Leg Exercise - Seated Hamstring Stretch 1

Commonly Used For: Knee pain and low back pain.

Video Transcription: This is a seated hamstring stretch. It is nice to perform if you are stuck in a sitting position for a long time, like a long car trip, or at the office. All you need is a chair, or a couch. What you are going to do is sit on the edge. You are going to extend the leg out in front of you that you want to stretch, sit up nice and tall, so that you are not slumping through your lower back. You want to be all the way up, nice neutral spine position, then — maintaining that position — you are going to slowly lean forward, until you feel a stretch in the back of your thigh. Hold that position for about thirty seconds to a minute and then you can back out of it. You want to make sure that when you are doing the stretch, you are not letting your knee bend. If you find that your knee does keep bending, you can use your hands to put gentle pressure above your knee cap on your thigh and help hold it in a straightened position. And that is your seated hamstring stretch.

Leg Exercise - Seated Hamstring Stretch 2

Commonly Used For: Knee pain and low back pain.

Video Transcription: This is a seated hamstring stretch, which you might perform if you have tight hamstrings, and this might be causing low back pain, knee pain. So what you're going to do is sit, you're going to extend the leg out in front of you that you want to stretch, the other leg can be bent, up. You want your foot pointing straight up towards the ceiling. You're going to sit up nice and tall. You want to make sure you're not slumping through your low back. Everything should be nice and upright. And keeping your spine in that nice, neutral position, you're going to slowly lean forward until you feel a stretch in the back of your thigh. You're going to hold that position for 30 seconds to a minute. And then you can slowly back out of it. And that's your hamstring stretch.

Leg Exercise - Standing Hamstring Curl

Commonly Used For: Knee pain or post-surgical recovery.

Video Transcription: I'm going to show you a standing hamstring curl which is an easy way to do some lower level hamstring strengthening which is the muscle on the back of your thigh here. So want you want to do is to find something to hold on to for balance. It can be a chair, counter top, anything that is sturdy. You're going to hold on there, you're going to bend the knee of the leg that you are trying to strengthen. Keeping your thighs parallel to each other; you're going to just bend your knee, up like this, like you're kicking your bottom. You want to make sure that you don't let your knee creep forward, as you do this exercise it should stay in line with your opposite thigh. You're just going to bring it up, just like that and you should feel the muscle on the back of your thigh working. If it's too easy you can strap on an ankle weight to add some more weight to your strengthening exercise, and then do it with that ankle weight strapped on. [Here's a set of ankle weights from Amazon.com.] So that's your basic hamstring curl.

Leg Exercise - Supine Hamstring Stretch

Commonly Used For: Knee pain and back pain.

Video Transcription: This is a supine hamstring stretch. It's a nice way to stretch the back of your thigh in a relaxed position where you're laying down. So what you want to do is lay down, preferably on a more solid surface. One leg can be straight out. The other leg that you're going to stretch, you're going to bend up and slowly straighten your knee all the way up towards the ceiling. You want to hold that stretch, feeling it along the back of your thigh and maybe in the back of your knee for 30 seconds to a minute. If you have any neural tension, your healthcare provider might prescribe ankle pumps which is just pumping your ankle up and down so your toes are moving towards your face and up towards the ceiling. And you're going to feel a pull in the back of your calf and behind your knee. The pulling should get less the more that you pump. If it gets more intense or painful, then stop performing the ankle pump. If you're not flexible enough to reach your own thigh, it's nice to use a strap. You can get one of these online or at any sporting goods stores , or just use a rope. This one's nice because it has handles [here it is from Amazon.com]. So you're going to hook it onto the bottom of your foot, lay down and now, you can slowly bring your leg up until you feel a nice stretch, again, in the back of your thigh here behind your knee. Hold that position 30 seconds to a minute, trying to keep your knee as straight as possible. And that's your supine hamstring stretch.

Leg Exercise - Straight Leg Raise

Commonly Used For: Knee pain and post-surgical recovery.

