G'day everyone, welcome back to another exercise video what we're going to go through in this video today, are some exercises to help with the symptoms of peripheral neuropathy in the lower legs and the feet now i do want this video today
to be an exercise video that you can follow if you're suffering with this condition, to help with
the pain symptoms and to also strengthen the legs, which has been proven to help with the symptoms of peripheral neuropathy, so i'm not going to talk about this condition too much at the beginning
now, i want you to get straight into the exercises however, to find out everything you need
to know about peripheral neuropathy, i have written an article on this i'll link to it up
here in the corner, make sure to check out that as well. okay so what you'll be needing for this
exercise video today is a tennis ball. i am going to be using another ball for this exercise
video today, i will just speak about that and a towel to do one of the stretches, a towel,
as we say it here in Australia so grabbing a towel and let's get into the exercises. so we're going
to start with some seated exercises, i'm going to take my shoes off, and then we'll get into it so nice and relaxed in your chair. throughout this exercise video, i want you to focus on relaxing as well because if you can settle down that nervous system, calm your nerves, you're going to experience less pain and other symptoms in those feet and the lower legs so what we're going to start with is just
by lifting the toes up just like this, lift them up, bring them back down we're going to do that
five times, following along with me, let's go, one two, nice and gentle, keeping everything
relaxed, hold them up for a few seconds as well three, hold those toes up great work let's do that two more, coming up and last one coming up excellent work okay now what we're going
to do are some toe splays, so we're just going to bring the toes apart like this, bring them back together bringing them apart. let's do that for five times now, so we're sitting up again, focus on relaxing
everything, the exercises are nice and gentle so let's go for five, splaying those toes excellent, bring them back together again, splaying those toes bringing them back together. let's go three more splaying those toes, bringing them back together and last one, splaying those toes bringing them back together excellent work. okay now we're just going to come up slowly onto those toes, so bring the feet in a little bit again, it's nice and relaxed, just getting some ankle movement in coming down, nice and slow again, coming up great work, coming down again, up. nice and gentle movement, don't force it, don't rush it coming down, now let's go two more, one and two, excellent work, bringing those feet out now, we're just going to bring the toes up, coming up onto our heels, so coming up that's it, nice and gentle, we're going to do that five times, let's go one two three four and last one, five, excellent work okay let's just shake out those legs now what we're going to do now are some ankle pumps, so we're going to sit back in our chair like this and we're just going to bring our toes away from us like this, then bring them them up towards us, so nice gentle movements toes away from us toes in towards us, and we're just going back and forth really moving those ankles through range that's it, so going at your own pace try to go as far as you can down, and then
bringing them back up towards you this is a good exercise to do throughout the day just to get that circulation in your lower legs if you've got any fluid in the
area as well, gets it moving around that's it, so just go back and forth excellent work, let's do the same thing on the other side now so bring the toes out away from you then in towards you, away from you again in towards you, you're going at your own pace just running that ankle through its range excellent work back and forth just pumping those ankles nice and controlled, relaxed movement excellent work okay so let's shake out those legs now again what we're going to do now are some stretches of the lower legs. we're going to start with the
hamstrings, which is the upper leg, actually, you are going to feel it behind the knee as well so you're up nice and tall, hands on your hips like this one leg is out straight like this, with your toes
facing towards the ceiling with your hips facing to the front, your chest facing towards the front as well, so you're not turned to one side you're just going to keep that upright
body, and you're just going to lean forward until you can feel a stretch in the back of that leg you're not forcing this stretch, as soon as you feel the stretch, just ease into it a little bit more and let's hold this stretch for 30 seconds that's it great work and let's go for ten more seconds, let's
come a little bit further forward now and five four three two one excellent work let's do the same thing on the other side, up nice and tall toes are facing towards the ceiling and we're just going to lean forward towards that leg, making sure the leg's straight and holding for 30 seconds again relax into this stretch that's it, you're not tense, you're nice and relaxed okay again holding for 30 seconds,
