← The MSing Link
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- [00:00]
A
Welcome. Thank you so much for tuning in. Today we are going to be talking about a specific movement throughout the day that as a physical therapist I am constantly asked from my Missing Link members, from people on social media, from pretty much anyone with ms, and that is about stair climbing, specifically difficulty with climbing stairs and difficulty going downstairs. I have posted a few different videos on social media, mostly Instagram and YouTube shorts about how to go up the stairs. And all of the comments are. And all of the comments on those specific videos are, this is great. Thank you so much. But how do I go downstairs? So then a few weeks later I'll post how to go downstairs. And all the comments are, this is great, but how do I go upstairs? And it's constantly this back and forth of not remembering one over the other. So I thought I'm going to create a podcast episode and I'm also filming this for YouTube as well. If you're a visual person like me and want to be able to see these exercise demonstrations as well, where we're going to talk about both going up the stairs and going down the stairs, I'm going to share a specific trick of the trade that tends to work really well for a lot of my in person patients as well as Missing Link members for going up and downstairs. And then I'm also going to give you a few exercises that can help strengthen your muscles to go up and downstairs. Also just keep in mind that if you are a member of the Missing Link, my online program, we have a full video for you on exactly this topic with real stairs. Right now I am in my office recording and I don't have stairs in my office. So I actually have my vibration plate which has maybe a foot or so height to it off the ground. So I'm going to be using that as if it's a single step. But in the Missing Link we have a step up and step down exercise. You can go to the search bar, type step up and it will pop right up for you. We also have a full demo of climbing stairs. You can just type stairs in the search bar and that will pop up for you. And we also have full exercise classes that are about 30 minutes long, all geared towards improving stair climbing. So if you are a Missing link member, we do already have all of those resources for you in there. But I wanted to have a specific spot on my podcast and YouTube channel for this as well. And if you're not a member but you're feeling like, wow, that sounds great, I want in and I want to be able to ask Dr. Gretchen my questions about stairs and about other things. Then check out the link in the show notes or the description. I'll include the information about what the Missing Link is. There's a behind the scenes video on that page so you can see if it is a good fit for you and the goals that you're working towards.
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The big question is how does someone with Ms. Actually improve their mobility, strength, energy independence? The list goes on. My name is Dr. Gretchen Holley, physical therapist and multiple Sclerosis specialist. Welcome to the Missing Link podcast. Tune in as I share the top strategies and exercises to help you gain control over your life with ms, using research driven insights and advice from top industry experts. Whether you're newly diagnosed or have had Ms. For over 30 years, whether you have relapsing Ms. Or progressive MS, this podcast is for you. You're sure to feel empowered and inspired after each episode.
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Ready?
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Let's dive in.
- [04:04]
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So again, I am standing now in the middle of my office and I have my Life Pro vibration plate that I'm using as a single step. So we're going to use our imaginations as if there is a flight of stairs ahead of me. So the trick of the trade that I want to share that most people don't think about is that before you go to step up on a step or even before you go to step down off of a step, you need to be thinking about bending your knee. And what I mean by this is that the majority of the time when we're not thinking about climbing stairs, other than let me just get this done, what we tend to do is put our foot on the step and then step up and just bring the leg that's behind us forward. And oftentimes when you do that, that leg will just hit the step. Maybe it's your toes, maybe it's the top of your foot, maybe maybe it's you're scuffing the foot. But when you focus on just bringing the leg forward, you're going to run into more issues. Typically, compared to if you focus on bending that back knee first, you're more likely to see success with climbing stairs going up and down. I just want to point out the obvious right now that you might be thinking that's really hard to do. Bending your knee is one of the most challenging movements for the majority of my Missing Link members, my in person clients, everyone that I work with. But you don't need a whole lot of knee bend for this to be effective. So if you're watching the YouTube video, I want you to watch my back leg and what the knee is doing. I'll explain it verbally for everyone listening on the podcast as well. So we're going to shift our weight forward, and instead of bringing our back leg directly forward, we're going to bend our knee and then bring the leg forward. And what you'll see that does is it allows you clearance, it allows you more space to be able to bring your leg forward. And I'm just bending, I don't know, maybe 25 degrees