The Berman Method
The Berman Method
Episode #217: The Toe-Touch Test A Simple Way to Measure Your Body’s Risk
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
In this episode of The Berman Method Podcast, Dr. Jake Berman and co-host Jenni Berman, PA, take on two big topics that directly impact your health, longevity, and quality of life.
First, they pull back the curtain on the health insurance industry—sharing real stories that expose how profit often comes before patient outcomes, why claims get denied even when they’re medically necessary, and why being informed about your options matters more than ever.
Then, the conversation shifts to the second most important physical factor tied to longevity and injury prevention: flexibility—specifically, your ability to stand tall, bend forward, and touch your toes. Spoiler alert: it’s not about tight hamstrings. Dr. Jake explains the often-ignored role of the neural dural system, how nerve tension limits movement, and why most people are stretching the wrong thing.
You’ll learn:
- Why flexibility is a key predictor of injury risk as you age
- How limited movement leads to strains, back pain, and “random” injuries
- The simple daily test that reveals your overall mobility
- A 90-second exercise (“grasshoppers”) that can dramatically improve flexibility fast
- How better spinal and nerve mobility supports long-term movement, balance, and pain-free living
If you want to move better, stay active longer, and understand what your body actually needs to age well—this episode is a must-listen.
Check Us Out On Social Media -
Facebook: @bermanwellness , @physicaltherapynaples, @Berman Golf
Instagram: @berman_wellness, @bermanphysicaltherapy , @Berman Golf
Youtube: Berman Golf, Berman Physical Therapy
TikTok: Bermangolf, Bermanwellness
Email us -
drberman@bermanpt.com
jenni@bermanwellness.com
Check out our website -
www.bermanpt.com
www.bermanpt.com/wellness
www.bermangolf.com
David Vs Goliath Healthcare Rant
Speaker 1We are back on the Berman Method Podcast. Treating problems, not symptoms. David going against Goliath. Dr. Jake Berman here with my beautiful co-host.
Speaker 2Jenni Berman, physician assistant.
Speaker 1We are David going against Goliath. I saw you were a little sidetracked, so I didn't go with my rant there.
Speaker 2Yeah, because well now you've already said that. So what's next? David going against Goliath.
Speaker 1Yeah, I'm Goliath being.
Speaker 2I think everybody that actually listens to our podcast could probably do your intro.
Speaker 1Good. Then it's finally hitting home. Big pharma, the health insurance companies.
Speaker 2Do not have your best interests in mind. They will take profit over patient outcomes every single time.
Speaker 1It's a business. It's a business. It is what it is. A patient cured is a customer loss. A patient cured is a customer loss. And health and your health insurance sucks. Let's face it. Your health insurance sucks. I don't care if you've got Medicare and a $20,000 a year supplemental plan. It freaking sucks. It absolutely sucks. Health insurance, their job is to deny. I'll never forget this. One of one of my first clients ever in physical therapy, she had worked for Blue Cross Blue Shield for over 20 years and she had just retired.
Speaker 2Good gracious.
Speaker 1She had just retired.
Speaker 2What was her cortisol level like? I feel like people in insurance and accountants have like the same cortisol pattern, just burnt out. Okay, anyways.
Speaker 1So she had just freshly retired from Blue Cross Blue Shield, and she came to see me for physical therapy. And she wanted to submit for out-of-network reimbursement for physical therapy services.
Speaker 2Because you didn't take insurance.
Speaker 1Yeah, because I don't take insurance. So I gave her the codes. And this woman knew exactly what codes she needed and all of the proper documentation. We gave it to her, she submitted it and they denied.
Speaker 2Right. Even with all the right things that she knew was required for acceptance. And they found some loophole to deny.
Denials By Design: Real Insurance Stories
Speaker 1So she calls them the seventh time that she calls Blue Cross to fight with them. She's standing in my office. And she says these words. She goes, I know what you guys are doing right now. Stop doing it. I literally worked there for 20 years. You have everything you need. There's nothing to deny. She's literally telling them, I know what you're doing. Right. Right.