Video Transcription: I'm going to show you how to do a straight leg raise which is a good exercise for getting your quads to turn back on after a knee injury. So what you want to do is you're going to lay down, the side you want to strengthen is going to be straight, the opposite leg can stay in a bent position to help support your lower back. You want to bring your toes up towards the ceiling, that's going to help you turn your quad on. Tighten your leg so that your knee goes down towards the floor, keeping your leg as straight as you can, and then you're going to lift up just until your thighs meet and then slowly back down. So raising and lowering, making sure that you keep your leg as straight as you can the whole time, you should not let your knee bend. To help you make sure that you keep your knee in that nice tight position, you might want to make a tightening at the bottom, raise and then squeeze your quads again when you get to the top, lower, tighten again, raise, squeeze again. And repeat just up and down just like that making sure everything stays nice and straight, and that's your straight leg exercise.

Leg Exercise - Hamstring Curls with Swiss Ball

Commonly Used For: Knee pain and post-surgical recovery.

Video Transcription: I'm going to show you how to do hamstring curls with an exercise ball now [here's a Swiss Ball via Amazon.com]. It's a great way to strengthen the muscles in the back of your thigh here as well as turning on your core muscles as they'll be needed to stabilize you on the ball. So, you're going to get down on the floor, put your feet up on the ball, lay down flat. You're going to tighten your stomach muscles first in order to help prevent any sort of low back pain. You're going to bridge up, and then, maintaining that bridge with your hips nice and level, your going to curl the ball in towards your bottom and back out, maintaining your hips the same level the whole time. The tendency is to let your hips drop as you curl the ball in, so make sure you stay up nice and high, maintaining that bridge while you curl the ball in and out. You should feel a nice burn going on in your hamstrings. So, that's your hamstring curls with the exercise ball.

Leg Exercise - Bridge Exercise with Swiss Ball

Commonly Used For: Knee pain, hip pain, back pain and core strengthening.

Video Transcription: I'm going to show you how to do bridges with an exercise ball [here's one from Amazon.com], which is a good way to strengthen both your glutes and your hamstrings as well as your core, as you'll be needing to stabilize the exercise ball. So, what you're going to do is you're going to get on the floor. You're going to put your feet up on the ball, lay down flat. You can do this with either your knees bent or straight. So, you're going to keep your knees straight, you're going to have your feet up on the ball and just lift straight up, squeezing your glutes as you lift up off the floor and slowly lowering yourself back down. So, where your core strengthening comes in is you need to keep it stable. Don't let it wiggle around. You're just nice and tight, and back down. If you're going to do it with your knees bent, bring the ball in a little bit more, dig your heels down into the ball, and bridge up nice and slow. This one, you're going to feel it a little bit more in those hamstrings as well as in the glutes. You should feel no low back pain with this. If you do, you might be either bridging up too high and arching your low back, or you need to tighten your stomach muscles more before you lift up off the ground. So that's how you do your Swiss Ball bridges.

Hip Exercise - Kneeling Hip Flexor Stretch

Commonly Used For: Hip pain, knee pain and low back pain.

Video Transcription: This is a kneeling hip flexor stretch that's going to stretch the muscles across both your hip joint and your knee joint that flex the hip. You're going to be kneeling so it's nice to use some sort of padding just so you don't bother your knees. This is just a gardening pad. You can get it at any hardware store. [Here's one from Amazon.com.] So what you're going to do is you're going to have to kneel on the side that you're going to stretch. The other leg can be up out in front of you. You want to make sure that your legs are pointing straight forward. Then, you're going to come up to your pelvis. Make sure that it's nice and tucked under. You don't want to arch through your low back. Keep your glutes squeezed and your abdominals tight, maintaining this tucked position. You're slowly going to lunge forward until you feel a stretch across the front of your hip and down in the front of your thigh. You should not feel any low back pain. If you do, back out of the stretch. You might have been arching too much. You need to tuck under more, really, really squeeze those glutes. That should help. You might feel a stretch right here without lunging forward at all. If you do, you can just hold it right there. If you don't, slowly lunge forward again until you feel that stretch down your thigh. Again, with no low back pain. And then you want to hold the stretch 30 seconds to a minute. That's your kneeling hip flexor stretch.

