500K Q&A — Best Warm ups, Osteoporosis & Fixing Back Pain

In this special episode, Farnham’s leading over-50’s physiotherapist, Will Harlow, answers questions sent in from his viewers!

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**Any information in this video should not be used as a substitute for individual medical advice. Please seek advice from your local healthcare professional before taking action on the information in this video.**

Hello everybody and welcome to today’s Q&A session to celebrate 500,000 subscribers on the HT physio YouTube channel thank you so much to everyone who subscribed to the channel it really does mean a lot to me and today’s video is my way of giving back I

Uh decided to set up a Q&A session today where I took questions from my audience and I’m going to try and answer them in quickfire format today I’m going to see how many we can get through so I’m at my home in s and we’re going to go through

As many of these questions as we can today so these questions came from uh replies to my three tip Friday newsletter which is a Weekly Newsletter I send out it’s all for free but each week I send three health tips to my subscribers and the goal of um this

Email is to provide free health information about stuff I found interesting in the week so it might be a tip on a new uh piece of research that’s come out or a new tool that I found interesting or an interesting story from the clinic um but at the end of uh this

Year’s series of emails then I asked people to submit some questions so if you want to be one of the people to submit a question next time around we have another uh Q&A planned if and when we hit 750,000 subscribers so join three tip Friday by by scrolling down there’s

A link in the description and then you can um be one of the first to submit a question when I ask for them next time around so let’s dive into the questions in a moment but first I just want to say that these answers are not meant to be

Medical advice they’re not targeted to the person who asked them they were general questions so the answers are General as well they might not be suitable for everyone so make sure you get checked out by your doctor first and please don’t follow any of my advice if against the advice of your practitioner

Or if it’s painful or uncomfortable to do so so let’s have a look at the questions the first one is from Linda Linda with a Y and Linda has asked I was wondering if there is a need to warm up or cool down before or after exercise

Now the answer to that question Linda is absolutely yes there is a need to warm up and cool down after exercise and that’s especially important for people over the age of 50 now I have a different approach to warm-ups than many people do lots of people just go on to

The static bike or the treadmill and they do you know a 5 minute gentle run or a a cycle or a walk just to try and get themselves warm but the research shows there are much better ways to warm up before exercise and your warmup needs

To be specific to the thing you’re about to do so if you’re about to go into the gym and do some squats your warmup needs to be specific to squats so for example if I was about to go and do a set of squats in the gym what I would do is I’d

Take a very lightweight do a set of 12 then I’d slightly increase the weight do a set of eight and then I’d increase the weight to the weight I’m actually going to be lifting in the session and do a set of four or five and then jump into

My working sets so that’s how I would warm up for weights if I was doing uh football then I would do lots of kicking type movements as well as getting the target muscles warm before I actually played the game same with rugby same with tennis same with badminton whatever

Is the warm- Up’s got to be very specific to the activity you’re doing and equally a cooldown is important but a cooldown can be more gentle and more General as well so for a typical cool down what I would do is a light slow jog maybe a walk and then lots of stretching

Because I think stretching is fantastic for um resetting the muscles after lots of exercise so hopefully that answers your question right the next question I’ve got is from Anthony and Anthony asks where to start with your videos for a reasonably active 75y old that’s a fantastic question Anthony and I had a

Couple of questions like this so as a response to that what I’ve decided to do is create a playlist which is basically a start here playlist for anyone who’s new to the channel who wants to um get started with the channel but generally if I had to um give you some advice I

Would start off with one of my resistance band workouts if you want to get stronger I would start off with some of my walking tips if you want to improve your walk and I would start off with some of the body weight exercises for both the upper

And the lower limb if um just getting generally stronger and fitter is your goal the next question is from Chana and CH says is a sauna blanket a good substitute for a walk in sauna now I reviewed a sauna blanket from the team at hydr gun a few weeks ago and I

Thought the product was really really good but you have to understand that a SAA blanket is never going to fully replicate the benefit of going into an 80 to 100° sauna um it just doesn’t provide the same power and the same General Heating that a uh a proper

