and you can't lift your butt up off the mat, you could certainly put your hands down on the floor like this, squeeze those glutes. Then come up, try to hold for a few seconds, maybe three to five seconds, come back down. Slow and controlled. Mike: We're not just thrusting into the air. Nice slow controlled movements. Feel those glutes activating. Drop back down. Try to shoot for 10 repetitions of this if possible. If you need to start with five, that's perfectly acceptable. This becomes easy. You could put your arms up. This will make it a little more challenging. If you're really advanced, and this all seems really easy, you could certainly progress to doing this on one leg. This definitely makes it a lot more challenging. Brad: Yeah, that is more of the advanced one. Alright, nice job, Mike. I encourage you to go through all of them, and once you get a feel for them, actually make a mental note, or write it down, of how many repetitions you can do comfortably. You'll find within 10 days, if you work them every day, maybe five to six days a week. So you take one or two days off, you're going to notice a difference and a significant difference in 10 days when you get your mind and those muscles working together. Mike: Now, if you want to check out more videos on how to strengthen your legs, watch   " Seniors: Get Stronger Legs In 2 Weeks, Guaranteed! " Again, this one is targeted towards seniors. It has different exercises from what we showed here. Brad: Well, of course, they want more knowledge; they want more. They will definitely like this. It's a really nice video. It's more advanced. Mike: More. 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This article is a transcribed, edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in August 2024. For the original video, go to https://youtu.be/D2Brmc1zf4g Brad: Oh, strong legs, Mike. Mike: Do you feel like your legs are getting weaker, but aren't sure how to test it out? Brad: Well, today we're going to show you a simple at-home test you can use for yourself and find out how strong your legs are compared to the average in your age group. So we're going to show you a legitimate test you can do at home. Now, I've used this test in the clinic for people on numerous occasions. It works well. And near the end, we're going to show you five excellent ways you can strengthen your legs at home. Mike: So the test is called the 30-Second Sit-to-Stand Test. And as it sounds like in the title, you're going to do as many sit-to-stands as you can within 30 seconds. This test was initially created to measure leg strength, specifically in older people, 60-plus. Brad: Right, it's actually part of a formal test under the Fullerton Functional Fitness Test Battery. Now this is something that has been used for research, for measuring strength in older people. It is an excellent test, and we'll show you how it works specifically. All right, for this test, you're going to need a chair, a firm chair without armrests, preferably with rubber tips on the end so it doesn't slide. And also, they want you to actually put the chair against the wall so it will not slide for sure. The height of the seat pan to the floor should be 17 inches. That's considered standard height. You know, if you don't have the exact height, that's okay, as long as you use the same chair from the first test to the second or third test. Mike, you want to get into how to actually do it? Mike: So when you're performing this test, you're going to sit in the chair, have your feet roughly shoulder-width apart. They suggest scooting more towards the edge of the chair. You can stagger your stance a little bit if you want, placing one foot in front of the other. Now, when doing the test, you're supposed to cross your arms over your chest. If you cannot get up at all without using your arms for support, say you have an armchair; you're going to score a zero according to this test. However, if you want to modify it for yourself, you really can't get up without your arms. Just know for yourself, I have to use my arms, but you can still work on improving your overall score. Brad: That's right, I actually did that on a regular basis in the clinic. I would just write on my notepad that the patient needed armrests, one or two, to stand up. And then I knew for a week later when I retest, so that we did it the same way, so you get consistent numbers. Mike: Now, when you do this test, in order for it to count, you need to stand all the way up, straighten your knees out, and sit all the way back down. You cannot do half repetitions; they do not count. So maintain good form all the way up, all the way down. Also, do not just plop into the chair because it's going to be uncomfortable and you're probably going to hurt yourself. Brad: Yeah, this is a no-plop zone. Mike: So we'll get into exactly how to do the test here. Brad: Okay, so we'll do an official test. Now, Mike is sitting there. He's got good posture, and he knows everything he just spoke about. Now I'm going to help him out. And this is a good way to do it, to have a partner help you. You don't have to. I would use your cell phone or a clock with a second hand so that you're sure you get 30 seconds. We're going to use this so you can actually see. So, Mike, I want you to stand up tall, just do a little practice one. And they recommend one or two practice ones before the official test. Okay, you feel comfortable, you're not getting dizzy? Mike: Nope. Brad: This would be a concern. If you get dizzy while standing, do not do the test. That is not uncommon with some people of age, or even younger people. How do we get this thing? Oh, the start button. Remember where that is? Okay, I'm going to count, not out loud. And if you're doing it by yourself, you count in your head, of course. Ready? And go ahead. There, so I'm going to observe to make sure he does everything properly. If he does one improperly, let's can you demonstrate? There, that would not count. There we go, I've already lost count already. Where are we at? Mike: I'm on five good ones. Brad: Okay. Good. And he's maintaining good posture; he's steady, not wobbling. If the person does wobble or seem unsteady, you note that down so that you can remember that for the next time you test. Oh. Mike: 10. Brad: Now, the way they would prefer you to count it is if you're halfway up or higher when the buzzer or the timer goes off, you do count that one. You get credit if you're higher than halfway. Mike: So I did 11, but I had that half rep, so that one does not count. But I was all the way up and did 10 consecutively. So what you would do now is look at your score compared to the chart we're showing on screen here. It's just the average range for your age group. They separate it between men and women. If you are not in that range, it's okay. Just retest each week to see if you're improving. Brad: Very good. It's important to write it down if you're like me and not going to be able to remember it next week. Okay, let's show them some exercises they can do on a daily basis so they can retest and see if their strength in their legs has improved. Mike: So we do want to mention, for demonstration purposes, or at least I want to mention, I was going at what I think the average patient would be going at. Technically, I could do more sit-to-stands, but I don't like to brag. Brad: Yeah, right. Mike: So here are the five tips we want to talk about. You're basically going to just do