 Welcome back to Move It Matters, a show designed to bring you the best physical therapy tips and exercises to decrease pain and give you back to doing what you love fully. Today, I challenge you to join me in a 14-day challenge to a better feeling body and a happier you. In the short videos that follow, I'll teach you a simple stretch or exercise that you can do each day in a minute or two and enjoy less pain and more physical freedom. Let's start with your feet. The structures that bear all of your weight plus gravity every day need some attention. Let's give it to them to get rid of or prevent conditions such as plantar fasciitis, achilles or posterior tip tendonitis, shin splints, and more. Let's go to video number one. So first, you're going to grab a tennis or lacrosse ball and roll your arch back and forth over it. Apply some pressure to release the tension in your arch. Next, curl your toes 30 to 40 times to strengthen those inner foot muscles so they can continue to tolerate the loads you put on them daily. You're going to then want to stretch those large overwork calf muscles. Stand in a lunge stance with one foot in front of the other. Look down to be sure both feet are pointed straightforward and not towed out. You're going to bend the front knee, hold 20 to 30 seconds to release the tension, and then switch feet. And before you get out of bed, pedal your feet up and down 20 times to get to the circulation flowing and release any tension lingering from the activities of the prior day. Okay, great. So now that you saw what to do for your feet that will save you at the end of your day in the beginning of your day, I want to talk a little bit about alignment. Look down at your feet right now and see if your feet are pointed symmetrically forward or maybe one's turned a little bit more out. Some people are pigeon-toed, I was like that, and that's okay. But what I'm talking about is if you have one foot turned out a little bit, that complicates what is called the kinetic chain, which is what happens when your foot hits the ground and the muscles fire up your leg, to your hip, to your back to get you to be able to walk and have all the muscles function. If one foot is abnormally turned out, a bit like that from let's say you sprained your ankle, you had knee surgery, you had hip surgery, your back hurts, and you're walking like that because it makes you decrease your pain, you're diminishing the effectiveness of the kinetic chain and can be causing injuries like Achilles tendonitis, plantar fasciitis, knee pain or arthritis, hip pain, and even back pain. So let's go to video number two where I'll explain what to do about that. If one of your feet is more abnormally towed out than the other from a foot surgery, ankle sprain, previous hip injury, or other type of surgery, bunion surgery, there's one great way to fix that so you don't continue to injure your knee. If you're walking like this on one foot, it's so easy to fix. Turn it straight. I know that sounds silly, but you turn it straight. But now what has to happen is your brain needs to learn how to work with that. So you may have been walking like this and now your knee is hurting because your knee is getting this twisting with every step that you take. And now you turn it straight, you might see that your knee wants to look in like that. And that's because walking this way has shut down the hip muscle. As soon as you turn this in, it gives a rotational stimulus that fires to your brain to tell this muscle to work. But your body doesn't know how to do that anymore because you haven't walked that way in a while. So you turn your foot straight, you focus on doing that when you walk. Then you start focusing on balancing on that one leg. And don't let your knee cave in. Imagine like you're pushing your knee just out towards the finger to keep it alignment. And you work on holding it there. And then you do all those great hip exercises to support your knee by using your hip. That is one tremendously effective way to get rid of foot pain, knee pain, hip pain, and even back pain. And what you want to do is you want to pay attention to it when you're walking down your halls at home, when you're walking to your car to grocery shopping, when you're standing in line and brushing your teeth, look down at your feet. Alignment is so important. So now let's go on to your knees. Do your knees crunch, click, hurt when you stand up or sit down, hurt to get in and out of your car or hurt to go up and down stairs. Let's go to video number three to learn what to do to save our knees. I get a lot of questions about what to do when you have this crunching when you bend down, when you squat down, get up and down from a chair or just move your leg back and forth. And the reason why that is, is that you can have an uneven surface or a roughen surface behind your kneecap, articulating with your femur bone. And one of the great ways to help improve that articulation is to work out the muscle so you have good muscle control left to right. So the IT band often gets tight. So I like sports cream, but you can use whatever you want. This has a nice glide. You want to massage this part of your leg out, really loosen up this band. This band gets often tight when you