Walk-in sauna would and the research is now showing that the walk-in saers you you have to stay in them until it feels quite uncomfortable to get the full benefits and from my experience with the sauna blankets they just can’t get hot enough to feel really uncomfortable they

Feel really nice and I do think that the heating aspect of it the infrared heating is going to have some benefit but I think the benefits are going to be totally different to uh the walkin and sit down saers where um you know you can just get that that real sweat on um

Which seems to be what produces the uh the serious benefits there next questions from Donald and Donald asks for tips for healing an Achilles tendon so I assume Donald you’ve got either an Achilles tendonopathy which is tendonitis or problem with the tendon there or you’ve had a rupture and those

Those two would be treated totally differently so a tendon rupture would be treated primarily by um first of all putting you in a boot and then slowly slowly dropping down the the height of the heel raise on that boot until the thing heals and then a tendonopathy is

Usually an overuse injury so that would be treated by modifying the exercise and the activity you’re doing plus some exercises maybe stretches depending on where in the tendon the problem is if the problem is right on the heel bone we usually find that stretches are not as

Good as if the problem is halfway up the tendon just because if it’s on the bone it tends to compress it more um but anyone with an ailles tendonopathy needs gradual loading so they need to exercise it they need to make it stronger in a very slow and controlled way so I tend

To do slow heavy Ecentric which are basically exercises where we um contract the muscle as it’s getting longer and preferably under a heavy weight so the heavy weight might just be your body weight or it might be that you need to get some weights or use a gym to do that

I used to train um footballers at uh at a club I used to work for and we did lots of Achilles tendon rehab with the injured players there so we used to go in the gym use the weights and get them very slowly going up and down onto their

Tiptoes um to get the tendon stronger so hopefully that gives you a starting point I do have a video on the channel so if you search Achilles tendon or something like that on my channel you should find a video where I take you through some rehab and hopefully that

Answers the question the next question here is from Vicki and Vicki asks if you’ve been diagnosed with a degenerative miniscus tear and you have tried conservative treatment EG steroid injection PRP injection physio rehab but you are still experiencing constant lowlevel pain that prevents you from returning to sport is there ever a time

When surgery is required and the answer to that question is yes occasionally surgery is a good idea for degenerative meniscus tears sometimes depending on where the tear is in the meniscus it just gets into a position where it keeps getting caught between the two bones in

The knee so in those instances even with the best rehab even with all the time in the world it just seems that some unlucky people have these stubborn miniscus tears that don’t heal so for those instances surgery might be a good idea obviously it’s all very very

Individual uh and if you haven’t given it at least a year we would usually recommend giving it longer just to see if the body is going to S itself out the next question is from Allan and Alan says I have a slight pain in one of my

Forearms which comes and goes feels like a muscle but not sure I may have done something while working out in the gym could not find anything in your book for this part of the arm can such a pain beat as a result of an issue in my

Shoulder I’m not sure where you’ve got the shoulder aspect of this from Alan without having a look at you but forarm pain even if it’s not on the actual elbow bone it tends to be sometimes the precursor to tennis or golfer’s elbow which is covered in the book so many

Times with tennis elbow obviously the pain starts here on the tip of the elbow but before the pain on the elbow Point starts it starts as a pain in the forearm because it’s actually a forearm or wrist muscle problem so I would recommend having a look at tennis or

Golfers elbow rehab I have a video on my channel for tennis elbow and there’s some stuff in my book as well which um May well help um but definitely get checked out if you figure there’s something going on in your shoulder and you’re not quite

Sure next question is from L and L says the classes have sit to stand exercises which are great but they really hurt my knees what are some modified versions or Alternatives I can do of these exercises so a sit to stand is such a good exercise for leg strength for most

People but for many people as you squat down slowly to get back to the chair it can start to Nag on the knees so for people who find sit to stand difficult the first thing I would ask is is it just one knee or is it both knees

Because if the pain is in just one knee what you can do is slightly move your painful foot forward on the floor so most of the weight is going through your other leg and then you’ll find that you’ll get more of a workout on the leg

That doesn’t feel sore and the pain will go away in the other knee so if you have to get through your class then uh that would be a good solution if you have pain just in one side but if you have um problems with both of your knees then