sit-to-stands, but focus on different parts of the form. So the first thing, if you are a beginner and you can't get up with your arms crossed, is to use the armrest; that's perfectly fine. Again, you want to have a good, wide base of support with your feet, get up, and then sit back down. Work on trying to drive as much as you can with your legs and only use your arms as needed. Don't focus on doing all the work with your arms, because you're not going to benefit your legs if you do that. Brad: Now, there's another option to using the armrests. Say you have an armrestless chair, no armrests. You can simply elevate your butt by putting a pillow or a pad under you; usually, one or two inches is all you need to make a significant difference in getting up. So without this, I can't get up, and I'll put this cushion under here, or a pillow that elevates me about an inch or two. You'll be amazed at how much easier it is to do that. And then you work with that. And as you get stronger, simply take out the cushion or the pillow. Mike: Another option would be if your house, you feel safe on the edge of your bed, and your bed is raised up taller than a chair, you can just try a higher surface like that as well instead of getting a pad. The next tip to be aware of is actually getting your feet underneath you, like we talked about. So some people will put their feet too far out in front of them. I can't get up like that at all without arms. I can, it's just very strugglesome. Mike: So what you're going to do is just make sure your feet are wide, but again, bring them back more underneath you, get your knees more forward, which eludes into our next tip. Tip number four is getting your nose over your toes, shifting your center of gravity forward. If I try to go up with a straight upright back, this is pretty awkward; I kind of have to use my hands. If you shift your weight forward, getting your weight over your center of gravity, this makes it a lot easier to go forward. Just make sure you're steady. If you have balance issues, maybe put a chair in front of you or a walker if needed. Brad: Let me add a couple of things to that. If you notice, when Mike does lean forward, look at his posture; his back stays nice and straight. He's not arching and slouching. Brad: The other little tip that works handy that I've worked with a lot of people, I'll say, "Put your hands on your knees, lean forward with that good posture, and then push off your hands." That's a good way to add assistance and stabilize your body. So there's a lot of little tricks you can do to help yourself out. Mike: Now the last tip is to focus on the sitting portion of this exercise. In therapy, we call the up force concentric movement, and we call this eccentric movement, meaning your legs are still working but in an eccentric way. So what we want to do is say you struggle to get up, you have to use your arms, that's fine. On the way down, try to sit slower, try to count to four seconds. Two, three, four. This is going to make your legs work a lot longer, and it's going to make you build up strength over time working in the eccentric range of motion. Brad: Yeah, you don't have to worry about knowing the eccentric or concentric, but it does also give you a good habit of sitting down with good control, and that's a good way to be safe, particularly if you have some osteoporosis in your spine. When you plop down, you could get a compression fracture in your spine, particularly if you're older, so good habits with this get you stronger and keep you safe. Mike: You may have noticed that I was kind of slacking earlier when I got just above the seat, I kind of started plopping. So try to focus on maintaining that slow range throughout the whole thing. It's challenging at any age. Brad: There you go, I think we've covered these at nauseum, Mike. Mike: We have. So there's the test. Again, retest them each week. Work on some of these tips to improve your score. If you still feel like your legs are weak and you want some other exercises to focus on, you can check out our video, " 3 Leg Strengthening Exercises Every Senior Should Do ." Brad: Three leg strengthening exercises every senior should do. Who is it by? Mike: Bob and Brad. Brad: Bob and Brad. Yours truly, all right. Have a good day and good luck with leg strengthening. 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Affiliate Disclaimer: Keep in mind that we may receive commissions when you click our links and make purchases. However, this does not impact our reviews and comparisons. We are highly selective in our products and try our best to keep things fair and balanced to help you make the best choice for you.

Knee bursitis (also known as housemaid's knee or clergyman's knee) occurs when one of the many bursae in the knee becomes inflamed, swollen, or irritated. A bursa, which is a fluid-filled sac, acts as a cushion or reducer of friction between two body parts (bone and skin, or bone and ligament or tendon). When the bursa becomes inflamed, we add the suffix “itis” to make it bursitis. “Itis” means inflammation. Common forms of bursitis in the knee include suprapatellar bursitis, prepatellar bursitis, infrapatellar bursitis, and pes anserine bursitis. Signs you may have bursitis: 1. Swelling on the front of the knee (above the kneecap, on the kneecap, or below the kneecap) 2. Pain when you push with your fingers on the swollen area. 3. Redness on the swollen area 4. Increased warmth on the swollen area 5. Stiffness in the knee joint. Difficulty bending or straightening the knee 6. Increased pain with kneeling. Causes 1. Trauma-direct blow to the knee 2. Prolonged pressure to the knee (for example, kneeling). Common among carpet layers, tile layers, and wrestlers 3. Infection or autoimmune conditions 4. Repetitive movements of the knee (long-distance runners) (jumper’s knee). Drawing of the bursa of the knee Do you have bursitis in your knee? 1. Have you been kneeling on your knees for a prolonged period? 2. Have you fallen on your knee or taken a direct hit to the knee? 3. Have you been performing any repetitive activity (running, jumping, or biking)? 4. Are you swollen in any of the above areas on your knee? 5. Are any of the above areas red, warm, or painful to touch? Check out the full Knee Pain Relief Program series of videos, along with downloadable guide sheets, here: https://www.bobandbrad.com/health-programs/knee-pain-relief-program

