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.

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.

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.