♪ Bob and Brad, the two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists on the internet ♪
- Hi, folks, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- Together we are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet. - In our opinion,
of course, Bob.
Why, Bob, why? - Today we're gonna talk
about how to stay fit with back pain.
We're gonna show you nine exercises and three rules
you should follow while you're doing it.
We're gonna try to do kind of a series of these, Brad,
where we're helping people, like, if you have knee pain,
how to stay fit, shoulder pain.
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We provide videos, how to stay healthy, fit, pain free,
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Also, go to our, not our Facebook, our Facebook
and our website, bobandbrad.com
because we're always giving something away,
go into the giveaway section.
This week, we're giving away two TENS units.
These will help you with your pain control.
They're electronic unit that can
help you zap that pain away.
- Right, get rid of those opioids.
- All right, you can also find us on Instagram and Twitter
and TikTok, a 60-second version of our program.
- What did you do this weekend?
- I know I'm off, all right. (Brad laughing)
I've been off.
I've been in isolation too much.
Okay, so the three rules for back pain
when you're working out.
Number one, you wanna avoid going
into what we call the C position.
Yeah, you want your back in the S position.
In other words, a slight curve in, a slight curve out,
and a slight curve in.
That position is locked in.
It's the most safe position.
It's where the muscles can work the best,
so avoid the C position.
Two, you wanna avoid, believe it or not,
and this is by an expert in the field.
- Right. - He wants you to avoid
all the sitting exercise machines.
This is why you're having back pains.
So, that means, like all the Nautilus machines
that you might find at a fitness club.
You wanna avoid those.
When you sit, and especially when you're putting force on,
you're increasing the force on your back.
It's just really hard to keep good posture
when you're sitting.
Won't you agree with that, Brad?
- I mean, there may be a few exceptions with stenosis
or, like, spinal stasis, but in general,
particularly sciatica people.
- Yeah, avoid, and three just makes sense, of course.
Avoid any exercise that causes pain during
or really immediately after the exercise.
- Listen to your body.
It will tell you if it's gonna accept it
or it's gonna get worse.
If it hurts, it's no good.
- Yeah, number one: walking.
This is probably the best thing you can do for your back,
and it's gonna help start lubricating the back,
and for those of you who find walking painful,
try walking at a higher pace, increased pace,
at higher speed. - Sure.
One thing that's critical, is when you go for a walk,
if you got back pain, stay on a flat surface.
If you're on a road, if it's got a,
quite of a tilt on it for the water to drain off,
that's not a good road to walk on.
And also, uneven surfaces, anything like that.
- You don't wanna be walking in the woods
looking for deer sheds.
- Yeah, you're not gonna be hiking
to get your back better. - Lotta people don't know
what that is, by the way,
a deer shed. - I can imagine.
They'll have to Google it.
- Yeah, so, the reason you wanna walk at an increased pace
is it actually takes some of the weight off your back,
believe it or not.
I've had patients that come in, and they could barely walk,
and I go, "Try walking at a high, you know,
"increased speed," and they go, and you could see
the look on their face, like, "Oh my gosh,
"it hurts less when I walk faster."
And try to get the arms moving, and you might try a cane
if you're stuck on that slower speed, so.
- That's one you could experiment with, but, you know,
you're not gonna walk 10 miles the first day.
- No, keep yourself, that you're, you know,
at a distance that you can manage doing.
- And then build up as your back gets better.
- Right. Elliptical tends to be fairly good
for a lotta people, and swimming.
Brad, you can attest to that, right?
- Typically, yeah, if you know how to swim.
If you're swimming, and you're twisting and doing that
to stay up, that may not be such a thing, but typically,
swimming's no weight bearing.
You're working the core muscles, yep.
- Typically, biking may not be too good
because for a lotta people,
you're gonna be flexed like this.
- Yep, you're reaching forward.
It's hard to maintain good posture while you bike.
You can, but you really have to think about it.
- I have my bike set up so I'm, you know, and I'm tall,
and so, like, the neighbors even laugh
when they see me coming by (Brad laughing)
'cause I'm, like, this huge man coming
with the bike, and I'm so tall, so.
- You got butterfly handlebars?
- No, I don't have butterfly handlebars.
- Just kidding, now, biking is probably not such
a good idea in general.
- No, I even feel my back when I bike too much.
- Oh, yeah. - And, running, maybe.
My back actually feels better when I run,
but my back isn't real bad, so I, I have a,
you know, decent back. - Right, that's gonna depend
on the individual.