This article is a transcribed, edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in August 2024. For the original video, go to https://youtu.be/7Tn_TbJwmgA Brad: So I was recently looking at some videos and titles. One caught my eye. It said, "Instantly improve balance with these exercises." I looked at the video, and it could not have been more untrue, but we are going to show the truth here, and we're going to show some exercises. We have some information to help follow through with that. Mike: We are going to show three guaranteed ways to instantly improve your balance. And if we're liars, it's Brad's fault, and let him know. Brad: Yeah, well, we don't lie on this channel. This is a family show. We've got excellent information. We're going to follow up with two excellent exercises that do improve your balance as well. Let's get on with it. Mike: So as we age, typically, our balance will decline, unfortunately. Some common causes of this are weakness. The weaker the muscles, the worse your balance will be, typically. Also, if you have vision loss, losing one of your major senses can really have an impact on your balance. Brad: Another very common reason that balance is affected is because of neuropathy or loss of sensation from the knees down, particularly in the feet. If you don't have a good feeling for what you're walking on, that feedback is very critical in your balance, and falls and stumbling can be a result of that, and they do. Now, to start out with, we want to show you the best two exercises, and these are from the Minnesota Chapter of the American Physical Therapy Association. They're very simple. You can easily incorporate 'em into your daily life without having to make a whole program and set aside 20 minutes. So let's get to this, Mike. Now, for the first exercise, all you need is a chair. Simply getting out of a chair. Add some repetitions. Mike's going to go through the details, and this is addressing the strength in the legs. Very important. Mike: So we're just going to do sit to stands. I'll go from easy to harder or more challenging. So, for beginners, first off, try to slide your butt towards the edge of the chair. It's going to make it a lot easier. You can slightly lean forward to get over your center of gravity. Now, if you struggle to get out of a chair, definitely use your arms and stand all the way up. Once you're up, sit, reach back, and be controlled on the way down. Mike: Now, if that becomes easy, meaning the whole portion of it, no flopping in the chair, try going to one hand. Again, we're just going to push up with one hand and then slowly, controlled, back down. Mike: Once you can easily perform 10 repetitions of this in a row, I would switch to no hands so you can simply cross over your chest like this. Again, leaning forward makes it easier. Feet back underneath you. Stand up. Again, controlled, sit down. If you notice you flop on the way down with your hands crossed, then reach back when you're sitting for that portion. Brad: That's right. Again, incorporate this into your daily routine. When you're watching TV, do 10 of these before you start or when you end, and do that two or three times a day. That will make a definite improvement in leg strength. The next thing is hip abduction, and this is the kind of thing, if you find yourself or you see someone else when they kind of waddle walk, it's instability in the hip abductors. This exercise is easy to do. Mike'll demonstrate it with the chair. I'm going to demonstrate it by holding on to the mat table. If you need to work on your balance, you don't feel steady, you can put your fingertips with your hands on the wall. And all we're doing is simply going out to the side and back in with very good control. So we're not rushing through them. Brad: This works the hip abductor, stabilizes the core, the pelvis, and really helps everything in the full chain from the foot up to the core. Do 10 of these on each leg. Make sure you do both of them. Now, I always have my patients, when they come in, do not touch the floor with that leg. Good control in and back. One big mistake, an error or compensation that people make, is leaning. Oof. And when you do this, you're compensating. The muscle does not get stronger. And Mike, you got any other information? Mike: Some other things people use is when they kick out, they'll start rotating their foot out to the side, and it's actually a different muscle group, so keep the toe pointed straight ahead. Do not lean over. Try to keep your pelvis neutral. If you have poor balance and are using a chair or countertop, stand behind it. Nice, good posture. And again, just perform 10 reps on each side, nice and slow. Brad: There you go. Now, if you feel these are very easy, and some people will, you simply need to add some resistance. You can use resistance bands like this and step on them. I have socks on. It works much better off with a pair of shoes on because it kind of grips the band. And then you simply hold this. The lower you hold it, the less resistance. You simply bring these up higher, add resistance, or change the color of the band to a darker color. That's more resistance. Very nice way to work your balance and hip abduction for your hip strength. Mike: If you happen to have a cuff weight at your disposal, that will work as well. Brad: Good! So again, that one, it's not so easy to fit into the day like getting out of its chair, but you just do it. It only takes about 20 to 30 seconds, and you can do that two or three times a day. Now, the big moment, we want to show how you instantly improve your balance. Three different options. Are you ready, Mike? Mike: Yeah, proving you're not a liar. Brad: Yeah, no kidding. I feel like one of those talk show hosts. Mike: We are. Brad: Okay, let's go on. All right, here is what actually can and will improve your balance immediately. It's a little anticlimactic. You may not want to hear it, but it is the truth. It works very well, and it's an assistive device. The first one we've used is simply a cane. It makes a tremendous difference when you find someone who's limping and they've got pain on the right side. I'd give someone a cane in the clinic and say, "Oh, wow, that really helps!" Big smile comes on their face. Oftentimes they say, "Uh, it works, but I don't want to be seen with a cane. I'm not old enough." Blah, blah, blah. Mike, you've run into this, haven't you? Mike: I've run into this numerous times, and I can say I'd rather see someone walking upright using a cane than limping because we can all tell. Brad: Or simply having a fall, breaking a hip, and then you need the next step. So this may be an option for many people. The other assistive device commonly used is simply a walker. You have four feet there that are going to stabilize you, particularly if you've injured a foot or you have that really sore hip or knee, arthritis is so bad, and you need to get a replacement, but you just don't know if you want to, or there may be so many circumstances. A walker just works so well; it keeps people upright, and it saves your joints. Brad: Now, if you want to walk outside, the 2-wheeled walker is probably not the right product for the demand. The four-wheeled walker is wonderful for walking inside or outside. And the big difference is, one, you can walk on uneven surfaces well because the wheels are bigger, and there are four wheels. It's a little faster. And when you get tired, you can sit down in it. They have hand brakes that work well. Now, we're not going to get into all the details of using these, but we're going to talk about where you can learn, and we've got a good video that goes through that. Mike, do you have any other tips for people about these? Mike: Just find out what works for you. A cane is obviously the least cumbersome and cheapest option. However, if you don't feel steady with that, it may be time to progress to a walker. Again, pick which one suits your needs for your lifestyle. Brad: Now, if you are at Medicare age and you live in the United States, both of these walkers, I'm not 100% certain how much they cover, but typically, they'll cover one of the 2-wheeled walkers, if you get a doctor's order. So you have to see the doctor. Typically, they're more than happy to give you an order for a walker, so you don't fall or one of these. They typically don't cover 100% of the cost of these, but about 60 to 70%. Now, that may have changed in the last year or two, as that always does, but you know, look into that. Someone will know where they sell these, how much is covered, and what you need. Mike: And if you want to check out more videos on how to walk, specifically if you have hip pain using a walker or cane, check out our video, " How to Walk With Hip Pain Using A Cane or Walker. " Brad: Now, you can look at this even if you don't have hip pain, it's the same use of the walker, whether or not it's for the hip or whatever, just instability. All right, Mike. That's it. We just gave everyone the best information possible for that title. Mike: And hopefully we're not liars. Brad: Of course not. My goodness. We're just not born and raised that way. Have a good day. 