♪ 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.
- I'm beating Brad, do you see that, I'm ahead of him.
- Ah, he's got me!
I'm, you know, pullin' this draft though,
it's like workin' out--
- I was gonna say, I've probably got a big draft.
- Yeah, he's got, he's like goin' behind a sailboat.
(chuckles)
- Today we're gonna talk about easy and expert
bicycle set up.
In doing so, you can help stop knee, back, and sciatic pain.
- That's right, Bob.
- Very crucial to having the correct position.
- Right, we've got a lot of people asking about the,
riding their bicycles with back pain sciatica,
so we're gonna give the answers.
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- All right!
There we go, Bob, okay.
Shall we carry on?
- Yeah.
- Yeah, we can stop pedaling for a bit so we can
talk effectively to our audience.
So the big thing about back problem, knee pain,
associated with bicycling is the set up.
Where you put the seat up and down is very critical
forward and backwards is next, and then the heighth
of your handlebars is absolutely key to take stress
off of your back.
So, that being said, what we have here is,
we got two different levels of biking here.
We've got a cross trainer bike, works very nice,
usually people that aren't serious bikers,
don't put a lotta miles on, will have a cross trainer.
It's not always true.
- That's me.
- And this is a road bike.
Definitely more challenging to set up
to minimize stress on your low back
and I'll talk about that in just a little bit.
We're gonna, so, when you have a bike fitted for you
you wanna have it fitted properly,
otherwise it's known as a misfit.
- There you go. - Isn't that cute?
So right now-- - And I tell you--
I'm not an expert on this at all,
but I see this all the time and I'm like,
it drives me crazy, especially the seat too low.
- Right, right.
That seat too low is the biggest problem.
Bob, why don't you get on your bike and we're gonna talk--
first of all--
- You want me to go on your bike to show how it is
if you're--
- Yeah, I just wanna mention a couple things first.
Get your bike in a trainer it's the best way to do it.
Get the front, don't go on yet Bob.
- Oh, don't go on.
- Get the front wheel in a cradle, and the goal
is to get your bike level so that axle to axle,
I'm gettin' technical now here, but if you're not, you know,
if you just want a general fit you want it generally level,
okay, so we've got that here.
Look at the seat, if you look at Bob's seat
you can see this is a little higher.
It's not level and Bob has complained, he says,
- [Bob] Yep it's uncomfortable - He always feels--
like he's being pushed back and it's uncomfortable
in that perineal or the prostate areas,
and that can cause problems in that area
and you don't wanna have that.
- [Bob] Right, exactly.
- So this seat needs to be leveled,
which we're not gonna do right now
but that is definitely a goal later on here--
- [Bob] I appreciate this, Brad.
I appreciate you makin' the adjustments here, so.
- So get everything set up, now why don't you get on, Bob.
Now we have it set up so Bob can pedal.
Bob has, I call 'em stirrups, some people call 'em the cage,
if you don't have clips or clipless pedals,
but we're just gonna go on the flats for now.
And that'll be fine for what we're talkin' about.
Now Bob, why don't you pedal, just to get seated in.
So, get your, yep, get your bottom in the saddle
so that it sounds, or it feels comfortable,
that's where you normally go?
- Right, right.
- Okay. It's called a saddle in the biking world.
If I say seat they're sayin' what's a seat, I dunno?
- Right, right.
- Anyways, let's go to the 6:00 position on this pedal.
So it's gonna be straight down, you wanna have the--
- [Bob] I'm actually going back a little bit further, right?
- Right.
- [Bob] There we go.
- The axle, can you lift your foot up?
- [Bob] Yep.
- The axle of the pedal should line up with your phalanges,
right there, the big, I go by the ball of the foot.
- [Bob] Sure.
- Right there where the toes connect
and you have those joints, that's the proper position
for the foot to be on the pedal.
6:00 position, foot level to the floor, so not,
can you dorsa flex, Bob?
Yeah, that would be way too low, and if, go up, there,
or plantar flex, we wanna get it right level
and then we look at the knee flection.
Now, I took a class that was taught by experts--
- [Bob] It's behind you, Brad.
- I put it there so I wouldn't have to look--
(Bob laughs)
physical therapists and a kinesiologist,
and they rode bike a lot, studied this in depth,
they were the most professional people
and knowledgeable people on the subject,
and they said between nine and 14 degrees knee flection
is the proper heighth.
Now if we look at Bob, now I know you don't have
a goniometer, but you can get through without it.
If I measure him up right now he's
at 50 degrees of knee flection.
- [Bob] Wow.
- The seat's obviously too low.
This knee is gonna experience
a lot of undue stress over time.
So why don't you just stand up, Bob.
This bike is nice because you can adjust the seat easily,
I'm gonna go up about an inch and a half,
this works good for a video.
Usually you gotta get a wrench out and do that.
Now, pedal again, Bob.
You feel a big difference?
- [Bob] Oh yeah.
- And we gotta see, you might be too high.