Possibly a better thing to do would be mini squats which are the first stage of the sit to stand movement but you’re just going down 6 in and back up again I have a video on my channel called beginner leg exercises for uh over 50s or seniors I can’t remember how I

Labeled it and this would be a perfect place to start as some alternatives for the sit to stand the next question is from John and John says my question is is there any evidence or research that CBD oil could be beneficial for neuropathic pain ask my GP he can’t

Advise but my consultant has indicated there could be and suggested a private Clinic which I have discovered he is a staff member of so very unsure of his his advice I think you’re very wise to be skeptical here John I haven’t seen any compelling evidence for CBD oil for

Pain um I know anecdotally people do say that it helps but the evidence base doesn’t seem to suggest it’s better than a placebo there may be some evidence for it with sleep it does seem to have a calming effect but I don’t know if that translates across to pain so my answer

Really is pass I haven’t seen anything to suggest that it’s a good idea for me to recommend it um it’s worth keeping an eye out on the evidence base but I haven’t got anything um concrete to say yes go for it because I just don’t think the evidence is there next question is

From Samantha Samantha says when is it too late to restore a compromised muscular skeletal issue especially such that an exercise might make things worse for example my mother’s upper spine is seemingly locked into a severe curve and also one of my toe joints is so arthritic it has almost fused and I’m

Worried that walking is making it worse can only a professional ultimately tell when it’s too late to work on an issue uh yes I think Samantha that is the correct uh answer really a a professional would be the only real way to tell if it’s too late or not so I

Would definitely definitely lean on the advice of the people you’ve seen and it’s worth getting two or three different opinions because people have different approaches at treating things one person might say there’s nothing I can do but if you speak to someone else they might say actually I have some

Techniques that might help so it’ definitely be worth exploring it but you are right there are some issues especially structural deformities that can’t be fixed but many times people will come to see me with really severe scoliosis or very bad bunions and even though we can’t fix the actual structure

Of the problem we can make the symptoms better by treating the things that are tight or strengthening the weak areas and that can take some pressure off so definitely get a couple of opinions on what can be done but it’s always worth exploring having trying to optimize the

Area around the injury so strengthening the weak bits and stretching the tight bits as well next question is from Fredo and Fredo asks are pool exercises important what exercises can we do in the pool for recovery from a fracture or serious injury the answer to that freedo

This is a really good question um first of all pool exercises are important um I used to do lots of hydrotherapy with the injured footballers if they’d had a fracture or a severe ligament problem the first thing we would do is get them in the pool to do rehab and the reason

We do that is because land exercise in the early stages after a fracture or an injury can be too painful or too stressful for the tissues so doing it in the pool is better soon as you submerge yourself in the water it takes away 50% of your body weight which means that it

Takes 50% away from the load through your joints so it can make a previously painful exercise nonpainful now in terms of what you can do I would recommend trying to do some of your land exercises in the pool so things like squats lunges walking uh and then you can do things

Like kicking against the water you can do things like um pushing your legs in and out to the side depending on what kind of an injury you have and you can hold a you can do some kicking legs and swim there are so many different things

You can do as a starting point I created a video called is swimming harmful to the knees or why swimming might be harming your knees one of those two titles and that has some ideas for some exercises you can do for a lower limb injury in the pool that seem to be

Pretty safe next question is from Judy and Judy says my need is to pull together an exercise routine around the top five exercises you recommend is there prog progression that works muscle groups in a physiological way perhaps beginning with exercises on the floor hips to lower back or how to organize

Exercises to minimize fatigue in muscle groups with variety um this is quite a general question Judy I think the best answer to this would be for uh you to have a look at the starting point that I’m going to be creating so a playlist of my previous videos which will have a

Logical progression of exercises to do you also asked about a 1hour exercise routine that you’re trying to put together that’s actually something I’m trying to put together in the future as well we’re going to have some kind of exercise class course that I’m going to create in the near future so watch out

For that and that will hopefully answer your question and give you what you need next question is from Bob and Bob says what is the cause and solution for neck pain in the muscles behind the neck experienced when walking now this is a difficult question to answer Bob because

