♪ Bob and Brad, ♪ ♪ The two most famous ♪ ♪ Physical therapists on the internet. ♪ - Hi folks. I'm Bob
Schrupp, physical therapist. - Brad Heineck, physical therapist. - And we are the most
famous physical therapists on the internet. - In our opinion, of course, Bob. - Brad, today, you wanna talk about 10 best balance exercises that a person with vestibular or vertigo
symptoms could, could perform. - Sure. Right. If you're
having some, some dizziness with head movement and that kind of thing, first of all, you should
try and get it treated by, you know, having a, a
therapist work the Epley maneuver or whatever, whatever- - Whatever's gonna be
appropriate for you, yeah. - But if you're still having
some, some of those symptoms, these are good exercises to
help tune it in, you know. - To follow up with maybe? - To minimize your, your risk for falls. And you can do these
even if you don't have vestibular or vertigo symptoms. They're just plain good exercises. - Good, good balance exercises for someone who's having
trouble with their balance. - Exactly. - By the way, Brad, I see some people that are new out there. So if you are new to our channel, please take a second to subscribe to us. Our subscribe buttons right
here on my left, your right. We provide videos on how to
stay, healthy fit, pain free. And we upload every day. - Say no more, Bob. - All right. I won't - Okay. Balance exercise. We're gonna talk it from, talk about it from the toes to the eyes. Okay. So we're gonna start
out low down by the ankles. One thing that, you know,
all therapists know, they call the ankle strategy
for staying balanced. I'm not gonna go into detail about it, but if you don't have strong
ankles and feet muscles, your balance is not gonna be as good. So this, the nice thing
about this, it's simple. If you have some balance problems, you may have a chair, hold onto that. You're gonna just go up on your toes. Simple heel ups, I call them. Some people might call
them toe ups, whatever. You're just gonna go up like
this, up with good posture. And you're gonna go as high as you can. You're gonna do 10 to 15 of these, okay? And then you're gonna rest. You might do three sets of those a day. Morning, afternoon, and evening. - Three sets of 10? - Or 15. - Or 15, okay. - Whatever you want. But along with that, I'm
gonna add a bonus on that. You're gonna go up here. You might as well go back
and lift your toes up so you're back on your heels, okay? So you get a rocking
motion, okay? Get hold- - So Brad, you could hold
onto a countertop too, right? You mention that? - Right, as a matter of
fact, yeah, a lot of times we have people go to the kitchen sink so they can get their fingers
over the top, like here, and they have something steady
so that when you go back, if you were to happen
to lose your balance, you can catch yourself. This works to, and to your part. And this is also good for walking so that you don't get toe drag as you swing your foot
through and your toe catches. You can eliminate that
potential, therefore resisting, reducing your risk for fall. - [Bob] Amazing how much of your balance comes from your ankles. - Yeah. Yeah. This is one
of those simple things that, that we can do as therapists,
usually with older people. But if someone had an
injury, you'll work these, get those ankles strengthened
up after ankle sprains. - [Bob] What's nice is you
can do it throughout the day, real easy. - Exactly. Exactly. And once those become easy, then you're gonna go just
to the single leg balance. And again with this, one
hand on something solid. You might want to have two to start with, and just see how you
can balance on one leg. If that's pretty easy, you
know, you might go to one hand, and this is an amazing thing, Bob. One of those little
things that therapists do. I know I do this a lot. If this is not too hard, well, then I say go just to fingertips. And then I'll say, if that's easy, well just go to three fingertips,
a thumb and two fingers. And it's amazing. - [Bob] What a difference it is. Yeah. - And how much that helps. And then I'll say go to one finger, and things are going like this. And when that gets easier,
then it's like this, and then time yourself and see
if you can go for 30 seconds. But make sure you do both legs, because you wanna make sure you're even. - [Bob] And I've had people
brush their teeth that way, Brad, when they get better. So that it's a really good
reminder every day to work on it. And it's also, the brushing
throws you off a little bit. - Yeah. You're thinking
about something else, so your vision is on something else. - Right. And you're shaking,
you know, so you're not, you're trying to have
to hold your balance. - And we're also crossing the midline which is a big component
for vestibular problems. 'Cause when things cross the midline, it changes your balance. And we're not gonna get
into the details of that. The next thing is, Bob,
can you throw me the foam? - [Bob] Gotcha. - If you're at home, if you're doing this, you need to do it with a partner. You gotta have a belt on so your partner can hold
you so you don't fall over, but just get a piece of foam. If you can get an old piece of furniture or you can find a piece
of foam rubber like this. - So I'd be behind you
holding onto your belt. - Exactly. Yep. And this really makes a big
difference on your balance. Well thank you, Bob. Okay. So you're just gonna, just
get a feel for it first. It's good to time yourself. Go for 30 seconds is
a good place to start, or even 15 seconds, depending
on your level, okay? And once you feel comfortable here, the next thing I like to have people do, and with this again, could
you grab me a cane, Bob? - Sure. - I'm gonna hold on to this chair here. You might have a cane. You could pull a chair
up to the other side. Go ahead, hold me, Bob.
