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.

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.

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.

Hip Exercise - Standing Hip Flexor Stretch

Commonly Used For: Low back pain or hip pain.

Video Transcription: This is a standing hip flexor stretch. It's going to stretch primarily the short hip flexors that only cross the hip joint here. It's primarily used with people that have low back pain or knee pain. So the first thing that you're going to want to do is get into a stride stance, which is one foot in front of the other, about hip distance apart. You want to make sure your feet are pointed straight forward. They're not turning outward or inward at all. And you want to come up to your pelvis, and make sure you're not arching through your low back. So you want to tuck all the way under by tightening your glutes and your lower abdominals. Once you're in that nice tucked position, you want to keep your back leg straight -- this is the leg that you're stretching -- and you're slowly going to lunge forward until you feel a stretch across the front of your hip joint here. You should not feel any low back pain. If you do, back out of the stretch, and try tucking again. Maybe you didn't tuck under enough. So tuck ALL the way under, you might feel a stretch already, even without lunging -- and if you do, just hold here. If you don't, then you can try again to slowly lunge forward. Then hold that position for 30 seconds to 1 minute. And that's your standing hip flexor stretch.