♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet. ♪
- Hi folks.
I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapists
- Brad Heineck, physical therapists.
- Together we are the most famous physical therapist
on the internet.
- In our opinion, of course, Bob.
- Today we're gonna show you how to apply traction
decompression to the neck
or a pinched nerve with a mechanical home treatment device.
We've already shown you how to do it manually.
- Mm-hm.
- We've also shown how to do it
with one of the less expensive over the door units.
- Yup.
- But this one, this is a really nice unit.
If you're gonna be doing traction ongoing
for a long time,
you probably want to invest in a unit like this.
- Right, they are expensive,
but these, you can do all by yourself.
You can do it safely.
They're comfortable.
And there good.
Saunders made it.
He uses a physical therapist.
- Yeah.
Having said that, Brad, though,
we would recommend that you try this with a therapist first.
- Right.
- First off they're 350 bucks.
- Right.
- So you wanna make sure it's gonna help.
A therapist will take you through it.
Make sure you're doing it correctly.
The purpose of this video
is to really just have a sheet to help.
A sheet and also a guidelines on how to do it.
After you've been shown.
- Right.
- It can reinforce it. - Or you could look at this
prior to working with a therapist.
Then you know what you're getting into.
- You can even ask the therapist
if that's what you'd like to do.
So it's basically, you're gonna first want to determine
whether or not you need traction.
- Sure.
- And we've done this on the other videos
but the first thing you can do
is you're gonna actually do compression on your neck once.
On your head to see if that makes your symptoms worse.
- Sit up with good posture, push straight down,
with your ears over your shoulders.
Push down and just see.
Does that make the pain worse?
- Yeah, you can do it with two hands
or you can interlock your fingers
and just yeah, push down.
Does that make your symptoms down your arm worse?
- Right.
- For a pinched nerve or any of your symptoms worse.
- Right.
- Then it's a sign that compression makes worse.
Now does decompression make it better?
So you get a hook.
If you look on Sam here again.
There we go.
Mike can, ya?
Forget about Gumby.
There's these two bumps right here.
Y'all got 'em.
- [Brad] They're right behind the ear.
- Right behind the ear.
You're gonna take your palm.
The meaty part of the palm.
Ya got one side, another side.
Right between those two meaty parts,
you're gonna hook onto that bump.
You're gonna do that on both sides
and you can cup your ears
and you're gonna pull straight up with your fingers.
- And because of the mic on us.
- Mic, yeah, we're having trouble.
- I'm a little higher, but I should be down.
Feel those bumps.
And we're just gonna go straight up.
If that feels like a good pressure, that's a good sign
that traction like this can be a good option for you.
- So that's just a quick guideline
to determine whether it's even worth the trial.
- Sure.
- So once you're ready to go,
Again, we like the Saunders units.
Only, I guess I haven't tried the other ones.
I'm sure there's other ones that are good out there.
- Right. Yeah.
- But this one's easy use.
They recommend that your neck
normally be like in 15 to 20 degrees of flexion
when you're having the traction done.
And that's where, it is about set there right now.
- [Brad] That's the beauty of a Saunders.
It's preset for that.
- [Bob] Yeah. It can go higher.
It's down this way right, Brad? (laughing)
- [Brad] Bob, you're all thumbs.
It's easy to go. Most people can do this easy.
- [Bob] Ah, there we go.
- [Brad] There you go. (metal clicking)
It's just gotta click in.
- [Bob] Yeah. All right.
- And they have a real nice comprehensive instruction book
in different languages.
- Sure.
- And they go through this adjustment as well.
- Easier to put down.
- You know, once you get used to it.
- Sure.
- but once you set,
it stays at the same place typically.
- So normally the guidelines are,
you're gonna try it the first day.
The first session, you could do maybe three to five minutes.
Stop immediately if there's pain.
- Yup. - Increased pain.
You're looking for the pain.
Especially if you have pain going on the arm,
you're looking for the arm pain to get better first
or the hand pain.
- Yup.
- You'd like to see it almost travel up.
Like it gets better and better as it goes up.
- Yup.
- If it gets worse in the arm
and better than the neck that's a bad sign.
- Right. It's no good.
- Things gotta get better down here first.
So you're gonna do the first session,
three to five minutes.
You're gonna do maybe up to 10 pounds
and Brad will be showing you on this.
How to determine how much weight you have on there.
- Sure.