- [Bob] It might, it feels like I'm almost reaching
right at the end.
- There you go, if you feel like you're reaching down
at the bottom to touch the pedal,
it's almost certainly too high.
Why don't you go ahead at 6:00 again.
Yeah I can see already you're too high.
You're reaching and things are goin' back and forth,
yeah, and you're below nine degrees so.
Let's just drop ya down a little bit,
and I'm not gonna spend any more time with that,
but that's the idea.
Okay. So you got the seat adjusted right this way,
you've got the heighth-- - [Bob] Now it feels--
It feels like we're pretty close.
- And it feels, 'cause you've been ridin' with it too low.
- [Bob] Right.
- And you noticed a difference.
- [Bob] Yep, yep.
- Okay, so.
The next thing is go to 3:00 position, which is,
12:00 is here, now we're at three, foot's level,
we need to see if the seat needs to be forward or backwards.
What works best is you take a vertical plumb line,
so actually I have a plumb bob here.
We're gonna hang it off the patella, or the kneecap,
can you hold this, Bob?
- [Bob] Sure.
- There ya go, thank you, perfect.
Get that outta the way.
And you let it settle down, and if we look at,
are you in the seat where you feel comfortable?
- [Bob] Well, a lotta times I'm, I would be like this.
This is where it's comfortable.
- Okay. So he's in the seat, and we look at this.
Now, the point of the plumb bob should line up
with the axle of the pedal, which is about right here.
So his seat needs to move forward probably about an inch.
So what's gonna happen is when we're done with this video
I'm gonna move that seat forward and level it out
so we get that position properly.
- [Bob] Excellent.
- So now we're done with the seat.
You got the cockpit all ready to go.
- [Bob] Gotcha.
- That's what we, that's what I like to call that.
And the next is the back.
How're we gonna keep stress off the back?
Now a cross trainer bike with this type of handles
is probably you're best scenario to minimize back stress.
You got back pain or sciatica it keeps you up tall, okay.
- Yeah, you don't wanna be like this.
- Right, exactly. Good.
- I dunno, how do I look?
My body?
- You look wonderful, Bob.
- I mean, my body awareness is--
- Oh no, I didn't wanna tell you the truth,
but in case your wife is watchin', you know.
So the heighth can be adjusted right here,
you can loosen this up, and actually if this went up higher
it would take less stress off his back, yeah,
really get as tall as you can.
- [Bob] I think this is as high as it goes though.
- It may be, it very well--
and you've got a nice, yeah, 'cause this can be adjusted
here as well,
- [Bob] Oh, that's-- - At the neck--
- [Bob] I didn't realize that.
- You got two different adjustments, right.
But you're about as high as you can go there too.
It maybe could go up a little higher.
Now, if you're a serious cycler, you're thinkin' about speed
and you wanna have less back pain, they don't fit.
- [Bob] Right.
- Because you're more like a sail,
you're gonna catch the wind, it's gonna slow you down,
but that's what you have to sacrifice for your back.
- [Bob] Right, and to me it's all about
keepin' my back healthy.
- That's the way I am.
I know, with my bike over here, I'm set up on the road bike
this is much more stressful on my back.
If you look right here I've had a mechanic put an extra
inch and a half higher than it normally is,
slows me down, but anyways
that's the way I'm workin' with it.
And eventually I'll probably go higher yet,
or get a cross trainer, depends on how my back feels
as I get into my 80s and 90s.
(laughter)
I'm bein' optimistic now!
- Atta boy, buddy! I like it!
- So pedal away, Bob. Pedal away.
All right. So Bob's bike is set up
and then I'm just going to, again,
go over one more thing as far as back pain
and general comfort on a bicycle.
If you have a road bike, okay, I've got aerobars on mine
'cause I do triathlons, and plus I like it.
If you get, your fingers go numb, and you're on the drops,
or in the hood like this, or you're here,
and my right hand typically starts to go numb,
that medial nerve, so I'll go into this position
and I'll hold it there.
This is a little harder on my back,
but it takes away the numbness in my hands.
Usually I ride like this on the flat,
I feel much better on my back.
Slowin' me down with the wind but my back feels better
and at this age, I'm goin' for the long haul
and I'm gonna save my back and work it up here.
So, Bob, is any more questions for you?
- No, but I can tell now that my seat does need
to be moved forward.
'Cause I'm, to get my back even up
I'm on to my fingertips, so--
- Yep, exactly right.
- I'm like this, and you're right,
now that you're pointing this out,
this is really uncomfortable!
- Yeah! You're gonna end up with prostate issues
If you don't-- - Yeah, I'm gonna be--
Singin' soprano here.
- So anyways, I think we covered everything, Bob.
- Yeah very well. - Things are lookin'--
pretty good, so adjust your bike properly,
don't ride being mis-fit, and enjoy the weather.
(bell dings)
Oh Bob, that's--
- I'm so happy that you're gonna adjust my bike,
I'm gonna be in good position.
- All right, we gotta say goodbye now.
- All right, adios!
- You bet.