♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists on the internet ♪
(clapping)
- Hi, folks, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- 'Cause we are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- In our own opinion of course, Bob.
- We're gonna show ya' three stretches,
how to stretch out your mid-back, that thoracic area.
We'll show you what that is, and these are advanced ones.
These are not for the beginner.
These are for people that are maybe a little younger
or if you're older, you maybe have been doin'
some of our other stretches first.
- Right, you're not just gonna jump into this if you're.
- No, this could be a tough one.
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- So, first, let's understand real quickly
what the thoracic region is here, or the mid-back,
what we consider.
So we're lookin' at Sam here from the back.
The first seven vertebrae are bones that make up your neck.
That is your neck.
- Right. - OK, then from there on,
T1 all the way down to T12,
these are all attached to your ribs.
- Right, so that changes it
and their geometry is different.
They can actually rotate more than they can
than the lumbar spine, because of the facet joints.
- [Bob] Right, you can't extend or flex as well as rotate.
- [Brad] There you go.
- What you're gonna notice as when we do these stretches
that most of 'em are a way to rotate the thoracic spine.
That's why you're gonna stretch it.
So we're gonna bring a young guy in here.
A young gun.
This is Alex, he's the husband of Liz, the camera woman.
Give a little wave again.
Liz, give a little wave. - Liz, yeah.
- There ya' go, yeah. - Yeah.
- And you're gonna wanna see them on their channel.
They got a really cool channel
called the Family Product Channel
and we'll have a link down below.
They're funny, you know, Liz is good lookin',
so we got that goin' for him.
- Thanks for the free marketing, Bob.
- Yeah, there we go.
All right, number one, Alex is gonna get
in what we call the quadruped position,
meaning he's on his hands and on his knees.
Now he's gonna go ahead and stretch into rotation.
There we go, he's gonna drop one shoulder
and you can see.
Let this one come a little bit.
And up like that.
There you go.
So this looks easy but when I did it,
one side I could do and the other side
I literally could not do.
- [Brad] Well, it's because you're old, Bob.
- [Bob] I am old, but I also stretch the one side for golf.
- [Brad] Oh, well that's a good reason.
- [Bob] All right Alex, want to show the other way?
- [Brad] Yeah, there we go.
Now you can really.
I gotta cover you up, this is a family show.
- [Alex] Come on, Brad.
- [Brad] So right here, that thoracic spine
is really gettin' some rotation
and a nice stretch on it.
And how do you feel, Alex?
- [Alex] I feel a good stretch.
Definitely the first few reps I did.
I've done this a few times.
I felt more of a stretch right away.
- [Bob] You're startin' to loosen up now.
- [Alex] Yep, I'm all loosened up.
- [Bob] The pelvis, because it's locked in,
it can't rotate itself right now.
You know, with the way he's kneeling.
- Right, exactly.
- [Bob] OK Alex, let's do this next one.
This is kinda the tough one for ya', the pretzel.
So what he's gonna do, you start on your side,
he's grabbing the lower leg with his hand
and we're gonna get a bit of a quad stretch there.
He's grabbin' the other one there
and then he lowers this shoulder to the ground.
And again, so now we're getting a glute stretch,
you're gettin' a quad stretch
and you're stretchin' the back too at the same time.
- [Brad] I would call this the pretzel.
- [Bob] This is the pretzel, yep, yep, there we go.
- The right side of the mid-back,
that's where I'm feelin' it and the glute.
- [Brad] So right back here?
- Yep, right back there.
- [Bob] So let's flip once, try the other way.
So you're gonna get on the other side, there we go.
- Lotta moving parts here to think about.
- [Bob] Yep, yep.
Did that one feel about the same or?
- About the same, yeah.
- [Brad] OK, so it's important that his shoulders stay flat
while the pelvis rotates this way.
And that's where you get that rotation
in the thoracic spine stretch.
- [Bob] Yeah, again, especially if you're in a sport
where rotation is really critical, like golf.
- [Brad] Sure.
- [Bob] These are stretches you'll want to do
on a daily basis.
- [Brad] You bet.
- [Bob] The last one is the Iron Cross.
We need.
You wanna grab just a towel?
- [Brad] Pillow would work too, oh, sure.
- [Bob] All right, so you're gonna put a pillow
or a towel between the legs like this.
He's gonna bring it up, put your arms out like this
like they're on a cross.
Now this one, you're actually getting a stretch
but you're getting a little strengthening too.
- [Brad] Sure, a little core.
- [Bob] Yeah, a little core strengthening.
- [Brad] And you need to have the towel or the pillow
between the knees and that keeps the pelvis locked in.
- [Bob] Now you're stretchin' a little bit better.
Now when he first did this,
he could hardly go to the right at all
and even now,
I think there's still a difference, isn't there?
This one can almost take it down to the ground.
- [Brad] There you go, yeah.
- What do you recommend for holds there, boys?
- [Brad] I don't know,
I would start out at two to three seconds
if you're tight,
but you want to work up to probably 10 seconds.
- [Bob] Now look at that one, how high up he is.
He's still off the ground, so he definitely needs
to work on his left trunk rotation.
- [Brad] Sure.
- [Bob] He's tight on, so breathe Alex, breathe.
- That's right.
- [Bob] He's holdin' his breath like.
- Camera-shy.
- [Brad] But there ya' go, you can really see that pelvis
come up and without the knees bein' together
this will not be effective, right Bob?
- Right, exactly, so that's it.
A short video about what we wanted to show ya',
three quick stretches you can do.
Great one and Alex'll be hurtin' tomorrow,
but we don't mind.
Yeah, we don't mind, it doesn't bother us at all.
- Thank you. - Thanks for watchin'.
(upbeat music)