Hip Exercise - Side-lying Hip Abduction

Commonly Used For: Knee pain, hip pain and back pain.

Video Transcription: This is a side-lying hip abduction exercise which is a lower level way of strengthening your gluteus medias on the side of your hip here, which is important to have strengthened that muscle for running, jumping, walking — most activities you want to make sure that you have nice strong hips. So the way your going to do this is lay down on your side, the top leg is going to be the leg that you're strengthening. You want your hip stacked straight up towards the ceiling so you want to make sure you are not rocked back too far. Your bottom leg can be bent, to help you balance, your top leg is going to be straight with your ankle flexed so that its pointing straight forward and then your going to raise your leg up and slightly back, and back down, up and back, and you should feel that right in here. And that's your side-lying hip abduction exercise.

Hip Exercise - Standing Hip Abduction

Commonly Used For: Hip pain, knee pain and generalized leg weakness.

Video Transcription: This is standing hip abduction exercise, which is a low-level way of strengthening your gluteus medius on the side of your hip here. So, what you're going to do is you want to find something to hold on to, so a chair or a countertop, anything that has a sturdy surface for balancing. You're going to hold on. You want to bring your leg out to the side and a little bit backwards, and just repeat that. It's a small motion. You want to make sure that you're not hiking your hip up. Your hip should stay down and just your leg is moving. And again, you don't want to come straight out to the side. You want to go a little bit back and out to the side. You should feel it right here in the hip. And that's your standing hip abduction exercise.

Hip Exercise - Standing Hip Extension

Commonly Used For: Hip pain, knee pain and generalized leg weakness.

Video Transcription: This is a standing hip extension exercise which is a low level way to strengthen your glutes. What you are going to do is you want to find something to hold on to just for balance, so either a chair, counter top, anything sturdy. You are going to face that surface, tighten your stomach muscles and then slowly extend your leg back behind you. You want to make sure that you are not extending so far that you let you lower back arch. You want to keep that nice and tucked under and it is just a small arc of movement and you should feel it right here, right in your glutes. That is your standing hip extension exercise.

Hip Exercise - Supine Piriformis Stretch

Commonly Used For: Knee pain, back pain, hip pain, and sciatic nerve dysfunction.

Video Transcription: I'm going to show you a piriformis stretch which is a small stabilizing muscle in your hip here. It's commonly used to help treat sciatic nerve pain, hip pain, back pain, knee pain. It's a commonly tight muscle that causes problems. So what you're going to do is you're going to lay down. The side that you're stretching — in this case my right leg — is going to cross over your opposite side. You're going to put one hand on top of your knee. The other hand, over your ankle and then you're slowly going to pull towards your opposite shoulder until you feel a stretch right through your glutes here. You should not feel a pinch in the front of your thigh. If you do feel a pinch, you might need to stretch your hip flexors first [see: standing hip flexor stretch and kneeling hip flexor stretch]. If you get into this position and you don't feel a stretch, you can try raising up your opposite leg, grab behind your thigh and then, pull forward and that'll help give you a more intense stretch. You want to hold the stretch 30 seconds to a minute. And that's your piriformis stretch.

Leg Exercise - Bridge Exercise

Commonly Used For: Knee pain, hip pain and back pain.

Video Transcription: I'm going to show you how to do a bridge exercise which is a good way to strengthen your glutes and your hamstrings. What you want to do for this one is you're going to lay down flat. Your knees get to stay bent, about hip distance apart. Your feet flat on the floor. You're going to tighten your abdominal muscles first and then, you're slowly going to raise up until your pelvis is level with the top of your knees. You want to make sure that you don't go past that point and arch your low back. You want to stay right on a level position and then slowly back down. So you just slowly up, slowly down. Squeezing your glutes on the way up and relaxing on the way back down. You should not feel any low back pain with this exercise. If you do feel any pain on your back when you come up, try coming back down, tighten your stomach muscles more and don't raise up as high. If you continue to feel low back pain, then don't perform this exercise. If regular bridging is too easy for you, you can try performing a single leg bridge. What you're going to do is you're going to extend one leg straight out in front of you and then you're just going to bridge on the leg still down on the floor. Again, raising up, slowly back down. All the way up, slowly back down. So that's your single leg bridge.