I think a lotta people don't run anyways, so that, you know,
if you're a runner, you kinda know what,
what you're gonna accept
and what you're not. - Let's pull this bench
out, Brad, and let's grab a Booyah Stik,
and I wanna show a bench press.
So, I actually think for a lotta people,
if you wanna grab me a Booyah Stik.
- I do. - I think, for a lotta people,
they actually can do a bench press
because look at what you're doing.
Your back is nice and supported.
You got the forces going right through your chest and arms,
and, you know, you can keep it under control.
Now, obviously, if it breaks rule number three,
that the pain increases while you're bench pressing,
or directly after, you're not gonna do it.
You're definitely not gonna wanna do this.
- [Brad] Yeah, all that gyrations.
- Yep, you wanna keep the back nice and supported
against the back, Brad. - So, you may not be doing
your maximum rep, maximum weights.
You're gonna be doing modest weights.
- Exactly. Form is so important with all these
that you'll actually probably get a better workout
if you keep your, you know, intense form
rather than trying to arch and push up.
Do you wanna show biceps against the wall,
or on the floor, I guess you do 'em too, right, Brad?
- This is a great way to work your biceps
as opposed to dumbbells when you're sitting,
which we don't wanna do, and standing, you can have,
it's hard to maintain posture.
You get yourself some bands.
You hook 'em up to the wall anchor
or another, somewhere you can hook 'em up
to keep 'em stable. - Look again how nice
and supported he is, and he can work those biceps.
- There's no stress on my back right now,
and it's very comfortable, and this is the way
I do mine all the time.
Three days a week, I'm laying on the floor doing biceps.
- Now, you obviously could take some dumbbells
and lean up against the wall, and again, I would
probably go to lesser weights to the point where you're
not really having to struggle too hard,
but you can go ahead.
You can keep in pretty good form here too.
It's gonna keep you pretty honest,
the wall, with using dumbbells.
Brad's gonna show triceps now.
- Now, actually I'm gonna start,
you can do some lats doing this way.
- [Bob] Sure, yeah, excellent, Brad.
I didn't have lats on there,
but this is a great way to do lats.
- All right, you can do 'em this way,
or you can do 'em out this way,
and I go from this, and then I stop here
when I get 10 lats, and then I do my triceps
and do 10 of those, and I do three sets of 10 on those,
but that's up to you.
- Yeah, now, you can do triceps on a bench too.
You know, there are these ways where you go
this way and work like this.
What do they call 'em, skull crushers, too?
- [Brad] When you got the bar.
- Yeah, when you got the bar, but you could even
support your arm like this and work one arm at a time
with a decent-size dumbbell, so not as convenient to me,
to do it this way.
I like those, so you could really get some good resistance
and not be afraid that you're gonna drop one
on your head is all. (Brad laughing)
All right, number five: posture squats.
This is not something I would really do with much weight,
if any weight at all.
I would start off, I just, I get a wide base,
and I do these all the time, and you can even put your arms
up to help work on your posture and some strengthening,
and you're just gonna do shallow squats,
and this is what's nice about this
is training your body to how you want it
to move when you're doing everyday activities.
I can't tell you how many times, Brad, I bend to grab
something on the floor, and I go right into this posture
automatically. - Do you bring your
arms up too? - I don't bring my arms up,
but I go, I think the biggest thing that helps me
is working on wide squats, my legs wide
'cause I normally was going down like this,
and now I go down like this, and I can get lower,
and the support is in the legs and not in the back.
And what am I trying to do, Brad, when I'm keeping posture?
- What are you trying to do?
- I'm gonna use the tip of the bar!
- I didn't know what you were trying to do. (both laughing)
- We're trying to get - I'm just kidding.
- three points of contact here.
- Yeah, go with the other side, so we, there you go.
So, it's touching the butt, it's touching
between the shoulders, and the head, and then you know
your spine is in absolutely perfect position to do
this kind of a thing. - If you have a Booyah Stik,
you can go ahead and use the Booyah Stik,
and can even stretch your way up there
and keep you extended nice.
If you don't, just picture that one is there.
- I used a broomstick yesterday.
- Yeah? - At home, yeah.
I just wanted to see if it'd work.
It works. - Well, it works, yeah.
- Not as good as this, but it works.
- Yeah, and it doesn't work as well for the shoulder.
- No, it doesn't.
- Okay, next one: side planks,
so I can show that on here, Brad.
There's a couple ways to do side.
I just sat on a weight, whoo!
- I know, I was kinda wondering about that.