have a mount alignment of your leg, when your hip is not aligned over your knee and over your foot. And I'll explain that a little bit more later. But then you want to massage the outsides of your knee in and out, massage under your patella tendon here underneath your kneecap. You don't want to push down on this kneecap part. This can move in and out, but you kind of take your hand and you cup around it and massage over that area and pull up, massage over that area and pull up, because you want to have the normal tissue tension from the outside to the inside of your quads, as well as the front quad. And oftentimes that just gets overworked and you get an imbalance there. So that should help you with the crunching. It'll also help you if you have tendonitis pain, pain in the front of your knee, pain on the sides, massage it here, massage where your calf muscles come up and they cross your knee joint, massage where your hamstrings come down and cross your knee joint, stretch your calf. All of that can help you with the pain that you're feeling in your knee. Enjoy. Those tips are key. I've used them on myself. It's the first thing that I do when a patient comes in with knee pain into the clinic is I usually spend the last 15 minutes listening up their knee, stretching those structures and everybody always comes back and says, wow, I didn't know that I could feel this much better after what you did. Can we do it again? And so try those things. Next, flexibility is so important. If you want to decrease pain and you don't have the adequate flexibility in your ankles or in your hips, it's going to make a big difference to how you just get from one point to another during your day, getting from your bed to the bathroom, walking down your stairs. You can injure yourself if your muscles and joints aren't flexible enough to allow for that full range of motion. So let's go to video number four to see how we can gain some flexibility. Having the proper amount of flexibility is so important to balance sports performance and decreasing pain. So I'm going to give you some dynamic stretching that not only improves your flexibility, but also increases your sports performance. I'm about to go for a run. So I want to stretch my hip flexors and my hamstring. You want to put your foot up on a surface so that you're in a lunge position like this and you are going to push your pelvis forward like this. Put your arms up and suck your stomach in to protect your spine. You're going to do 10 times in the forward-backward motion. Then you're going to hold your pelvis first forward and go 10 times, moving your pelvis left to right, letting your arms go left to right 10 times. Then you're going to push your pelvis forward and turn up and back to the right. Try to keep your balance. Pelvis forward, turn on the back to the left. Pelvis forward, up and back to the right. Up and back to the left and switch. That's going to make your hip flexors ready for your run, ready for that soccer game, ready to perform, to go for that hike to anything. Sprint to pass the volleyball. Then you're going to stretch your hamstrings dynamically again. Put your leg up on a surface. It could be low. I'm a little more flexible. Keep your back straight. Do not allow it to round and bend at your hip forward-backward. If you're not that flexible, you can also hold the position and bend the opposite knee to stretch that hamstring. Your hamstring is attached to your pelvis, so if they're tight, they can pull you into this post to your pelvic tilt, giving you back pain. You want to go forward like this in this plane. Then you want to hold it and go side to side, left to right, and then you're going to hold it and turn to the right. Try to keep your balance. Turn to the left. Turn to the right. Turn to the left. You'll notice that I'm keeping my back straight. Also, I showed calf stretching on the first day of our challenge. You're going to put one foot in front of the other, keeping the back leg straight. Lunge forward-back. Forward-back. Ten times. For the middle one, you lunge forward. Move your hips left to right. You're going to feel a great stretch in all different angles in the back leg and the calf. Then you're going to forward and turn to the right. Forward, turn to the left. Forward, turn to the right. Forward, turn to the left. And enjoy the freedom of flexibility while you work out or you just go about your day. Aloha. The hips are so underestimated when it comes to flexibility and comes to alignment. Your glutes are powerful controllers of the position of your thighbone when you land in that kinetic chain and you absorb shock with each step that you take. And a wise physical therapist, Gary Gray, said in a course, bring your butt to the party. Invite your butt to the party means bring your glutes to the party. We walk forward all day long and our powerful glute muscles, especially the gluteus medius, stabilizes our pelvis and our spine on each leg when we're standing on one leg during the walking motion or the running motion. But we don't strengthen those glutes because they're just stabilizing that position. So you want to do something to exercise those powerful glute muscles so you can stabilize your leg. So let's go to video number five