♪ Bob and Brad, the two most famous ♪
♪ physical therapists on the internet ♪
- Yeah, yeah.
Pain management.
(clapping)
- Oh, hi folks.
I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- And we are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- Well, in our opinion, of course, Bob.
- Yeah, fake it 'til you make it.
Today, we're talking about nine pain management tips
you may not know.
And plus, we're doing a giveaway.
This is one of those great days
where we're doing a giveaway.
- It's a double-header.
- If you are new to our channel,
please take a second to subscribe to us.
We provide videos on how to stay healthy, pain-free.
And we upload every day.
Also, yes, you wanna go to BobandBrad.com
because right now we're starting a contest
again to give away a SleepOvation mattress.
And we're actually gonna mention the mattress today, too.
- Oh, good.
- So also, you can find us on Instagram and Twitter,
a 60 second version of our program.
Go to Facebook and you'll find the contest
also pinned to the top of the page there.
- You say that spiel like you've said it before.
- A few times, few hundred times.
All right, now we're not going to go into detail
on these nine.
It just makes too long a video
and we've done some of these things in other videos.
- Right.
- So if you want to look it up,
put Bob and Brad and put the topic,
and you'll find more about it.
- Sure.
- Number one: breathing.
This is really important.
I've told this story before,
but my wife and I have three children.
The first child, I don't know what, for whatever reason,
we didn't believe in Lamaze breathing and training.
- Well you guys were busy.
- Oh well, you're young, stupid.
- Sure.
- Anyways so we have the first child,
and my wife goes through a 24 hour labor,
and it was awful and painful.
- It was your fault.
- It was my fault, and I took the blame,
but on the second time we were around,
we bought in to the breathing,
and wow, what a difference.
and I think we find out that people,
if they control their breathing,
they control their stress,
and they control their pain.
- And you can just think better.
It allows you to relax.
- So there's four-square breathing,
where you breathe in for four seconds,
hold for four seconds,
let it out for four seconds,
and hold it for another four seconds.
- Then you're back to where you started.
- You're back to where you started.
- And there's four-seven-eight,
where you breathe in for four, hold for seven,
and then let it out for eight.
Look those up.
They all work really well.
- Yeah.
- I use them a lot.
Number two: if you're having chronic pain,
without a doubt, I think you should take up meditation.
- Sure.
- I really do.
I think that could be one of your most successful tools
for helping you, manage it, manage pain.
- Which, with meditation, you focus a lot on
your breathing, as well. - On breathing, yes.
- So, these things work together.
- Yeah, you're gonna kinda knock off two on the list
just by doing meditation.
- Sure, so it's something.
Do you have some recommendations
on how to learn how to meditate?
- No, there's apps on it and stuff.
I'm not an expert on it.
I know there's different types.
I think there's two main types.
- It's easy to find.
- Yeah, it's easy to find.
We're not experts on it, so.
Number three: sleep positions.
You know, it's really important.
One of the things is to get a good night's sleep.
- Oh yeah.
- To battle pain.
If you don't, that alone can up your pain levels.
- Oh, right, right.
- So we have a lot of
videos where we show pillows, positioning,
on how to position yourself.
Put yourself in pain-free positions.
- And this is something we are experts in.
This is what we
do for our job. - And this is something,
right, and we have quite a few of those.
But also, we are gonna recommend that this mattress here,
this SleepOvation mattress.
In my opinion, this is my humble opinion,
this is the best pain management mattress out there.
Pain-free wouldn't you say, Brad?
- Well, it really is--
- That we know.
- Right, it's done wonders for my back,
with spondylolisthesis,
I am in heaven laying on this, particularly on my back.
It's got the memory foam,
it's got the coil springs,
and it's the best of both worlds.
- Well, it's got the separate cushions, too.
- Right, exactly.
- Which really separates it out.
So I don't want to go too much into this.
Here, you have a chance to win one for free.
If you don't, you can use the link below,
and you get a percentage off if you use that link.
But, Brad, do you want to show the pillow, also, too?
Because they're gonna give away one of the pillows, too.
And I'll get this out of the way.
- So they have a pillow with a similar concept,
as far as, it actually has springs in the pillows.
And it's got the individual cells with that,
and that's not the 700 like the mattress,
but there is a number of them.
They're the same shape.
This is not a full pillow.
It's only a cutaway, so you can see,
there's the mattress.
The neat thing about this is, the springs in here.
When I thought, springs in a pillow,
it's like, no way you're gonna feel that,
but when it's all together, you cannot tell there's--
- You can't tell there's springs in there.
- You can't.
It folds over nice, if you wanna double it up.
It works just like a real pillow,
But the springs allow for more airflow.
And it's not as warm.
- So I think it's a cooler pillow
than you would get maybe with memory foam.
- Right.
- Number four: exercise.
Exercise is so important for pain management.
And help you get those endorphins,
and increased oxygen, and increased blood flow.
And I know for many of you, what you're saying,
"Well, I'm in pain, how can I exercise?"
This is where you gotta make small goals,
and break it into small components,
but like let's say one day,
you're gonna walk ten feet.
You know? - Sure.
- Next day, 20 feet.
I mean, make it into breakable parts that you can manage.
Break them apart, break it up.
- Or it may be what type of exercise.
I've had people that,
if a pool is an option, that, oftentimes,
you can get a lot of better quality exercise in water,
that you could never do
on land. - Excellent.
Excellent idea, Brad, because--
- Or like a walking elliptical versus a treadmill.
Completely different, not completely, but very different--
- Right, less weight-bearing,
can be a lot easier on your knees,
or it might be worse on your knees.
Who knows?
I mean, you gotta find out.
