♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
- Hi folks. I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Bob Heineck, physical therapist.
- Together we're the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- In our opinion, of course, Bob.
- Today, we're gonna tell you
how to stop sciatic pain while sitting.
- Well, this is amazing, Bob,
because those sciatic pain in sitting
don't always line up and that's not a good combination,
unless you do this. - Right.
- How is that for a lead then? (chuckles)
- So who is this based upon, the workout?
- That's a good point.
This is right from Dr. Stuart McGill.
He's a PhD-
- Probably the foremost authority on back pain.
- Right. I still like doctor...
Oh, he's not doctor.
- Right. McKenzie? - Yeah.
- Probably.
- But I liked Dr. McGill the more I study him.
So anyways, he goes specifically through a system
on how to work getting where your sciatica
while your sitting. - Sure.
- So there's a couple of steps prior to the exercise
that he specifies, and I'm sure he would agree with this,
is sitting in sciatica oftentimes don't go together well
because of one primary reason.
Wouldn't you agree? - Right.
- It is posture. - Right.
- People have a posture that oftentimes is slouched
and they're not aware of that. - Yeah.
And what this does is it puts pressure on your disc.
So if your sciatica is being caused
by a herniated or bulging disc,
- Right, and we're gonna show them on the model.
- [Bob] That'll make it worse.
We'll show it in the other model too.
- Yeah, so we're looking at the spine, the hip,
and typically, right here is a common area,
L4, L5, S1.
And right here, this red represents the bulge.
You can see this bulging?
Pinching the poor nerve, which creates the pain.
- [Bob] It's worse when you sit like this,
when you sit bent.
- Yeah, and actually the other model
shows that very clearly.
So what we wanna do is correct your posture,
and it's not that hard to do.
First thing you want to do, especially if you sit all day
or either in a vehicle, a truck, at a computer workstation,
simply use something for a lumbar support
so you get arch in your back and support it.
We've got a number of options.
The first thing- - I'd say the rolled towels.
- Yeah, take a towel, roll it up,
put some tape on it and put it back in your chair,
and it's typically right around the belt line.
It may be up or down a little bit,
but you'll know it's the right position
because it's gonna clearly feel like good support.
- I like using a roll towel, Brad,
is because people are built differently,
you might have noticed,
and some people with a large buttock,
they needed a large roll towel.
- Yeah.
- Now you're a slighter build,
so you just need a smaller towel.
- Right.
And also it might be even a thin person
that has a chair that's wore out,
and there's a big whole in.
- Yeah, it depends on the chair you're in.
Like, if you're in a recliner,
you might need a really thick towel or a pillow.
- Yeah, sometimes a throw pillow works good in a recliner.
So whatever it is, find the right thing-
- That's gonna correct your posture.
- And when you lean into it should feel good,
take pressure off, and pain off the leg.
- Here's some examples.
Once you find out you want something more permanent
and it happens to be a towel roll,
you may want to go to, like, this is a Mackenzie roll.
They last longer. They work better.
They have a strap on it to hold on.
- They look a little bit better.
- Yeah. They look better too.
So anyways- - yo can look at the towel
and say, "This is about the size that fits me."
And then you can order a support
that's about that same size.
- Yeah, think of the diameter. - Yeah.
- So we don't want you to spending on money
that something that does not work for you.
- Right.
You know, Brad, we probably should say from the start too
that when you have sciatica
from a bulging disc or a herniated disc,
you probably should avoid sitting as much as possible.
The problem is there's people that can't.
I mean, when you drive to work,
are you gonna stand in your car?
You know, at work too.
Sometimes you could stand, but sometimes you can't.
- Exactly.
So yeah, absolutely.
This is a key, a must,
in regards to sciatic and correcting it.
So do not skip that part. - Right.
- Now the next step is the nerve.
See, the bulge actually starts to correct itself
because you got better posture,
but the nerve can actually get scarred down in there
from scar tissue and the healing process,
and that can be a problem. - Yeah.
- So we're gonna show you,
give you a little education here.
- So we got two vertebrae here. One, two.
The disc is in between.
This is the disc that actually is bulging or herniated.
I'll show you that right now.
I don't know if he can pick that up.
Here we go. It's a normal disc.
Now, we'll go so far. - Right in here.
- [Bob] I don't know if he could see it popping out there.
- [Brad] Right there.
- [Bob] And it's pushy right out than the nerve.
- [Brad] Yep.
So now that nerve, if we can take that nerve
and what we call floss that nerve,
in other words, take the nerve and bring it forward
or out and back and break up that scar tissue.
- [Bob] Yeah, imagine that right up in this area here,
where it comes out of the hole,
that it's all scarred down. - Yep.
- [Bob] And now every time you move,
it pulls on that and it bothers you.
So we're trying to floss it
or move the nerve so that it
becomes more lucid and more tolerable.
- And it just so happens that the exercise or the technique
to do that is in a seated position.
- It is.
But you do need to us a specific type of chair
- Right. - For this.
- So nothing real fancy.
We just need a chair that has an opening here
because your leg has to swing through.
You notice I have a cushion here, you could use a pillow,
because you need a chair that your leg can swing through.