we've got about 15 seconds to go making sure those toes are facing the front and five four three two one great work, shaking out those legs okay so what we're going to do now is grab our towel, we're going to roll it up nice and tight just like this okay so it's like this, and then what we're going to do is place our leg out in front of us like we just did with the toes facing towards the ceiling, leg's straight, we're placing the towel over the top of our foot we're in that upright posture, now we're gently pulling that towel in towards us whilst we're in that upright posture making sure that leg's straight, we're feeling the stretch in the back of that lower leg again, holding for 30 seconds a nice gentle stretch in the back of those legs don't force it, don't pull the towel in too hard maintaining that upright posture as well. okay let's go for another 10 more seconds with this stretch remember to breathe throughout. five more seconds,
and three two one, great work let's now bend the knee with this exercise so we'll bring it in a little bit only a little bit, not all the way in the towel remains on the bottom of our feet just around the ball of the feet okay so we're pulling those toes in towards us up nice and tall feeling the stretch in the ankle and the back
of that lower leg again, holding for 30 seconds that's it, relaxing into it, don't strain okay 30 seconds - 15 seconds to go and ten nine eight seven six five four three two and one great work, now let's do the same thing on the other side now so our leg's straight, toes are facing towards the ceiling we're in that upright posture we're just bringing, or pulling, the towel in gently towards us, feeling the stretch in the back of that lower leg relaxing into it, nice and relaxed stretching out that calf excellent work 15 seconds and ten nine eight seven six five four three two and one great work, okay so let's do the same thing bending the knee in adjusting gradually, so that slight bend in the knee, i'm doing the same thing, just bring the towel in stretching that soleus again, that's the back of the lower leg nice and gentle holding for 30 seconds relaxing your body, remembering to breathe let's go for another 15 seconds and ten nine eight seven six five four three two and one great work, bring that towel out okay shaking out your legs taking a nice, gentle breath in nice and deep, and a gentle breath out okay relaxing, or shaking out those legs again, nice and gentle okay so we're going to do a strengthening exercise for the quads now. so what we're going to do is sit back in our chair and we're just going to bring the leg up like this, strengthening the front of that upper thigh,
or strengthening the front of those thighs so we're going to bring that down, again, coming up we're holding for five seconds bringing it down. let's go, three more, coming up holding for five seconds bringing it down and let's go again making sure that leg is straight, holding for five seconds bringing it down, and once more, coming up holding for five seconds bringing it down let's do the same thing on the other side now bring that leg up, making sure the leg's
straight, we're holding for five seconds bringing it down again, coming up five four three two one, coming down and let's go, coming up five four three two and one coming down, let's have a little rest got two more to go, coming up coming down and last one, coming up coming down, great work, shaking out those legs okay so we're going to get into some standing exercises to help with your symptoms of peripheral neuropathy now what we're going to start with are some calf raises, so standing up nice and tall behind your chair we're just going to come up onto those toes hold slowly coming down okay we're going to do that for
five repetitions, let's go, nice and slow, coming up coming down coming up coming down again, coming up slowly coming down. let's go two more, coming up coming down and last one, coming up slowly coming down. okay gently shake out those legs okay let's take a deep breath in and a slow breath out focus on relaxing your body again making sure there's no strain throughout, you're nice and relaxed excellent work. okay so now we're going to
do a similar exercise this time, we're bringing up the toes so we're coming up onto those heels, like this slowly coming down, let's go for five one two three four and last one five excellent work, shaking out those legs again okay so let's do some hip extensions now, so we're going to work
our glutes. again, we're up nice and tall bring the leg back like this coming forward, we're going to go for five, let's go, one two three four and five, excellent work okay so we're going to do the same on this leg now we're going for five repetitions, let's go, one two three four and five great work shaking out those legs again okay now what we're going to do is bring the leg up back like this so we're doing some knee bends, coming back, nice