to learn how to bring your butt to the party. The best exercises to help restore the alignment that is needed at the knee joint from having proper hip function are these. They're very simple. These are great ones to get you started. All you need is an exercise band. Number one, put the exercise band around your ankles, straighten your legs out. You pull your toes up, you squeeze your buns and you slide your legs apart. You want to press your knee down to tighten your quad muscle too. Make this muscle bulge out right here. Press down, slide. You don't want to lift because I use your hip flexor. When you push down, you're going to get your gluteus medius, which is the muscle that's going to stabilize your leg on your pelvis when you're on one leg walking. Then you do one leg 10 to 15 times. Then you repeat with the other leg 10 to 15 times. You can also do it on your side. But when you do it on your side, you need to go up and back, not up and forward because gluteus medius extends and moves to the side. So you want to go up and back. You should feel it not on your hip bone, but just behind your hip bone. You can also do what physical therapist and other professionals call clam shells, but here your hip is going to be bent. So you want to do clam shells here, but you can also do them here to work your hip and extension. Also clam shells on your side are great because you can use gravity. So you bend your hips and knees first, do a clam shell, do it till it burns. Then you straighten your legs. So now you're on a straight line with your knees bent behind you and you clam shell, clam shell, clam shell. All those are a great way to start getting your hip to help stabilizing your femur. And then the last one is more functional. You put your feet together and you walk sideways and your knees are a little bit bent and that starts teaching you. You can go a step out, step out. You could step out this way. Everything to work your hip muscles so that you can save your knee. Aloha. All right. So now we are working up from our feet to our knee to our hip. And we've learned a little bit about how all their interconnected stretching your calf can save your foot and your knee. Exercising your hip can save your knee and your foot, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So what about our back? I can talk about back pain all day long. I'm an expert in it as well as many other things, but I published an article which you can reference if you Google my name, Christine Linders, and the word transversus abdominis. I published an article two years ago on an effective technique to get rid of low back pain. I've been trying to get the word out for about six years now and I finally published an article thanks to the hospital for special surgery for helping me with that. And I have a book coming out hopefully next month. I've shortened it to get it published quickly. That will teach you how to do the proper thing that everybody's been missing to get rid of your back pain once and for all. And that one thing is you want to engage the deepest abdominal muscle, which when you pull your belly button into your spine in neutral, it engages your deepest back muscles and forms this anatomical corset or girdle that stabilizes each vertebra in your low back. So how to do that, we will see in video number six. To find the position of your neutral spine, you want to lay on a firm surface. So if you can't get to the floor, you can use your bed, but I'm going to explain to you why it's better to do it on a firm surface if you can get down to one. So I'm going to show you on the ground here. So I'll move my arm so you can see. So you want to have the point of contact with your tailbone and your rib cage here, but not in your lower back right here. So you don't want to pin your back flat by tucking your buttocks under and you can see as I roll my pelvis like that. And you don't want to arch your back up all the way like that. You want to find a position that's in the middle where you're resting on your tailbone and to engage your anatomical girdle, you want to suck it in. So you want to pull it in from your belly button and blow like this here. Pull it in. You can see it narrow in my waist right here. Suck it in. What you don't want to do is you don't want to pull it in like this and stop your diaphragm from moving either. You want to pull in your belly button so that you can still breathe here and use your diaphragm while you keep this in. So learn to pull your belly button in and then breathe. How you could go wrong is if you pull your belly button in and you tuck your buttocks under like that, because what that does is it uses the big six-pack muscle, your rectus abdominis. That's not what you want to do. That's more for just range of motion if you need to get your back moving. When you learn to engage your anatomical girdle, you want to be in neutral spine, point of contact with your tailbone and your rib cage, small space between your lower back and then you pull your belly button in and you enjoy. If you have back pain, that is your $1 million tip. Do it. Every single time I teach somebody to suck it in in the clinic, they always come back and say, when I remember to do it, my back stops hurting. I actually had a friend