Leg Exercise - Dynamic Hamstring Stretch

Commonly Used For: Pre-activity stretch.

Video Transcription: This is a dynamic hamstring stretch, which somebody who is more athletic might use before they went for a run or did any sort of sporting activity. It's a way to stretch your hamstring while also bringing blood flow to the area. So the way you're going to do this is you want to stay up nice and tall, keeping a neutral spine, and then you're just going to kick your legs up, out, in front of you. You want to make sure as you kick that you're not slouching through your lower back. You want to stay up nice and tall. You can also walk while you do it, if you prefer. So you can kick, step, kick, step, and so on, and that's a dynamic hamstring stretch.

Leg Exercise - Heel Raises

Commonly Used For: Plantar fasciitis, heel pain, foot pain, ankle weakness, and recovery from ankle sprain.

Video Transcription: I'm going to show you how to do heel raises, which is a good way to strengthen your calf muscles, which is this muscle right here in the back of your leg. It's important to have strong muscles here for any sort of athletic activities — running, jumping, jogging — as well as for creating good ankle stability and preventing heel and foot pain. So how you're going to do this is you want your feet hip distance apart. You're just going to slowly raise up onto your toes, making sure that the weight is over the inside parts of your big toes and not coming out on the outside edges of your feet. So the weight should be over those big toes the whole time, slowly back down. You're just going to raise up and down. Just like that, feeling the muscles working here in the back of your calves. If that's too easy, you can do what's called an eccentric heel raise, where you're going to raise up on both legs and then come down just on one. Up, and down. You can alternate sides as well, if you like. Up, and slowly down. If that's still too easy, you can do a single leg heel raise. Standing just on one leg, again, coming up with the weight over your big toe. Slowly, down. You want to make sure you come all the way up, slowly down. Just like that. And that's how you do your heel raises.

Leg Exercise - Standing Hamstring Stretch

Commonly Used For: Knee pain and low back pain.

Video Transcription: This is a standing hamstring stretch. This is a nice one to use when you're on the go. What you want to do is you're going to put the foot out in front of you that you're trying to stretch, keeping a nice, upright posture through your low back. You're slowly going to lean forward making sure that you hinge at your hips here, and not bending through your spine. So, hinging at the hips, slowly lean forward until you feel a nice stretch in the back of your thigh. Then you're going to hold that position 30 seconds to a minute. If you find that you're more flexible than that, and don't want to have to bend down as far, you can put your foot up on a solid surface like a chair, a curb, a car well, and that will start you off with a better stretch already. You want to stay up nice and tall again, and then just lean forward. This time you won't have to lean as far forward before you feel the stretch at the back of your thigh. Again, hold it 30 seconds to a minute. And that's your standing hamstring stretch.

Leg Exercise - Standing Quad Stretch

Commonly Used For: Knee pain and low back pain.

Video Transcription: I'm going to show you a standing quad stretch which is the way to stretch the muscles in the front of your thigh here, tightness in this region commonly causes low back pain as well as knee pain. So the way that you want to do it is if you have difficulty balancing you can use a chair or countertop or something steady to hold on to because you're going to stand on one leg, grab your ankle keeping your knee pointing straight down towards the floor, your going to bring your leg up towards your bottom, just like that. You wanna make sure that you're not letting your leg come forward. It should stay even with your opposite leg that your standing on. If you don't feel a stretch getting into this position, try squeezing your glutes, and that will intensify the stretch. You should feel it right in the front of your thigh here, is where you should feel the pulling sensation. You going to hold that 30 seconds to a minute, and that's your quads stretch.

Leg Exercise - Three-Way Hamstring Stretch

Commonly Used For: Knee pain and back pain.

