♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
- Hi, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- And together we are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- And our opinion, of course, Bob-
- I'm shaking here, Brad.
- Bob, are you doing a plank?
- I'm planking, baby.
- Okay.
Bob, is there any other way you can do that plank?
- Oh yeah, there's other ways.
We can go like this.
- Yeah, go ahead.
Are you having fun, Bob?
- Yeah, this is a lot of fun.
- Okay, planks.
This is just my opinion, Bob.
I'm not a big fan of the planks.
I kind of think they're a fad, and a few years from now
I think people will not be doing them.
And I think there's some options
that are much superior to the plank.
- And I agree with you, Brad.
I saw planks and the first thing I thought
is it's an isometric exercise.
And isometric exercises don't work the whole muscle.
I mean, like if you're working a bicep,
and I go like this and it's isometric here
I've worked it in that range.
Now I have to work it here.
It's just-
- Exactly.
- It doesn't seem like a complete
muscle strengthening exercise.
- Right. But it is hard
and it can cause that muscle fatigue and pain,
and for some reason people relate pain and extreme
with good.
- Sure.
- And I don't think that's necessarily the way.
And if you keep listening
you're gonna find out what the better option is
in my opinion, of course.
- Oh, by the way, Brad,
a lot of you are news listeners to our channel
and we wanna make sure that you take just a minute, please.
And hit that little subscribe button
that's right on the screen here,
because we upload videos every day
on how to stay healthy and fit and pain free.
- Exactly.
Say no more Bob.
Okay. What is the better option?
As normal it's the people who have been watching videos,
they know me,
they probably know I'm gonna say...
- The ball.
- Yeah.
- The ball is wonderful, it's been around for decades
and it's a proven piece of workout equipment.
It's affordable.
- And it's cheap.
- Yeah. - Oh, that's the same thing.
Affordable and cheap are the same thing, aren't they?
- You learn more every day.
- The only one thing in defense of planks, Brad,
and we were talking about before we started here
is that it's a static strengthening.
So like when you stand up,
maybe you can translate it to standing.
You know what I mean?
- All right, all right.
- Because I was strengthening my core here.
Now when I stand up I tighten up my core
like I would with a plank.
- Right.
But if you want that stronger core for most activities,
basketball, skiing, swimming, you're moving.
You're moving and there's a component of balance
that you wanna fine tune.
For any age, whether you're in a sport
or you just want to keep up
so you don't fall down and break a hip.
- Yeah.
How are you gonna hurt your back, Brad?
It's it's not when you're standing up straight,
it's gonna be you're moving and doing something
so that's why you want your core to be strong
with the movement.
And that's why the ball - Exactly.
- works so great for that.
- Right. And we'll point out with some of these exercises,
shall we carry on?
- Sure. - Okay.
- You wanna start with exercises?
- You're gonna have to move though Bob.
- Okay.
I am moving.
- All right.
First of all, - I'm gonna move over here.
- get a ball.
This ball is about the right height for me.
If it's too small or too big, it won't work.
But this-
- I'll link up Brad to how to measure a ball,
how to choose a ball. - Right.
Quick thing,
if you sit down like this, this ball's too flat for me
but I can still use it.
It's forgiving.
You can see my butt is down lower than my knees.
You want the butt about the same height as a knee.
- [Bob Schrupp] So you let your thighs are level.
- Exactly.
- [Bob Schrupp] Sure.
- All right, now this is one of my favorite ones.
When I get up in the morning.
If I do these, I like to start with this one
because I'm only half awake and-
- Brad, can I tell you.
- Yeah.
- Brad, by the way, has spondylolisthesis.
So he needs to do core exercises
and these core exercises have kept you functional.
- Exactly.
- [Bob Schrupp] And out of trouble.
- And they're completely pain free on my back.
And that's why I do them.
So if you do happen to have that diagnosis,
I strongly urge you to work these exercises.
Okay.
So all I'm gonna do is grab a hold of that ball
and I'm gonna lift the ball up in the air.
Now what that does is it pushes my back
in a neutral position,
which is desired for strengthening your core.
And then I'm gonna just do this.
- Are you pulling your back down a little bit too, Brad?
I mean, are you trying to hold...
He's trying to stop this arch from occurring.
So he's squeezing my hand here.
- That's the beauty of doing this exercise.
- [Bob Schrupp] It kind of does it automatically?
- It does it automatically.
It's wonderful.
Okay.
Now if you just started this, 10 will probably be enough
but as you get stronger
you can continue more and more and more.
Now-
- [Bob Schrupp] And you do it to the point
where you start feeling a burn in the stomach,
that's okay. - Right there.
Exactly.
The next one.
There's a lot of them, I'm just going through a few of them.
Cross here. Okay.
Kind of like you're in the casket but you're not.
Arms here.
Elbows are gonna go to the knees.
- [Bob Schrupp] In the casket?
All right, go ahead.
Keep going.
I saw a joke on that one, Bob.
Anyways, elbows to the knees.
And again, no stress on the back
but this adds little more effort needed for the abdominal.
Works the upper abs a little bit more plus the lower abs.
Don't let your head go up like this.
Keep it neutral.
- Yeah, he's really almost trying to bring his head
straight up to the ceiling.
- Right.
- That's so.
- Now I know what you're thinking out there,
you're thinking yeah, but what about all this balance stuff
that you're talking about on the ball?
True, these do not have anything to do with balance.
- [Bob Schrupp] You're working towards that, aren't you?
- Right. That's coming up next.
