♪ Bob and Brad, ♪
♪ the two most famous physical therapists ♪
♪ on the internet. ♪
- Hi folks. I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist,
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- We are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- In our opinion, of course, Bob.
- Internet.
Today, we're talking about five back exercises,
if you can't get to the floor,
we're going to give you some options.
- Right.
- Because there are people
that say they can't get down on the floor.
- Right, and it's just convenient if you don't have to,
these may be just adequate.
- Right, by the way, are we doing a giveaway today?
This is a Saturday, so this is the one day hiatus.
- Right and in other words, we're not going to promote-
- Just check out tomorrow, go to Facebook
and you'll find it.
Also, we got a podcast now.
I always like to promote that because,
- Well, yeah, absolutely.
But we got incredible speakers and guests
and that kind of thing,
- All right, the first back exercise is one
that I often have patients do.
Because I find most patients can do this one, Brad.
- Right.
- And you can start right away in the morning.
Or if you want to take a nap in the afternoon,
- Sure.
- Lie down and
- Right. So it's on the floor, it's on the bed.
You wouldn't be able to do this one on a couch?
- No.
- Maybe you'll see why.
- It's a little difficult.
So I'm going to get down correctly.
You don't go down like this,
you actually go down onto your side
and bring your legs up and log roll over
- There you go, protect the back.
- Right, okay. So, Brad called this the windshield wiper.
And so these are the wipers,
and they're going to go back and forth.
And it's just a good way to loosen up the back
before you start the day, it's also,
- Right in here.
This is where that motion and that low back is coming from.
- If you're lacking some motion, when you turn, would you,
yeah. You want to show them?
- It's like, when you turn around to see if you're,
when you're back in your vehicle.
- This is a backwards way of getting that motion back.
- Yep. It is.
- So if it hurts one direction, let's say it hurts me
when I go to the left, I can avoid that.
I can just go to the right until it begins to loosen up.
And then I could try the left side again.
- There you go.
So again, he's keeping his knees together,
his feet together, and it goes as a nice smooth motion.
- Just, it's a very simple, like I said,
most people can tolerate it and it feels relaxing,
and it's good for the back.
- Yep
- All right, next one is cat camel.
Or as some people call it,
we don't know.
- The cat camel, the cow.
- The cow.
- No, we never say a horse. So.
- So we're in the quarter fed position.
That's what, when you're on your hands and knees,
and you're actually going to arch up like this.
And when our arch up, I usually bring my head down.
I don't go like this.
- Right.
So try to get just a rounded feeling,
stretching things out.
- And then you can arch the other way.
In this direction, you actually bring your head up,
head down, back up,
back down, head up.
- Then you gonna breathe, relax. Normally you gonna fill up,
you know,
get those lungs filled up particularly right there I think,
you'll feel it, but don't hold your breath.
- Again, most people can do this one.
I don't care if you have sciatica or arthritis.
This is one that's comfortable for most people.
- If it does create pain in a certain range,
you just avoid that.
- Right, right. Okay, next one.
We're going to show you some options for that one too.
A different option. If you don't want to do it in bed.
Next one is the quarter fed position
where you do strengthening.
So actually what I'm gonna do is,
you can start off by just raising one arm.
- Yes.
- Don't try to raise two arms.
(laughs)
Or you can raise one leg.
All right. Because if you, like Bob did,
if you do the alternate left leg, right arm,
it's really challenging.
- Yeah, it's challenging.
- Yep.
- It's a little bit hard on your balance,
but that's the way of strengthening your back
in a nice position. So it's, worthwhile getting there.
- All right.
- So you can, obviously do both sides.
- So also Bob is thinking about tightening
the stomach muscles up while you do this.
So your whole core becomes stronger,
which is healthy for your back.
- Now Brad's going to show an option of doing the cat camel
on a countertop and also the quarter fed against the wall.
- Sure. So, you know, in the household, you know,
this is a little lower than a countertop, but it'll work.
But a countertop is really just about the right height.
And you're going to go like this
and you simply bring your feet apart, a shoulder width,
round the back out, head down.
And then up.
- So it's nice. You can do it throughout the day.
And a lot of these exercises
you should do throughout the day.
You just don't do them once in the morning.
- Right.
- Do it throughout the day, it'll keep the back loose,
keep the back ready for action.
- Ah, and then the next one, this is a really nice,
I like this one for posture, Bob.
And for core, I want to tighten my stomach up.
My right hand is going to go up
kind of like I'm doing that overhead hitchhiker.
And then if you want to do your opposite leg
at the same time. This one's not quite so hard to balance,
- Right, exactly.
- like when you're on the cat camel.
- The closer you get to the wall,
the easier it is.
- Yep.
- So you can start like that.
- But it is so good for posture while you're upright,
it gets all the right muscles
and it helps strengthen that back and core.