Video Transcription: This is a three-way hamstring stretch used to get different angles of the muscles, and the back of your thigh. So how your going to do this, is your going to put your foot straight out in front of you, either on the floor, or up on the chair, if you're more flexible; or any sort of elevated surface. You want to make sure you keep your spine nice and upright, as you lean forward you don't want to slouch through your low back; so stay nice and upright. You're going to lean forward, hold that position for 30 seconds, and at the end of 30 seconds your going to rotate outward, until you feel a stretch more in your inner thigh, again hold that for 30 seconds. So thats the second way. And then your going to rotate the other way to get the third direction, and this one you should feel more on the outside edge, again holding for 30 seconds, and then back out of the strech. So that's your three-way hamstring stretch.

Leg Exercise - How to Foam Roll Your Quads

Commonly Used For: Knee pain.

Video Transcription: I'm going to show you how to foam roll your quads, which is the muscle in the front of your thigh here. It helps to relieve tightness here which commonly causes knee pain especially right below the knee cap there. So what you need is a foam roller which you can get online or in most sporting good stores [here's one at Amazon.com]. You're going to put it down perpendicular to you, come forward so that the foam roller is on your thighs; start just below the boney parts of your hips and then slowly roll yourself forward making sure that you don't roll over your actual knee cap. If you want more pressure just on one thigh to make it more intense, just pick your opposite foot up and cross it over your other leg and then again don't go over your actual knee cap. So that's how you foam roll your quads.

Leg Exercise - Eversion Ankle Exercise

Commonly Used For: Foot pain, ankle pain or dysfunction.

Video Transcription: I'm going to show you how to do an ankle eversion exercise. It works the muscle that's along here on the outside edge of your lower leg. It is important for providing ankle stability and preventing inversion ankle sprains. So you're going to need a length of exercise band that you can get online or at most sporting goods stores [here's one at Amazon.com]. You're going to want to tie a loop at the end, put it around your foot, and then step on it, go around your opposite foot. Hold it nice and tight, your going to point your toes and then just bring your toes out to the side, making sure that your knees stay straight up and down, you don't want your whole leg rocking as you do this it's just your ankle that's moving and you should feel the muscle working right in here. Slowly out and slowly back. Don't let the band whip you back to the starting position like that, it's part of the exercise to control it on the way back in. So that is your ankle eversion exercise.

Leg Exercise - Squats & Modified Squats

Commonly Used For: Knee pain and back pain.

Video Transcription: This is a squat exercise, which is a great functional exercise to get your quads and your glutes going. The way you want to do it is have something behind you just in case you tip over backwards, you'll sit instead of fall all the way over. You want to have your feet hip distance apart and you're slowly going to hinge at your hips and sit back. You want to make sure that you're sitting back towards the chair or surface that you're going towards and not coming forward so you don't want your knees going beyond your toes like that. Your knees should stay behind your toes as you come up and down. The other thing that you want to watch out for with your squats is your knee position — inward and outward. They should stay directly over your toes as you squat down. People have a tendency to let their knees come together. You don't want to let that happen. You want to make sure that they stay right over your toes as you squat up and down. If you have trouble maintaining that position, sometimes it's nice and can be a nice cue to use an exercise band. [You can buy these at sport goods stores or online at Amazon.com.] This one's a little bit long, but what you want to do is take that band and tie it around your legs. Again, feet are going to be hip distance apart so you should have a little pressure into the band now. And then maintaining that pressure out into the bands, now you're going to perform your squats and it just gives you a nice cue to help keep your knees out and not let them come inward. If performing regular squats is too easy for you and you want to make it a little bit more intense - especially up in your hip region, you can again use an exercise band. This one you do want to have a fairly long one. you're going to step on the band first. Make a cross in front of you. Go behind your legs, back cross. Then you're going to go around your thighs, cross gain. Hold it nice and tight and then you're going to do your squats, holding that apart. Just like that. So that's your modified squat.

Leg Exercise - Inversion Ankle Exercise

Commonly Used For: Foot pain, ankle pain, plantar fasciitis and collapsing arches.