Speaker 2And they're like, deny.
Speaker 1Deny. You didn't put a period after the end of the sentence. The color of the ink is not black enough. Like, I don't know. It's just a joke.
Speaker 2The font was a size 11 instead of a 12.
Speaker 1And this was exactly. And this was 10 years ago. Now it's just, it's horrible. It's absolutely horrible. And they're choosing profits over patient outcomes because they know that if they statistically, if a health insurance company statistically denies two times or three times, I I don't know, I'm just making this up right now. But if if you get denied three times, the likelihood that you attempt a fourth time, it dramatically decreases. For every single time you deny a claim, the chances that the patient will submit again exponentially decreases every single denial. Unless your name's Jenni Berman.
Why Most Claims Get Dropped After Rejections
Speaker 2Well, even so I was just gonna say, we've talked about this on a prior podcast, but even with Walker surgery, for instance, we had the doctor's office appeal to the insurance to request a you know a one-off surgery to occur at their hospital, even though the hospital didn't accept his insurance. We asked for the doctor's office contacted the insurance and asked them, I forget what they called it now, but it was an appeal to be able to have the surgery there. And they still denied them. With the the physician calling them and saying, This is why it's medically necessary. The child has to have surgery. Can you approve this one-time surgery at our location? Denied.
Speaker 1That was the biggest thing was it was a medically necessary procedure, and the insurance company kept classifying it as a non-medical necessary procedure.
Speaker 2An elective procedure.
Speaker 1An elective procedure. Right. Quit classifying it. And they still denied it.
Speaker 2In a baby.
Speaker 1In a baby. So, anyways, that that's why we're doing this, is you have to be informed. You have to know, like the dude says in the big Lebowski, I know my rights, man. I know my rights, man. That is true. You have to know. You need to know what your options are, and you need to know what you're entitled to. And most of the time, 99% of the time, health insurance is the wrong way to go. And you should pay cash.
Speaker 2Yeah. Save your money on your health insurance and pay for it in other ways.
Speaker 1Yeah. So today I wanted to get into the second most important thing on a physical component, on correlating high longevity. So the second thing that's most important to uh correlate with high longevity, high quality of life, being able to keep moving and grooving, and that is flexibility, specifically your ability to stand up completely straight with your knees straight, bend over and touch your toes.
A Baby’s Surgery Labeled “Elective”
Speaker 2Right. So just to back up a little bit, last week on the episode on the podcast, if you did not listen to the episode, you should, because that was step number one into being able to increase freedom and movement and longevity and just being able to live a longer, pain-free life, right? So that was step number one.
Speaker 1Yeah, just a higher quality of life.
Speaker 2Right? Balance. So now we're on number two on the physical component, which is being able to touch your toes.
Speaker 1Yes. And so many people, it's one side, one way or the other. You either say, Oh, that's easy, you bend over and you touch your toes. And then you got this significant portion of other people that say, I've never been able to touch my toes. Now I get it. You've never been able to touch your toes. Here, let's talk about the reason why it's important to be able to touch your toes. It's a general overall flexibility assessment of how flexible your neural dural system is. So it's not a hamstring thing.
Speaker 2Which most people say, Oh, I have the worst hamstring flexibility. I've never been able to do that. Yeah. But it's not just a hamstring problem.
Speaker 1Yep. So 99% of the people that can't stand straight up, bend over, and touch your toes with straight knees, they say, I've got tight hamstrings. It's not your hamstrings that's limiting you. It's this whole other thing that I don't want to spend too much time on because it's really hard to communicate it over a podcast without a visuals, but it's your neural dural system. So here's a simple way to think about this. And I'm going to explain this, but I'm going to explain reasons why it's important afterwards. So make sure you stay tuned. I'm going to have to go in the weeds here a little bit. So make sure you stay tuned because I'm going to explain why it's so important. So your neural dural system. Your dura, think of your dura as a sock that your spinal cord is in. Right? So it's just a covering. So you have your spinal cord and then you have your dura that surrounds your spinal cord, and that is within your spinal column. So it goes down your spine.
