- ♪ 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.
- Okay Brad, today we're gonna talk about
how to pop or crack your own back, safely.
- Okay.
- And by the way, we're gonna talk about this like this.
I'm gonna put forth a bit of a disclaimer.
If you're having back pain,
you should get this all approved by your doctor,
or physical therapist, or chiropractor.
Make them sure.
Maybe show them what you're going to do first.
- Right.
- Before you do it.
- As a matter of fact, if you're having back pain
I'm gonna say don't even try.
- Don't even try this, right.
Definitely if you have a herniated disk.
- Oh yeah.
- We're gonna show you some things at the end
you can try for a herniated disk.
- Right.
- So, you know.
The whole key to popping or cracking your own back,
is that you're looking for relief.
So don't always be focused on the sound.
- Right.
- Sometimes the sound's not gonna happen.
The crack is not gonna happen
but you still may get relief. Right Brad?
- Right, the sound I think has a psychological benefits,
that you hear it and you feel it a little bit and
you just think that must've done something good
because it usually feels good.
- So when we say we're gonna do it safely
what we mean is, basically, we're gonna show you a stretch
that may lead to a pop or a crack.
- Right.
- So it's a gentle stretch.
- We are not showing mobilizations or manipulations
like chiropractors and therapists do.
This is just stretches that a lot of people do everyday
in the gym.
- All right let's get started Brad.
Let's start. First of one is for you to just get
a real good, solid-backed chair.
You don't want one of the these chairs that's flexible.
And generally, it needs to hit you on a certain spot.
- Right.
- Usually in the mid-back.
This is more of a mid-back stretch and
if you wanna make it a little more comfortable
you can put a towel over the edge.
And, very simply, you're gonna get your butt back
in the chair and you're just gonna stretch up
over the chair,
and you may get the pop, you may not.
- Right.
- I just did.
But you can also put your hands like this and stretch back.
Let's show another variation of that, with the ball.
- And I think with that one, you do it like Bob did.
You're not gonna go bouncing on.
- Yeah don't bounce back, just gently stretch back
and you'll get the pop.
- [Brad] And if it doesn't, forget about it.
- [Bob] Ball's right there Brad.
This is one that I like to say that we invented Brad.
- Well I can't take anything.
- One of the guys that works for us invented it.
- One of our therapists, yeah.
- So, if you have a chair that is really high
and isn't gonna work, you know, you just get
one of these little soft balls that
you know, I don't know you, you get them at Walmart
or something like that.
- Yeah, yep you can.
- And you can just lean over this.
And what's nice about this Brad is that you can put it
up in different spots.
- Bob's a taller guy.
If this chair was up higher.
- I can go higher, I can go a little bit lower
and you can find the spot that you can stretch over
and maybe you'll get a little bit of relief that way.
- Sure.
- Sometimes doing these repeated, by the way Brad,
even, again, with no popping or cracking, if you do like
ten of these sometimes you start getting relief.
- Right.
- All right. As a different version of that Brad,
is you can actually just take your hand and
make a fist, like this.
And I'm gonna put the pressure on the thumb, right here Brad
and I'm gonna put my hand back behind me like this
and I'm gonna push up
and I'm just gonna gently stretch over it.
- Yeah, please.
- Okay?
- Go like this.
- And I can do on different levels.
I can stretch over it, very gently.
- I just got mine to go.
- You can go off to the side a little bit.
- That's where I got mine, I went off to the side.
- Now I can go off to the other side.
You know, again, gentle stretches.
We're not pushing and cracking cracking.
- Yeah exactly.
- Just gently going back.
- You're not gonna have your friend help you do this.
This is something you do on your own.
If it goes, it goes. If not, that's all right.
- And what's nice about this is
after you've done some bending like this
quite often your back need to be re-adjusted the other way.
- Right.
- So you can just stretch your back the other way.
- Sometimes if I'm at my computer
and I've got my glasses on, it forces my bad posture.
I'll do one of these things
coming up with the roller that we're gonna show you.
- All right. Let's get the foam roller Brad.
- It really helps.
- Which one do you wanna use?
- I like the blue one.
- All right, this is a softer foam roller.
You can use any one of the foam rollers that are harder
but these, I think, are more comfortable.
This is from OPTP.
- Called a medium or low density,
they're more comfortable, I can guarantee you'll like them.
But, actually I did this recently quite a bit,
I gotta get my glasses adjusted so my head's not forward
so I can see the screen.
Anyway, my posture's been bad, my back is paining.
I've got some pain right here
and I'll go on the living room floor, I'll get on my...
- Just a gentle roll and stretch.
- Yeah, there it goes.
And usually, I'll go like this and I'll just relax and then
(Brad groans with relief) Did you hear that one.
- (Bob chuckles)
- I did. Boy, that was kinda nice.
- [Bob] Cracks for years.
- (Brad sighs with relief)
- Now as a little variation of this Brad,
you can turn the roller too at an angle, like this.
- Yeah.
- And it's gonna just get a little bit different
part of the back when you roll.
- Oh yeah.
- And you can also go the other way.
- Just wait Bob, I'm not done.
- You're not done yet.
- I actually haven't done this particular technique yet
but I can see where it could be helpful.
- You may get a little rotation in the back.
- Yep.
- So, you know, again, gentle stretching
not doing anything drastic here.
- Now Bob, there are some people who
probably may not have seen our channel yet.