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This article is a transcribed, edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in August 2024. For the original video, go to https://youtu.be/Wh3auqsF6nw Mike: Not all back pain is the same. So, one exercise that works for one person may not work for another. Brad: That's right. We're going to explain how you could determine which exercise is the right one for you, and then we're going to demonstrate the proper way to do the exercise. It's going to be great information. Mike: Now, before we get into the exercises we're going to demonstrate, we want to talk about centralization. It's a term created by Robin McKenzie in 1956, and what does this term mean, Brad? Brad: Well, Robin McKenzie, a physical therapist in New Zealand, actually started a whole system of treating back pain through centralization. So what it means is where the pain or the symptoms are experienced by the patient. So if you have pain in your back and it runs down your leg, we want to get the pain to actually disappear in the leg and bring it up towards the back. This would be known as the center, hence the name, centralization of the pain. Brad: And then when you find an exercise that centralizes the pain, I'm smiling as a therapist, things are going to get better, and they're going to get better, better quick. Mike: Now, in order to centralize your back pain, we're going to discuss three different movements your spine can do to help relieve the pain and feel better. Brad: There you go. It's very simple. Mike: So the three common motions to help with centralizations are first spinal flexion going forward. Mike: Extension, or going backwards. Mike: And then you have side bending to the right and left. Mike: Now the spine can also rotate, but typically that leads to more pain. So we're not going to talk about that here. Brad: Now we just demonstrated the four directions to centralize a pain in standing, but very often we start doing it in a lying position. Mike is on his stomach, and he's going to demonstrate extension of the low spine, which actually is fairly common to centralize back pain. But by no means is it the only way to centralize. So just hold with us. This may help you, or there may be another direction that we will get to. Mike: Now Bob happened to have back pain in the past, at least that's what he told us, and he used to do extension, and it would feel better. Mike: But as time has progressed on due to whatever problem he may be having with his back, he actually prefers spinal flexion or bending forward. He tends to do the child's post stretch, which is this. Mike: You can see my knees are actually coming to my chest, kind of in a passive way, and that is actually causing spinal flexion. This feels better for him now. So one exercise that maybe felt good for you, one time when you injured your back, may not be the right exercise if you re-injure your back in a different fashion. Brad: Right? Example: I had the same situation when I was in my forties. I would lie on the ground and do the press-ups, and my back would feel better. Now I'm in my sixties. I actually do this exercise, it has to do with aging and spinal stenosis, but that's my personal case. So let's go on so people can figure out what their situation requires. Okay, now the first assessment to find out if this exercise is gonna be right, it's in a chair, seated, Mike's going to demonstrate. Now, if you have back pain and it happens to be going out to the side into the buttock by the right hip or even going down the leg, make a mental note of that and how severe it is. As you do these exercises, see if that pain, which could be numbness or tingling actually goes further out to the side or down the leg. If it does go further, that's no good. You need to stop. That is not the exercise for you. If it makes the pain feel better and it seems to be alleviated in the leg or the side, it goes back to the center, keep doing it. Go ahead, Mike. Mike: So we're going to be doing spinal flexion here, so going forward. Notice in the chair, I'm not sitting at the way back, I'm sitting a little more up front. What I'm going to do is flex my spine with a little rotation. So as I go to the right, take my left hand, put it on my knee, I'm just going to bend forward, reach down as far as you comfortably can, and then back up. And we're gonna switch directions. Take my right hand, put it on my left knee, overlap, and then bend down, flex the spine, and come back up. Mike: If this feels good, it means flexion is probably the right motion for you. If this feels worse, just avoid it. Now we have two more exercises you can try as well. What we're going to do is cross our legs, now get your knee in whatever position you comfortably can. And then once you're here, try to just flex forward. Again, flex that spine. If this feels good to you, then flexion is right. And again, cross your legs, do the other side. Oftentimes, with back pain, it's one-sided. So that's why it's good to test both sides. Brad: And again, make sure the pain is centralizing. I like to, after the exercise, if I'm feeling better, actually stand up and walk around and make sure, as a result of doing the exercises, it continues to feel better or even better yet. So that is important while you're doing the exercise, and afterwards, that it continues to be the right direction. Mike: Now we're going to move on to side-bending exercises. Again, you can try the left or right side. Brad's going to show an exercise. All you need is a wall and a towel, Brad: Right. Typically, with these side-bending ones, you don't just side-bend, although you could, and see how it responds. This is one that Robin McKenzie actually used for decades now. And it works well. You can use a towel roll. You're going to put your arm, elbow bent 90 degrees, against your rib cage. And then you go against the wall. You can take a towel roll so there's more of a gap between your right hip and the wall. And then bring your feet about a foot, a foot and a half away from the wall, your feet together. And I'm going to stand just like this. I have my patients, I say put your hand on your hip and think about bringing your hip, or kind of pushing this hip towards the wall. And then we go like this. Brad: So, how to determine which side you should do this exercise? If I have pain on my left side, in the back, left side, maybe down the left leg, I'll probably go with my right side against the wall first, and go one, two, and I'll do a few repetitions. If it hurts at first, kind of work with it, after three or four repetitions, if it gets worse, you stop. If it starts to feel better, then you continue 10 reps maximum. You'll continue to do that, if it feels better while you're doing it, and after