Speaker 3Okay.
Speaker 1So inside your spinal column, you have your dura, and then inside the dura, you have your spinal cord. The dura is just think of it as a sock.
Speaker 2Okay.
Speaker 1Okay. Your spinal cord should be able to move freely up and down within your dura.
Speaker 2Right.
Know Your Rights And Consider Cash Care
Speaker 1It shouldn't be glued to the dura. Yes. And then you should have some pliability or some freedom of movement of your nerves within your muscles. So your sciatic nerve, for example, goes down the back of your leg between your hamstrings, and then it splits off into branches and ultimately terminates in your foot. And your nerves should have some freedom of movement up and down between your muscles.
Speaker 3Right.
Speaker 1Your nerves should not be glued to your muscles. Correct. So your spinal cord shouldn't be glued to your dura, and your sciatic nerve, and it's all all of its tributaries shouldn't be glued to your muscles.
Speaker 2Yes. And that goes with any nerve, like even the nerves coming from the neck. But yes.
Speaker 1Neck into your arms and forearms and hands. Yes. Same thing's true everywhere. There should be degrees of freedom of movement of the nerves throughout the body.
Speaker 3Right.
Speaker 1When you bend over to touch your toes, most people feel it in your hamstrings, and you're going, Oh my gosh, my hamstrings are so tight.
SpeakerI can't do it. It's my hamstrings. I've always had tight hamstrings.
Speaker 2And that's what you used to sound like back in the day when your hamstrings were like that.
Speaker 1Well, this was back in middle school when I learned this. I didn't even know. I didn't even know what was happening when it was happening because in middle school, I'll never forget it. I hit my gross spurt in middle school. And by the time I was in eighth grade, I'm the same exact height as I am today. I still have my khaki pants that I wore to my eighth grade dance. I still have them to this day.
Speaker 2And your hunting pants.
Speaker 1I still have my hunting pants that I wore in eighth grade too. I wore them this past season, wear them every season. They're my lucky hunting pants. So I was the same exact height in eighth grade as I am today. And because I had this massive gross spurt in such a short amount of time over sixth grade, seventh grade, the body just didn't adapt. So I'll never forget it. I bent over. I forget the reason why. I was in eighth grade. I bent over.
Longevity Pillar Two: Touch Your Toes
Speaker 2You know, I had to do like that monthly testing in eighth grade. That's what we had to do.
Speaker 1Well, no, my dad saw me do this. My dad saw me bend over for something, and I couldn't, I could barely even get past my knees. And my dad goes, Boy, what what the hell is that? I go, What are you talking about? I'm paraphrasing right now, right? I don't remember the exact words, but he goes, You can't touch your toes. And I said, No, can you? And he bends over so fluidly, puts almost his entire palm on the floor, and I'm going, Oh my gosh. He goes, Yeah, you need to fix that. And I said, Okay. So I just started stretching, and six months later, I was able to touch my toes, but I didn't realize I was doing it at the time. Now I know why it's so important. Everybody pay attention to this. I told you to stay tuned to this because this is the real important part. Most injury occurs when you try to get a motion from something that's not able to move.
Speaker 2Yes.
Speaker 1Most injury occurs when you try to get movement from an area that is not able to give you that movement.
Speaker 2Right, right. And then I mean, yeah, think about knee injuries and hip injuries and back injuries. Yes.
It’s Not Your Hamstrings
Speaker 1Yep. So the simplest way to say this is if you're standing up with straight knees and you bend over to touch your toes, and you can only touch your knees, but then some random thing happens, a grandbaby is falling. So you're gonna bend over to catch that grandbaby. Right. Not even thinking about the fact that you don't have flexibility.
Speaker 2And that your body doesn't move that way.
Speaker 1Yeah. You catch the grandbaby right before it hits the ground, which is noticeably further than touching your knees. And you tear a hamstring, you pull a hamstring, you throw your back out. Right. Something happens. So injury occurs when you try to get a movement from an area that's not able to move that way.
