♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous physical therapists on the internet ♪
- Hi folks, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- We are the most famous physical therapist on the internet.
- In our opinion, of course, Bob.
- Today, we're going to show you
how to fix biceps tendonitis or strain in 90 seconds.
That's a minute and a half, at home, self treatment.
You can follow the video right along
and you can do it yourself.
- Exactly Bob.
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- There you go.
Biceps.
We're going to talk about the muscle right there,
the ones that they guys
are always trying to build up for the girls, you know?
- No.
- Yeah, but we never did, of course.
- No.
Because we don't have them.
(Brad and Bob laugh)
Yeah.
- We already got good girls.
So anyways,
that bicep muscle can be a source of a strain
and it could be the tendon.
And oftentimes it is the tendon
that leads up to the shoulder.
Now, we're going to talk about the anatomy of the bicep
because it's rather interesting.
Bi, it's two.
- Right, two muscles - Cept.
- So there's two muscles actually.
Now, we're going to use Sam.
Sam just has bones, no muscles,
but we can show you this represents a tendon.
And right here,
it connects to the radius just below the joint,
the tendon does and of course it goes
to the bulgy mass of the bicep
and then it splits;
the muscle splits a superior or upwards of
that major bulge of the muscle
and there's a bicipital groove in the humerus right here
and you can see how that fits right in there nicely.
Let's go this way, that tendon actually connects to the top
of the.
- Glenoid fossa.
- The glenoid fossa or cup of where the humeral ball goes
and that's right on the labrum there,
and you can see that there.
Now, that's the long head of the bicep.
Now, the short head comes
and that tendon actually connects to the coracoid process,
this little bone that looks like a finger.
There's a few muscles attached to that.
So, what happens
is that can be a source of the tendonitis up in this area.
You could have it on the tendon down below,
or you could have a muscle strain
in the muscle belly itself.
Either way, you can use this technique
to help heal it faster.
- One thing, by showing that it attaches
way down in the forearm,
this muscle doesn't just do this.
Is it okay if I do this right now?
- Yeah, we're going to talk about the mechanics.
- Yeah, so it doesn't just bend the elbow.
It also supinates,
I'm sorry, pronates the forearm area.
- No, it supinates. - Supinates.
- Supinates. - Supinates, yes.
Well yeah, you can see
when you supinate it. - Yeah, supinate.
look at that muscle go. - Right, right.
If you're doing curls,
you not only just want to bend like this,
you also want to supinate the forearm.
- Right.
- You just turn it open like Brad said he used to remember.
The way to remember supination is,
if you're going to get a cup of soup.
- Yeah. - Hold a cup of soup.
You can hold palms up.
- Palms up like that. - Yeah.
- So, it supinates. - Supinates.
And flex. - And it bend.
And it also. - Flexes the shoulder.
Flexes the shoulder - A little bit.
A little bit.
It's a compensatory motion,
but it's there.
So, that's really critical to do this technique, right?
You have to know those motions - All those motions.
- Exactly.
So, causes of biceps tear, tendonitis, et cetera
could be trauma, you know?
You're getting into an accident, car accident.
It may be a sudden movement,
like if you're playing volleyball
and you hit really hard, - Sure.
could be an example.
- Pulling a weed out of the ground.
- Excessive force. - Yeah, excessive, right.
Grabbing too big of a dumbbell
and just going into it
and really trying to build up too quick.
- Quite often, it is repetitive motions, though,
- Isn't it, Brad? - Exactly.
- Yep.
Quite often in life, things wear down over time.
- Yep.
So, if you're doing a repetitive motion
that involves the bicep,
that's where often it occurs,
especially the tendonitis.
Can we get to the treatment,
Bob? - Sure.
- Okay, you'll have to move.
- Okay.
- Now, it's best to do this laying down, lying down?
- Laying down.
- Oh, we're going to lay down this time.