walking around, you'll do that every hour or so to continue that centralization and the pain-free. Let's show some other options, Mike. Mike: Another option for side bending. You can either use a door frame, pull-up bar, or something high up that you can reach. Brad will show another option in a moment seated if you can't reach up this high. So again, we're gonna focus on this side-bending component. I'm going to stretch my left side first. My palm is facing away from me. I'm going to go on top of the doorframe here. Then I'm going to lean into the door to get a little more aggressive stretch. You can try bending your knees slightly. This is really going to open up the lateral aspect of the spine, and sometimes this feels really good. Helps centralize that pain like we're talking about. Mike: You could sit here for three breaths, 15, 30 seconds, whichever is comfortable for you, and then come back out. Now it's good to assess both sides to see which side feels better or needs help. So you can just try both sides. Once you figure out which side helps, just stick with that. Again, if this makes your pain worse, just avoid this stretch. Brad: Okay, now, if you don't feel comfortable holding onto your door frame up here or you're too tall or too short, you can take a piece of dolling, actually like this. This is a walking stick. This would work well. I'm going to put that on the chair that you're sitting on, a firm chair's best here, and I'm going to grab up as high as I can. And now I'm going to lean into that without letting my hand go down. This happens to be the right height, this walking stick, and I'm going to go lean. If you have a piece of dolling PVC pipe or a Booyah Stik , that actually works really well, this is five feet long. That'll work for most people. And then don't let your hands slide down and lean and get that stretch again. Brad: Note the pain. Is the pain centralizing, going to the center of the back, or is it making it worse? Again, you're looking for centralization. Then try the other side. There we go. This is a great stretch for the shoulder as well. Alright, good. Now, lastly, we're going to explore lumbar extension. That's bending backwards, standing. And then we're going to show it lying down for typical treatment for your back. Again, centralization. I like to put my hands like this or like this at the belt line. Brad: Add support, and it usually feels better for most people, and you'll extend back and come forward. Do not hold it for long periods of time. We're just going to go back for a second or two and then forward and again, feels better or feels worse. Brad: If it feels worse, it goes down the leg or out to the side more. You stop at, red light. If it feels better, continue up to 10 reps and then continue to do them. Now you can use the wall to actually make it a more aggressive stretch if it's going good. Mike: So, what you're going to do is place your hands up as high as you comfortably can. You're going to have to stand a little bit of a distance away from the wall here. And then you're basically going to bring your hips and pelvis forward, going into the wall. As I do that, I'm feeling quite a bit of extension in my back. You're also getting a bit of a core workout here if I'm being honest with you. Mike: So, same thing, just kind of do some repetitions. Hold for a few seconds and then come back. I have tight calf muscles, so my feet are popping off the floor, but it's fine, we're working on the back. Brad: There you go. That's a nice shirt you got there, Mike. Mike: Thanks. Brad: Anyways, let's go to an extension and prone. You can do this lying down, and usually, I start assessing and do this in the prone position. Once I can do well in prone, I will go to the wall, but you don't have to do it that way. Lying down here, you're going to do this on a carpeted floor, not on a bed. Hands here and the press up, go up as far as you feel comfortable. When you start out, take your time with it. Don't press up as high as you possibly can. Brad: Again, assessing whether it's centralizing or not. If it is, you can do up to 10 repetitions. Get up, walk around if it feels better as a result, and do that every hour. Other options, you can just come up and see if a static position, like on your forearm, like this, and see how things go. Brad: I've had people do this, and after about 30 seconds, continue to centralize and decrease their pain; that is a good sign. You're going to do that every hour. Is there another one I'm missing? Mike: I think you hit them all. Brad: Alright, now that's good. Make sure you go through all these exercises. You can "X' off the ones that make it feel worse, or make the pain get worse down the leg, etc. And do the ones that feel good. There are probably one or two that will help centralize it. Focus on that one. Do it every one to two hours as the day goes on till the pain goes away. There we go. Mike: And if you're still struggling with some back pain and you know it's sciatica, you can check out our other video. Brad: " Only 1 In 5000 Know This About Treating Sciatica ." This is a different approach. If this one's not working, it's by Rick Olderman, right? Mike: Yeah. Let's count to 5,000 now. Brad: He is an expert. Mike: One. Two. Brad: Oh, be quiet. Quit playing games. They know more than that. Mike: Four. 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Affiliate Disclaimer: Keep in mind that we may receive commissions when you click our links and make purchases. However, this does not impact our reviews and comparisons. We are highly selective in our products and try our best to keep things fair and balanced to help you make the best choice for you.

Kneecap pain can be caused by trauma, but often it is caused by poor positioning of the kneecap. The kneecap is positioned within a groove on the end of your thigh bone. If the knee cap is deviated or tilted to one side, it can result in overuse or overload on the part of the thigh bone, resulting in pain, discomfort, and irritation. Kneecap taping can help correct the poor position of the kneecap and help relieve pain symptoms. Taping also allows muscle-strengthening exercises to be done. For the taping to work, it is important to understand how the kneecap needs to be moved. The goal is to move the kneecap away from the sore spot as it glides in the groove. Prior to taping, you need to assess your baseline for pain. Perform a half squat and rank your knee pain from 1-10. Squat down to thigh level and see how much pain is caused. After you have applied the tape, you will squat again and hopefully experience some reduction or relief of the pain. Before applying the tape, glide the knee cap to the outside, then to the inside, then up, and finally down. Make note of which direction brought on any pain or “crunching” (crepitus). The goal is to move the kneecap away from the painful direction. Most kneecap problems require the knee cap to be moved toward the inside of the knee for relief (pushing the kneecap outward increases pain) How to apply the tape. Ideally, a healthcare professional should instruct you on the application the first few times. Equipment needs: A. Hypoallergenic (Hypafix) tape to be used directly on the skin. B. 1.5” non-stretch sport tape works well. We use Leukotape . Taping Procedure: 1. Half Squat down to a level where you feel pain in your kneecap and rate your pain from 1-10. 