There's one more on this I want to show everyone though.
You wanna work the oblique muscles.
They go this way and that's for that rotational support.
Back to this position, right elbow to left knee.
Here, here.
And you're not twisting a lot.
You're not twisting like when you're standing and bending.
So it doesn't stress the back in a bad way.
And if you got an itch on your back, right back here,
it scratches your back at the same time
and it feels really good.
So you wanna do it more and more.
- [Bob Schrupp] And he's holding his head straight up
instead of bending forward.
- Exactly.
Okay, next one, prone.
- Although again, if any of these bother you,
bother your back, don't be doing it.
- Exactly.
All right, prone position. Should I do them up here?
- [Bob Schrupp] Do you think you can?
- I can.
I would not do them on a table at home,
on a carpeted floor is desirable.
All right.
- [Bob Schrupp] I'd like to see you do them
on a dining room table, Brad.
- At home I do, Bob.
Just show off to my wife.
Okay. Now this is a beauty of it supports the back
and you start to lift here.
You work on the hip as well as the lower back.
Oh, thanks Bob.
And you're now gonna work this one.
Now we're starting to get that balance
- Yeah, this is great too.
It's very good for core overall.
- Exactly.
And you can vary how hard it is.
If I do them here, much easier.
Or if I go down in this direction much, much harder.
Now, if this gets too easy for you,
then I'll go to this position
and I'll lift both at the same time.
- [Bob Schrupp] Wow.
- Now that starts to get much more aggressive.
Especially if I roll back this way then, oh my goodness.
Much harder.
Or this way, much easier.
- [Bob Schrupp] Sure.
- You can very can very-
- [Bob Schrupp] See the progression.
- Oh, it's wonderful, Bob.
- What do you do when you're on the floor
and you don't have anything to grab?
- Well, you want me to show you, Bob?
- Yeah, that's all right.
You just get your hands.
- Yeah, actually I never go to that position
I was doing it for demonstration.
- [Bob Schrupp] Sure.
- Because it's pretty hard to go out that far.
- Sure.
And that would involve a lot of balance then.
- Right.
- Yeah. - Exactly.
All right.
- [Bob Schrupp] So you wanna do a few seated ones?
- Oh no, no, no, no. I forgot, Bob. I forgot one.
This is the great one here.
Now you wanna work the upper back like this.
- [Bob Schrupp] Oh yeah.
- Okay. And you're gonna do on all these
between 10 to 50 reps is good.
- For most people, this is a fantastic one to do
for your back.
- Sure. Yeah.
- [Bob Schrupp] This one doesn't bother you though, Brad.
- Not at all.
Because the ball supports the mid back so much.
- Sure.
Most of your motion is coming from up here, isn't it?
- It's the beauty of the ball, Bob.
- Yeah.
Because normally this would be an exercise
that would probably bother somebody with spondylolisthesis,
is extensions.
But on the ball,
you get away with it. - [Bob Schrupp] On the ball
you get away with it.
- Yep. And I do add rotation
within a completely pain free range.
I don't push it, but I don't wanna lose range either
over the course of my life.
- [Bob Schrupp] Exactly.
- Okay, now-
- That's actually a good one for golfers by the way.
- Oh sure.
- Yep. That works that core and the rotations.
- Right. And then if you wanna get them more aggressive
you do it without your hands on.
This is easier.
This is harder. And if you want to grab some weight
and pull some weight into your arms,
for those people who are really strong.
- [Bob Schrupp] Superman too?
Way out like that.
- Well, yeah, you could do that as well.
Exactly.
Plus the ball's wildly
and I've worked on the ball for years.
If you just start this-
- Yeah, Brad makes it look very, very easy.
Whenever I try these after he's showed me,
I'm like, oh my God, I can't even get on and so-
- Your balance definitely is challenged.
Wow, Bob, now I got one more. - You got your breath?
I got one more, Bob.
- All right.
- This is for all those people who really want say,
oh those look pretty easy.
Then-
- Brad wants to challenge you.
- Now with this,
I have to go with my feet up against the wall.
- [Bob Schrupp] Let Lonnie find you first.
- Okay,
- [Bob Schrupp] I'm gonna move this behind.
- Now I see people in the gym,
they'll go up on one of those benches
and they'll do these back arches
where the bench stops right there
and the arch are back forward
and they're doing wonders for strengthening their core
but they're tearing their back apart.
So here you let the back-
- [Bob Schrupp] The back is supported.
- Exactly.
And then we do this with the ball supporting the back
and we can also do the obliques.
Bob, you wanna grab me some weights?
- [Bob Schrupp] Sure. - And if you're in a gym
and you really like to have some iron
you grab a 45 pound plate or 25 pounds.
- Do you want the black one too?
- No, this is enough.
It doesn't take much really.
And you get these up on your chest
and then you can tell by my grunting,
without covering up the mic,
that this becomes much, much more difficult.
- [Bob Schrupp] Again, normally we wouldn't
want you doing this
but because his back is completely supported.
- Yep.
- [Bob Schrupp] You can get away with this.
- By the ball.
Plus you're working your balance at the same time.
A lot of other core muscles are working.
While on a solid bench you don't get that benefit.
- Yeah.
I mean, we would absolutely not want you doing these,
that's hard on the back.
- Exactly.
- But with the ball supporting the back
you can get away with it.
All right, Brad, remember we can fix just about anything
- Except for that broken heart.
but we're working out.
- Yeah. - I point at it right there.
I'm tired, Bob.
- All right.
I'll finish up.
Thanks for watching.