There could be many causes for um neck pain in the muscles behind the neck one of them could be tightness in these muscles uh and we would refer to that as mechanical pain and that usually happens because some muscles are working too hard and others are not working hard

Enough so they’re struggling to keep you in the correct posture another cause could be arthritis because arthritis might feel like a muscular pain but really it’s the joints underneath that are the problem and it could also be something like a trap nerve or a disc injury as well so difficult to give you

Any any more details other than that what I would say is if your neck is stiff to move and you don’t have a range of motion it might be an arthritic type problem especially if you’re getting clicking clunking grinding that kind of thing as well or if it just feels very

Tight and you can get it there but it just feels painful at the extremes it could well be that it’s a muscular problem and if you have pain running down your arm that would make it more likely that it’s a disc problem or a trapped nerve so those are um sorts some

General rules of thumb for neck injuries you also asked what is the cause and solution for sharp pain in the kneecap on kneeling there’s a couple of different um things that can cause that again one of the most common ones is a pre patella btis which is also known as

Housemid knee so if you’ve noticed a tiny little swelling or pouch of swelling at the front of your kneecap it could be that you’ve got housemaid’s knee and this is a problem with the tiny little shock absorber that lives at the front of the knee and people who kneel a

Lot on it or who have a big bang on their kneecap it can cause an inflammation of the burer and um that can be treated with ice and rest and sometimes a cortisone injection if it’s needed if it’s that but go and get checked out if it’s something that

Hasn’t gone away for a long time next question is from can and caner says I’ve become prone to getting out gout pain in my feet and ankles off and on sorry to hear that caner after evaluating My Lifestyle as per outlines given for Aur cences of this problem I’m of a firm

Opinion that it is not what I eat that is responsible for my Gout could you please indicate what exercise will benefit my condition as and when I get it now if this is gout cancer it doesn’t need exercise it needs rest and the correct medication there’s a medication

That the doctors can prescribe called alopurinol I’m not sure if anyone has mentioned that to you yet but that can be very effective at treating and preventing gout some people are just genetically predisposed to get gout it’s not always because you’re eating a diet high in uric acid it might just be that

You’re one of those unlucky people so definitely go to the doctors but physio exercises are not going to correct gout which is why it’s an important thing to get checked out by your doctor um if you’ve got that red hot swelling uh over the joint that seems to be the problem

Next question is from Lynn and Lynn says I see you’ve got exercises to help with walking what about ones that will help people like me who want to start doing some running like the couch to 5K uh though not necessarily 5K I did begin but ended up with an injury I’m sure

This is because I didn’t know which areas I should have strengthened first this is super common Lin so many people jump into these couch to 5K things and end up injuring themselves and the reason for that is that running and walking are totally different activities the research shows that the ground

Reaction force so the amount of impact that goes through your legs when you run is something like eight times higher than is when you walk so your muscles have got to be so much stronger and so much better prepared to run than they do for walking so first thing to say is I’m

Not surprised the second thing to say is that there are a number of muscles that do need strengthening for running usually the glutes and the quads which are down in the legs also the carves otherwise you might end up with an Achilles problem and in terms of videos

For you um I am planning to create a running uh exercises video for people who are just getting into running so what watch out for that very soon because that will answer all of your questions next question is from Fay hello Fay um there is plenty of advice

Out there on how to prevent osteoporosis all your exercises in some way or another promote bone and muscle health for someone who has been diagnosed with osteoporosis what exercises should they do to improve their bone health and reduce the risk of fracture as importantly what should they not do this

Is an excellent question you’re absolutely right most of the advice out there is about how to prevent osteoporosis but if you’re one of the many people who’s already got it uh one in three women and one in five men over the age of uh 70 I believe will have

Osteoporosis um what should you do now in terms of uh what to do to improve bone health the bones need loading so they need weightbearing exercise so walking fantastic that should make up the Cornerstone of everything that you do cycling is a good exercise for the

Lungs and the heart but it’s going to do nothing nothing for your bone density so cycling just does not cut it it has to be exercised where you’re on your feet so build everything around a solid 10,000 steps a day uh walking Target the other thing that has been shown to help