2. Clean the skin on and around the kneecap with gentle soap and water. Dry the area. 3. After you should apply a layer of Hypafix (hypoallergenic tape) to the skin over the kneecap. In most instances, you should also cover the inside of the knee to provide some room for the Leukotape to adhere. There should not be any stretching tension on the Hypafix. The Leukotape will go on next. Cut three (3-inch strips) of Leukotape and have them ready to use nearby. 4. It is helpful to trace an outline of the kneecap on the Hypafix. This outline will help you reposition the kneecap. 5. Decide which way you need to glide the kneecap for pain relief. Again, for most people, you will be gliding the knee toward the inside (or toward the other knee. 6. Place the end of the Leukotape on the outside edge of the kneecap (if gliding the kneecap toward the middle). The Leukotape should apply a little tension to the kneecap and hold it in the new position. 7. Use your two thumbs to GENTLY glide the kneecap toward the middle. 8. Apply some tension to the Leukotape and affix the other end to anchor the kneecap in its new position. The tape should make a straight line from the outside of the knee to the inside. Apply 1-2 more layers of tape until you feel it will maintain the support of the kneecap. You should note some wrinkling of the tape once applied. 9. Once it is repositioned, try half squatting again and reassess your pain. Hopefully, your kneecap pain will have reduced. Repeat this process if your pain gets worse or if it does not seem to help. 10. Note that you will not be able to fully bend your taped knee normally while the tape is in place. 11. If the skin over the knee becomes itchy or develops a rash (or any other symptoms), the tape needs to be removed immediately. 12. Otherwise, the tape can remain in place for 48 hours. The tape can be changed sooner if it stretches out and is no longer effective. 13. While the tape is in place, it is a good time to perform your strengthening exercises for patellofemoral pain syndrome. See video Strengthening Exercises to Help Stop Kneecap Pain (Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome). 14. If you have pain with normal daily activities, the tape can be applied daily until you are pain-free. 15. If you are having kneecap pain only with sport-specific events, apply the tape only when participating in those events. Check out the full Knee Pain Relief Program series of videos, along with downloadable guide sheets, here: https://www.bobandbrad.com/health-programs/knee-pain-relief-program

This article is a transcribed, edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in July 2024. For the original video, go to https://youtu.be/jz0L0q-CnOE Brad: This knee pain, man. Mike: Today, we're going to show you three tricks that physical therapists use to help treat your knee pain. Brad: Right, and as therapists, it's really enjoyable in the clinic to do a nice technique that relieves the pain, the person smiles, and everyone else in the clinic is happy as well. You really feel like a champ. Mike: You're not grumbling anymore. Your knee pain must be gone already. Brad: Yep. See, it works. Mike: So we're going to go over three techniques that we have tried and tested in our clinics over numerous years, and often see success with them. Now you don't have to do all three of them every day. Try them all out, see which one feels best for you, and stick to that one. Brad: Now, I personally had great success with these in the clinic, particularly with people with arthritic total knee replacement, meniscus problems, and they really have done very well. And like I said, people get relief quickly. It's a good feeling. Everyone's happy. Alright, a brief explanation of why number one works. This first technique is the joint itself, if we can decompress it or actually get a gap between the articulating or the surfaces that contact each other, that can be relaxing, reduce pain, particularly if there are arthritic problems in there. Brad: And at the same time, we're just going to allow the leg to swing back and forth like a pendulum. So hold on, we're going to show you how it works for real. Okay, for this first decompression technique, you'll need to sit in a chair that's got a firm base and also that your foot is not on the floor. When you relax, it needs to be up a little bit. Now Mike is up on our mat. You can see his feet are clearly swinging back and forth. I actually put some cushions underneath me and a pillow, and it's still touching a little bit. So I'm going to take my hands and go underneath my knee, right up to what they call the fossa or the crux of your knee. I'm going to pull up gently, and just like Sam was showing on the skeleton, we want it to swing back and forth, relaxing every muscle in your leg so it acts like a pendulum, decompressing or distracting that joint, just like we mentioned. And then you just get it swinging. You can see my hands here are allowing it or kind of forcing it to swing. I'm not kicking it, I'm relaxed and getting it going. Brad: Now, Mike's got something that's going to help some people even more to get more distraction. Go ahead, explain how you're doing that, Mike. Mike: So I just have a cuff weight on, so it's a little more weight. Putting it around your ankle distally will help distract the tibia bone from the femur bone. Again, I'm in a relaxed position. Make sure your hips are relaxed as well. My hips were engaged. You could see how tight they are. This is going to actually compact the knee joint, especially if you swing too much. So be very relaxed with this. Now I'm on a firm mat here, so I don't really have to put anything behind my knee because that's going right in that fossa area there. But you can use your hands up here as well. But yeah, just let it swing, distract, and it should feel good if you're having some pain. Brad: That's right. Now this is what we have, if you don't have an ankle weight, you can actually put a heavier shoe, or, like up where we live in the north, put one of your winter boots on, and that will be enough weight. Typically, one or two pounds is enough. As far as time, if you're doing it and it's feeling good, I would do this for about 30 seconds to a minute because I would actually hold the patient's knee like this, and then my hands would get tired, and I'd say that's a good time. Brad: I would do that two or three times. If you're doing it to yourself like this, just go as long as you feel comfortable, and you can repeat it throughout the day as much as you'd like. Alright, the second technique, you're simply going to take a towel, roll it up. It doesn't have to get too thick; it's all going to depend on your body size and how your knee is working as far as the mechanics of it. So you'll take a towel and you're going to put it right under your knee. Now you can do this in a seated position. I'll show you that. And then there's also going to be one standing next to your bed. But you put that towel right up in the crux of your knee. Again, that's the popliteal fossa. Nice term, isn't it? And then we're going to actually grab below the knee on the shin. I'm going to scoot out on the edge of my chair so I can lean back, and I'm going to pull, and that actually acts as a lever or a fulcrum, and it distracts the knee. Brad: When you do this, you feel good. Like right now, I can feel it, and it does feel good on me. I don't have a knee problem right now. But all these techniques, if they hurt, you don't do them. This is