- ♪ Bob 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 we're gonna talk about how to fix rhomboid pain.
We'll show you what the rhomboids are,
that's mid-back and shoulder blade pain.
Three self treatments that work.
- Absolutely, Bob.
- And I can attest to this 'cause I have done
some of these myself and it's helped my problems.
- Yeah, a lot of people when they get this pain,
they actually try to stretch things
and they're doing the wrong thing.
So we're gonna show you the right way and they work.
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- Absolutely, so Bob, rhomboid.
This is one of those things, if you're a math major,
you know exactly what a rhomboid is, right?
It's like a rectangle that's tilted.
But in anatomy, the muscles in the body are oftentimes
named for their shape.
So Sam, thank you for joining us once again
in the new location, of course.
Did you notice?
- Which we really went a little overboard
on decorating, didn't we?
- Well, you just wait, Bob.
- It's gonna come together.
- We are gonna get in with the times,
but don't worry about that now, Sam.
So the rhomboid is on the back,
they actually connect to the spinous processes,
the spine here.
- These bumps.
- The bumps, yeah, the bumps in the back.
And then it goes over to the shoulder blade
or the scapula.
And they don't go straight over;
they have that little angled down.
And so they're responsible for movement of the scapula,
which is a good part of posture, isn't that amazing?
But they become painful.
Now, one thing, Bob, and we were just discussing this.
Pain here oftentimes is a referral or response
from a problem in the spine, which happens to be
typically usually and always, not always, but posture.
- Posture, yeah.
- Let's look at this in more detail.
Now, it's really important you understand
this is gonna help you.
- It is really important. - It is.
- Turn Sam to the side once.
This is how Sam is orientated here.
Now, what we see quite often, especially if you're
at the computer, like if you're at a laptop
and what you start to do is you get into this
humpback flexed position here.
And this, over time, stress in this area.
- I can feel it right now, Bob.
- It starts referring pain into the rhomboids.
Now, the problem is, if you do this over years and years,
these almost start to become fixed.
- Oh yeah, you can have that fixed hunchback.
- Right, and people have trouble correcting this.
That's why we're gonna, one of the first exercises
or first treatments we're gonna show you
is one where you try to stretch those aggressively.
- Exactly, exactly.
- You really need to get at 'em.
- So we're gonna look at posture.
So we've got three basic cells treatment.
The first one is posture.
We've got some really simple exercises for it.
And Sam, you are very--
- You're done with him?
- Yeah, very gracious to offer your help.
Everyone appreciates it, but now it's time for you to go.
All right, so posture, here we go.
My favorite one actually is the--
- Oh, the W's.
- The W's, there you go.
W is for?
- Wisconsin or win, I don't know.
- Yeah, well, I got some people responding to the
Wisconsin thing in the comments.
They probably live in Wisconsin.
- Sure, I imagine they do.
- But all's you need to is five or 10 of these.
But look at the chin; don't let this happen.
Go back.
- Yeah, you're trying to get the chin back
at the same time.
- As a matter of fact, just go back up against the wall,
your butt up against the wall, shoulder,
and do those W's.
And we can do the modifying, the angel, the snow angels,
which, they got snow predicted for tonight.
- I know, I believe it, October in Minnesota.
- But anyways, people will say we're bad.
- Some of you probably will not be able to get
your head back to the wall.
- Don't worry about it.
- Don't worry about it, just keep working on it.
And hopefully with time, you'll be able to get back there.
- There you go.
So the W's an excellent one to do.
You can actually do those on the floor,
which brings us to our next exercise.
And this actually we're gonna get into the muscle.
If you got so much pain in those rhomboid muscles
that they've knotted up,
sometimes you need to loosen those up
with some physical treatment,
and we're gonna start with a six inch roller.
A lot of people have these.
I would get the one a little bit softer for most people,
and this is three foot long, a 36 incher.
You could do this with the shorter one,
but the next one you need the long one for.
This is the way I do it.
And I think Bob, you use it in this manner too, don't ya?
- [Bob] Yes I do, every morning.
- And oftentimes you're gonna feel your spine
cavitate, or in other words, crack,
oh, there mine went.
I wonder if they heard that.
It felt good, but anyways, I've already woke up
in the middle of the night with back pain
'cause of something I was doing, some chore,
and I actually did this at two to three in the morning,
and it made my back feel better, I can get back to sleep.
- [Bob] You were working at night?
- No, I was doing something silly during the day.
- [Bob] All right, I gotcha.
- That happens, that's the way I live.
Anyway, so you roll back and forth like this.
Now, the next one, and you can do that, you know,
for 30 seconds or so.
You can go longer if you like.