Bone health is resistance training now this won’t apply to everyone because some people do have osteoporosis that’s so severe they have to be really careful what they pick up but for the vast majority of people with osteoporosis it needs resistance training just like the muscles in in order to get stronger the

Bones react in a similar way to the muscles when we train against weights so um doing things like squats and lunges and um doing kind of uh uh pushing exercises and pulling exercises all of these things in the gym against resistance can help to improve your bone

Strength now in terms of what you shouldn’t do um one of the most important things to be careful of is avoiding Impact Sports or things that might cause you to um have an impact related fall so anything risky uh again riding a bike sometimes can be a big

Thing uh people fall off if you’ve got osteoporosis you’re almost guaranteed to have some kind of an injury there if you come off at speed um things like obviously any Impact Sports if you’ve been diagnosed with osteoporosis you wouldn’t do anything like that being very careful of that kind of thing um if

You’ve been advised not to lift anything heavy you should listen to the advice of your doctor or work around it so find safe ways to lift those objects um but really in terms of the other things that can be helpful for uh osteoporosis um another thing that is

Really useful is working on your balance which will help you to avoid a fall in the first place so if you have poor balance obviously you’re at higher risk of Falls and that means that uh you’re at higher risk of fracture as a result so if you improve your balance by

Working on standing on one leg and things like um in the videos that I have on my channel you’re going to uh reduce the likelihood of a fall and that means you’ll reduce the likelihood of a fracture as well so those are the things I would work on with osteoporosis but

Don’t fear there are lots of things you can do to improve it if you’ve been diagnosed uh next question is from Jill and Jill asks does everyone you treat improve slash get better now that is a great question Jill and it depends on what you mean by improve or get better

So if you are asking me does everyone I see have their injury fully fixed the answer is no because it’s just not possible some people come to see me with pretty bad arthritic problems or deformities things that just are not going to fully get better no matter what

Happens but we try our absolute hardest to make them improve in some way whether that’s to take away some of the pain or whether that’s to improve their strength or improve their balance or improve the uh reduce the risk that anything is going to get any worse or improve their

Flexibility or help them walk further I would always always try and get someone to um experience one of those positive changes before they leave the clinic so I’d like to think that everyone improves in some way but not everyone fully resolves their injury just because that isn’t possible next question is from

Graham and Graham asks what exercises post mild stroke do you suggest on the arms if sudden cramp occurs on a regular basis not really my special area grae um stroke is not is more of a neuro speciality and um the sudden cramp I’m not really sure on so I’m going to have

To mostly pass on that question but I’d recommend getting some individual advice if this is something that’s bother bothering you um regularly with your arms next question here is from Jane and Jane asks deep Glu pain syndrome my question is does taking painkillers to cope with everyday life stop the glute

From healing the glutes are so difficult to rest and to stretch you’re absolutely right they are difficult to rest and stretch um and it would depend on the painkillers you’re taking um generally speaking painkillers aren’t going to stop the injury from healing um unless of course you’re suffering from a

Fracture because um anti-inflammatories do stop fractures from healing as quickly um but I would usually recommend that if people find painkillers useful and they help them to do more activity they might have a place in the rehab process even though I’m really not a fan of painkillers so sorry to hear that

You’re suffering like that um but sometimes painkillers can help you do a little bit more which in turn will help the glutes get better more quickly next question is from Hans and Hans says when browsing through the videos I find many subjects and exercises which suit me I started making screenshots of the

Exercises which were important for me but after some time I have so many exercises that the old ones are neglected and as a result I only do the latest ones I saw otherwise I’m busy all day what should I do so great question Hans I get this question quite a bit um

From the loyal Watchers of the channel who watch all my videos they probably picked up at least two or 300 different exercises on my channel and I just want to stress you should not be doing all of them it’s absolutely not beneficial to do every single one so what I would

Recommend people do is they cherry pick two maybe three exercises from the ones that are relevant to them as long as they’re safe for them to do so and just stick with those for a bit and then every four to 6 weeks rotate those exercises around so pick