- If that works out okay,
the next day you can actually go up to 15, 20 minutes
and you can do it a couple of times a day.
You can do it three times a day, if you want
and you can go up to 30 pounds.
They recommend like 24 to 30 pounds.
If you want to decrease the symptoms.
But as Brad says in the past here,
he said, he goes by symptoms.
I mean if 15 pounds takes-
- If the arm pain goes away at 15 pounds.
- Yeah, why take it higher?
- Right.
Again, you'll see your therapist.
They'll go through these.
Everyone has a little bit different take on this.
- Yes.
- So we're giving you some good general guidelines.
- All right, I'll take my mic off, Brad.
- Yes. - And then you go ahead and
get this thing ready and start talking about it.
- So what we have here is a pneumatic
or air controlled cylinder,
which there's a hand pump here.
And you'll watch,
zoom in on this Mike
and we'll see how, oops, got it on hold.
There we go.
These go on those same bones.
These cushioned supports go on those same bones.
You'll see, as Bob gets into it.
This strap goes over the forehead.
It does not go tight.
It just basically lays there.
And then when we're done,
we adjust this for a release
and you can see how it releases the pressure.
There's adjustment thumbscrews here.
Thumb knobs that adjust it so it's comfortable
on the back of your head.
You ready, Bob?
- Yup. I'm ready.
- Okay. we'll okay, this way.
Okay, so Bob can talk, but we will not hear him.
Yeah. Loose collar, no jewelry, no glasses.
Take all that off.
You don't want to have any restrictions.
Now again, I'll have the patient do the pumping,
'cause they have to do it at home anyways.
I may start doing it.
So there, you feel that Bob?
- Mm-hm.
- All right.
And we'll release it.
It's going to go back down.
This goes over the forehead again.
You don't have to,
it's not a tight strap, it's just to keep things
so Bob stays relaxed there.
I've got this set.
Okay. Bob, why don't you,
I know you probably have your glasses off
so it's kind of hard to read that
if you have 60 year old eyes or if like mine 58.
- Oh, I got through.
- Yeah. So we've got, you turn it right here.
This is the controls.
So we'll put it on pump.
There you go.
Yeah. So you can see it coming this way,
putting traction.
Bob, if it feels good I want you to keep goin'
but don't go past 10 pounds to start with.
- That's 10 ponds right there.
- Right there. Okay. - I'll put it on hold.
- Yup. Then put it on hold and then that locks it.
And you just lay there and relax.
And I'll talk to the patient
and I'll ask questions.
Like, are the pain or the symptoms
in the arm getting better or worse?
What's the location?
Do you feel it below the wrist?
Above the wrist?
If it started out going all the way down into the hand
my next question is, do you feel it in the hand?
If Bob says, "No, it feels good in the hand.
"I don't even feel it to the elbow.
"It's just up in the arm."
That's a really good sign.
And as well, we want to monitor
what's going on with the neck.
It should feel the same or hopefully a little bit better.
If the neck feels a little bit worse
but it's feeling much better on the arm.
That's good.
If the neck is feeling better
but it's making the arm get worse,
particularly going down the arm, that's a red flag.
It's time to stop and readjust and try it again
or just leave it alone
and then come back to it the next visit to the therapist.
If you feel that at home
and the arm's getting better, you need to stop.
It's not the right thing.
They're nerve is actually getting pinched worse
for whatever reason.
Anything else, Bob?
(Bob grunting)
(both laughing)
So it is something like we mentioned,
it works very well once you get used to it.
You can do this very comfortably.
I've had patients.
I had one patient.
He, at that time it was years ago.
It was $500 for it.
And it worked so well with him.
His insurance didn't pay.
He did buy it and he used it on a regular basis.
- This video, by the way, - Oh yeah.
- is a part of a series of videos on neck pain
which you can find at bobandbrad.com.
Go to the program section
and look for neck pain.
You're gonna find multiple videos there.
Watch the ones that pertain to you.
- Right.
So you'll do that.
The titles will be fairly clear.
You can watch that
and then you'll see, there's also a PDF printout
which gives a review on paper.
You can get it printed out
and the exercises that we recommend.
And we don't have exercises on this one.
- It'll have the list for ya.
- Right and the beauty of this whole thing
is you can do all this, print it out
and there's absolutely no cost.
Not even an email request.
- Right.
This is our gift to you for Bob and Brad.
(upbeat music)