and gentle. we're just going to go for five, one two three four and five great work now we'll do the same on the other side let's go for five, one two three four and five great work, shaking out those legs okay so we're going to do some hip abductions now we'll start with this side bring the leg out to the side so you'll be standing behind your chair, we're just going to go five out to the side so we're leading with the heel, toes are facing the front let's go, one two three four and five, great work onto the other leg now let's go for five one two three four, and last one five, excellent work. let's shake out those legs we're going to take another breath in and a gentle breath out okay let's do some balance work now. so with this
exercise, you can do it in three ways you can do it with your feet apart, just like this, hands by your side you do it in a split stance position, like this or like this, one foot in front, whichever way. so it's easier if you've got your legs apart, to make it a little bit more challenging you can bring them together, like this, with one foot in front and then you'll change sides, or you
can do a single leg stance, standing on one leg and holding this. you can start by holding onto the chair i'm going to do the single leg stance so get yourself into position, you can do this
exercise with one of the other ones, as i just said and we're going to hold this for 30 seconds. so
we're working that balance which can become affected if you have pain or other symptoms, maybe it's numbness in the lower legs, or your feet okay so following along with me, holding onto the chair if you need to now let's hold for another 10 seconds and five four three two one excellent work, shaking out those legs let's do the same thing on the other side holding on to the chair, taking your hand off if you can we're going to hold this again, for about 20 to 30 seconds remember, to get better with your balance, you want to progress that time if you do practice this, it will get better okay holding onto the chair if you need to excellent work and 10 more seconds and five four three two one, excellent work, shaking out those legs taking a deep breath in and out okay so now what you'll be using is a ball. we're going to do some desensitization work by running the ball along the bottom of our feet so taking a seat in your chair okay so i've got a spiky massage ball here with
me today. we're not going to use it today, but i am just showing you what these are, and why they could
be helpful. i've also got a tennis ball, which we will be using today now what we're doing right now is basically or not only massaging out the bottom of our feet, but we're also using the texture of a ball, like the spikey ball or a tennis ball, which can help stimulate the nervous system and calm down those nerves, so many people do find relief in doing what we're about to do today. not only
will it help with the pain symptoms with the massage, but as i said, that desensitization work, by the different textures of these balls so we're going to use a tennis ball today, we're just placing it underneath our foot, like this, and we're just running our foot over the ball so we're massaging out the bottom of our foot so nice and gentle that's it getting in that massage okay don't go too hard, you don't want it to hurt okay so you can do this for about five minutes,
we're only going to do it for about a minute today, so changing balls over or ball over to the other feet the other foot i should say we're just gently running again, running our foot over the top of the ball and you can do this throughout the day as well, if you do experience relief with it okay so let's go for another 10 seconds and five four three two one excellent work. okay so let's take a deep breath in and a nice gentle breath out okay so now we're just going to do some breathing,
and also relaxing in the body which can help with symptoms as well so sitting back in your chair taking a deep breath in and a gentle breath out okay so closing the eyes and what you're just going to do is sit here,
focusing on your breathing so gentle breaths in and out really concentrate on that, and with every in and out breath, just focus on getting more and more relaxed into your chair so again breathing in and out notice how you feel in different areas
of the body, and just relaxing those areas getting your whole body relaxed so from your shoulders to your chest the upper back the stomach focus on your breathing as you're relaxing as well the lower back the thighs, the front of the thighs your glutes your hamstrings the knees the back of the knees now focus on those calves notice what you feel and just relax the area and do the same for the front of the leg now the feet the bottom of the feet and the toes okay let's take a deep breath in and gentle breath out opening those eyes, sitting up and we're all done for this exercise video
today, to help you with your peripheral neuropathy remember, stay consistent with these exercises and make sure you're not over doing them as well, so gradually build them up over time you want to be building up that strength gradually, and you want to be keeping your lower limbs and your feet moving you just don't want to do too much too soon, because that's going to defeat the purpose of what you're doing today make sure to head over to morelifehealth.com, and read my article on peripheral neuropathy which again, i'll link up here in the corner and make sure to like this video, if you did get some benefit from it and i'll catch you again soon for more exercise videos until then, keep moving, and i'll catch you next time