this weekend who shared with me a few months ago that she had back pain and I showed her this little exercise. She told me, you know what? Three months later, she said, good for her. I've been doing the thing that you told me and you know what? My back feels so much better. She goes, I can't believe that that works. Also, it's something to think about. When you have pain, I think it's counterintuitive to think about doing exercise. I had someone come in the other day with neck pain and I asked her, well, you did your exercises when you had the pain. She goes, no, I didn't even think of it. I think my message to you is it is counterintuitive to do an exercise to get out of pain. However, when you are in pain, I do it when I'm in pain. I encourage all my patients, friends, family, to do it when they're in pain. It works. That's when you want to do these exercises, these physical therapy tips that I have spent the last 18 months making videos for you. When your knee hurts, do those exercises. When your hip hurts, do all the stretches and exercise that I've shown in the past. When your neck hurts, do the education exercises that I'm teaching you because why your neck hurts is because your body has been held in an abnormal position, the position of your ease. We need to change that. We need to reeducate it to get it more normal. When it is more normal, doesn't that be perfect? That's when you get to achieve pain-free. That's when your brain doesn't start sending messages or pain signals through your body saying, get out of that position. I don't like it. Take that to heart. Suck your stomach in. Engage your TA, your transversus abdominis, before you move because the brain sends a message before you move to fire that muscle. As soon as you say, I want to touch my head, my transversus abdominis fires and then my arm moves up. I tell people, before you get up from your chair, suck your stomach in before you move. Before you bend to wash your face, suck your stomach in before you move. Before you go to reach for the car door, the refrigerator, reach over your head to put your shirt on. If you have back pain, suck your stomach in before you move and learn how to do it in neutral. Watch that video as many times as you want. I have so many resources out there on YouTube under my name, Christine Lenders. I have Facebook, Christine Lenders Physical Therapy. I have Instagram, Christine Lenders PT, LinkedIn. I post everything all over those so you can watch it on YouTube here at thinktecawaii.com or elsewhere. So let's watch one more video, video number seven about back pain. Let me introduce you to your secret weapon to end lower back pain and get a flatter stomach. Your transverse abdominis or TA, as I call it, is your deepest abdominal muscle. It's been around since the beginning of time, just waiting for you to call on it to help support your back. But no one told you it was there. If you have back pain, you need your TA to form the anatomical girdle with your deep back muscles to support your spine. You see, the TA contracts just after your brain has the initial thought for motion. Your brain thinks, I want to reach for that glass of milk. Your TA fires, then your arm moves. Try it. Pull your belly button in towards your spine. Go ahead, suck it in. Now that you know it's there, use it before you move and enjoy a pain-free lower back. There you have it. That is your secret to getting rid of lower back pain. Please take it to heart and do that idea of back pain. Tell your friends, tell your family to suck it in. It's just incredibly valuable. So now to wrap up, my challenge to you is to take something from each of these videos. I would start at your feet, wake up in the morning, roll your arches out, stretch your calves, curl your toes, pedal your feet up and down before you get out of bed. If you have plantar fasciitis or Achilles tendonitis, and do it today and do it tomorrow. And then on the third day, massage your knee, massage the outside like I showed you. Whether it hurts or not, massage it. You will feel so much better if your tissues are healthier. Do those knee exercises. Turn your foot straight. Make sure they're symmetrical if this is you and your feet aren't straight while you're sitting, while you're standing, while you're walking. Get yourself an exercise band or not and bring your butt to the party. You can land your back without a band and slide your legs apart. You can land your side with your knees bent and open your knees in and out. You can do all these exercises without a band. Just make sure that you do them correctly. Make sure you watch these videos for help so that you do it right. And suck your stomach in. I have a great things to come for you this year on thinktecawaii.com. The next show, I'm going to be starting with the lower back like we ended with today. Going up into the shoulder, the elbow, the wrist, the neck, even the jaw. And I'll do another 14 day challenge to show you the best exercise that you can do for that. I hope you've enjoyed this. I look forward to coming back in two weeks and giving you more. Thank you so much thinktecawaii for allowing us to be here with you today. And remember, life is better when you listen to your physical therapist. Aloha, everyone.