Speaker 2Right.
Speaker 1I'm not talking about traumas, traumas are different.
Speaker 2Yeah, right. But just general, you know, you get out of the car and you pull your back out, or you're cleaning and you pull your back out.
Speaker 1Or the example that I've used multiple times here recently is I try to do a cartwheel and I rip off my adductor, my inner thigh muscle, and I'm limping for a month because I didn't have that flexibility anymore. I had the nostalgic memory of being able to do it. And I knew that I was strong enough to do it with my upper body. I just didn't have the flexibility of my adductor muscle. So when I bent over to do that, I strained my adductor and I had to pay for it for the next four to six weeks.
Speaker 2And now you've been working on that flexibility.
Speaker 1I actually haven't been working on that flexibility.
Speaker 2Oh, come on.
Speaker 1Why would I work on my adductor flexibility?
Speaker 2So you can do a cartwheel.
Speaker 1What? Okay. 2026, hashtag 2026 goals.
Speaker 2Cartwheel. Keeps you young. And it helps your equilibrium, you know, work the inner ear function if you're upside down every now and then.
Speaker 1Maybe that can help me get back onto roller coasters.
Speaker 2Oh, I don't know if I'll ever go on a roller coaster with you ever again. Even if you fix your inner ear. I'd be TSD from riding roller coasters with you. One roller coaster.
Speaker 1Oh my gosh. So coming back to the full circle, why is it so important to be able to bend over and touch your toes? It's because it's a general overall flexibility assessment, which means that when you're randomly reaching underneath the kitchen sink, trying to fix something under the sink, and you're trying to contort your body in some way, shape, or form to reach something that you really should be calling a handyman to do, you're not going to strain something because you have the available range of motion to do it. When the grandbaby actually does start falling and you have to instantaneously turn into Superman and bend over and catch the grandbaby, you don't strain a hamstring. When you're walking and you don't see that black ice and your foot slips out from underneath you, you don't tear an adductor muscle or whatever it is.
Speaker 2Trying to catch yourself.
Neural Dural System 101
Speaker 1Trying to catch yourself because I should say you're less likely to do it. You know, there's this whole other thing. If the muscle's not strong enough, yeah, you're still going to injure it. But the biggest thing is if you've got the available range of motion, you are less likely to injure yourself.
Speaker 2Right. And coming back to the spinal column, just having that fluidity of the column of between the dura and the spinal cord as opposed to it being glued together. Right. Which comes along with the practice of flexibility.
Speaker 1Right. So what you're man, I don't know if we can go down this road without going all the way down this road. So let's let's just see where this takes us. When the spinal cord and the dura are moving freely within the spinal cord, you are at a you are at a higher probability for spinal health, right? So that means your spine, it's more likely that your spine is going to move the way that it should move, meaning that everybody knows that person that has a huge kyphosis, so that big turtle hump, right? A turtle hump in your middle back area where your posture is shit and you can't straighten your upper back. Your spine is not flexible, it doesn't move, it's very stiff and stenotic. So you don't have good spinal health. And that puts the rest of your body at a disadvantage, which means you're at higher risk for injury. So stenosis, everybody or a lot of people have heard this word stenosis, spinal stenosis. And the simplest way to think of stenosis is your spine is getting stiff. Stenosis stiff, stenosis stiff. The spinal spinal cord is getting stiff. We don't want your spinal cord to be stiff.
Speaker 2Right.
Speaker 1You want it to be able to move. It should move. It's it's can your spinal cord consists of a lot of vertebrae and joints. Joints are meant to move. If a joint doesn't move, it gets stiff.
Speaker 3Right.
Speaker 1Stiff means you don't move.
Speaker 3Right.
Speaker 1Less motion is not better as you're getting older. Or more motion. Keep moving. So being able to have that fluidity of your spinal cord in the dura, in your spinal column, gives you overall spinal health. The healthier your spinal cord is, the more you are going to be able to function and live a higher quality of life.
Speaker 2Yes. And less pain, most likely. Yep. Because we're not getting pinches and impingements.
