♪ 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're the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- In our opinion, of course, Bob.
- You have back pain or sciatica, we're gonna show you
how to get out of bed without making it worse.
- Right.
- We got a couple simple techniques.
This video is part of a series of videos on sciatica.
If you want to see the entire video series,
go to bobandbrad.com and go to programs.
And you'll find out that it's completely free,
we don't ask for anything, not even email.
And also what do we have with it, Brad?
- We have a PDF or a printout of each video.
So there's, you know, these are all short videos
that cover a specific aspect of sciatica,
so you don't have to watch all of 'em.
You may only watch, you know, a few of 'em.
- Right, maybe half of 'em or a quarter of 'em.
Just pick out the ones that pertain to you.
All right, so let's talk about
getting out of bed in the morning.
Brad, the back and the disks
are especially vulnerable in the morning.
All night long, your disks, again, those are the disks
between the bones that make your back,
they're filling up with fluid.
- And that's how they survive.
- Right.
- They call it imbibition,
they bring in fluid as you sleep.
And throughout the day, you stand up and it compresses--
- It squishes out.
- It pushes out.
And that's the circulation of a disk.
- So you can easily hurt your back in the morning
if you do things wrong.
So the worst thing you could do is get out bed incorrectly.
So you could hurt your back. - And quickly.
- And quickly, right.
So I'm gonna show the normal way
a lot of people get out of bed, which could hurt your back.
And by the way, the back tends to, you know,
after an hour or so, things start to squish down the disks.
So you're a little bit less vulnerable.
All right, so, typically,
how a lot of people get out of bed in the morning,
they probably aren't dressed like this,
but they go ahead and they just lean forward like this.
And this really puts a lot of stress on the back.
And then they twist and--
- It even puts more stress on it.
- Yeah, so just a terrible way to start the morning.
And even laying down like this.
It's kind of a reverse sit-up there.
- And for many people, this is a habit
you don't even think anything of.
But with a back or disk problem, it's a problem.
- It's a big problem.
So you wake up in the morning,
you're gonna roll yourself onto your back,
I'm gonna show the correct way now.
If you have pain just turning like this,
I want you to try by tightening your abdomen.
- There you go.
- 'Cause a lot of times you can tighten the abdomen
and take the stress off the back.
And you can tell by if you take your fingers
and push 'em into your sides,
you know, you tighten them and they don't push in as easy.
- Right, then you can feel those muscles.
- So try it both ways.
Try it tightened,
and then you're gonna roll your shoulders and your knees
at the same time.
Don't roll your knees and then your shoulder.
Or don't roll your shoulders and then your knee.
Then roll like a log.
- Right, we call it log rolling.
Otherwise you're twisting,
and it's the lumbar spine that accepts that twisting force.
And that's where the injury is.
- So you're gonna tighten up, roll everything together.
Now I'm here on my side now,
and I'm gonna bring my legs off,
and I'm gonna push up with my arms at the same time.
- All the while, you're keeping that abdomen tight
and supporting it.
It's like, it is, it's your back brace maintaining support.
- Yup, a natural back brace.
And then you're gonna keep your back straight
as you stand up even.
Don't lean forward and round out, like this.
There you go, that's a good angle.
- Not like this, but back, and up we go!
- And a great way to start the day.
Now, if you're laying back down in bed,
you'd just be reversing.
Your back is straight.
I'm gonna tighten my abdomen,
I'm roll onto my side and bringing my legs up.
And now again, tighten my abdomen.
I'm rolling everything together, all as one.
- Right.
Then you get to that sleeping position and relax.
- Now, years ago, I gotta tell this story, Brad.
(Brad chuckles)
Years ago, I hurt my back.
And this was the way I was always taught to do this,
but Brad had just showed me
a couple days before I hurt my back
a different way of how to get in and out of bed.
And I couldn't get in and out of bed with this method.
My back hurt so bad.
- Yeah.
- It might've, if I would've tightened up, I maybe would've,
but I didn't know that at that time.
So it was like, "I can't get into bed!"
And I used the method that Brad is gonna show right now
and this worked beautifully.
So here's another option.
- I had just gone to a McKenzie course,
and they had a real patient in front of the whole class
and the person was very agitated with a back problem.
And so they showed the person how to do this.
- And believe me, I had just hurt my back,
so I mean, it's when your back is really sensitive,
this is a life-saver.
- So if this is your bed, and the pillow's there,
you're going to keep that back straight.
Use your hands to support,
what I tell my patients,
is to pretend you have two by four taped to your body
that's supporting your back so you can't bend it.
Sometimes, those visualizations help people.
Then you're gonna come forward,
get up with one knee here,
while this is supporting down here.
- Look how straight he's keeping his back the entire time.
- And then once you get to here,
you may just stop and rest for a little bit
and make sure everything is okay.
And then, do the log roll, everything rolls together.
- And again, you can tighten the abdomen
as you're doing that.
- Right there.
And take you're time rolling.
- I think you don't even need too many cues
as to keep the back straight,
because your back hurts so bad
that you wanna keep it straight.
But again, that was a life-saver,
and you can get out of bed the same way, Brad.
- Right.
Did you know, I don't know if it's easier or harder,
but there's one thing I always tell my patients,
slide over, go down, depending on how tall your bed is,
but you need to touch the floor with one foot.
Because when you feel that,
it makes you feel much more comfortable.
And then you continue.
Then you walk up, the other leg goes down, keep it straight.
Walk up with you're hands.
- I couldn't get out of bed the other way, Brad.
I mean, I had to get out of bed that way.
So I mean, I was highly motivated,
and, you know, within a couple days,
there was no pain there anymore.
But, when you have that initial pain,
it's taking a knife and stabbing you in your back, and--
- Yeah, you can't breathe.
- All right,
check out the rest of the videos in the program.
You'll enjoy them.
- Sleep well!