Video Transcription: I'm going to show you how to do an inversion ankle exercise, which strengthens the muscle here at the inside edge of your calf. It comes down under and supports the arch of your foot so this is an important exercise to do for anybody who has a problem with their arch collapsing on them or any sort of plantar fasciitis heel pain type problems. So, you're going to need an exercise band that you can get at most sporting goods stores or online [here's one at Amazon.com]. I tied a loop at the end of mine just to make it a little bit easier. So what you're going to do is you're going to cross the leg that you're going to exercise over your opposite leg. Put the loop around your foot so that the band is going over your big toe here. You're going to go behind your opposite foot and up, point your toes downward and then pull out, slowly coming back. You don't want to let it just whip back. That's part of the exercise — slowly controlling it back to the starting position and you should feel a nice burn in the muscle going on either in your arch or up here, up into your leg. You want to make sure that you don't see this tendon in front pop out like that. If you see that tendon popping out, you're using the wrong muscle and you need to point your toes more. So, when I do it correctly, that tendon flattens out. If I do it incorrectly and I'm not pointing my toes enough, you can see that big tendon. So nice and pointed, slowly out to the side and slowly back. So that's your inversion ankle exercise.

Hip Exercise - Crab Walk

Commonly Used For: Knee pain, hip pain and back pain.

Video Transcription: This is a crab walk exercise which is a great way to strengthen both of your hip abductors at the same time. Having weakness here commonly leads to knee problems so it's really important to have strong hips. So the way that you're going to do this is you want to get in your nice squat position, which means that you're sitting back. You're not letting your knees go beyond your toes. You want to sit back so that the weight's in your heels. Once you're in that position, keeping a nice upright trunk, you're just going to walk to the side. You want to make sure that you keep your feet pointing straight forward. So when you walk, think about leading with your heel rather than leading with your toe. That'll help you keep your feet pointing straight forward. You should feel the burn in your glutes here on the sides. If you feel it in your quads, you're probably tipping too far forward and not sitting back far enough. So make sure that when you get to the squat position, you sit all the way back until you feel your glutes turn on. If that's too easy for you, you can incorporate an exercise band into it. You can get it at any sporting goods store or online [here's one at Amazon.com]. What you're going to do is tie your knees together. You can use different strength bands depending on how difficult you want it to be. And then again, start with your feet hip distance apart, toes pointing straight forward, sitting back until you feel your glutes engaged and then you're just going to crab walk to the side and back. You should feel it right on the outside edges of your hips. And that's your crab walk. If crab walking is still too easy for you with the single tie of the thera band around your knees, you can do it double crossed which you're going to want a nice long exercise band for. So you're going to step on it, do one cross and bring it behind your knees, bring it around the front and cross it again. And then now, maintaining tension in the band, you're going to get down into your nice squat position and do your crab walk from there maintaining the tension in the band. So that's your double cross crab walk.

Hip Exercise - Clams

Commonly Used For: To avoid knee pain, hip pain, ankle pain and foot pain.

Video Transcription: This is a clams exercise which is a good way to strengthen your gluteus medius, which is on the outside edge of your hip and it's important to keep that one strong both for preventing knee pain, hip pain, ankle pain, foot pain — a lot of reasons to keep that muscles strong. So what you're going to do is to lay down on your side. The side facing up towards the ceiling is the side that you're going to strengthen. You want to have your feet together, your knees together, your hips going to be step straight up towards the ceiling. You don't want to get yourself rock back, or rock too far forward and then just like a clamshell, you're going to open your knees and close them keeping your feet together. You should feel it right here in your glutes. If you're not feeling that muscle working, you might be letting yourself rock back too far, so you can put yourself up against the wall or any other solid surface that can help keep your hips forward, as you raise up and down. It that's too easy, you can use an exercise band. You can get it from a sporting goods store online [here's one at Amazon.com]. You're going to tie your knees together, and then you perform the same exercise just against the resistance of the band now. And there are different levels of band to make this easier or harder. If it's still too easy, what you can do is raise your feet up off the floor, still keeping them together and then again open and close your knees just like a clamshell. Keeping those hips stacked straight up towards the ceiling. And that's the clams exercise.

Neck Exercise - Levator Stretch

Commonly Used For: Back pain, shoulder pain, neck pain and headaches.