Don't give up on it just because,
yeah, I'm sure you haven't tried everything.
So, find something small that you can do,
and work your way up.
You're gonna feel better about yourself, too.
- Right. - You know?
- Yep, for sure.
- Number five: healthy diet,
and I know a lot of you who maybe not feel familiar
with this area of nutrition,
but food is medicine, basically,
and it definitely has some.
There's medicine, or medicine, there's food
that is anti-inflammatory.
- Right, right.
- And Brad, you just experienced this with your hand.
- Oh, right.
- Do you wanna tell that story?
- Right, two years ago,
hand stiffness in the morning, incredible.
So I couldn't even make a fist,
and I'm sure there's a lot of people.
I'm not the only one.
It's pretty common, as you get older,
and after a couple or about an hour
of working it, it would go away, but it--
- This went on for two years.
- Right, it actually go to the point where,
my right hand, when I'd start shaking people's hands,
it hurt, it's like, this is really getting depressing,
and went out on a whim,
and I took a real conservative diet change,
just apple cider vinegar. - Apple cider vinegar.
- Two tablespoons every day,
and after about two weeks, I start noticing improvement,
and now it's been about five to six weeks.
I don't know exactly.
And much--
- With the mother. Apple cider vinegar
with the mother. - Yeah, you can look
at our video with that.
But anyways, it's just an example.
It's one of those things, I had nothing to lose,
and only to gain.
And it's been wonderful.
- My wife, she dropped her blood pressure using flax seed,
and that was the only thing that she changed,
and we did a video on that, too.
So I mean, it's amazing what food can do.
Number six: avoid pain makers.
We're gonna be doing a whole series of videos on this,
for the back, actually. - Oh, yes.
You know, if you,
I'm just gonna give you one example,
if you tend, on a daily basis,
to sit in a slumped position,
that can be a pain maker.
That can cause pain in your back.
And you're gonna find these triggers
that you're doing throughout the day,
and it's just always firing up your pain,
and it never calms down.
Which actually leads us, I'm gonna go to number eight,
actually, I'm gonna skip right now, Brad.
It increases the sensitivity of your nerves.
So we want to try to decrease
the sensitivity of your nerves.
A lot of people who have chronic pain,
their nerves have got so sensitive,
they're firing off at even the slightest provocation.
It hardly takes anything for them to--
- Right, I know one person,
just tapping her on the shoulder
creates an excessive amount of pain,
which normally wouldn't.
What are you looking for, Bob?
- Well, where did I put my book that I brought over here?
- I think he's lost.
- The pain, on pain, with Louw.
- It was right here.
- Yeah.
- Oh my goodness a black hole.
- We can talk about it, but anyway,
what they have found is that you can actually decrease
the sensitivity of nerves through education.
Just by understanding that,
'cause a lot of times people, they have pain, they go,
"I must have something really wrong with me."
I mean, you know, and the fact is,
no, it may just be that your nerves are hypersensitive.
- Sure.
- So there's a series of books by Adriaan Louw,
A-D-R-I-A-A-N, unusual way of spelling it,
L-O-U-W.
And you found it!
- 'Cause I put it there.
- Because you put it there, yeah.
So, again, he's got a whole series of books,
but this one is, "Why Are My Nerves So Sensitive?"
Mike's getting in on it.
Neuroscience Education for patients with CRPS or RSD.
So it has some other authors, too.
He often couples up with other people.
Real simple books.
They're made for the layperson.
And they have seen some studies on it,
where just by educating themselves, the pain--
- Pain level drops down.
- Number seven: using heat or cold.
I know that's a basic one, but sometimes both.
We recommend contrast baths, sometimes, for your hands.
Where you actually start off,
I'm not gonna go into detail, again.
Just look it up: contrast baths.
But you put you hand in warm water, or hot water,
for five minutes, then cold water for a minute,
then one minute, one minute, back and forth.
You go back and forth.
Number nine, this is one you might never have seen.
This is mirror therapy.
This is interesting.
This is again, you're kinda trying to trick the mind.
So I'm gonna put this right here, Brad.
You can do this on your legs.
You can do this on your arms.
Let's say this is my painful arm.
So my brain thinks that, or my brain knows
that the right arm is painful.
So I put this hand out here.
Can you see both, Mike?
Can you see my hand and the mirror hand?
Okay, and you see yourself!
(laughs)
There's Mike.
- Oh my God.
- So what we're doing here is,
I'm gonna go ahead and move my non-painful hand,
and I'm gonna see my right arm,
what appears to be my right arm, moving,
and right hand, and it's not painful.
So my brain is going, "well, wait a minute,
my hand is no longer painful,"
and again, I'm not an expert at mirror therapy,
we've just kinda touched up on it,
but you can look it up and you can see the protocols
that they've been using.
You can do it with your hand, your feet, yep.
I don't know if you could do it with your face.
(laughs)
I don't think that would work, but anyway,
it's something to consider.
Again, it's all about 100% of your pain
is produced by your brain.
So if you can trick your brain,
sometimes you can trick the pain into going away.
- Exactly.
- All right, anything else, Brad, you want to add?
- No, Bob, I think again,
we've covered a lot of ground in a short period of time.
- Yeah, nothing in great detail,
you're gonna have to look it up.
Yeah, we have a lot of videos on these topics.
You can look them up.
Just look up "Bob and Brad" and look up the topic,
and then a lot of them will pop up.
Remember, Brad and I can fix just about anything.
- Except for--
- A broken heart.
- But we are continuing to work on that,
and we will continue to do so,
until we come up with an answer.
- Right, yeah.
- It might be a while, Bob.
(laughs)
I'm already gray, so if it's falling off,
I might be bald by that time.
(laughs)
- I'll be with you.