Speaker 1Yes. Yes. So now let's talk to the people that are saying, I've never been able to touch my toes. What do you want me to do? Just stretch my hamstrings?
Speaker 2No.
Speaker 1Absolutely not. Because we already said your hamstrings are not the problem. Your hamstrings are not the problem. It's the whole neural dural system. So there's a reason why you've never been able to touch your toes. The reason why is because every time you try to touch your toes, the way that you're trying to fix that problem is by stretching your hamstrings. You're trying to fix the wrong problem. Correct. You have a symptom of tightness, right? You're bending over and you feel tightness in your hamstrings. So that tightness sensation tells your brain, oh, I've got tight hamstrings, let me stretch my hamstrings. But that's not the real problem.
Speaker 2Right. And the body is really smart and it will contract and tighten to try to protect something else.
Injury Happens When Motion Is Borrowed
Speaker 1I'm so happy that you just said that. So happy that you just said that, because that is exactly what happens when you bend over to touch your toes, and your brain subconsciously, remember I've said this multiple times, your brain subconsciously is way faster, way quicker, way smarter than you are consciously. When your brain perceives tightness or tension, sorry, when your brain perceives tension on the nervous system, so your sciatic nerve, your dura system, when it perceives that tension on the sciatic nerve, which runs between your hamstrings, you got two hamstring muscles, by the way. I didn't say that. So there's two hamstring muscles, there's a medial and a lateral, so one on the inside, one on the outside, medial and lateral, and the sciatic nerve runs right between the two of them. So when your brain perceives tension on that sciatic nerve as a protective mechanism, it contracts your hamstrings.
Speaker 2Right, tightens up.
Speaker 1Yeah, tightens them up because it knows that your hamstring tightness, the contraction of those hamstrings, will protect the sciatic nerve.
Speaker 2Right. Right. So when there's tension on the nerve, because we don't have that fluidity or flexibility of the dura, the spinal in the spinal column. So when the sciatic has tension on it, then the body will contract its hamstrings, tighten the hamstrings to protect the sciatic. So then you're perceiving the hamstring tightness, and you stop.
Speaker 1And you stop, yes, exactly. And then you think, oh my gosh, my hamstrings are so tight, I need to stretch my hamstrings. So then you spend 10 seconds, 20 seconds doing a hamstring stretch.
Speaker 2Right. And they're like, I'm good. That hurts. I'm good.
Speaker 1And then maybe, just maybe you do this a few weeks in a row. And then at the end of four or six weeks, you go, Well, that's no better. That didn't work.
Speaker 2Yeah. But that wasn't the actual problem.
Speaker 1That was not the problem at all.
Speaker 2Right.
Speaker 1So are you ready for my blue light special on the simplest way to increase your flexibility to go from being able to not touch your toes to being able to touch your toes?
Speaker 2Yes.
Speaker 1What do you think I'm gonna say?
Speaker 2Well, I don't know. I just think about how we used to do it in gymnastics.
Speaker 1How'd you do it?
Speaker 2We had two things.
Speaker 1Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Gymnastics or gymnast girls were not able to touch their toes.
Speaker 2No, we most of us were able to touch our toes. Most had good flexibility in the sense of being able to touch your toes. Some didn't. However, we did have two specific exercises, uh, stretches, quote unquote stretches, that we had to do before every single practice to stretch our Dural system.
Speaker 1And the reason that Wait a minute, you they told you that's what you were stretching?
Speaker 2Well, they didn't tell us you're stretching your dural system. No, they didn't tell us that. They called it the save your life stretch.
Speaker 1Really? Yes. Tell me more. I'm so intrigued right now.
Speaker 2We had to do two exercises before every practice, and they called them the save your life stretch, one sitting, one lying. Because if you in gymnastics with certain movements, if you bailed or balked, meaning you just stopped the the exercise in the middle and you would fall, you had to be able to land essentially on your neck with your feet over your head and not to save your life, right? So if you did not practice that movement and you fell on the tops of your shoulder blades and on your neck, like laying backwards on your neck, and your feet went over your head, and you didn't have that flexibility of the dural space, you would have a significant injury.
