♪ 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.
- So today, Brad, we're gonna talk about seven yoga poses
or stretches that are terrible for your back.
Now, this is, of course, our opinion, of course.
- [Brad] (laughing).
- And before I even get into that,
let's talk about this.
If you are new to our channel--
- Ah, yes. - Please take a second
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- Or it could be something from Thermotex.
There's always gonna be something.
- So Bob, we're stirrin' up the pot here, you know.
- Yeah, we are.
Now, people are gonna look at us, and they're gonna go
well, you guys aren't yoga people,
and they would be correct.
I can hear ya screamin' out there.
They're screaming at the screen right now.
- Some of the people are.
Matter of fact, we did one one,
similar to this a few years back,
and in La Crosse, one of the yoga instructors
happened to know someone that knew my wife,
and it got back to me through the grapevine,
what is he doing puttin' that information out.
So we're going to give a scientific view
of the stresses put on the back
with some of these stress, or these poses.
- Yeah, we are not experts, yes, I will say that.
But we are clinicians, and you can say
we have kind of a scientific background.
- In the back. (laughs)
- Yeah, in the back.
And based on that, we are gonna say we looked at these
in an objective manner,
- Right.
- Non-judgmental but objective manner,
and we decided that these are bad for you
in the sense that they're increasing the disc pressure.
- Sure.
- In your discs.
So there's a doctor, Nochumson,
that performed disc studies,
these were years ago and they've been since repeated now,
- Right, right.
- So he actually took a needle and measured
the pressure inside the disc,
- The internal disc pressure,
and it was done first on a cadaver,
but then later it was done on live people.
- Right, and they found out these
in some of these positions he actually had a
the actual picture of the actual position
they were going in here,
and they found out that it would
sometimes significantly increase the pressures.
- Right, so if you get high increased pressure
in your discs it increases your risk for
herniated disc which is,
- Right.
- Big no, no.
- And also, if there's that much pressure on a disc, Brad,
the way I look at it, there's a lot of pressure
on the ligaments and the muscles also.
So I'm sorry that we took a lot of time
before we even started here,
but I do want to make sure that you understand
that we're not just, you know, disparaging yoga,
because we're actually gonna do another video
seven yoga poses that are great for your back.
We'll do right after this one,
we'll do it so it will be one day
and then one will be the next day.
- Oh, wonderful.
- We'll get back into the good graces.
- There you go.
- So the first one, Brad, is, and you wanna make sure
just to keep me on track here?
- You bet.
- So this is called the Seated Forward Fold.
And this is basically, aren't they just kinda
pulling forward here, Brad?
- Right, yep.
You know a lot of people will do this for a hamstring
stretch, which is does a nice job
of stretching the hamstring.
- Yeah, it also stretching low back, but this is the kind
of stretch you don't want to do on your back.
Generally, most people are already too flexed
and too stretched out in their back this way anyway.
- Right.
- I mean most of our daily activities
are bringing us forward and bending us forward.
We actually want you to stretch the other way.
- Right, right.
- So that's what we do on the good stretch.
So this folding forward here is,
I would not recommend it.
There's a lot better ways to stretch your hamstrings,
and I don't want to stretch your back in that manner.
- And the second one here is the same version
except for long seated position.
It's standing position.
- Yeah, it's even worse because now you've got gravity
pulling on the back and you're really getting
a lot more torque on it.
By the way, I was gonna mention this mat, Brad,
by the way.
- Okay.
- This is a mat that was sent to us by East Hills.
It's 71 inches by 24 inches.
The reason why I really like it, it's an inch thick.
- [Brad] Yeah.
- [Bob] This thing is really comfortable.
I mean, you know, that's a very expensive mat, Brad.
This is several hundred dollars.
- [Brad] The red one.
- [Bob] Yep, and this one's thicker and you can kneel on it.
If you're one of those people that, you know,
can't tolerate the mats very well,
this thing really works out, it's only $45.99.
I think that's a good price for a mat.
So we'll have that down below.
I just wanted to mention that.
- [Brad] Sure.
- Alright, next one.
Like we said, it's called the Big Toe pose.
So they actually reach down,
and they actually grab down onto their toes
and you know if you're very flexible you're gonna
pull yourself all the way to the legs even.
Terrible position for the back.
- Right.
- And again it's gonna be torquing on the L3, L4, L5,
those discs,
- Right.
- And you can actually, you know,
I'm not saying your gonna hurt your back day one,
but maybe it's gonna be day 30, or day 60.
- Or three years down the road.
- Right.
- It depends, a lot of it depends on what you do
outside of yoga, if you sit a lot or if you do a lot of
bending, lifting, et cetera.
It all adds up, and this is supported a lot by
McKenzie as well, he would go 100% with this.
- You wanna show me number three there, Brad?
The Intense Side Stretch.
So in this one it's really basically kinda
what they were doing already, but now you're going
off to the side, and they're grabbing their leg
and pulling themselves down again.