(Bob laughing) I thought maybe
you were gonna jump.
- So, you can actually start, if you're a beginner,
you have your hips kinda flexed like this,
and you just extend your hips.
- [Brad] So, he's got a gap here.
- And I'm on my elbows here, and this is just a great way
to work the obliques without putting stress on your back.
You don't like these, though.
- [Brad] I've got back issues.
When I do those, my back gets sore,
so I follow the rule number three,
and it doesn't hurt so much when I do it,
but the next day, it hurts, and so I just say,
"That's not, it's not for me." - Which is a good point.
You have to watch that too, if it's something
that you know that cause pain the next day,
you shouldn't be doing it either.
Sometimes if you arch your back a little more
or arch your back a little less,
sometimes that makes a difference.
- [Brad] All right, so he's doing
a little pelvic positioning.
- Now, if you're a little more advanced,
you put one foot in front of the other,
and you can then get the whole body like this.
These are the ones I do, Brad.
- So now, the weight is going
through this foot or both feet?
- It's going through both feet and both legs.
- Yeah, we don't have any, we got space under there.
- Yep, and I definitely feel that on the planks here.
- [Brad] Little more aggressive.
- All right, next one: curl-ups.
It's not curl up.
You're not curling up. (Brad groaning)
But that's what they call 'em, so,
so you're gonna start on your back.
Again, you're gonna try these.
If they feel okay, we're trying to strengthen that core
because that's good for your back.
The abdominal muscles attach into the back
through the fascia, so this is a great one to do.
You know, put your hands underneath your back
to give it support, and lift the elbows
so you're not pushing off the elbows when you lift up.
- [Brad] Keeps you from cheating.
- Yeah, it keeps you from cheating.
The knees are bent, and I'm lifting
just straight up like this, Brad.
- [Brad] So, do you feel your back
kinda squishing into your fingers,
right? - Yep, they're squishing
to my fingers, but you can see I'm not curling up like this.
- [Brad] Right, that's the big no-no.
- Yep, and my, it took a while actually,
Brad, for my neck to get accommodated to this.
- [Brad] Yeah, 'cause it's so common that you wanna bring
your chin to your chest and get
that curl position. - Well, yeah, my neck
actually got a little sore the first, like,
couple weeks I did this. - Using some new muscles.
- Yeah, and now it's fine, and so,
I just go one, two, three, four, five, and I do 50 of these,
but it took a while to work up to that.
- [Brad] Sure, yeah, about five years?
- (laughs) I was on the two-year plan, I'll have you know.
Okay, next, hip abduction.
You can do this side-lying,
or you could also do it standing.
- Sure. - So, I'll show it side-lying
here first, Brad.
I gotta get off my mic here, so just very simple.
You know, you're just gonna work on doing side-lying
like this hip abduction.
It's, again, you could get some cuff weights
and put it around your weight to give a little more,
around your ankle to give a little more resistance.
- Sometimes, I have people that are gonna
do 'em temporarily, and they don't wanna buy cuff weights.
I said, "Just put your winter boots on."
- Oh, sure. - You know, it works.
You know, if they're coming through a hip surgery,
and you only need it for a month or two,
it's a temporary weight.
- I'm always amazed that if it's not a muscle you don't use,
though, and you're a little bit on the older side,
you might be surprised that just even that will work it
and make it a little sore.
- Especially laying on your side like that.
- Number nine: calf raises, Brad.
Do you wanna show that?
- Yep, so, a lotta times, you may need something to balance,
a stick or chair, wall, or something.
And then, you know, if that gets easy,
if you can do 20 with both feet easy,
it's time to go to one foot, and you're gonna find
that definitely gives you a little more challenge,
and that should be, you know.
- I actually started doing these, Brad,
believe it or not, and I--
- Oh, I believe it, Bob.
- (laughs) I started doing doubles,
and then I went to the singles,
and you get enough workout.
I didn't need any additional weight.
- I'm feeling it burn a little bit there doing the singles.
- Yep, and I actually used the Booyah Stik.
- You do? - Yeah, because it works
a little bit on my balance then, too.
- Oh yeah, yeah, mm-hmm.
- All right, remember, Brad and I can fix
just about anything. - Except for
- a broken heart. - There you go,
but we're working on that, and we'll come,
we'll definitely make a video when we come.
We're gonna-- - I wish you, I wish
you'd work a little harder on it, no offense.
- I know, no offenses, right,
(Bob laughing) but I'm tired, Bob.
I just can't do it every day.
- All right, thanks.
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