♪ Bob and Brad. ♪
♪ The two most famous physical therapists, ♪
♪ On the Internet. ♪
- Hi folks, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- And I'm Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- We are the most famous physical therapists
on the Internet.
- In our opinion, of course, Bob.
- We're gonna show you today how to test
for spinal stenosis.
We have a 30 second test.
We actually have three questions you can ask yourself too.
- Sure.
- Or have someone ask you if you think
that's a little strange, talking to yourself.
And this can narrow down fairly close
whether or not you have it.
Spinal stenosis is also known as basically lumbar or back
arthritis,
- Mmm hmm
and it's also called degenerative disc disease,
that can often lead to it.
- Sure.
- Um, if you're new to our channel, by the way, please
take a second to subscribe to us.
We provide videos on stay healthy, fit, pain-free,
and we upload every day.
We're always giving away something.
We're going to be giving away something tomorrow,
starting on Sunday.
- Oh.
- I think it's the Thermotex, I believe.
Uh, the infrared system.
- Infrared heat pad.
- Which is really great for spinal stenosis,
let me tell ya.
- Sure.
- So, uh you can go to Facebook,
and you'll find it on there --
Bob and Brad.
You can also go to our website,
BobandBrad.com and go to our giveaway section.
- Sure.
- So, join us there.
Alright, I want to show
just real quickly, Brad, what
spinal stenosis is.
So basically, stenosis means a narrowing.
Correct?
- So, what's narrowing?
- Okay.
- That's what we're gonna look at.
- So we got the spine here.
The head would be right here, this is the pelvis,
you can see part of the legs right here.
Got the entire back here.
These nerves, you can see, actually come out of little holes
right here.
We call them pheromone.
And those holes, with time, uh, with arthritis,
and with degeneration, as you get older, can get smaller,
so there's less room for the nerves to come out.
- So if that nerve gets pinched, we've got a problem.
- Right.
And that'll send the pain down your leg
like you normally get with spinal stenosis.
Now, what a lot of people don't realize though is --
and we're gonna use this nerve here, the blue one,
just as a demonstration.
That you can actually change the size of that hole
depending what body position you're in.
- Yep, so, right there I've got the pen in that pheromone,
that, you know, there's plenty of room for the nerve
and then pen.
- Now, if I bend forward, look how that hole gets bigger.
Now there's more room for that nerve to, to work.
- Right.
- To come out.
Now, if I come back, that hole gets smaller.
- Right, now I can hardly get the pen in there, the tip
of the pen.
Uh, just the mechanics of how the back work
with the facet joints and the pheromone.
- Now, if you have a normal, healthy back,
that doesn't matter.
There's plenty of room no matter which direction you go.
- Right.
- But if you have spinal stenosis, that may pinch.
The other thing is that if I turn toward the painful side
it actually opens that hole up.
If I turn away from the painful side,
it actually closes that hole up.
- This probably not as significant
as forward and backwards,
but it still has an influence on it.
- Right.
So, let's look at that in real life, Brad.
So, if I have spinal stenosis, what things generally
are gonna bother me?
If I bend backward like this.
- Yep.
_ And if I bend forward or sit
- Right.
- That often gives me relief of pain.
- Sure.
- So, let's talk about the three questions first.
- Okay.
- If you're -- Are you over 55?
- Yes.
- Okay, so you're over 55.
Do you have back pain?
- Yes.
Does it increase with standing and walking?
- Yes.
- Does it get better when you sit?
- Yes.
- Okay.
- And those answers are true for me.
- Yeah, and he does have spinal exostosis
and spinal stenosis.
Right?
- Right, they kind of often time overlap.
- Work together.
There's other thing too, not only is it better with sitting
sometimes, it's also better
when you lean on a shopping cart.
Do you want me to call it Shopping Cart Syndrome?
And you're pushing a shopping cart
- Right.
- 'Cause you're bending forward a little bit.
Opening that hole again.
- Right.
It doesn't have to be a shopping cart, does it?
- No.
- (laughs)
- It could be a walker.
It could be anything, but they call it
Shopping Cart Syndrome, so.
- Right.
Yeah, any flexion forward opens it up a little bit.
- So, if you answer those questions, um, "yes",
all three. There's a really good chance you have
spinal stenosis.
- But on the other hand, it's nothing that's going to
dilibate, you know
- debilitate you.
- Debilitate you.
You know it's kinda like getting gray hair
- Right
- I tell some my patients.
- Right, it's part of life.
- Right.
- So, um now we're gonna go ahead and show you
the 30 second test you can do.
- Sure.
- So what you're gonna do is you just
have the person stand --
do you wanna do it, Brad?
- Sure, yeah.
- Why don't you face the other direction.
So, I'm gonna have you put your hands overhead,
like that, and I want you to sort of lean back like that.
(groans)
Now, if that increases your pain, and maybe even
sends pain down your leg, there's a good chance
you have spinal stenosis.
I mean that's, that's one sign.
- How long do you need to stay extended?
- You, you just, I mean, I'm sure you'd start to feel it
after a while.
Well do you feel it on yours?
- No, not right now.
- Mm kay.
- But usually 30 seconds,
- Right.
- Is that the test?
Yeah.
- If that does bother you,
I want you to try one other thing.
Let's say you do that, and that causes pain down
the left leg, this is something I'm going to show you
how the hip flexors or the muscles on the hips,
pull on the pelvis and can actually make things worse.
- Sure.
- So a lot of times what we have people do,
we do the test, "Yeah, that hurts.
That hurts my left leg."
Now you move the left leg forward, which puts
the, the hip flexor on, on slack --
that's the word I was looking for.
And now you do it again.
You go, "Well, that time it didn't hurt."
- Or maybe not as much.
So that, you know now that the hip flexor probably
plays a little bit of role, and needs to be stretched out.
- Sure.
- And we'll show that in another video.
- Okay.
- But the other test you can do then is actually put
the hip flexor, you know, the leg back like this.
Now you're stretching the hip flexor more,
- Okay.
- And now do it.
It's like, "Oh, yeah, that's worse."
- Sure.
- So, just these little simple tests, I hope that's
easy enough to follow.
You know, but either way you can just
do the three questions, and just go back like this.
- Right.
- And, and that'll give you a pretty good indicator
whether or not you have spinal stenosis.
- Right.
- And then you're gonna want to watch our videos
on how to treat them,
because we're gonna show you some great
stretches to do that can make a big difference.
- Oh right, there's definitely some things you can do
to improve the symptoms and, you know, get back to more
of a normal life.
- And remember, Brad and I can fix just about anything.
- Except?
- a broken heart.
- There you go.
- We can fix spinal stenosis.
To some extent.
- Well, yeah.
- We can help you manage it.
- There you, and you know, you never know,
but one thing for sure, I don't think it relates
to the broken heart.
- That's right.
- The spinal sten --
- No, no.
- It's not gonna help.
- Thanks for watching.
(jazz beats)