Video Transcription: I'm going to show you how to do a levator stretch, which is the muscle that attaches from your shoulder blade up into your neck, and can contribute to both back and shoulder pain as well as neck pain and headaches. What you're going to want to do is stabilize your shoulder blade down by either grabbing on to the bottom of a chair or sitting on your hand. I prefer to grab on to something if I can. You're going to tuck your chin back kind of giving yourself a double chin, turn your head towards your opposite shoulder, and look down towards your armpit. You should feel a stretch right along this back side of your neck. If you don't feel the stretch intensely enough, you can take your opposite hand, come over the back side of your head, and gently pull down. You want to hold that stretch 30 seconds to a minute. And that's your levator stretch.

Neck Exercise - Upper Trapezius Stretch

Commonly Used For: Shoulder pain, neck pain and headaches.

Video Transcription: I'm going to show you how to do a stretch for your upper trapezius muscle, which is along here. it connects from your shoulder blade up into your neck here and is a common cause of shoulder pain, neck pain and headaches. So what you're going to do is if you're sitting, you can grab onto the bottom of the chair or if you can't reach that far, you can also sit on your hand. I prefer to hold on if I can though. You're going to tuck your chin back, kind of giving yourself a double chin there and then slowly tilt your ear towards your opposite shoulder, maintaining that chin tuck. You should feel a stretch right along the side of your neck here. This should be a gentle stretch. You don't want to pull it. This is a very sensitive area. Again, keeping that chin tucked. If you let it tilt outwards, you're not going to feel the stretch in the right position. So keep that chin nice and tucked. Hold it for 30 seconds to a minute and that's your upper trapezius stretch.

Leg Exercise - Foam Roll Your IT Band (Iliotibial Band)

Commonly Used For: Hip pain or knee pain.

Video Transcription: I'm going to show you how to foam roll your IT band, which is a connective tissue that runs from our hip here down connects down at your knee. Tightness in this area is a very common cause of lateral and inferior knee pain. So what you want to do is you're going to need a foam roller, which you can get online or at a sporting goods store [here's one at Amazon.com]. You're going to lay it down perpendicular to your leg. The side you're going to roll is going to be on the foam roller. You want to make sure that you're below the bony part of your hip. And then, you're just slowly going to roll down your thigh, that outside edge, down to your knee. Again, don't roll over the bony part of your knee, just staying along the side. There. When you find spots that are particularly painful, that's where you want to focus. The tighter your IT band is, the more discomfort you're going to feel when you foam roll but it'll slowly go away. The more you foam roll, the less uncomfortable it will be. So that's how you foam roll your IT band.

Leg Exercise - How to Foam Roll Your Calf Muscles

Commonly Used For: Heel pain or foot pain.

Video Transcription: I'm going to show you how to foam roll your calf muscle, which is a good way to relieve tightness down here in your calf. You're going to need a foam roller, which you can get online or at most sporting good stores [here's one at Amazon.com]. So you're going to lay that down on the floor. Sit down. Put the leg that you need to foam roll on top of the foam roll. You're going to put the opposite leg across on top just to get some added pressure. You're going to need some good arm strength because you have to lift up and then you're going to roll down onto your calf. Just slowly back and forth. You're going to feel the discomfort in your calf there. The tighter you are, the more discomfort you're going to feel but the more you foam roll it, the less discomfort will be in your calf. So that's how you foam roll your calf.

Chest Stretch - Foam Roll Pec Stretch

Commonly Used For: Shoulder pain and neck pain.

Video Transcription: I'm going to show you how to stretch out the front of your chest — your pecs — using a foam roller. This you can get online [here's one at Amazon.com] or at most sporting goods stores. So what you're going to do is you're going to lay the foam roller down. You want to sit on the very end of it and walk yourself back, making sure that your head is still supported on the foam roller. You're going to take your arms and bring them out to the side like this, until you feel a stretch across the front of your chest. You should not feel any numbness or tingling in your hands. If you do, the stretch might be too intense for you and you can prop your arms up on a pillow or a cushion - anything that'll make it so that your arms don't drop down quite so far. And again, you should feel the stretch right across your chest. If this stretch is not intense enough for you, you can bring one arm in and focus on just stretching one side. Roll slightly away from the side that you're stretching and you'll feel a more intense stretch across the one side that you're stretching and then you can repeat on the other side.