♪ Bod and Brad, the two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists on the internet ♪
- Hi folks, I'm Bob Schrupp, Physical Therapist.
- Brad Heineck, Physical Therapist
- And we are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- In our opinion of course, Bob.
- Today, intriguing title: how fake surgery
can help your back pain.
And we're gonna discuss what fake surgery is
in just a minute, Brad.
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a 60 second version of our program.
- Excellent, Bob.
- So we have done many videos, a few videos on it,
on whether or not you should have back surgery,
especially fusions. - Sure
- Cause there's a lot of problems with them.
They are necessary at times. - Right
- But I've seen many failed back surgeries.
- Well usually the failed ones,
they get sent to physical therapy.
- That's right.
- And then hopefully we can help them.
- Right, but my belief, and I'm sure
you believe this too Brad,
a lot of people have surgery too soon.
I think they should have tried some other things
before they did. - Right
- Also, Dr. Stewart McGill, who I'm a big fan of,
he's written a couple textbooks on back pain,
and even a book for the lay person.
He believes that any success in surgery
may be due in large part, due to the forced rest
that you have after surgery.
Now after surgery, you can't lift stuff,
you're forced to rest.
And he thinks a lot of the good results of surgery
may actually be from that,
and not from the surgery itself.
- So in other words, you're forced to stop work,
follow the precautions, the guidelines, the rest.
- And you're doing some gradual rehab.
So your back's getting stronger.
- So fake surgery would be, you do all the precautions,
everything, except the surgery itself.
- Right - So that would prove
that you didn't need surgery if you did that.
- That's right, that's right.
So we're doing experiments here.
And what's there to lose?
Unless, if you're getting pain down into your foot
and you're getting foot drop,
then you may need to have surgery
cause you could have a damaged nerve.
- Right, right.
- So but yeah, he referred to it as virtual surgery.
I like the term fake surgery.
So what we're gonna do is, I want you today,
if you want to try this, pretend you had surgery today.
Tell your family, tell your friends: I had surgery today.
And then you're gonna have to follow a protocol
for what you're supposed to do after surgery.
And I'm gonna give you a protocol.
Just type in: the road to recovery after spine surgery.
The road to recovery after spine surgery.
It's by Johns Hopkins.
- Okay - Okay
And they have a beautiful booklet
and it lays out what you're supposed to do after surgery.
And I want you to do all these things.
And we're gonna go over some of these things right now, Brad
so they can kinda get an idea.
- Okay, you bet. - Number one, walking.
And they say that it's the best activity
you can do for six weeks after, fake surgery.
You wanna work up to like 30 minutes twice a day.
- Sure - And Brad,
we harp on this all the time.
- Just make sure you're gonna walk on flat, even surfaces,
not uneven surfaces, uphill or downhill.
Make sure that you're not on a crown
where one foot's lower than the other, essentially.
- What's that, the camber of the road they call that?
- Yeah, so the water runs off.
But so make sure you got a flat even surface is the best.
- And also, make sure you have good posture.
Like I tell people,
can I stand up Mike and you won't lose me?
When you walk, every once in a while
you may even want to grab your wrists like this
and pull your shoulders back.
And that's gonna put you in good posture,
as opposed to like this. - Right
- If you walk like this, it's increased stress on the back
and you're not getting the benefit.
Some people also do a little bit better,
believe it or not, walking a little bit faster paced,
pace not paced, because the faster face
you actually put less stress on the spine,
believe it or not. - Right
- But it's like nature's natural balm for the back.
It actually gets fluids moving, blood flowing.
- Well there's a subtle movement
that continually is going on in the low back,
with the pelvis, and you just have to do that with walking.
And it's good.
- Number two, restrictions.
So these are the restrictions after back surgery.
They'll tell you avoid twisting, bending,
and any lifting, pushing, or pulling over five pounds,
objects over five pounds.
So this could be a tough one.
This is the one where people go,
well who's gonna cut the lawn?
You just had surgery, you can't cut the lawn.
Who's gonna take out the garbage?
You just had surgery, you can't take out the garbage.
- Right, you gotta pretend.
- Yep, you gotta pretend.
And this is what calms the back down.
- Sure - And sometimes,
when it calms down it stays calm.
- It allows it to heal and the whole thing,
and you avoid surgery.
It's really an interesting concept.
I really think it's, ah...
- If you need a note from us, we'll write you a note.
Right? - Yeah.
(laughing)
- Okay, how about getting out of bed, Brad?
Simplest getting out of bed, you wanna show this?
- No, you better. - All right.
If you wanna take this right here.
- You usually sleep with your shirt and tie anyway.
- I do, this is exactly how I sleep.
(laughing)
This is my pajamas. - More efficient.
- So let's say you're lying on your back.
You're gonna want to turn your whole body.
You don't want to do this.
See how I'm twisting the body?
You're gonna roll like a log.
So if I roll like a log, one piece.
The other thing is if you have pain when you roll,
I want you to tighten your abdominal muscles.
- [Brad] So you got your natural back support.
- Natural brace, yep exactly.
So I'm tightening and I'm turning.
