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This article is a transcribed edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in February of 2024. For the original video go to https://youtu.be/qvga7bCQxLg
Brad: You know, being independent as you age, doing daily chores, staying mobile is very important. Particularly as we age and get past sixty, it seems to kick in a little more.
Mike: Simple tasks like putting on your shoes, pulling up your pants, or even trying to get your shoulders to take your shirt off can become difficult as we age.
Brad: That's right, we're going to show you some daily exercises, very brief that are going to help you get through this and maintain your mobility and independence for years to come.
Mike: So Brad and I obviously are not to this point in our lives yet. However, we have worked with thousands of people working on these daily skills.
Brad: Well, I'm kind of getting there. I'm telling you, I feel some of the aches and pains that you get over 60 years old. So we're going to show you five common problems people experience in five simple stretches that you can use to eliminate these problems and keep you moving. So one thing that can happen commonly as you grow older, you catch your toe on a crack in the sidewalk or it just doesn't, you don't lift your toe and it catches, causing a potential fall. We need to work with this and address it. It's a easy stretch. Alright, so what we're looking at is something we call foot drop. And that's when your foot swings through, you need to dorsiflex or pull the toes up so they don't catch. And what we need to do is stretch the calf muscle for this. Let's show them how to do it, Mike.
Mike: So the first calf stretch we're going to do, just need a wall space. So I'm going to lean against the wall. I'm going to be stretching my left calf here. Make sure your foot is flat on the ground. Do not let your heel pop up. And you should start feeling a stretch in your calf muscles in the back region there. Now if you want to get more of a stretch, I simply lean forward towards the wall and I definitely feel more of a stretch. If you are way up here close, simply bring your leg back and you'll probably feel much more of a stretch. Hold this for roughly 15 to 30 seconds. Make sure to repeat on both sides because you don't want to have one tight calf muscle and the other one loose.
Brad: Yeah, you'll walk in circles.
Mike: I guess, so just do this stretch here. Do you walk in circles?
Brad: Well, I normally only do at home. One thing I do want to look at is bring this foot back again, Mike. Now one common mistake is people will allow their toe to point out and that's going to make the stretch not as effective.
Brad: So try and keep it pointed straight ahead, heel down, and get a good effective stretch. What do you say, Mike?
Mike: I'm feeling it.
Brad: Yep, it's a good stretch.
Mike: I have tight calves.
Brad: Now with this one, the frequency, do as Mike mentioned, 15 to 30 second stretch on each leg one or two times. But do it three or four times throughout the day. It would only take a minute or so on each stretch. It'll really progress that stretch and range of motion, eliminating that foot drop problem.
Brad: Oh, I have to get my foot up to put my shoes on.
Brad: So this is a problem a lot of seniors have is a tight hip muscle so that the hip does not allow this motion so you can easily put your shoes and your socks on in a form like this. So we're going to show you a simple stretch to maintain this and we can do it lying down in bed before you get out of bed or in a chair. Mike, show them how to do it before they get out of bed in the morning.
Mike: So if you are lying down, typically you want to start laying on your back, bend your knees up a bit. Everyone's going to be different where they can start from. Some people will immediately be able to get their foot up onto their opposite knee. Other people may have to start way down and they might get stuck like this. This is okay, find your starting position. What you want to eventually do is work up to bringing this knee closer. This will stretch it more and then actually pushing down with your hand will get even more of a stretch. This is called a figure four stretch. You can't see it from your point of view, but it looks like a four. You're going to hold this for 15 to 30 seconds. Make sure to repeat on the other side.
Brad: Now it's really important that you avoid any sharp pain while you're doing this. If your hip or knee or whatever experiences pain, do not do it, we don't want to get too aggressive. Also, if you've had a hip replacement, you do not want to do this unless you talk to your surgeon first about it and get it cleared. Now in a seated position, simply, either way works good, this is what I do on a daily basis. Every time I get my foot up here to put my socks or shoe on, I automatically push down on my knee. It feels good. I know it's maintaining the range of motion so I can keep this for many years to come. If you're having a hard time, simply come forward in the chair. Slide your foot out and straighten your knee a bit, bring the other foot up, try to get it above the knee cap and hold it there. You can hold here and let the knee go down. Hold here with one hand, push down here.