right now. I'm not fully bending. You don't need full range of motion for this. Any amount of bending your knee will give you more space to clear the step that you're going up to step on. Similarly, when you're going down the stairs, if you feel like when you're going down the stairs, your foot kind of drags, drags, drags, and then it eventually plops down, you can use the same technique. Can you bend your knee just even a little bit, maybe 5 degrees, 10 degrees, and then bring your leg forward to bring it down. So the trick here, whether you're going upstairs or downstairs, is to practice bending your knee first. Before you move your leg in any other direction, bend that knee, then bring it forward. And that should be able to help you clear the steps. So you're scuffing and tripping less. Now when it comes to exercises to strengthen your leg muscles so, so that you don't have to pull with railings as much. There's three main exercises that I like. Again, if you're in the Missing link, we have these in depth for you there as well. But I will do a brief description and demo here as well. So the first one is stepping up, because as we were just practicing, when we go to step up and go to climb upstairs, it's just a seat series of stepping up and stepping up on the next step and the next step, it's just constantly stepping up. Whether you are stepping up with the same leg every time or you're alternating stepping up with the right leg and the left leg and the right leg. Either way, you're stepping up. So we should be practicing stepping up. You can use railings for this if you have them and if you want to. But what we're going to do is you're going to place one leg, doesn't matter which one, on the step in front of you. Then from here, you're going to shift your body weight so that it's mostly on that front leg, specifically in your heel or mid foot. You don't want it in your toes. That can sometimes cause knee discomfort or knee pain. So you're shifting your weight. So 90% of your weight is. Is on that front leg about the middle of your foot or heel. And you're going to practice pushing that leg down to step up. You don't have to bend that back leg. You can if you want to, and you can complete the movement. But for this specific exercise, we're just strengthening one leg. So for me, my left leg is on the step. I'm shifting my body weight forward. I'm straightening my left knee. I feel my muscles in my glutes, my hamstring, and my quads working as I step up. And then I'm going to hinge so that my butt goes back, shoulders come forward, and bend the knee so I go down. And I'm just going to repeat that, shift my weight forward. My butt is back, my shoulders are forward, so I'm hinging. Straighten that knee to bring me up tall, then hinge again and bend the knee to bring me back down again. We're strengthening quads, hamstrings, glutes, calves, all these muscles to get us up. And then we could do the same thing on the other side. So that's exercise number one. Exercise number two is going to be the same thing. Essentially, it's still a step up, but it's from the side. So now I am not facing the stairs anymore. I'm facing where the wall might be or a railing might be. I'm facing sideways, and I'm going to put whichever leg is closest to this step on the step. So for me, right now, I am facing my camera, and that means that my right leg is closest to the step, so my right leg is on the step. From there, everything else is the same. I'm going to shift my body weight onto my right leg. I'm hinging, so my hips are back, shoulders are forward. Push my right leg down as I stand up. My other leg, I just like to keep it straight. We're not really focusing on that leg right now. If you wanted to, you could do our theory of bend the knee, bring it on the step, bend the knee, take it off the step. Totally your call. We're not focusing on that today. Then to get down, same thing, just in reverse. Hips hinge, back, shoulders come forward, bend the knee and step down again. Shift your weight onto that leg. Butt goes back, shoulders are forward, straight. And you should really feel this in your quads, your glutes, your hamstrings, hinge and then lower. So this is a side step. Now, to work on the other leg, you would turn around. So we want to have our left leg closest to that stair. We shift our weight, hinge our hips, step up, hinge and step down. And again, you can use the railings if you want to, but the goal here is we're strengthening the same muscles as that first exercise, but we're working the outer part of our hip a little bit more. With both of those exercises, you really want to make sure that your knee is staying straight. It's not caving inward or flailing out. For most people, it falls inward and that can make you feel a bit more unstable. So make sure that when you're going up or down stairs and when you're doing these exercises, your knee is staying in the same alignment as your foot. And that might mean that you have to focus on, on pushing your knee out so that it doesn't fall inward. The final exercise is going to be a step down. So we just did two step ups. Now we're going to be stepping down. So you are going to start on this step. And again, you can use railings if you want to. And you're going to be facing away from the stairs. You're on the lowest step. That's going to be safest. So we're facing away from the stairs. You can use the railing if you want. And you're going to put one foot forward so that it's off the step or close to being off the step. From here, the exercise is actually pretty similar from what we've done thus far. You're going to hinge your hips