- Oh yeah.
- We should give them some information on that.
- Yeah, if you haven't already subscribed to us
our subscribe button is right here.
We upload videos, right here on the screen.
We upload videos everyday, seven days a week
and they're all on how to stay healthy, fit and pain-free.
You don't want to miss out.
- Exactly.
- All right, let's show another one Brad.
- Sure.
- I'm gonna show one laying down here.
Again this is a stretch and this one, again,
you definitely don't wanna do if you're having pain
or you're having a
herniated disk.
- [Brad] Right.
- But you're gonna start on the side
and generally you're gonna have one side that's, you know.
Well you don't wanna have any side that's painful
you wanna make sure when you do this it doesn't hurt.
- Sure, exactly.
- So, you can start off. You can put the one leg straight
and the one that's on top you can hook behind the leg
- Right here.
- Like this and you can go on different levels,
the higher you go up, the higher it's gonna
stretch on your back.
- Sure.
- So if you're down here it's stretching more
of the lower back.
You get up here, it's stretch more of the upper back
and while you're in this position now,
now I'm actually gonna turn my shoulders
and I'm gonna go into this gentle stretch
and bringing this shoulder forward.
You see how I did that Brad?
- Yeah, yeah. So this shoulder's slid forward.
- Slid forward getting kinda flat on my back up here
and I'm bringing this shoulder down
and now with this in this position here
you can just kinda, just gently rock back and forth
and you can even give yourself just a little extra pressure
here, a little stretch and grab here too Brad.
- Yeah, work on that area.
- Either way, and just give it a little stretch
and you can do this on both sides.
It's a good way to increase your rotation.
- Sure.
- I think it is good to do both directions.
- All right. Brad. Now let's say you are having
some difficulty with a herniated disk
or, let's just say you're having back pain,
and you don't have spinal stenosis,
you don't have spinal osteosis.
- Yep.
- This is a good stretch to do.
This is a universal one, for the vast majority of people,
it's going to be a good one to do.
This is based on the McKenzie method or McKenzie system.
You're gonna go ahead and start in a prone position,
or what we call laying on your stomach
and you can even start by just laying here and relaxing
a little bit.
Then you can get up, what we call prone on elbows,
keeping the bottom down, right Brad?
- Right, so we're getting that arch.
Bob's got, for a 55-year-old guy you've got a good arch
in your back, Bob.
- Don't low-ball me Brad, I'm 56.
- Sorry.
- Okay, gonna put your hands now underneath the shoulders
and you're gonna go ahead
and just start gently doing stretches like this.
- Right.
- And you're gonna keep the bottom down,
keep your pelvis down.
- This here.
- And you're gonna up as far as it lets you go naturally,
don't wanna be pulling up your pelvis like this
- Right, right.
- So you're gonna go ahead
and stretch up further and further, if you can,
and eventually you wanna see if you can
get all the way up without the pelvis coming off
the ground.
- Right. If you're doing these and you do five or six
of them and the pain gets worse or you get more pain
down your leg, do not continue.
- So an advanced version of this, Brad
would be to...
Now, let's say that's been going well but you're kinda
stuck here and it doesn't go any further.
Then you might actually take a sheet.
Do you wanna grab a sheet behind you Brad?
- Are we doing the one under the hip?
- Oh yeah we can do that.
- Oh I know what you're talking about.
- Because I was just gonna, for over-pressure.
- (Brad groans) We should have thought of this.
- Sorry, we should have thought of this first.
- That's all right Bob.
- Well let me show you one while we're waiting Brad.
- No, I got it Bob.
- Oh you do. Look at this, how fast he is.
You can take a sheet, or a belt
and you're gonna put your hands in the same position,
underneath your shoulders, and you're gonna lift up
like this.
And now, you can see how that's giving me
some counter-pressure Brad.
- Yeah, the support right in the lower back.
- And that's giving you another excellent stretch
you can move it up a little bit and work different
parts of the back.
- These should feel good while you're doing them.
- Yep, these are always something that are gonna be
pain-free.
You know, you don't wanna be increasing your pain
and what you'd like to see with sciatica actually
is that the pain's coming up the leg and
going into the back, not going the opposite way.
Now another way to do some of these press-ups,
some variations, is to actually do what you call,
the road-kill, right Brad?
- Yeah.
- So what I'm gonna do here.
I'm gonna actually bring my leg out like this.
- Yeah.
- And usually you start by laying here first Brad?
- Yeah exactly. I just had someone yesterday, a patient
trying to get the pain out of his leg, it was kinda working.
I said move your leg up like this, and he did,
and immediately he said oh that feels better.
And I knew right away that we were on to something.
Did you have him do some press-ups?
- Yes I did.
- So then you can also have him do some press-ups with him
in this position.
- Right.
- And his calf pain started to get better
as he was doing them.
I was smiling and so was he.
- A variation of that would be to take a towel.
Do you wanna take that roll towel maybe Brad?
- Sure. Always wondered where I put that.
- And you actually put that under your pelvis right here.
Same thing, see if it helps relieve the pain a little bit
and then try some press-ups like that.
- Yep, it just changes the angle of the back.
- Right. All right. Well I hope you'll pop and crack
yourself to prosperity era.
- And have some good health and, I don't know Bob,
what else can we say?
- Well we can fix just about anything,
- Except for that broken heart.
Catch this Lonney!
- All right, thanks.