Brad: Again, no pain should be experienced. Just a nice stretch feeling and work that, hold it for 15 to 30 seconds. I personally go pressure on, pressure off, five to 10 repetitions and then do the other leg. It's a great way to really work that so that maintains motion and I guess I can stop talking now.
Brad: I think a lot of people experience a tight shoulder or painful shoulder, reaching up into the cupboard to get something as simple as a coffee mug.
Brad: So we're going to show you a nice exercise to keep your shoulder mobility and strength so you can continue to do this. Let's do it, Mike.
Mike: So before we get into this exercise, I do not condone the use of that packer cup, by the way. Anyway, we're going to do what is called wall walks. So I'm going to start by facing the wall and you're just going to walk your fingers up the wall as high as you comfortably can. If I can only get part way, that's okay. Just try to do 10 wall walks going up, focus on going up. You don't have to worry too much about coming back down. Over time, maybe notice if you can go higher.
Mike: You could certainly put some tape on your wall for a measurement or landmark to try to get to over time. Now if you're noticing, this way is really easy, but say facing sideways, I'm just going to switch arm for camera's sake is more challenging. Maybe work on standing sideways because this is going to work slightly different shoulder muscles.
Brad: That's right. So again, do not go into any sharp pain with it. Work it over time. A good maintenance program. So it does work strengthening and stretching. So it's a good overall exercise.
Mike: Now we're going to get into another stretch that you can try to do as well.
Brad: Okay, now if doing the wall walking is not working well for you, this is a great option. You can do it in a seated position. Just get a stick about four or five foot long, a broom handle, a mop. I've got the Booyah Stik, on the floor with it or on the chair works as well. Now you're going to take that stiff shoulder that's not able to reach up and take the other hand and help it get up as far as comfortable, grab a hold of the stick and then if you lean forward, that actually adds a stretch. It puts a fair amount of leverage on there. So be careful, don't get too aggressive. A nice, not painful stretch, just a comfortable stretch in there and just lean forward, stretch and relax. After two or three times, if it feels like it's loose, simply go up another inch or so and stretch. I really cannot emphasize enough that you do not take too much at one time. 'cause we don't want to tear any muscles. We just want to stretch them. Mike, you have anything to add?
Mike If you would like to work on going out to the side more, simply place it out to the side, your handle, grab on, I do palm facing away and then you can kind of lean into it as well. And this gets a nice shoulder distraction stretch here. So this is just an alternative option. Also helps kind of with that side movement a little bit more.
Brad: That's right, good luck with that. I think one of these will work well for you. Ever have an issue getting your coat on?
Brad: This is a real common problem many people experience as you age. Shoulders tighten up. We've got a really nice exercise to keep that motion in gear so you're independent with this. Alright, so this is a general concept of the range we need to exercise and that's this right here, taking the back of your palm and getting it to this area.
Brad: You can see my palm is away from the body. And then we want to get this motion as far as we can without pain. That's going to get this whole motion to get the coat on much easier. It works for putting belts on and getting dressed and other areas as well. So how do we do that? There's two things you can use, a belt or you can use a stick like we'd used before. So Mike, should we talk about the belt option?
Mike: Yep, so what you're going to do to start is just feed the belt through so you have a little loop. I'm going to put it on my painful side. So we're going to say my left side is my painful side and I'm going to reach behind my back. What I'm going to do is use my good arm, my right arm here to actually help it up. So say I can only lift the here, but it doesn't hurt. I can stretch a little bit more by simply pulling with my right arm. And you can just hold this for 15 to 30 seconds and do it two to three times.