New ones maybe work on a new aspect of your health like your balance or your Mobility or your flexibility or your strength depending on what you’ve been working on in the previous block and uh in that way you’ll progress as an allrounder so definitely don’t do them

All every day uh unless you’ve got 20 hours of the day to dedicate to exercises pick a few rotate them regularly and you’re going to do really really well so thank you for watching all of my videos I really appreciate that Hans um but I hope you can pick a

Couple and prioritize and change them from time to time next question is from Heather and Heather asks about spondo Li thesis which is where a vertebra slips on top of another vertebra she says what helps this condition can exercises move the vertebra back uh and what should I

Do about this problem so spond L thesis can happen either through trauma which is quite rare or it can happen as a result of a degenerative change similar to arthritis and basically the ver will creep on top of the other one so you almost end up with like a step kind of

Appearance now in terms of what helps the condition basically anything that involves forward flexion exercise tends to be quite good for it and things that cause you to lean back and extension tend to make it worse so I’d base your exercise program around exercises that involve flexion not extension um in

Terms of can exercise move the vertebrae back I’m not sure it depends what has caused the spondo dth thesis as a general rule of thumm I’d say probably not but the most important thing with this condition is building up a nice stable support around the problem

So a strong core and strong glutes are absolutely vital with a spal thesis as is improving the range of motion of the spine so doing lots of forward bends if it’s safe for you to do so doing lots of core strength and lots of glute strength

Is a great way to go uh Heather ask another question she says um do high arches in the feet need different exercises than flat feet absolutely they do because if you do all of the flat foot exercises and you’ve already got high arches you might theoretically end

Up with even higher arches which means that your problem which is um being more likely to sprain your ankle would theoretically get worse so if you have high arches you probably do need a different set of exercises I don’t believe I have a video on high archers

Yet but I’d say as a general rule I would work on more balance-based exercises and proprioception exercises so you’re less likely to twist your ankle which is a really common problem of people with high arches I personally have quite high arches and I suffered from loads of ankle sprains when I was

Younger and um a couple of them have never fully fully healed so working on proprioception and general ankle strength is a really really good way to go next person who asked the question is Gan or Gian sorry if I’ve pronounced your name wrong um could you please post

A video on perform syndrome I already have one Gian um it’s on my channel if you search perform syndrome it will come right up it’s got some exercises to help you fix it uh next question is from Kathleen Kathleen says do you feel that the exercises you have provided for

Strengthening muscles and for improving balance can alleviate or improve balance problems caused by non-diabetic peripheral neuropathy uh the answer is yes I believe that the balance exercises I’ve provided can improve balance for almost everyone who’s suffering with balance problems no matter the cause there are many different Balance Centers

In the body and if you have a balance problem it’s usually just one Center that’s affected more than the other so it might be your propri receptive system or it might be your inner ear or it might be your eyesight it could be one of those three things but the balance

Exercises will improve the other systems in the body which can to some degree compensate for the problem you’ve got so no matter what the problem is the balance exercises tend to be the right way to go if you’re suffering with um issues with your balance next question

Is from Jan Jan says I would be very interested in some ideas on exercises to do on waking or while still in bed I have a video on this Jan let me just find the one for you the video is called five exercises for less pain and better

Mobility for 65 plus so if you search for that on my channel that will come right right up and you can do all of those exercises from bed before you get up they’ll be great to improve stiffness and pain on waking next question is from Sharon

Sharon says I would like to know your thoughts on toes spreaders or separators do they help to realign the feet this is a great question it’s one I don’t actually know the answer to over the long term for some people they can really help for others they seem to make

The problem worse I don’t know what the evidence says I don’t believe there’s actually any papers on it quite yet theoretically they pretty good idea they obviously put the toes back into the the right position but if you’re pushing the skeleton into a position it doesn’t like

To be in is that a good thing I’m not sure it’s probably very individual so it might be worth a try might be not um but uh everyone’s different and I’ve had both uh success stories and negative stories so just so you’ve got the full picture next question is from suie and