- I would need a couple cushions.
- Yeah, when you're a tall drink of water like Bob,
you might want to get up on a table
if you had a solid table.
- Yeah, exactly.
- But in my case, I can just put this pitch trace cushion.
You can use a pillow, whatever you want.
Now I can swing through. - Yep.
- And that's important.
So once we get that established,
we're gonna actually avoid the posture part with our back
to do this exercise.
We're gonna start by bringing the leg underneath.
I'm not gonna get into the mechanics too much
of why this flosses the nerves.
It has to do with the nerves going from the toes
all the way up into your spinal cord to your head.
It's all one long chain actually.
As I bring this foot underneath,
I'm gonna slouch a little bit
and I'm gonna bring my head down.
Chin to my chest, my sternum.
- So at the same time you're doing all.
- Yeah, all this happens together,
- Right.
- And do you need to do this slowly.
You're gonna come up and as the leg comes up...
- The head comes up. - Yep.
- and you go with the extension of the neck.
- Yep, and you arch the back,
and then you actually pull your toes up towards your nose,
and then we're gonna go back down.
It takes a little practice sometimes.
You know, one thing that does help
is if you point your toes down here.
It's a small point, but it can be helpful.
And we round out.
Now you might feel it, especially when you go up like this.
So when you pull your toes back,
if you feel when your toes come up
and you feel it back in your belt line area,
it's a very good indication
that that nerve needs to be loosened up.
But don't get too aggressive.
If it hurts there, don't pull really hard,
'cause if it irritates it and you go too aggressive,
you might be in pain for the next few days.
- Yeah, you are gonna be swearing at us
if that does not work.
You really want to take a gently with this.
- Right. Right.
- So the rule of thumb, I believe, Brad,
was to do 10 of them. - Exactly right.
- Don't do any more than that day.
And then the next day, see how you did.
And if it bothered you,
you need to do other things and avoid that.
- For a week he says. - For a week.
- Yeah. - Yes.
- For a week. Give it a week.
If things go away within a week,
then you can go back and try it again
and see what the response is the next day,
and don't be so aggressive with it.
Be very gentle.
- Ideally, if there's no pain,
increased pain next day, it's just the same,
then you can keep doing it.
- Right. Exactly.
And if it feels a little bit better,
then what he says, actually, do it throughout the day
a number of times.
Let me see.
I wanted to get it right exactly how he worded that.
I think it's two times a day,
once you know it feels good.
But I do want to mention,
if this hurts after the first day, he gives an alternative.
And I don't think we've mentioned this on other videos.
- Doing the prone position. - Yeah. Or did we?
- I think we've mentioned.
- We did? - Yeah.
- So you're gonna actually lie down.
- Do you get, Brad?
- It's not that important.
(both chuckles)
But lie here for three minutes.
- [Bob] This is if you have pain, right, Brad?
If you're having pain from this maneuver,
then try this instead for awhile.
- Right, so you just lie like this for about three minutes
and then you get up,
repeat the exact same flossing, 10 repetitions.
And then he's actually saying lie back down again,
right after that for three minutes
and then see how it responds.
- Right, it's a good test,
and if it feels better, you're doing the right thing.
- Right.
You could eventually hopefully avoid lying down
and go back to the original
after the scar tissue gets broke up.
If both ways it doesn't respond well to,
- Hold off. - It's not for you.
It's not gonna work. - Right.
- There may be another reason.
- And Mr. Stuart McGill, Dr. McGill,
he's a big advocate of walking.
- Right. Exactly right.
- So try to add a walking program to your regimen.
- Which we're all gonna have what Stuart McGill has,
a modified walking program specific for sciatica.
We're gonna make that next week.
It'll be out in a couple of weeks.
- And we got our giveaway, right?
We got our giveaway.
And if you go to our giveaway section,
we are giving away a Bob and Brad...
This is our massage gun for the athlete.
- [Brad] Sure.
- [Bob] It's our most high-powered gun.
- [Brad] Oh yes, so it's goes into hypermode.
- Yeah.It's got five attachments.
I haven't seen this anywhere else.
This has got a metal head.
- Stainless steel, Bob. - Stainless steel.
That's really penetrates deeply.
And it's got, like I said, five speeds
and it penetrates very deep
and go to bobandbrad.com, go to the giveaway section.
Or also go to
- Facebook. - Bob and Brad on Facebook.
- Sure. Pinned on the top of the page.
There are their heads, not so aggressive,
just so you're aware of it.
And we have podcasts.
- Check out our podcasts.
- We have one with Dr. Stuart McGill.
It's over an hour long. Isn't it?
- Boy, it's fantastic.
In YouTube, it's got over 200,000 views.
- Yeah. Yeah.
People really do appreciate hearing what he has to say.
He's from Cananada.
I mean, Canada, sorry, Stuart.
- But he's son's in New York
and he wasn't able to visit his son for a year and a half
because of COVID.
- Sure. Sure.
- Oh, well.
- Did you see if he made a joke something about
people in United States?
So I know he's got a little humor,
- He does. He's a funny guy.
- I could say that and he'd be fine with it.
- Thanks for watching, folks. - Be careful.
(upbeat tone)