Same thing again, they're putting stress more
on the side part of the lateral side of the disc,
but that's often where it herniates.
- Right.
- It's posterior lateral.
- Right, and plus you got some rotation with the flexion,
and this lateral flexion which increases some stress
on the ligaments and the muscles.
- So again, I can get down a little bit,
but again I'm 58 years old,
but I do stretch every day, I just do stretches
that I feel are good for you.
- Right.
And you notice I'm not doing them.
I have a condition called spondylosdesis
which is in the low back,
and these just, my back will not tolerate it.
- Yeah.
- So if you have that condition, you know,
I would not do these.
- You want to do number four, Brad?
Number four is the Extended Triangle pose.
So you try to make sure I'm doing these correctly,
or pretty close.
So any one of these triangle ones I just don't like.
I'm sorry.
So it looks like they kind of have the foot forward
on this one, on the side,
and they're coming down like this.
I wish we had a yoga person here
we all got stretch us,
so we can do justice to these poses.
Because they look so pretty in the picture.
- Yeah, they look pretty in the picture.
Now, on some of them I noticed they have the leg bent
and on some of them they have it straight.
But either way, this is the same thing again.
You're really putting,
you're getting the quadratus lumborum here.
- Right, which is nice.
- Which is nice, but you're also putting a lot of stress
on the disc.
I mean, there's just no way around it.
Again, that lateral disc you're putting pressure on it.
Now this one I thought is even worse.
It's called the Revolved Triangle pose.
Now this one, instead of going like this,
they now have this leg forward and they're twisted like this
so now you're bending and you're twisting.
- Mmm-hmm.
- You're bending and you're twisting
and I'll tell you if you want to hurt your back,
that is the best way to do it.
If you want to have a, you know, a injured back.
- Right.
So you're flexing it and rotating it
which it's like when you're wringing a washcloth.
- Yeah, there you go.
- Where you're rotating it, get the most force you can
to get the water out.
In this case you're putting more force on the disc
with the combination of the movements.
- Yeah, there's also something to be said about
how the ligaments hold you into place,
and there's actually more of a gap,
and there's more room for the disc to herniate.
I don't know if you remember any of that, Brad,
but it's just, bending and twisting is a terrible-
(Brad laughing)
- No, I just don't remember that it would actually-
- I know, I'm just-
- Remember the frame-in where they had-
- I had to take advantage of that.
- So okay, that's the Revolved Triangle pose.
- Sure.
- And again, that's off to the side.
Number six is the Boat, right?
Yeah, that's number seven.
- Yeah, the boat, yep.
- Okay, the Boat is, and this is the one that
Nochumson actually had a picture of this.
- Right, right.
- And this, actually, believe it or not,
and that's why we always recommend-
- Here, I'll hold your legs up so you can, there.
You get that V shape which is a really good
abdominal strengthening exercise.
- Exactly, but it puts, again, a lot of stress
on the disc.
- [Brad] Right.
L5, L4.
- I got really long legs, so, again, yeah, I've seen
what do they do, workouts like this.
You know, it works the abs better than anything you could,
but it's very severe stress on the disc.
- I have a friend and he's got back pain, Chris.
He does those and he has back pain.
And I said Chris, quit doing those,
but he loves aggressive exercise so he keeps doing them,
and he lives with his back problem.
- Yep, you know, that's your choice in life.
So this is the one I had trouble with, Brad.
Remember, kinda talk me through this again one.
- Oh yes.
- The Full Wheel pose.
- Yep.
- So I should put the,
I'm going like this, right?
- Yep.
Now take your left elbow and put it over your right knee.
There you go.
- So I'm going like this.
- So right here.
You can see that's where the most stress
on the back is going here.
Yes, you're getting the things stretched out.
- And again, bending and twisting with that one.
I'm bending and I'm twisting.
Oh my back I actually can feel on that one.
- Sure.
- And it's not just because I'm tight.
I don't want my back to be loose in this manner.
- Right.
- I don't.
I want it to be tight and be able to support my spine.
I want it to go back this way.
- Right.
- Now I can stretch my back all day long in this one.
And we're gonna be showing some of these good stretches
on the next video.
But look at, I've got plenty of mobility that way.
- Yeah, and that is one of the poses
that we really like from yoga.
Except for people like me, with spondylosdesis or stenosis.
And there's probably 10 to 20% of the population
with either stenosis or spondylosdesis,
so that's quite a chunk right there.
- With your back, Brad, actually you've got
very little mobility in your back
which I think is good,
but you've got excellent mobility in your legs.
I mean you can kick and you can go out
to the side, and you got, you know you've kinda made up
for it and kept your mobility from the karate years.
- Right, you gotta keep moving with what you've got.
And I ain't got much, Bob.
- Alright.
Anyway, for what it's worth, that's our opinion.
You can take it or leave it.
You can tell us to shove it.
You can whatever you wanna do with it.
- Oh Bob, why Bob, we digress.
- That's right.
It's a family show.
- Yeah.
- Alright, thanks for watching.
- Take care.