- That's not too bad.
You have the option of just doing the legs,
to start off with.
- Sure.
For the beginners.
You know what I'm saying? I'm not doing this,
which you know, I've had a lot of patients will do that,
but we're on the straight leg,
focuses energy or the muscles on the back,
- Right. How about some Buddha squad Brad,
you mind showing those?
- So we're using the boot stick.
You just need a stick. Five feet long, works pretty good.
A little shorter is okay, but you get,
so that's behind your back,
your hand on the bottom will face out.
The Palm will face out and grab the stick.
- Turn a little bit this way.
There we go.
- And this Palm will face, like you're patting yourself
on the back of the head, but you grabbed the stick.
- Now you need to have three points of contact.
You hit on the head, mid back, and pelvis.
And this is really a train aid.
We're trying to train you to bend correctly
when you lift things are when you bend to pick something up.
- It's just a great strengthening exercise for your quads.
- Right. You get a double bonus out of it.
- Body mechanics.
Yeah.
And you may want to switch like this.
For some reason, this way's easier for me.
I don't know why Bob.
- You probably have a restriction on your shoulder.
I mean, you've been there already.
- I've got a number of restrictions Bob.
I don't talk about most of them.
There we go.
- Not bad for 59. Oh yeah.
- Thanks for reminding me.
- You just had a birthday.
Happy birthday.
- That was only a couple of three weeks ago,
but I can't remember.
- I think it was last week.
- The 22nd. Oh, I'm not supposed to tell you that.
- All right.
Next one is actually this interesting.
I didn't think it wouldn't be that hard,
but if I'm making it harder, first I start off with.
You put your butt on the edge of the chair,
make sure you're not going to fall off.
And now I'm going to keep my back really straight.
Don't go like this. Don't arch,
but lower yourself back down to the back of the chair
and then come forward.
- Sure.
- Now you can make it easier by starting off this way,
or you can make it harder by doing like this.
But again, you got to keep your back absolutely straight.
This is a way to strengthen your core,
without getting it on the floor or on the bed.
- This one is much harder than it looks.
- It is.
And you can also make it leisure by scooting your butt back.
- There you go.
- So you can start from here.
But if you get back to here and you put your arms up here,
you know, I work on his fair on, Brad, this is,
you know, I'll feel it that's for sure.
- Yep. Exactly.
And we're going to shoot for about probably 10 repetitions
to start out with, do you think? 5 and 10.
- The best is number 10 sure.
You know, whatever you can tolerate to begin with.
- As you get better with them,
you'll want to do more of course,
because that's one of those posture muscles.
- Right, the muscles round the core actually come around
and attach it to the fascia, which attaches into the back.
So it all helps.
In fact, a lot of times when you do an activity,
if you can tighten your core,
you're going to protect your back.
- For sure.
- Let's show a bonus, Brad.
- Oh absolutely. It's bonus time.
This is actually one I do on a regular basis,
not just for my back, but for, my shoulders as well.
And it just wakes me up in the morning.
So you're going to have, you can do a,
you can just pull a bar
or anything that you can suspend your weight and hold on to,
we use these hanging handles
because it really does work well
to go up against the wall to help maintain that passion
- Plus you can have it in the office then.
- Sure, sure.
- You've got do a little construction
by putting those anchors in, but
- Yeah, yeah. Just find someone handy-dandy here.
So you get them into the stud.
So it's proper and safe, but boy,
I'm just going to slide down easily and slowly
and relax my court-.
Now this is what actually relaxes to stomach muscles.
- Right.
- Kind of the opposite. And that kind of is interesting.
- Yeah, it kinda make a decompression of the spine.
I do this one as a break when I'm working at a desk a lot.
Every time I do it, I hang, I hear crack crack crack.
My back has been crunched together for so long.
It wants to come apart.
And so good for arthritis.
- Yep.
- Probably good for sciatica.
- Yeah. You'll know.
You'll you'll fell,
if you feel relief in that pain.
- It might give you some relief for an hour or so.
- And we, you know, we discovered this
through Dr. Kirsch, orthopedic surgeon,
specifically for shoulder problems, impingement.
So it's, it's a posture thing, back thing, shoulder thing,
you just can't say enough about it.
And I just like hanging out.
- There you go.
Alright.
And if you like hanging out with us,
make sure you subscribe.
- Oh, wow.
That was a good sag way.
- All right.
Remember? Right.
I can fix just about anything,
- axcept for,
- a broken heart.
- But we're working on that,
- Don't forget to mention my shirt by the way.
- Oh yeah. Look at that.
Who are these guys? Who are they?
- Looking back.
- Get up a little taller. Oh, here, look at that.
Who are they? Yeah.
Well that was a pretty,
that's pretty catchy. Wasn't it?
- Yeah.
I should say.
(short upbeat sound)