not a no-pain, no-gain technique on all three of them. Should feel good while you do it, and after you're done, get up, walk around, also should be a good response and feel better. If it makes it worse while you're doing it or afterwards, you put a red line through it, and you do not do that technique. It's not for your knee. Mike, can you show him how to do it using your bed and the towel like that? Mike: So this is a little more aggressive than the way Brad was doing it. Maybe you just have some mild knee pain. As long as it doesn't hurt to actually kneel on your knee, this should be fine. Obviously, in your bed it's softer, so don't be as aggressive as this mat table. So just place your knee up on the towel, same position. And as soon as I start leaning forward, that is mimicking Brad, pulling his knee towards his chest like that. Same concept, but you can get a little more aggressive and lean into it that way. Mike: Again, hold it for seconds or repetitions, whatever feels comfortable for you. If you really want to get aggressive, this may be for you. Brad: Well, just wait. Wait one second, Mike. I also want to emphasize leaning forward but also putting your butt down towards your heel. Mike: Flex your knee more. Brad: Yes. Mike: So if I'm leaning forward like this, I am collapsing my knee. But if you keep your butt down, you're even bending your knee even more. So you're getting more distraction in there. Brad: It's kind of hard to see on camera, but it does when that drops down. Distract only if it makes it feel better. Okay? It's very important. Mike: Now, if you're younger and you have some knee issues and you want to get your range of motion back, maybe it's back of the knee pain. You can certainly do this in a tall kneeling position as well. But you have to be comfortable kneeling. Same concept, sit my butt towards my heels and this gets a nice opening in that knee joint there. Brad: That's right. That is more aggressive again. You're going to do that if it feels good, and you're probably younger and pretty mobile. Mike: This feels pretty good for me. Brad: See? There you go. And he's younger and mobile. Alright, the third technique was actually created by Brian Mulligan. He's a therapist. He's been around for decades. And this is a nice technique if it works. It's very simple. And what we're going to do is, if your knee particularly does not flex all the way, we want to have a good range of motion that can easily be the cause of pain. Once you free it up, then things get better. So if your knee is tight flexing or extending, but particularly in flex, then this is a good technique. So the whole concept is that the knee does not want to flex further than this. But if you rotate one way or the other, the tibia, which I'm showing here, can be enough to break things free, so to speak, and get more range of motion without pain or actually feeling good. Brad: So I'll show you how you can do that on yourself because it's a little harder than this. Okay, this is the knee in question. Now you need a chair that has a firm seat pan. Okay? Not a soft, cushy one that will not work so well. And then I'm going to go lean forward to that point where it's a little painful, and we want to see if we can get to that normal range of motion. Okay? So what I'm gonna do is actually grab below the knee, and we're going to get a hold of that tibia. Now we've got a lot of soft tissue that kind of moves, so it's not as easy as it was with Sam. So I'm going to grab it tight, hold it there. And then I'm going to first assess the range of motion. Say, "Oh, it hurts there." If I rotate things to the right, I'm actually going to turn my foot to the right, rotate, and go again. See if you get more range of motion without pain. Brad: Let's say, "Eh, that doesn't seem to work so good." Then I'm going to turn my foot in, grab and rotate that tibia in. We get a little rotation, turn the foot, and then again. Brad: Now, what'll happen oftentimes is one way it won't help, the other way it does, and you're going to work the way that feels better. Less pain, more range of motion is a green light to do it. Just five to 10 times. Probably 10 would not be the one I'd go to right away. Just up to five repetitions like I'm doing here. Let it go. Walk around on it. If it feels better, then as well as while you're doing it, green light. Do that three or four times a day. Again, assess which way feels better, then only do the way that feels better. And after doing this, you'll find that it loosens up in all phases and will have good results. Follow the rules, only do it if it feels good while you're doing it, and afterwards, you'll do very well. Now we have to come up with the outro for this. Mike: We have something else to talk about, too. They could try. Brad: Ah, that's a good point. Now, if you're finding that as you do one of these techniques and motion feels better, we can progress to a little bit of weight through it and helping the muscles get stronger, then one thing you can do is sit in a chair. A firm chair works better. This one's not so good. A chair like Mike's is better, but I can demonstrate. And you put something slippery on the floor. If you have carpet, I'm just using the book with a smooth, shiny cover. I'm going to put a foot on there. If you have socks on, you can go on a shiny floor, whatever makes the resistance low, and you can simply go back and forth like this and get things moving. Go back as far as you can. It should be pain-free, particularly if the Mulligan technique was working for you. That'll be helpful and really coordinated with that technique. And do this for a few minutes, and do it throughout the day. Mike, we have something a little more designed specifically for this. Mike: So this is a Bob and Brad Knee Glide I am using right here. You can simply sit down and use it. You can also use it in bed. Just set it up to where your knee motion is, and you can bring it back more or closer. You can also change the pitch and angle on it. And this is just another way to mimic the same motion here. Brad: That's right. And that is the big advantage of this is you can change the angle, which can be really helpful, particularly after a knee surgery. You can emphasize the quadriceps, or emphasize the hamstring strength, and it actually makes it a little easier to flex, we found, particularly again after surgery. So it's been working very well for us over the past, I don't know, Bob, five, 10 years, probably closer to 10 years we've been selling these, and people have been happy with them. Not that we're making a sales pitch or anything, but they're nice devices. There you go. We gave you a number of options and information on how to get that knee working better, pain-free, and keep you moving. And we have another video if they have other concerns. Mike: Yes, watch our video " Knee Pain Gone In Seconds- Top 5 Fixes Known For Success! " - if you have knee problems still. There are just some different exercises and options in this one. Brad: Options, options, and more options. You just never know. You always have to have plan B. 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Affiliate Disclaimer: Keep in mind that we may receive commissions when you click our links and make purchases. However, this does not impact our reviews and comparisons. We are highly selective in our products and try our best to keep things fair and balanced to help you make the best choice for you.