Speaker 1Spinal cord injury.
Speaker 2Spinal cord injury. Yes. So we had to be able to do these stretches so that we essentially were stretching out that spinal column to allow that fluidity in order to save our spinal cord if we had any types of those falls.
Speaker 1Holy cow.
Speaker 2So they didn't tell us at the time, hey, you're stretching your dural system to save your spinal cord. We just knew it as eight, nine, ten, eleven-year-old athletes as the save your life stretch. And to we ascend like I always thought it was just saving my neck, right? Like I did it to protect my neck, but it was really to protect the spinal cord.
Speaker 1That is awesome.
unknownYeah.
Speaker 1Because that's exactly what we're talking about. So the stretches that you're talking about, let's call those advanced.
Speaker 2Okay.
Speaker 1Because we're talking about high-level gymnasts.
Speaker 2Yeah. So do you want me to tell you what they are?
Speaker 1Oh, yeah, sure. You never told us. What are they?
Speaker 2So the first one is sitting down on your bottom with your legs out in front of you, like you were going to sit and reach for your toes. Right? So you're sitting with your legs straight out in front of you on your bottom, what we called a pike. But instead of reaching for our toes, we would try to touch to tuck our chin into our chest and roll our head down to where our head went before our knees.
Speaker 1Holy cow.
Speaker 2Right? So that is sitting up, tuck your chin to your chest, roll your head down, and try to touch the top of your head, like your forehead, but the top of your head before your knees.
Speaker 1I love that.
Speaker 2So that was number one, which would be really challenging for many, many people.
Speaker 1It'd be really challenging for me.
Speaker 2Yeah. So we had to be able to do that. And then the second thing that we had to do was then we had to roll back. So we're, you know, in a that same kind of piked position, but roll backwards so that the floor is essentially on your shoulder blades and your feet go over your head, and you had to be able to touch your knees onto the floor over your head. So you're like in a fetal position, right? People always talk about being in the fetal position where their knees are tucked to their chest. You're essentially doing that, but rolled backwards up onto your shoulder blades so that you're stretching the entire, the entire spinal column.
Speaker 1Okay, so don't attempt that at home.
Speaker 2Right. But I'm just yeah, those were our two.
Speaker 1We're talking about 10-year-old gymnastics, right? Not 40-year-old.
Speaker 2Yeah, so don't do those. But that those were the two stretches that we did to save our lives. So now we're going to teach you exercises to save your life.
Speaker 1Okay. I I think the first one was really, really good. And I think that people can take a lot away from that first one, sitting in a pike position and rolling down, trying to put your forehead before your knees. The challenge that people are going to have with that one is there's nothing comfortable about it at all.
Speaker 2Oh no. It's not even at that age, it wasn't comfortable.
Speaker 1Nothing comfortable about it at all. So I try to minimize the things that I give people to do if I know that it's torturous. Yeah. Meaning that I would not want to do either one of those two exercises.
Speaker 2Well, yeah, because if it's torturous and painful, you're not gonna do it.
Speaker 1Yeah. So drum roll, are we ready? The quickest way.
unknownOh my gosh.
Speaker 1Can you do that again, please?
Speaker 2No, that was my drum roll.
Speaker 1Get rid of the smile on your face so you can do it. Do it again. Dude, I hope that lip drum roll came out on the audio. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2I can't roll my tongue, so that's the best I got.
Speaker 1It just reminded me of Vince Vaughn and wedding crashers. You motorboating son of a gun.
Speaker 2You're all about movies today.
Speaker 1Oh my gosh. Okay.
Speaker 2Drum roll.
Speaker 1Wow. I don't even know what I'm talking about anymore.
Speaker 2The exercise to help with the neuros.
