- All right, Brad and I
are going to give you five examples where
- [Brad] Five
you should never crack your back.
- Right? As a matter of fact, Bob
we're talking, oh, I'll wait
till after the introduction till we get more details.
- [Bob] Well, good for You
- Then get 'em suspended out there.
- Thanks
- (uptempo music) Bob and Brad
the two most famous
physical therapist's
on the internet.
- All right, number one Brad, if you have a herniated
or bulging disc cracking your back is not gonna help this.
It could make it worse.
- Yeah. As a matter of fact, you've probably had this too.
As a therapist, I've had a number of chiropractors
refer their patient
- [Bob] Right
- To the therapist when they know there's a bulging disc
- [Bob] It's not in their wheelhouse.
- Right. Cause they know it's,
it's more for us than them.
- Well, well, let's demonstrate
- [Brad] Absolutely Bob.
- What happens in a herniated disc.
- So we have, if we look at the spine, here's the pelvis
the buttox, the lumbar spine and typically a herniated disc.
- This goes on that side.
- Yep, Can you zoom right in
on that real close here's L four and here's L five.
Oftentimes it's either that level
or actually the one below doesn't matter
the mechanics are similar or the same.
So right there,
see that little red bulge?
We're gonna show you how that works.
And here's L five and this is L four, our model.
Okay, Bob, what do you say?
- Let's go for it.
- All Right. The disc is gonna be represented
by this squishy ball.
- [Bob] Squishy ball right
- Now, inside the disc, there's an annulus,
which is a tough fibrous material, that's flexible.
And inside there's a gel.
- Right
- The red represents the gel.
Now, here we go.
A healthy vertebra here.
And here's a healthy disc.
If you're running, it acts like a shock absorber.
- [Bob] Now the inside is actually the nucleus pulposus.
- Oh, Bob, you've been doing your homework.
- [Bob] Right
- [Brad] So we've got motion.
It allows motion.
But if that anulus or that outside layer gets weakened
the nucleus pulposa or the red stuff
in there can actually start to bulge out like that.
- [Bob] So if he's, the spine is like this,
if you bend forward,
- [Brad] Ooh that's way..
- [Bob} Way Forward
- The more you bend, the more you flex, get in that position
the more it wants to push out that herniated bulge,
which presses into
- [Bob] The nerve root
- [Brad] Right this is a little, unanatomically off
this is going right into the spine.
It should be out there like that.
I'm gonna help it to be more correct.
We don't like that.
Your body doesn't like that.
We wanna get that back in there where it belongs.
- [Bob] And Cracking is not gonna help that.
- Yeah exactly. It actually could
(bob makes a squishing sound)
- [Bob] Maybe make it worse.
- [Brad] Right, make it worse.
Yeah And we'll have none of that.
- [Bob] Right.
- So there you go, I thought that was kind of fun, Bob.
- [Bob] Very good.
If you get one of these, you can also go
like this and it's a very soothing for the mind.
- Oh, good for you, Brad.
- All right, carry on.
- All right, we happen to have an expert on this next one.
Spondylolisthesis. Ha.
- [Brad] It's a mouthful.
- Ha I said it wrong.
- We're not really sure
but I think it's pronounced spondylolisthesis.
but whatever
it's what we have here is a actual
- [Bob] A sample one.
- Yeah. We have a model here and I have a model in mine
cause I've had this diagnosed for about 12 years now.
One of the vertebra here
we have L four actually shifts
- [Bob] Shift forward
- Forward, and you can see this gap right here
is not supposed to be there.
The farther it shifts,
the worse off you are.
There's four grades, one through four.
Four's the worst.
One's the least mine's at about grade two.
Oftentimes the disc will actually
- [Bob] Deteriorate
- Deteriorate and mine is gone like this.
Hopefully the bones come together, but you do not want to go
to a chiropractor and have your back adjusted.
I tried it.
- [Bob] You wanna fuse your back
- It hurts, I told a chiropractor.
Don't do that again.
Sure. It hurt my back.
And he respected that.
- [Bob] Sure.
- So I, well Whatever
- We want your back to fuse naturally.
- And and we have exercises specifically on this
- To strengthen the muscles around it.
- Exactly, there's specific exercises that will help.
And it does, mine has been much better
in the last couple years.
- No crack.
- Yeah, don't crack the spondy.
- All right.
This is for somebody who has osteoporosis or osteopenia.
They shouldn't have their back cracked anyway.
- Nope, nope.
- But let's say you don't know you have it.
- Right.
- But you do know you have a compression fracture.
- Sure. Which will typically show up in x-rays
- [Bob] Right.
- Sometimes you gotta have it read by a radiologist.
- So I gotta borrow your imagination here.
We got three vertebra.
Let's say L three L four L five.
- [Brad] Yep.
- What happens is when you bend forward,
the muscle or the bone integrity isn't there.
So it actually, bends forward and it squeezes down
- [Brad] And it kind of
- Breaks
- [Brad] Crumbles.
- [Bob] Right.
- [Brad] It doesn't completely fall apart,
but it's very painful.
- Right. And there's no way
you want to crack something like this.
- No. And there's no chiropractor that's gonna, you know,
be responsible and irresponsible and do that.
- So osteoporosis, osteopenia, compression fracture, NO!
- Typically with older people, maybe 50
or 60 above at the younger, right?
- Number four, if you have spinal stenosis spread
this is generally 50 years and older.
And when you walk, you get pain down both legs.
- Sure.
- Or one leg, but it feels better
when you bend over, or sit down.
- Yep.
- So what is happening is if you look at a model here
the stenosis could be in the, one of the foramen here.
- Yeah, so where the peripheral nerve comes out
you can see one, two, three, four, every level,
there is one. That nerve goes in through a hole
which is known as the foramen.
When that foramen can get smaller for a number of reasons
- From arthritis or ligaments or.
- So it pinches that nerve causing pain
typically where the nerve goes down the leg,
when you bend forward, that opens the gap up.
- [Bob] Gap up.
- This model's too stiff to show it,
but you know it's opening cause it feels better.
- The other place, the stenosis can take place
is actually in the spinal canal,
that's where the spinal cord runs along.
So it could be narrowed down there.
And that's when you get pain down both legs.
- Right, it's better to have stenosis in the foramen
than in the canal.
- Right, right exactly if you have a choice.
- Yes, one way or another, we're not gonna start cracking
those backs.
- But again, you don't crack that back.
That's not gonna help.
- All right, the final diagnosis where you're never going to
crack your back is rheumatoid arthritis, Brad.
Because with rheumatoid arthritis, you're gonna have laxity
- [Brad] Or hyper mobility.
- [Bob] Right.
- The bones, the vertebrae, are actually too loose already.
- [Bob] Yep. They're held together by ligaments
and muscles and the ligaments are not doing their job.
So instead of, you know, yeah.
A tight fit like this
they're gonna move around a lot more than they should.
- [Brad] Right.
- And if you crack your back
you could actually injure your spinal cord
- [Brad] Right? Yeah. It's loose
- [Bob] Or your neck.
- Typically you're gonna mobilize manipulate the spine
when you wanna actually increase motion.
- [Bob] Right.
- There's too much motion.
- [Bob] There's too much motion already.
You're never gonna want to crack that back.
- All right, Bob, is there anything else we wanna?
- [Bob] No.
- That's fine.
- We can fix about anything except what Brad?
- A broken heart, but I'm thinking this little stress ball
is gonna help you just start playing
with this on a daily basis.
It feels good, Bob.
- Yeah, it does.
- You wanna try it? Give it a go.
- That's okay.