This article is a transcribed, edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in July 2024. For the original video, go to https://youtu.be/_eXEVJ4rBdE Brad: We recently made a very popular video on how to use trekking poles, and there were two big mistakes that people were asking about, according to the comments. I want to clear it up and get right to it. Mike: So, if you couldn't tell by my great walking pattern there, I was showing the two biggest mistakes, so do not copy me. So, before we get into how to actually set up your trekking poles properly, we're going to talk about two other benefits you get from using walking sticks. Brad: Number one, stability and balance. You decrease your risk of falls and feel much safer when you walk. Mike: The second benefit is that you're actually engaging your arms and shoulder muscles more. And typically when you do that, you're going to end up burning more calories. Brad: That's right. Mike: So, on our previous trekking poles video, 92% of the viewer audience was over 55 years old, and their two most common questions were "How do I adjust my trekking poles to the right height?" And "How do I actually grip this without my hand bothering me?" Brad: Right, and what this is especially important for is, if you have arthritic hands or fingers, or any problems with your particular shoulder joints, this is really going to play an important role in that. So we'll go through them very detailed, and you'll understand how to do it properly and enjoy your trekking much better. Okay, first, we're going to go over the first big mistake is how to adjust these, because these trekking sticks are easily adjustable. They actually have numbers on the better sticks that tell you where you were. So you remember it when you fold them up, and you can bring them back to the accurate and most appropriate level. So if we look at this stick, it's way too high. I'm up high. The idea is to get your forearm parallel to the floor. So this is way too high. Brad: Mike, you want to show them one that's too low? Mike: So this stick is way too low. Mike: You can see my arm is extended out more in front of me if I keep it down by my side. This is not parallel at all. You roughly want to have about a 90-degree bend in your arm. You could see this stick I have set up to roughly a 90-degree bend in my elbow joint here. Brad: So this one also is adjusted properly. So again, depending on what kind of stick you have, you simply can slide it in and out. If they have numbers, in centimeters or inches, make a mental note or write them down. That way, it's very nice for when you close them up and again, reopen them for walking next time. Okay, another big benefit of having the sticks the proper height is that it takes the stress off your hands, wrists, and forearms and puts it more into your shoulders. So, using larger muscle groups, they will fatigue less and they'll burn more calories. Good for your posture as well. Now you're going to see the way I'm holding this stick is improper. Brad: The way I have this stick strapped in is proper. You may not say, "Well, what's the difference?" We'll show you the difference in detail and why it makes a big difference on your hands, wrists, and fingers. Mike: A lot of difference there. Brad: Okay, so this stick I said is improper. My hand is through the loop, and I'm grabbing here. Now this gives you a very strong tendency to grab with your hand tightly, so you have good control of the stick. And if you let loose of that, your hand will drop down, and you do not have very good control. So it makes you even want to grab more, which really can irritate the joints and the fingers and the wrists, as well as fatigue the muscles, particularly the little muscles in the fingers. Brad: Both of those facts create hand pain. And you're saying, "Why am I using these sticks that just make my hand sore, tired? It's no fun." Mike, can you show them specifically how to do it wrong and how to do it right? Mike: So when it comes to putting the strap around your wrist, the improper way, you would be reaching down from the top through the hole and then grabbing the handle like this. Again, if you lose your grip, your hand's kind of there, and it can slide out relatively easily. Mike: So, what you want to do is once the circle is in the proper position, go up from underneath, and then you essentially grab the handle here with the wrist strap all at the same time. And there it's not going to move around when you're walking. Brad: Right, this will make a big difference. Make sure that the strap is nice and smooth around your wrist. When you come up, remember the web between your thumb and your finger is where the two straps go. And there we go. Have both of them like this, and you'll get a feel for that. Brad: And then when you walk and you're pushing down using the shoulder muscles, you can do this literally without using your hand and wrist muscles, just a little bit for control, but it really makes a nice difference, much more comfortable. Give it a try. Be patient with it, and you'll find out, "Oh yeah, this is the way it should go." Okay, quickly, the first two things, the pole adjusted right, as we mentioned, and grabbing the strap right, now, cadence. We're going to step forward with the left foot. The right hand goes forward just like when you walk without your sticks. The opposite arm and the opposite leg mirror each other. If you don't think about it, you'll probably do it right. I find that with most patients, when I teach them how to use sticks or canes. So the next thing is, don't reach out in front like this. Brad: That's not going to help you at all. Simply leave the stick drag or lift it up slightly and work it here, and then you push to get yourself to move forward. I'm pushing forward. There we go. Then you get a little propulsion from your arms, triceps, and shoulders primarily, which is going to help burn some calories. It's going to help with your posture. It's one of the big benefits of using trekking sticks properly. Mike, do you have anything to finish up? Mike: If you'd like to check out another video on how to use trekking sticks or poles for beginners, watch " Walking Sticks Or Trekking Poles - For Beginners: All You Need To Know! " That one goes much more in-depth on a lot more of the nuanced features of them. Brad: That's right. For example, going up hills or down hills, there's something important that you need to do about that, so you're stable and safe. Just an example. And anything else, Mike? Mike: No. Brad: Are you going to use these poles when you go hiking? Mike: I'm going to put these back in the cupboard, and they can sit for a few more months. Brad: Good luck with your trekking. It does help a lot. 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Affiliate Disclaimer: Keep in mind that we may receive commissions when you click our links and make purchases. However, this does not impact our reviews and comparisons. We are highly selective in our products and try our best to keep things fair and balanced to help you make the best choice for you.

If you have not already done so , you may want to watch What Is Causing Your Knee Pain? Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome or Kneecap Pain? How to tell? This is a six-week program of strengthening exercises designed to help stop kneecap pain. Weeks 1 & 2: 1. Lie on your back. Straight leg raises (3 sets of 10). 2. Isometric Quadriceps with knee bent to 90 degrees (2 sets of 10- 3 second hold) 3. Mini squats to 40-degree knee bend. 4 sets of 10. 4. Hip Abduction (side lying) 2 x 15. 10-second hold. 5. Clamshell with resistance band 2 x 15 10 second hold. 6. Fire Hydrants 2 x 15 10-second hold. Weeks 3 & 4: 1. Wall Slide 0 to 60 degrees (3 sets of 10). Strengthening Exercises to Help Sore Kneecap Pain (Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome) 4 2. Step up/down 8 inch (3 sets of 5) 3. Lunge to 45 degrees (3 sets of 10) 4. Pelvic Drop (2 sets of 15, 10 sec hold) (On Step) Weeks 5 & 6 1. Single leg stance (3 x 30 sec) Open/closed eyes on mat. 2. Walking- progressive increase 3. Running- progressive increase Check out the full Knee Pain Relief Program series of videos, along with downloadable guide sheets, here: https://www.bobandbrad.com/health-programs/knee-pain-relief-program