- Alright, I am excited today to tell you about this story. And this story relates to the exercise that are gonna keep you
moving, mobile, and pain-free. This is about a 105-year-old woman, her name was Mildred Holt. I don't believe she's alive anymore, but as about 30 years
ago, on the Johnny Carson, so you can know my age, I
was watching Johnny Carson, she had a interview with
Johnny, and he said, "How do you keep yourself
so mobile and active?" And she was very alert. She did use a cane, we gotta give her a little break there, but she was a wonderful person, very motivational and enthusiastic. Mike, how will you relate
this to our experience? - So Bob, Brad, and myself, have worked with senior clientele for a combined 72 years,
- That's right. - if you add us all together into one. So these three stretches can
help anyone, 50 or older, feel mobile, keep moving,
and being functional throughout your life. - That's right. Let's get it all going here. Alright, now the version
on YouTube with Mildred, that I watched, it was what, eight minutes long? She does not answer this
question on that video. However, one of the questions
that Johnny Carson asked, "How did you keep yourself so mobile and active and healthy?" And she says, "Well, every
morning when I get out of bed, I stand up and I praise
the sky and the Lord, and I bend over and praise the earth. And I do that a few times." That's one of our key exercises. And we're gonna take the
exercises that we're giving, and they relate to this exercise, and we'll explain it in detail. And what's the benefits
of these exercises, Mike? - There are three benefits. They're gonna help with circulation, - Circulation. - Help reduce pain,
- Pain. - and improve your overall posture. - That's right. Key things in keeping your body upright, healthy, and mobile. Alright, let's get onto
the three exercises. We're gonna show two different versions. One in the seated position,
to work the ankles, and we're gonna go up in
the hip and the trunk. And then the hands. The hip and the trunk is just
like what Mildred is doing in her exercise demo. But we're gonna show a seated version and a standing version. If your balance is off, you
don't feel steady standing, do the seated ones,
they're gonna work well. More aggressively, stand and do it that way, you'll understand it. Number one, we'll work the ankles. We're simply gonna work,
pulling the feet back, doing ankle pumps, and then down, and then back and down. Do 10 of those. The next thing we're gonna go into, is little more aggressive
stretch for the ankles, to prevent foot drop. And that's a common thing as we age. Simply bring your leg over like this. If you have this flexibility, grab those toes, or the
forefoot, and pull up, and feel that stretch right here. Now you can hold this for five seconds. If you wanna go longer, 10 to 15 is great. Even longer if you want, but
that's getting a long time. Make sure you do both feet. Now if this is too simple, simply do the exercises
that Mike is gonna do. More aggressive and standing. - When doing this in a standing position, you can begin with a
book on the floor first. You can be up next to a wall. To mimic the ankle pumps, you're simply gonna go up on your toes, and then back down on your heels. Like Brad said, make sure
to do 10 repetitions, slow and controlled. Obviously you have your
body weight above you, so it's gonna be more challenging. Now to mimic the figure-four
stretch he was doing, all you have to do is
leave your feet on here, and then lean forward. You can do this for 20 or 30 seconds, and you will feel a good
calf stretch as well. - Mike, Mike, just wait. Let me add the book section. We're using that to simply dorsiflex and get more stretch in the calf muscle. If you already feel a
stretch without the book, you can do that. If the book isn't enough,
simply get two books, or a thicker book, or do what Mike is gonna suggest next. - So you can just perform
this on your stairs. You can hold on for support if needed. You certainly don't have to. Going through this full range of motion with this ankle pumps, is really gonna work those calf muscles. You may not feel it right away, but the next day you
might be a little sore. So just stick to one set of 10 to begin. And again, you can hold
the stretch like this for 20 to 30 seconds, and get a good calf stretch. - That's right. So with both of these, make sure you do them at
least once a day to start. Get to the soreness if you have it. And you can bump up to two
or three times per day. And they only take minutes. Alright, stretch number two. This is very similar
to the Mildred stretch. We're gonna show a seated version, as well as a standing, as she was doing. Now it's very particular
that you do 5 to 10 reps. Start out with three to five, build up to 10. And if you get dizzy or lightheaded
while you're doing this, that means you need to stop. You should probably see your doctor, and get your blood pressure
and your heart checked over, so they should feel comfortable. When in a seated position, kinda get to the edge
of the chair, like this. A firm chair works best. You're gonna reach down to the floor, stretch the back. I actually like to put my
fingertips here and stretch, if you can reach the floor, some people are not that flexible. Then go up and we're gonna stretch back, and do that wonderful stretch. Bob calls it the hallelujah stretch, Mildred talks about praising the sky. Go back down. Now as you do this, and repeat, and then you're not getting dizzy, remember that's critical, we're gonna come back up and breathe in, (Bob and Mike inhales deeply) in through your nose, and then exhale out your mouth going down. You notice we're doing
it relatively snow there, slow.