And right when I get to the edge here now,
now I can bring the legs off,
and I can push up, and I'm keeping my back straight
the entire time.
So there's another way to do it,
but I think we'll hold off on that one.
The one that you like to use.
- Yeah, this one's probably, most people will,
- Is gonna be more apt for this time.
- Right, the other one's a little more...
- For sleeping in bed, we want you,
and this is in the Johns Hopkins guide,
what you're gonna do is you're gonna,
if you're gonna sleep on your back.
- You want one of two pillows?
- I'll take two. - Two.
- You're gonna put two pillows under your back.
It's just gonna put a little bit
less stress on your back.
It's not going to arch as much.
It'll flatten it out a little bit.
If you sleep on your side,
I'm pulling on my mic a little bit here.
- Oh, yeah don't lose your mic.
- I'm gonna have to sleep on this side.
(laughing)
If you sleep on your side, this stops the back
from rotating and put some stress on it.
So it's better, actually straightens out the back
a little bit more by having the pillow between the legs.
- And it's comfortable on the knees too.
- And it's comfortable, right.
So I won't get into the back support thing.
- Oh, yeah - That generally is not...
Okay how about with just picking up objects, Brad?
Do you mind grabbing that, oh I think it's over here,
the pen. - Oh, the pen.
We're only gonna pick up a pen.
- Yeah, so let's say there's a pen on the floor.
You'll say, well that's not a five pound restriction.
I can lift that up.
Yes, you can, but there's a wrong way and a right way.
So the wrong way is to go ahead
and just bend over like this.
Now look how I'm rounding out.
Everything's gotta be done with the back
in neutral posture, or straight posture.
Now the way we show this quite often
is by using the Booyah stick.
If I keep, - Switch arms, Bob.
They can see it better that way.
- Oh, sure. - There you go.
- So this is keeping your back in a neutral posture.
My head, I got contact here, I contact in the mid back,
I got contact at the low back.
So I'm gonna bend down, maintaining that.
And you can do a lunge, like this.
And if you got something to hold on to
that really helps a lot.
- Cupboard or a chair.
- And then you can reach down like this
and keep your back straight the entire time.
And getting up also, works out really well.
You can bend down like this, but you need to have
pretty good hip flexibility to do that.
- You know, it's probably best to do it
the other direction, or the way, with that one knee down.
Most people find that much easier.
- Yeah, and like we said, it helps a lot,
like even sometimes just hold on to your knees,
- Sure - will give you support.
And then reach down. - Yep
- Hold on to something to take
some of the pressure off the back.
I'm just gonna show sitting, Brad.
I was gonna show getting in and out of a car,
but we don't really have a car here do we?
- Well, outside we do, but ah...
- Let's haul this off here, Brad.
- Oh sorry. - Gonna put you to work.
Mike why don't you sing something for the crowd
while we're doing this.
Mike doesn't have a mic on.
- That's why, then they don't have to hear you.
- Yeah, that's right.
- It'll entertain us, though.
- So when you're sitting in a chair,
now this is gonna be really important
if you're in a recliner.
In a recliner you're gonna wanna use probably a throw pillow
We're trying to put something at the low back
to maintain the arch, so your back is not
rounding out like this.
So if you're in a regular chair like this,
there's a myriad, is that a correct word?
- Yeah, I think you can use that one, Bob.
- Yeah, there's a whole bunch of different types
of back supports you can buy online.
McKenzie makes a whole bunch of them.
This is an inflatable one, so you can adjust it.
If you tend to be a larger person
with a larger buttock area,
you're gonna have more of an arch
and you're gonna probably need a larger support,
like this one is.
If you're a thinner, slighter person
you can probably get by with a thinner one.
That's just kinda the rule of thumb.
We recommend that you start with like rolled towels,
like a rolled towel, just because you can then
experiment and see how big a support you want.
Try it for a while, oh there we go!
Try it for a while and then see in the long run
how much, how large of a surface you actually need.
- Right, the bigger the towel,
the bigger the permanent or the boughten lumbar support.
- So that's why if you're gonna be in a recliner
or a couch, which tends to be soft and you really sink in,
that's why you probably need a throw pillow or something
cause that'll give you enough support.
- You'll know the right size because it's gonna feel good.
It's gonna feel like good support.
If it feels like it's really pushing you out,
it might be too much.
And if it's going in, you'll know it.
It'll feel like, oh, believe me you'll know.
- Yeah and this is really important for the car.
- Right - Cause you know,
usually when you get in the car,
you know you may have a half hour, hour drive,
maybe a lot longer. - Sure.
- And that's definitely where you're gonna want
to make sure you have some arch support
for the low back so that you're not sitting for a long time
and undoing the results of your fake surgery.
You know? - Right.
Everything you're doing at home,
getting out of bed right, lifting right proper, etc.
And then you go sit in your car for an hour
and it's hard to get out.
- So again we're trying to calm the pain down
without surgery, give it a try.
Give us your comments below; let us know how it goes.
Maybe it's gonna be a month from now
and you guys can start yelling at us then, or you can...
- Celebrate your no surgery.
- That's right. - Exactly right.
Thanks everybody for watching.