Why Stretching Feels Wrong And Fails
Speaker 1Yeah, we gotta get back to being able to touch our toes. And you've actually named this the grasshopper. Yes. Right? So I don't know if it's a grasshopper or what. But here's here, let me try to describe this thing. Standing up, what we're gonna do is kind of get into a squatted position. So bend your knees, squat down. And what you're trying to do is you're trying to grab your toes. So bend your knees, bend your hips, roll your back down, bend over and grab your toes. Put your fingertips underneath your toes and gently step on your fingertips. And now keep your head down and straighten your knees until you feel a lot of tension in the backs of the legs. You might even feel it in your back, and then bend your knees, and then straighten your knees and then bend your knees. You're keeping your fingers under your toes, you're keeping your head down, straighten your knees, bend your knees, straighten your knees, bend your knees. Every time you straighten them, they're not going to go all the way straight. They will not go all the way straight. Just get them straighter, you'll feel tension, bend them. No tension. Straighter, tension, less straight, no tension. And you just do this over and over again for 20 repetitions.
Speaker 2Right.
Speaker 1Keeping your head.
Speaker 2People call those exercises quarterbacks. That's another name for them. I used to call them grasshoppers all the time. Some people call them quarterbacks. So if you've ever heard of that exercise.
Speaker 1Yeah, kinda. Just go with that visual where you're stepping on your toes or your toes are stepping on your fingertips. You're keeping your head down. Think about keeping your vision behind your feet. I'm sorry, behind your legs, like you're looking through your legs, like a quarterback, or like you're looking for a quarterback, like you're trying to hike the ball looking for a quarterback. Get the knees straighter, bend the knees. Get the knees straighter, bend the knees. Twenty times. As you're doing this, focus on deep breathing. Every single repetition, you're trying to get the knees just a little bit straighter, a little bit straighter. And you just do it 20 times, and then you rest, stand up, breathe. Don't lock your knees out when you stand up, shake your knees out, breathe, and then go back down and do it again.
Speaker 2Right.
Speaker 1Just do it three times. The whole entire process should not take you more than 90 seconds.
Speaker 2Got it.
Speaker 1And at the end of those 90 seconds, stand up, shake your knees out, breathe, and then keep your knees straight, bend over again and reassess how much more motion you have. You should have a minimum of a half inch improvement. Most people will have an entire inch improvement in less than 90 seconds of doing this.
Speaker 2Okay. And how many days a week are we doing this?
Speaker 1You're doing this every single day.
Speaker 2Every day. So we need to brush our teeth on one leg, each leg, for one minute, morning and night.
Speaker 1To improve your balance.
Speaker 2While you brush your teeth. Stand on one leg, do I say that? Stand on one leg for one minute on each leg while you're brushing your teeth morning and night. And then we need to be doing 90 seconds worth of 20 quarterback things. What's an what do you want to call them? They need a name.
Speaker 1Call them grasshoppers.
Speaker 2Grasshoppers.
Speaker 1Yeah. 20 seconds or 20 repetitions, rest. 20 repetitions, rest. 20 repetitions, reassess.
Speaker 2Got it. Every day.
Gymnast “Save Your Life” Stretches
Speaker 1Every single day. And it only takes 90 seconds. If you want to get down to touching your toes quicker, just do it multiple times a day.
Speaker 2Yeah, do it morning and night while you after you brush your teeth.
Speaker 1Look at that.
Speaker 2There we go. We're just gonna keep adding your morning and night routine.
Speaker 1Look at that. And that will help free up the whole entire neural dural system. This is not focusing on your hamstring flexibility. This is focusing on the entire neural dural system. That's why it's important to step on your fingers. That's important why you keep that connection between your toes and your fingertips, because that is kind of very similar to what Jenni was describing with that pike position and then rolling back into that fetal position. So that's an advanced level to do it. Again, we're not asking our listeners to do what Jenni was describing. All we are doing is saying get some quarterbacks in and get down and touch your freaking toes.
Speaker 2Grasshoppers.
Speaker 1Grasshopper. Young grasshopper.
Speaker 2Awesome.
Speaker 1Good?
Speaker 2Is that it?
Speaker 1That's it.
Speaker 2Okay, ciao for now.