(Mike laughs) It's winter time here,
so I'm thinking snow. And then we come back up. Again, three times to start out with. Do what's comfortable. You can do it 5 to 10 times. Oh man, no wonder she is 105 years old. I'm feeling better already. Mike, can you talk about
the standing position? - So, if you're doing it standing, make sure you're up against a cupboard, or something tall behind you, so you can keep your balance, and don't feel like you're
gonna tip backwards. When you bend down to the floor, it's important to try
to maintain a flat back. You don't have to round. Obviously, if you're not lifting weights and it doesn't hurt, it won't be the end of the world. But just stretch down
what you comfortably can, as long as it's not painful. And then come up and extend. Now if you do have some
shoulder limitations, you can grab both hands together, or simply just kinda
push at your low back. - There you go. I'm gonna suggest, if the
first time you do this and you're concerned at
all about your steadiness, simply put a chair in front of you, and as you bend forward, you can hang onto the armrest to make sure you're safe and steady. There's absolutely
nothing wrong with that, and I'll encourage it actually. Alright, let's get onto
the hands and the wrists. Very important to keep ourselves functional on a daily basis. Simply go out, open and
close those fingers. Get it wide as you can. Don't make a real tight fist, just enough to touch the palms. And open and close. Five to ten repetitions. Let's go on to the wrist, Mike. - So for the wrist to begin, you can keep a light fist
and just do little circles, like you're stirring a pot
of whatever you're making, soup maybe. And then you're gonna go the
opposite direction as well. Do 10 repetitions each way. Do we wanna go into the forearms? - Yeah, let's do the forearms and elbows. - So we're gonna start doing
supination and pronation. I'm gonna keep my elbows
next to my body for this. I don't wanna turn from
my shoulder joint here. So you're just gonna bring
your palms up and palms down. This is supination, pretending you're holding a bowl of soup. I'm just talking about
soup today apparently. And then you go back down,
10 repetitions each way. - Good. I do wanna say a lot of people have
problems with, as we age, getting our hands fully straight. Curvature in the finger and
it gets stiff like that. So we're gonna focus on
that before we finish up. So there's a couple options. First of all, if you can put
your fingertips together, just as if you put your hand on a mirror, the fingertips touch
perfectly on the mirror, do that and then slowly come together. So the fingers touch, the knuckles at the palm touch, the palm touch, and then elbows up, and then repeat. This is a real nice stretch. Relax while you'll do it. Don't push it so hard
that you get sharp pain, because that's too aggressive. Just work it gently. It will come over time, 'cause we're gonna do these daily. Mike, for the people
that are more advanced and want a little more
pressure and aggressive, can you show them how
to do it on the wall? - So if you have trouble
extending your fingers, like we just showed, on the wall, bring your
arm out in front of you. Start with the fingertips flat, touching the wall like this, and try to flatten your
fingers against the wall. You may not be able to
get flat right away, and keep a nice straight
arm in front of you. This will help stretch into extension, which can get tight on some people. - Right, the big advantage of this, is you can do that, and actually use your body weight for a little extra force. Then you can relax, let gravity work for you, and work with that. So let's carry on and wrap this up, Mike. Alright, so do these exercises. Once you get used to them, you'll be able to get through them within a few minutes. Do them daily, and even twice a day. Again, I really wanna thank Mildred Holt. She did a wonderful job. Inspirational. Mike, you can link that, so other people can watch this interview? - Yes, there'll be two links
on the video screen here. One is Mildred's interview, you can check it out if you'd like. The other video is more
exercises you can do as you age, to stay active and mobile. - That's right. It's a real treat. I'd advise anybody to watch it. Johnny Carson, if you haven't
seen him and you're younger, definitely watch it. He's one of a kind, isn't he? - He was not my era, so no remarks.
- Yeah, yeah, whatever. (Mike laughs) ♪ Bob and Brad ♪ ♪ The two most famous ♪ ♪ Physical therapists ♪ ♪ On the internet ♪
