♪ 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 together we're the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- In our opinion, of course.
- Today we're gonna talk about tool number three
to help you with your back pain.
We're on level one of this program,
back program. - Yeah.
And it's the easiest level
and the least involvement in most activities.
What is a tool Brad?
- A tool, something that's gonna allow your back
to feel better, get you in control of your pain
so you can get to the next level.
- Yeah, we're not talking about physical object.
We're talking about stretches,
we're talking about strengthening,
we're talking about positioning.
- Right. - Some tip maybe.
And today, we're talking about tightening your core.
- Yes. - This is really helpful,
believe it or not. It really comes in handy
with those people who are shakers
and they have an unstable spine.
- Mm-hmm. - So when you're lying down
in bed and you wanna get up in the morning
and it hurts to do so... - Yep.
- You wanna try this.
So Brad, why don't you lay down and,
lie down and we'll try this first.
- Yeah. So if your core, if your back is unstable,
movement or twisting irritates it.
If you were to put a back belt on, it would probably
feel better. - Right.
- But you don't like to sleep with a back belt on.
- Exactly. Plus your abs will get weak.
- Right. So you simply use the back belt that's your,
that's built in and you use your muscle.
- Nature's (indistinct) back belt, yep.
- Yep.
- So Brad decides he's gonna get outta bed, finally.
So what he's gonna first do,
normally he would just- - Right.
- Curl up, right Brad?
- Yep. There's two ways a lot of people,
they'll curl up like this. - Right.
- Or they'll just kinda roll over
and twist around to get up. - Yeah.
- Both waves can create pain and that's sometimes
that sharp pain that takes your breath away.
- Yes. So, so you want to tighten up first, Brad.
- Tighten up here, thinking about my core as being,
in the therapy world, a lot of therapists call it
log rolling, 'cause everything's gonna move together
as a unit.
- So Brad, when you tighten up,
you can tell you're tightening up by, yeah.
You trying to poke your fingers in there
and it's not like you're sucking your gut in,
but you're tightening.
- Right. And also, we always say, "Poke in on the sides,"
'cause if you get the muscles on the sides to tighten up,
then you know you got a good, complete core tightening.
Ready? - Yep.
- So I'm tightening and now I'm gonna roll over.
- Roll in one as a log. - Yep.
And I'm gonna talk funny, 'cause I got my core tight.
- Yep. - And over to here,
my feet, my knees go off the edge of the bed first
and then my feet, I'm gonna.
- And he's tightening the whole time.
- That right there, pushing there and go up like this.
Nice and take your time.
And after you do this a while,
you can do it a little faster
as your back gets better
and it'll be more of a habit.
- Now, well I like this Brad
because it shows you that you can take control
of your life and stop the pain when you need to.
- Right. - So I had a patient who,
this was one of his big problems was getting
out bed in the morning and it really hurt a lot.
- Sure. - And he did it,
he was, again, amazed...
I'm sorry, I'm telling the story, Mike.
But he was amazed that his pain went away.
- Right. And he did the same technique
that I just demonstrated?
- Yes. - Mm-hmm.
- So a little higher level,
I do this when I'm shoveling snow.
- Sure. - And I didn't do it for,
well we had a lot snow that, two years ago
I think it was? - Nobody cares about it.
Yeah. And I was, my back was starting to hurt.
- Yeah. - So I started tightening...
- Yep. - Every time I was shovel.
- Oh yeah. - And my gosh,
what a difference it made.
- Right, you're just, and then you're, you know,
you're more aware of your posture,
you're tighten things up
and put that all together and there you go.
- Let me tell you something,
when, when the therapists discover something
that works for them, that's when they become advocates
for them, so.
- They get a little more excited about it.
- Another time, Brad, I think when people try to get
up outta chair quite often... - Mm-hmm.
- They're flexing their back
and rounding out and good time to try the tightening,
the stomach is actually-
- Yeah. And instead of doing this...
- Yeah. - Which may be a habit,
you're gonna... - Keep it straight.
- Slide your butt to the edge.
- And tighten that abdomen.
- Yeah. And then go straight up, tight abdomen.
That's a big difference between that and this.
- Yes. So whatever you do in life,
I don't care if we're doing dishes,
I don't care if you're taking an engine out of a car,
I mean tighten up your abdomen.
- Yeah, yeah. Just one of those simple things
that can make a big difference.
- All right. Give it a try.
- Good luck with those backs, abdomens and core.
Tool number what, three?
- I think we're at three. - Three.
(gentle music)