I might need some help. And we're simply gonna
start adding some squats. Now, when I say squats, we're
not gonna go way down to here. Okay. We start out easy. Once you get so far, if
you can't get back up, then the person behind
you has a big job to do. - Yeah. They'll pull you up. - Yeah. Okay. So we're just
gonna work simple squats. If this gets too easy, take the hand off of
here and work the cane. If that gets too easy,
we're gonna do 10 at a time. If you can do 10 with good
stability, the cane goes out here and then we add it, and that
makes quite a difference, okay? All right. Then... - By the way, I wanna
call this foam at home. - Yeah. Foam at home. This is even, this is
for the advanced level. Close your eyes. There you go. And then we start to do
the marching, and this is- - With your eyes closed? - Wow. Yeah. You definitely
need someone here, and it's good to start
here and here again. You can see this all
progresses. Then here. That gets too easy. Then here. Hands here. And now if you really are good, you might go to one legged stance again. I'm not getting into that.
That's pretty high level. If you're doing that, you're, you're probably a gymnast
or something of that nature. Okay. Now this last part,
you can let go, Bob. - You wanna do the leg
ball toss? Or is that not? - Well, no, actually I'm
gonna get to that, Bob. - Okay. Sounds good. - Because I, I want to
talk a little more time on, this is more the vestibular part, is where you're focusing
with your eyes, okay? People who have vestibular
problems and they're walking, and they'll shift their
eyes to look at something, or they're gonna turn, and
that can throw them off. One thing I want you to practice
on is when you're walking, and you're gonna turn to the right, the first thing you're
gonna do is turn your eyes to the right, and then
turn to the right, okay? So it's split up and two separate things. - Sure. Eyes first, then actually move your neck and body. - Exactly. And you can, you know, you could practice zig
zagging like this. Over here. Now you might not be able to see this, but it's eye shift first and then over. - So as an actual exercise, you can practice this, and
we've done this with patients. 'Cause it's amazing how that plays into the vestibular system.
The, the eye movement. - And again, there's, this is
a, a real neurological thing. But when your eyes cross
the center line, that makes, that can make a big difference on your balance and how you feel. And this can be good for strokes too. People that had strokes. - When Brad talks about the center line, it's the line that goes right
down the center of your body. - Right. - So if he, if his eyes, you know, normally are looking
just straight forward. But now if he looks
towards me with his eyes, this eye has crossed the center line. - Right. Right. And it's just amazing. You could take a a whole year class on the neuro system, and still not- - Very, very complicated. - Exactly. Okay, this is a nice test. Or nice, not a test, but a nice... - Exercise?
- Exercise. - You don't have to have cones. You can put anything you
want that you can see. It's nice to use something soft, actually, like maybe some stuffed dolls, because if you step on them,
you don't break anything, and you're less chance for falling. And this one, I just
learned the other day. It's called the infinity
or the figure eight test. - Well couldn't you put this down there? This is nice and soft. - Oh, Bob, Bob. Oh,
Bob. We're serious here. Okay. Actually that would be
a nice thing. Let's do this. Take this nice Green Bay Packer, or brown ball, or whatever you got for me, and go hold it over there. 'Cause that's something that's attractive. Okay. Now, even back up a little bit, Bob. So you're gonna look, pick something. You're gonna look out in front of you. - [Bob] So you're looking at the ball. - I'm looking at the ball, okay? And I'm gonna make a figure eight first. I'm just gonna do this. You'll see the foot pattern,
and I'm just gonna walk. And right now I'm
looking down at the floor so I can see where I'm going. Once you get that so you feel stable, then you pick out your, your object. I'm gonna look at that nice Packer ball, and I'm gonna keep my eye on it. And now I'm crossing here,
and I'm continuing to look. - [Bob] Which is a lot
more difficult to do, isn't it Brad? - Yeah. And right now my head and eyes are crossing my midline. And that may be the part where it's really gonna throw people off. And plus you need to pay
attention to where you're walking. I'm looking at one point, and you just do this
until you feel stable. And this may take time to
retrain your mind and your body. This, when you're normal
and you have no problems, it seems like what's the big deal? But if you've got some
vestibular problems, or after a stroke... - [Bob] Very difficult to deal. - Yeah. That can be very challenging. - [Bob] That's what
often throws people off. That's where they lose their balance. - Yep. Exactly. All right. Now you can play with this one, Bob. This is kind of one of those fun ones, but it's a nice thing to do. Take, take a ball, okay? Face the camera, Bob. - All right. Face the camera. - So now we're just gonna work
on regular standing balance. As a matter of fact, I'll,
I'll be the advanced person. I'll stand on my foam and do this 'cause this is a little harder to do. And just bounce the ball and catch it. There you go. Bounce
the ball and catch it. - How come I have two balls? - Now take the other hand,
bounce the ball and catch it. Okay. Bounce the ball and catch it. Okay. When you can do that,
bounce the ball and catch it. Bounce the ball, trade hands, and catch it with the other hand. - Like that? - Kind of like that.
Bounce, trade, and catch. The thing is, is we're crossing, not with your eyes, also with your eyes, but with your hand as well,
you crossing the midline, okay? Now put one ball down. We're gonna, we're going through
this a little quickly but, 'cause these are more advanced. You bounce the ball, catch it. - With the opposite hand. - Yep. And put it behind your back, and then come over to here. Bounce the ball, catch it. Put it behind your back and over to here. And then you can advance
that to two balls. Bounce, behind the back, and catch. Bounce, behind the ball, and catch. - Wow. - Try it, Bob. It's fun. - Bounce the ball, behind the back. - Well you played basketball. - Well you didn't think
I was gonna have trouble. - Whoa. All right. So those are the exercises. You can go from easier to harder, to more visual and vestibular. They're a excellent
routine to get through. So what do you say, Bob? - I say that sounds
like a good idea, Brad. - Okay. - Thanks for watching. - Good luck with your balance.