backward and your shoulders come forward. And then you're going to slowly lower your knee. Now, you're not going to bend your knee a whole lot. The goal is not for the leg that split straight and in front of you to touch the ground. You could. That's pretty challenging. So we're really just looking for a slight step down so that knee bends just a few degrees and then you come back up and then you bend and up. And as you're bending that knee, your hips are going back, your shoulders are coming forward. I'm going to switch legs to show you. So now my. I'm standing on my right leg. My left leg is coming forward, just kind of dangling forward, not really doing anything with it. I'm going to hinge my hips back, shoulders come forward, bend that knee and come back up. And that left leg is just staying in front the whole time. It's really Just not doing anything, just staying, like, there. That right leg, for me right now is what's doing the majority of the work. I'm still focusing on making sure my right knee is staying forward. It's not keeping inward. I'm feeling this in my glutes, my hamstrings, my quads, my calves, even. So, with all of these exercises, we are working a lot of different muscle groups. Do the best that you can. Again, we're not aiming for full movement, we're just looking for some movement. So those are the three exercises I like to do best. We do have a different podcast episode and YouTube video on bending your knee, because bending the knee is one of the hardest things, as I mentioned in the beginning, but it's really important. So I would highly recommend you listen to that podcast episode, watch that YouTube video. But if we were to implement what we learned from that episode into today, what that would look like as an additional exercise was a fourth exercise. As you're standing in front of the stairs on the lowest step, you're going to have one foot on the step, and from there you're going to step up. So you're fully standing on a lowest step. You can hold on to the armrest or handrails, rather, railings, whether it's one side or both side. So you're standing on the lowest step with one leg, the other leg is dangling behind you, and you're going to practice bending your knee and then straightening it. So we're just practicing a typical hamstring curl exercise, but on the steps, what this does is it not only is working your hamstring muscles to get stronger, but mentally your brain is now associating the two. So it's more likely that not only will you gain hamstring strength and bending your knee will feel easier, but you'll be able to use that strength when you're climbing stairs. Oftentimes, if you don't practice exercises in the specific environment or situation that you want to utilize that strength in, you might gain strength in the gym, but not at home, or not when you're climbing stairs, or not when you're getting in and out of your car. So the more often you can do an exercise in a specific situation, in this case stair climbing on your stairs, the more often you can do that, the better because it will not only help you strengthen those muscles, but it helps your mind, associate the two and put two and two together, that you want to be able to use that strength on the stairs. I hope you found that helpful. Just know that there's a lot that goes into stair climbing. We need strength, we need balance, we need proprioception, we need sensation in our feet. There's so much coordination. But anything, any small step we take to work on improving even just one of those areas can make a really big difference. So I hope you found this helpful. And again, if you're in the Missing Link, we have so many resources for you. Demonstration videos, full exercise classes focusing on strengthening our legs, specifically ones on bending our knee, stretching our muscles so that movements like this are easier. And we do have our monthly Q and A calls where you can ask me as well as other Missing Link members your specific questions so that we can get those answered. We also have Dr. Gretchen AI so if you've got questions you could put in what are the best strategies for climbing stairs and these answers will pop up 24 7. So if you're having a hard time sleeping at night and that question pops in your mind, you can pop it in, get an answer right away. And if you're not a member again, I will put the link to learn all about the Missing link down in the show notes in the description so you can see if it's a good fit for you. We would love to have you inside our community. Our three main principles are exercise, education and community and it all blends together so well to help you see what's possible in your daily life with Ms. And we show you how to get there with a big community that feels like a big virtual hug. So I hope to see you inside, but either way, I hope you found this helpful.
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Thank you for listening to today's show. I am so grateful to have you as a listener. If you like extra resources such as a video of one of my seated exercise classes, my favorite core exercises, and the opportunity to ask me your questions, head to missinglink.com insider. That link will be shared in the show notes along with links to my social media handles. If you loved this episode and think a friend or family member with Ms. Would benefit, benefit from listening, please go ahead and text or email this podcast to them right now. Sharing this podcast will help me educate and empower as many Ms. Warriors as possible. Thanks again for joining and be sure to tune in next week for another episode of the Missing Link podcast.