Brad: Now I want to emphasize a couple of things. First of all, you know it may not be painful, it's just tight, which is actually preferable because then we just want to stretch the muscle. If it's painful, just be careful you don't go into any sharp pain. Use a belt that's smooth. If you have a nice shiny belt that actually cuts the resistance over your shoulder, and makes it much easier to do. You can see Mike is getting a little further each time. In reality, you probably are not going to gain inches on the first day, you just stretch and then every day, work to stretch one or two times and work it up and down, five to 10 repetitions and then give it a break. If it gets sore the next day, it means you went too aggressively the first time, then wait a day or two and come back to it and then go after it again. Now the other way that I mentioned, if you're going to use a stick, a broomstick, anything like that, you need again something about four feet long. Okay, you could use a mop. This is a little weird. I'm going to actually use the Booyah Stik. It's a little easier, you can see it easier. But everything is the same. We want to get the stick behind our back. Now the way I always teach my patients is I say, put the stick in front of you. Now I want to stretch my left shoulder. So you take your right arm, the one that doesn't need stretching, grab it with your thumb down and simply lift it up and then go around the backside so it ends up here and simply you can, it's kind of like a back scratch or a long back scratcher. You're going to do this motion. Now that's the motion you're going to do. But you take the tight shoulder, grab here so the palm is away from your back. Now this can be a little difficult. You have to grab the stick. There we go, and I'm going to bring up here, grab the stick. This is where the belt, you don't have to do all this. Once you get to here, you simply slide up and down, working that stretch.
Brad: Oh, it's tight there, that's enough. You can hold it. Now after you've done this for a while and it starts to feel comfortable and you want to get a little more aggressive, then you simply, I'm going to pull this arm down and watch my shoulder and my arm point of the way.
Brad: This way this is more advanced. If you've got a tight shoulder, you will not be able to do this on the first day. It may take a couple, three weeks. We're just going to start again with this, not real aggressive, just so it stretches it gently. Okay, and then you let go. Bring the stick here and around. So, two options. Mike, what do you like to do?
Mike: Both of these.
Brad: Yeah. Again, work with these. Take your time with it. And you may need someone to help you to get the stick in position or even the belt the first couple times.
Brad: Mike, can you give me a piece of tape for this project?
Mike: No, my fingers aren't working.
Brad: It's pain and stiff. I having the same thing trying to cut this cardboard. And man, these joints are stiff. This is the kind of thing that's very common as we age. You get over 60, lot of people experience it. We're going to show you how to keep those fingers moving and pain-free.
Mike: So a simple stretch you can do at home is called a mirror stretch, meaning you are going to mirror one hand to the other. So simply put your fingertips together and then try and touch the whole hand together and lift the elbows up almost like you're doing a prayer here. And then come back out. So out and together, this is going to stretch those digits into extension, especially for those that kind of have arthritic bent hands, this can help with that.
Brad: That's right. Now the other option you can do, some people and you only have certain fingers that are tight, other ones are doing fairly well. So you go to the tight finger, mine, my third digit or the middle finger is always the tightest one on both hands for whatever reason. So what I like to do is take just that finger and I'll push it back. I'll take my thumb here and put it right at the joint and I'll stretch it about three or four, five times. I can hold it and you can do the good fingers as well, just to make sure that they're going to stay loose and nimble. You may get your knuckles to crack a little bit, feels good.
Brad: Make sure you do both hands. Ooh, this one needs it right now, we're working that. There we go, good. Sometimes you can do all the fingers at once if it's just a general stretch, that works very well. Now we also have something that's a real treat, a hand massager, and it's something you can just put your hand in it, work and it's very comfortable. I'm going to turn it on. It's got an LED light that goes on. Now when I first saw this, I really thought it was not going to be anything we wanted to recommend, but after using it, it really is a nice device. If you have the hands that are curled, it actually works on straightening them out. There's rollers in there that massage the fingers, massage the palm, you can adjust the heat. And here it is, it works very well. You can adjust how deep you put your hand in. You may come out this way to get a different part of the hand massage and stretched as well. It's really a nice device. We've also got another video that's going to help people out with other options.
Mike: Yeah, so check out our video "Three Must-Do Daily Strength Exercises for Seniors." So these are all stretches, those are strengthening exercises.
Brad: That's right, it's the full package.
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