Now, this is one I like and this is easy.
- [Bob] This is a passive one.
What's nice about it, you just kind of get in the position
and stay there.
- And again, you can do your W's or angels,
or just lay out and relax.
This is what I like to do.
After I work out sometimes I'll just lay like this
and take a couple minutes to relax.
I don't fall asleep though.
- Again, some of you may not even be able to get
your head back onto that.
- That's a good point, Bob, that's a really good point.
- [Bob] They actually saw a little cushion that goes around.
I know where it is.
- Oh yeah, well, don't worry about it Bob.
The next thing is to get to those muscles is a tennis ball.
Simple thing.
- Do you want me to do it on the wall first,
or do you want me--
- Well, go ahead, show them on the wall.
That's actually, we got a sock with a tennis ball
inside it.
- I got a tennis ball inside.
Again, Brad, maybe if you stand up just for a second.
- Oh sure, you bet.
- So we're trying to stretch this area out here.
This is the problem area, the one that tends to get
arched too much or humped too much.
And so these are very tough ligaments.
So what we do is we try to hit this spot, this spot,
this spot, this spot, this spot, this spot.
This whole area here, these six spots.
And you can roll on it too in those areas.
So what I do with a sock, it makes it easier
to get into the right spot.
So now, especially for you initially starting off with this
'cause this can be very aggressive.
You're gonna start off just by leaning against the wall
and then you can control how much stress
you're putting on the area.
- So it's help correcting posture,
and it's getting into that muscle fibers
to loosen it up like a deep massage.
- And you can do angels and W's with this in place too.
And I can move it over, hit another one of those spots,
one of those six spots.
- It all fits together, doesn't it, Bob?
- It' all fits together.
Again, a really good aggressive stretch,
but once this becomes pretty easy, it isn't a problem,
then you go to the floor.
So do you want to keep it in the sock, Brad?
- Well, let's bring it out just so they can see.
- I got another tennis ball, I think I got a lacrosse ball.
- Look at that, nice orange one.
And a lacrosse ball is a little firmer.
- [Bob] Yes it is.
- Tennis ball, it'd probably be something to start with.
We're gonna show the back pod in a second.
- [Bob] I don't have a pillow for you, Brad.
- Oh, don't worry about it, Bob,
I just dislocated my--
- [Bob] We've had people a lot of times we've had them
start with a pillow over the tennis ball
if it's too much for them.
Oh yeah, there's a pillow over there.
- Or you can use a towel to fold it up.
'Cause if I put all my weight on this,
it's a little uncomfortable, but as you get into it,
again, a tennis ball is a little less aggressive,
a little bit more tolerable, and cheaper too.
- [Bob] Sometimes people put a pillow under their head,
and also sometimes they'll put a pillow
right over the--
- Oh, should we, yeah, so like that.
- [Bob] Yeah, that really blunts it.
- Yeah, oh there we go.
See, now I can work it and it's much much less.
I've been doing this for a while so I would probably
go without the pillow.
I just had another back crack.
- [Bob] But it's interesting, Brad, when you first started,
the back pod was too much for you, wasn't it?
- Yeah, absolutely.
So there is something called a back pod
that is specifically designed for this part of the back.
I use one of these at least three times a week.
- [Bob] I use it everyday.
- Everyday Bob does.
And this fits in there nicely.
They're a little expensive; I wouldn't buy one
unless you really want to.
- [Bob] Yeah, I would probably try a tennis ball first.
And if you find that tennis ball works,
then you might wanna put the money into
getting one of these.
- I bought mine specifically for costochondritis,
which you get chest pain from.
When I use this, it treats it very well
and it's nice not to have chest pain,
so that's why I use this, as well as posture
and the rhomboids.
- Made by a good guy from Australia, or New Zealand.
- New Zealand, yeah, Steve.
- Yep, Steve.
- Yep, yep, nice guy.
He's a physical therapist and he explains it all
on a nice video he has out there.
And let's see, was there another thing?
- I think that was it, Brad.
- I think that's all we're gonna do.
- That really, to me, made the biggest difference to me
was the low stretches.
- The ones with either the tennis ball--
- Cause I was doing all the other stuff before
and I was still getting pain.
But the tennis ball and the back pod really
made a difference.
- So loosen those rhomboids up, I mean,
I can't tell you how much better I fell now.
I can breathe better, I'm feeling good.
Bob--
- Well, if only you looked better then.
- Well, that's another story, Bob,
but once again, we can fix anything except for
- A broken heart.
- And this is getting close to it.
If you look at it from the side view,
we're only about four inches away if you go
right up to the chest cavity.
So we're getting there.
- We're getting there, thanks for watching.