Susie asks which exercises are best for knee fat pad impingement slin so I have exercises on my channel for pain at the front of the knee so if you search front knee pain on the channel you’ll get some uh exercises that come up uh typically you don’t want

Anything that forces the knee right into full flexion or forces the knee right into full extension because both of those positions pinch the fat pad at the front of the knee so you want your knee to be in kind of a mid-range when you’re strengthening but for many many people

The uh the right answer to this problem is to strengthen the glutes which are the muscles at the back of the hip they control the alignment of the femur which is your thigh bone cuz if that bone is not lined up properly it puts the knee into an internal rotation which ends up

Making the kneecap not move correctly and then that pinches the fat pad so if we get stronger glutes then the FEMA lines up better the fat pad isn’t pinched anymore and the problem slowly slowly goes away it typically takes me about 3 months to fix someone with this

Problem and most of the rehab there is glute strengthening so you can look for the specific video but otherwise uh videos that um target glute strength are pretty good for people who have fat pad impingement generally speaking next question is from Norman uh Norman asks question I would like to see answered

Would be how to strengthen the legs when doing the exercise is painful on the knees an example would be sit to stand when the pressure on the knees can be painful so what you need Norman is non-weightbearing exercises to start off with so things like the inner range

Quads exercise or the straight leg raise or the bridge and these are really good exercises for people who have pain on sit to stand I have a couple of videos that help with this one of the best ones is the video where we talk about beginner exercises um to help the the

Knees so that video is called beginner exercises for stronger legs so that will have a array of exercises in there that don’t involve having to do sits or STS so next question is from Annette Annette says I was given a circular balance board here is my question how

Can I use it to help with osteoporosis please now the circular balance board is a great tool it isn’t going to improve your bone density by balancing on it however it will improve your balance which means you’ll be less likely to fall which means that you’re less likely

To fracture something so it’s a great tool for people with osteoporosis obviously when you’re using it make sure you’re safe so you might want to do it surround Ed by chairs or in a little space like this where you’re not going to fall over because you’ve

Got something to grab in case you lose your balance but just practicing standing on it trying to slowly tilt it from left to right or front to back is a really good thing that I do with many of my clients if they’re a bit more advanced we get them to do mini squats

On it you might even progress to uh standing on one leg if you’re very very Advanced but for many many people just standing on it is enough just to challenge the balance so great thing that you’ve got it it won’t help the bone density but it will help your

Balance and make a fracture less likely the next question is from Deborah and Deborah says I would love to learn how I can relax my jaw muscles great question uh I grip my teeth stupidity sometimes my jaw is so stiff I have to open my

Mouth in stages please help oh this is a really painful problem for many people Deborah um but it is something that can be helped so we would think of this as a TMJ issue your temporary mandibular joint which is here and you’ve got some muscles here this one here is called the

Masseter this is the one that we use to grit our teeth so just doing a gentle massage on it with two fingers like this can sometimes really really help with jaw pain now the other thing that can help is getting a um a retainer that you can wear at night time because many

People grit their teeth at night and this can help you to uh not grit your teeth so much and it can actually help with the um the degeneration of the teeth too if you’re if you’re grinding and it can make a little bit less stress on the the muscles as well obviously

Some jaw exercises too things like opening closing going side to side can be really good as well I tell you what I’m going to make a video on this because this is something that really um affects a lot of people so watch out for that very soon next question is from

Evelyn and Evelyn says is it safe to use hiking poles instead of a walking stick on occasions to Aid in walking with arthritic knees uh I think so I mean it’s very individual uh many people find that the hiking poles are actually better than the walking sticks so um if

If you find it comfortable if you still feel safe when you’re using it if you still feel like you can put your weight through the poles just as well as you can with your stick then I think probably rock on but go and get some advice from a doctor or from a physio

Just to check your individual circumstances if you’re not sure because again it comes down to um very very individual factors for many people uh next question is from Caroline and Caroline says nerve flossing really helped me with my S I and I presume you can floss the other nerves as well I

Hope you can make a video about that in particular ones that concern the lower back the answer is yes you can floss pretty much any nerve in the body if you know what you’re doing uh I will make a video for you about the femoral nerve

