Pregnancy Clams

Commonly Used For: Pregnancy-Related Pain.

Video Transcription: I'm going to show you how to do a Clams Exercise, which is a good exercise to do while pregnant to help improve your pelvic stability. With the loosening of all those ligaments in there, you can get some instability, which can cause some sciatic nerve pain through that glute and leg pain that you might be getting. So, what you're going to do, is you're going to lay down on your side. If you do have a specific side that's bothering you, you definitely want to exercise that side. So, that would be the side that's facing up, but it's a good idea to do both sides. So, in this case, I'm exercising my left hip here. You're going to get on your side. Make sure that your hips are stacked straight on top of each other. They should be pointing up towards the ceiling. Feet are together, knees are together, and then, maintaining this position here with your hips nice and stacked, you're just going to open and close your knees, just like a clamshell. You want to make sure that you're not rocking your whole body back as you do it. Otherwise, you're not engaging those muscles, those pelvic muscles like you need to. So, once again, keeping your hips stacked straight on top of each other, and just opening and closing your knees, just like this. You should feel the muscle right in here working. If that's too easy for you, you can get an exercise band. [Here's one at Amazon.com] You're going to tie it around your knees, and that will just provide some resistance for you. So, back in your same position: on your side, knees together, feet together, hips stacked straight up towards the ceiling. And same thing, just opening and closing your knees, keeping your feet together and your hips stacked right on top of each other. If you feel any pain, cramping, contractions during this exercise, then stop and immediately call your doctor. All you should be feeling is the muscle working right here in your glutes, that stabilizing muscle. So, these are your Clams Exercise.

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 - 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 - 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.

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.