- You're going to lay down. - Not lie, okay.
I'm just going to use one pillow.
We may need another pillow.
It's really important that you do this in a relaxed setting.
It's best by yourself.
You're going to lay down
and what we need to do
is get that bicep in a relaxed, shortened position.
So, we're going to supinate.
We're going to flex the elbow
and we're going to flex the shoulder,
so we get way up into this position.
- Now, you see it's probably a short as it could be
in this position. - That's the goal.
- Now, because we have a small plinth here,
there.
But on a bed or a floor,
you're going to get a pillow here, here,
and at this point,
you may want to move your elbow back and forth.
And what we're looking for
is a position of maximum comfort of where the injury is.
So, once we shorten that muscle.
Again, supinate,
flex the elbow, flex the shoulder,
and then we find a position
that's really comfortable and then adjust the pillow
so that you can completely relax that arm.
Let's say the pain,
when you're here and you're moving it,
you get to a six or seven pain on the painful area,
wherever it is;
when we shorten it up, what we're looking for is
a pain level of, hopefully, two or below.
One or zero is perfect.
And once you find it,
then you get your timer out
and it's critical that you're going to hold this position
in a very relaxed, relaxed breathing,
everything's relaxed for 90 seconds,
not less than 90 seconds.
You can go longer, but not less.
So, hit your timer and just hang out there,
a nice, quiet breathe.
And you're going to go for 90 seconds.
Now, we're not going to hold it for 90 seconds
for the video.
Do that on your own.
Put it on hold.
- Sure.
- Go ahead.
You can go up to 120 seconds.
Now, it's critical when you're done with this
is that you just don't open up quickly.
You come up and let things
extend and lengthen that bicep slowly.
Take your time, get up.
You're not going to lift weights after this,
or do any chores that extend or stress that bicep.
You can do a gentle massage on the muscle
to keep it loose or where the tendon is.
And then you're going to do this three times per day.
- Sure.
- And there's a good chance, by the second day,
it's feeling much better.
I did this exact same technique for a tennis elbow
and I was amazed.
I was doing some other techniques that were helping,
but with this, by the next day, I forgot about it.
I was so impressed. - Isn't it amazing?
- You know, pain gets into these cycles where it hurts,
so the muscle tightens up. - Yep.
And it's putting stress on it
the entire day then. - Right.
Then it then causes more pain. - Right.
Which causes it to tighten up more.
It's the vicious cycle.
- Right.
- So, this breaks up that cycle.
- Exactly.
- That's why if you do it throughout the day,
three times or so,
you're breaking up the cycle during the day
and it lets that muscle relax and heal.
- Get some blood flow. - Blood flow to the area.
Exactly.
So, and this is nothing new.
This is a system called contract-relax
and it's been around for,
I believe greater
than 30 years. - Strain-counterstrain.
I'm sorry,
strain-counterstrain. - Strain-counterstrain.
Positional release
is the new term. - Is the new name.
Yeah, new term. - Right.
So anyways. - I look at it, Brad,
- It can be a tool in your toolbox.
- Yeah.
Maybe this isn't going to be the one that does it all.
I don't know, it might.
- Right.
- It seemed like it did
with your. - Oh, yeah.
- And you've had good luck with your hip flexor.
- Yeah, yeah, I did, I did.
I actually didn't even think about it.
Now that you. - See?
- When the pain is gone,
you forget about it. - I know you do.
- You forget about it.
I haven't been even doing that exercise, like,
well, hasn't been there, so.
- Bob, I would have to say this is the point in the video
where people say we're babbling.
- Yeah.
- Anyways, good luck with the technique.
I have a feeling you're going to have good luck with it
and back to the - Brad and I are
- Not just pretty.
- Yeah, we're pretty ugly.
- No, we're pretty helpful. - No.
And. - Helpful, yeah, that's right.
Handy, so make sure you
subscribe to us. - Handy, handy.
- Good.