Which is the nerve that goes down the front of the leg and how to floss that uh next question is from Beverly Beverly says first can you recommend resistance bands I ordered some which are 59 in long and they are too short um I used to

Have a Supply that I got them from it was called mego or Melo if you’re Italian and um they uh discontinued the resistance tubing that I used to buy so I usually buy uh the Melo um resistance bands that you can cut off just because

I go through so much of it so that’s a good one to look at U otherwise I do know that there are some resistance tubing brands on Amazon that seem to be pretty good um if you’re going to buy some tubing I’d recommend getting some in different resistance levels because

As you get stronger you’re going to want something that is um is a little bit more challenging um but uh you can also get them where they attached to handles and they have uh wrist straps they can attach your wrist or your ankle so have

A look on Amazon see what you can get I don’t have any brands in particular other than Melo to recommend um because they’re all pretty much of a muchness next question is Beverly again she said could you do a half an hour longer workout video for over 50s to

Follow that’s in the pipeline watch out for that very soon we are going to producing something like that in the coming year next question is from M Vil um the best exercises to focus on building strength in the lower back strength in the shoulders and strength

In the neck and head to be able to hold your body upright great question so really what you’re looking for are postural alignment exercises and I have a video on this I recorded this week it’s going to be out soon it might already be out when this Q&A comes out

Um and that should answer all of your questions typically with lower backs we don’t necessarily strengthen the back itself we strengthen the muscles around it so the core and the glutes I think that’s quite an important distinction to make but strength in the shoulder blade muscles and the neck muscles are really

Really important if you want alignment don’t worry the video covers everything next question Evelyn different Evelyn this time uh what generally might cause acute pain on the outer corner of the heel worse when weight bearing plus a stiff outer ankle with a TI band outside

Of the shin so You’ got pain on the outside of the heel worse when you’re weightbearing stiffness in the outer ankle tight band outside of the shin could be a number of different things the first thing that brings to mind is a perinal tendon problem your paranal are

Muscles that go down the outside of the calf and then the the tendon goes behind the bone on the outside of the ankle into the foot onto the outside of the foot so it could be a tendon problem with that that’s common for Walkers or runners or people who like exercise I

Treat that quite a lot it’s a problem that does get better with physiotherapy it could also be caused by a referred pain that pattern that you’ve described is what I would call the L5 nerve pattern so it could be a problem with the L5 disc in the spine or it could be

A problem where the nerve is getting caught around the fibula which is the muscle just or the bone sorry just beneath the knee on the outside of the leg so I’d look at that other things to consider are an Achilles problem or some kind of an ankle sprain although it

Doesn’t sound like you’ve um done anything to cause a specific injury so I’d start with paranal and then maybe look down the referred pain route as well next question is from Lisa and Lisa says I was wondering if your new exercise try this exercise for stronger

Glutes is to be used with or instead of your video a year ago the only exercise you need for stronger glutes good question all of my exercises can be used either on their own or in or combined with other ones so you can use both you

Can use either they both work a very similar muscle so you’ve got um the only exercise you need is the uh hip abduction which is where you lie on your side and you lift the top leg and the advanced exercise the advanced clam is uh knees bent lift the top one and then

Lift the heel and then slowly lower them back down like that both really good exercises work similar muscles but in a different way it just comes down to personal preference try them both if it’s safe for you to do so see which one you prefer and um hopefully that will

Answer your question uh the last thing you said is also should they be used with the reverse lunge from a few months ago I mean if it works for you you can use them together the reverse lunge is another great exercise for stronger glutes and quads and is a a fantastic

Way to get stronger leads so why not use them all together um and that’s it so those are all the questions I can get through today um if you want to submit a question for the next one join my newsletter because we collect questions from there so scroll down subscribe to

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Popular and then coming up to the 750,000 subscriber Mark I will uh put a call out asking for questions and you can submit yours so that’s all we’ve got time for today I just want to say another massive thank you to everyone who watches these videos and who has

Subscribed to the channel it’s made a massive difference to what we can do for you I hope you enjoy them I hope they bring you value and thank you so much for your time in watching the vids so thanks so much I will speak to you on the next video