- Okay, today Brad, and I gonna show how the hang
and twist might help your back pain.
- This is not the peppermint twist.
- It's not the twist and shout.
- Okay.
♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ the two most famous physical therapists on the internet. ♪
- Okay. First off, I wanna say Brad
that we like the hanging handles, because it
allows you to keep your back flat against the wall.
However, if you don't have hanging handles
you have a pull bar or rafter.
We can have you first try that.
- Right.
- To see if the decompression helps your back pain.
- Right.
- So basically what we're trying to do
is lengthen the spine.
So if you take your end, Brad.
- Oh, yeah yeah.
- And I take my end and.
- So here's the head and hanging, you're hanging
up here and I'm gonna support the upper back.
- Right. - As it might like my arms do,
- The weight of his legs will actually pull a bit
and hopefully separate the, the vertebrae just minutely.
- Right. We're just decompressing it,
just enough to get some more circulation
and inhibition perhaps even that.
- By, so yeah, at the end, we'll go over
which back injuries this might help.
- Say no more.
- All right, Brad, why don't you demonstrate first?
Just straight decompression.
- Right? So this is what we're talking about
against the wall, or if you have a pull-up bar
you have to be able to grab the handles
and still have no force to your back.
- Right.
- Because you want to go slowly as I
you can see I'm bending my knees slowly, putting traction
or force, the decompression through my spine.
- Relaxing the admin.
- Yep. - Yep.
- Yep. Right there.
And that can be a little difficult for some people.
- This brings us to the first rule Brad, no pain.
Absolutely no pain, should feel better.
- Yeah, and right now mine feels better.
So the wall actually acts
as a little friction and a reminder to keep straight.
And if you're touching with your butt
and your shoulders, you know, in your head, you know
your spine is neutral and good.
- All right.
If that feels good for a couple days.
- Oh yes.
- Why don't you try the twist Brad?
- Okay now I'm still not full weight bearing,
I still have 50 to 75%.
And I'm gonna do the twist with my toes on the floor
because I'm not ready for it yet.
We'll just make that up, and I'm gonna rotate this way
- Just to the right.
- Yep. And if, ow of that hurts,
then I'm not doing that anymore.
- That's right.
- Go to the left.
- Absolutely, pain be your guide.
- Yep. Now, if it hurts to the left too, well
you wouldn't go that way either.
- Right.
- You're just hang as long as that feels good.
- Right.
- But let's say this is pretty common.
One way maybe uncomfortable, but the other way eh it's okay.
So then you'll just go to the comfortable way.
Always keeping pain at, should feel good.
- At bay, right.
Keep it at bay and the more you do it, if it feels better
you're doing good.
If it happens to get worse
the more you do it, you're gonna stop and take a break.
- And then eventually you might go revisit going
to the right.
- Yep, and oftentimes after you loosen it
up to the left, that painful right will become
less painful and more mobile.
And so you just work with it slowly.
And this may not happen in one, at one visit it may come,
you're doing this maybe for a few days before you get that
but you have to follow the rules
of it must make it feel better.
- And you may never get
to the point of taking full weight on the arms.
- Right. Right, yep, and that's okay.
- That's okay.
- As long as it is feeling better.
And then also make sure it feels good while you're doing it
but then get up and walk around
and make sure it feels good afterwards.
'Cause sometimes that can be a problem, now usually not.
- Brad has spondylolisthesis.
- Yeah. It's a mouthful.
- So what do you do for it Brad?
- Yeah. And I think people
with stenosis in the lumbar spine may find this helpful.
- I like this one too.
- Just put a stool in front of you.
This one happens to have two levels, which is very handy.
I'm gonna go down to this level
- Again, this where the wall comes in handy.
- Yep. Now, if I do push my butt to the wall
it extends my back, and after a while it's not comfortable.
But if I go the other direction and I do this
it actually flexes the lumbar spine, that feels better,
and actually for me, this even feels better yet.
- Sure
- So when I do this at home, I do bring my
my back forward like this.
I don't always use a stool
because I don't need quite that much.
A lot of times the way it's set up in my basement
I don't need that, but oh, it feels really good now.
- So this might give you relief for 20 minutes.
It will allow you to walk, which you normally can't
because you have too much pain.
- Right, yep. Again, work this with just how it feels
and what you do afterwards.
So if you can walk for a time afterwards
on a flat surface, not uphills or.
- Good practice
- Not out in the, the barn yard or whatever.
- Okay. Well talk about the types of back pain
this might help out.
- Oh. Yes.
- All right, the first thing that might help is if you have
sciatica where you have a disc problem.
- Yes.
- So you have a disc that's actually bulging out,
- I have the pointer - Pushing out on the nerve.
- Yep. Right there.
- Right, so by pulling the bones apart
you can actually get a centripetal force bend
- Centripetal?
- Yes. And you can actually suck the disc in what
- What book were you reading?
- Right? No, that was years ago I read that.
- Okay, I'd call it a vacuum
but whatever, the bulge goes in and gets away
and decompresses that spinal nerve taking the sciatica away.
- Right. And the twisting might help readjust the disc.
- Yep, and it can open up
that framing or the hole where the nerve goes through.
- But again, follow the guidelines, no pain
no increased pain, no increased leg pain.
- Yep. Should feel better.
- All right the other thing this might help is
if you have osteoarthritis, because you're putting pressure
on the joints that can jam together and by spreading apart
you might give some relief to those joints.
- Right. A lot of people aren't aware of, but there's two
facet joints at each vertebra level.
- Right.
- And that's where the arthritis is,
- Lots of joints.
- And this separates those.
- Right.
- Is there one more? - No, there's two more.
Yours. - Oh yeah, spondylolisthesis.
This is something.
- (indistinct)
- Yep. Again, I think
with spondy it's gonna be some people's gonna help
and some people not, depending.
- Same with spinal stenosis
- Right? Yeah.
So again, follow the rules that may do wonder
for you may not be ready for it.
- And the final thing. - Oh yes.
- Is possibly, if you have really bad posture
this is gonna help straighten you out somewhat.
And it's a good thing to do throughout today.
If you have a pair of hanging handles in your office
you can actually straighten out,
and you actually can reduce your pain.
- Well you can put 'em in your bedroom.
- I did. - You did.
(laughs)
Mine are in the basement, but yeah.
Also, actually what we learned is from yeah.
(laughs)
Just put 'em all over the house.
Yeah. They're good for the shoulders as well.
- Right. - That's another video.
- Yeah but we do have some videos on hanging
for the shoulders so.
- All right.
That wraps up, right, Brad?
- Well I really wanna say this, Bob.
- Okay. - So don't go away yet.
I really wanna say you can't go wrong with hanging.
- That's right? - Yeah. You can't go wrong.
So just be careful though, and.
- Hang in, twist.
- We digress 'cause, cut her off, cut her off.
Cut her off Tanner.