♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet. ♪
- Hi folks!
I'm Bob Schrupp,
physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck,
physical therapist.
- Together, we are the most famous
physical therapsits on the internet.
- In our opinion of course, Bob.
- Brad says he has things under control here.
So I believe him.
Today, we're gonna talk about
the secrets to driving without
back, neck or sciatic pain.
That's a lot of things you're covering there, Brad!
You're pretty confident!
- Yep, it all connects Bob.
It's going to be explained briefly.
- Alright!
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Wow, that's pretty fancy.
Especially, Bob and Brad dot com
that gets us on social media.
That's a website.
- Yeah.
- Go to giveaways under there
because we're always giving away something.
Today we are giving away the
pelvic rocker.
This is great for doing abdominal workout.
Actually, if you have back pain
it can support your back while you're doing it.
- Right. You'd better believe it!
- It's got other reasons
it works out too.
Go to Bob and Brad also
at Facebook.
The Facebook.
- Right, the Facebook.
And then click on the little thing up there.
- You don't even know what you're talking about.
He's so -
- Bob, I'm focusing here!
- Alright, let's go!
- Okay, so, car seat.
Posture in your car seat.
I'm telling ya,
I cannot tell you how many
patients I've had that have back pain,
sciatica, neck, shoulder pain and
often times their car is a part of the problem,
contributes to it,
or all of the problem.
- Right!
It's a big deal
because most of us have to drive
and some of us have to drive a
fair amount of distance.
- Right, right.
- You're not only dealing with posture
but you're also getting shock absorption.
- Right!
- Which is putting additional stress on your spine
and neck.
- Especially on the roads in Wisconsin!
- Yeah, especially right now, right!
- Alright, so seated posture.
We've got five areas to go over.
We want to go over them quickly,
because we don't want our
people to get bored.
Seated posture,
first thing is
the seat pan, I call this.
Some cars have a big hole.
This one kind of does.
If it has a deep hole,
because it's either worn out
or that's the way it's manufactured
often times you have to fill that in
so you're not sitting down in a hole.
'Cause that rounds your back out.
Now, this one for me
this is actually a seat right out of my van.
All four seats are the same.
This pops right out.
This is fine for me,
but this is a donut that
I used to use
when I'd drive my brother's truck, hauling stuff.
- 'Cause it sunk down so much?
- Yes!
And you said your wife uses one of these?
- My wife's using it.
Not because of hemmeroids
she'll want to make sure I'm clear on that.
She has a high hamstring problem.
- Why, Bob, why?
- But anyway, she couldn't sit without it.
It was so uncomfortable.
I think she might be over that now.
Yeah, it fills in the gap
doesn't it?
- Right.
Immediately, actually this does
feel a little bit better.
Maybe I should use one of these!
I want to work with that.
And then, also the next thing
and probably more commonly -
- Brad, can I make one more comment
about that?
I used to work up in the city's clinic for a short while
and the bus drivers there
would always lean forward
to take tickets and stuff like that.
I don't know if they even do that anymore, reach -
The right side of the seat
would wear down
so we'd actually have to build up that side.
- Oh, sure, yeah!
- So if you have any uneven thing,
you might have to build it up too.
- There you go!
Good point, Bob!
- Alright!
- So then the back rest.
Lumbar support is probably
the biggest problem with the seat.
Often times they don't have it
or people don't use it
or it's wore out.
Or you have sciatica
and you may need more.
So this is probably our
favorite lumbar support.
The Mackenzie lumbar support.
They come in different shapes.
You're gonna use this
and they always have this strap for car seats
it's made to go around so it stays there.
There you go.
- Now, some seats come with
a built in lumbar support, right Brad?
- You bet.
- And they may not even realize it.
It's on the side.
- Right.
- But sometimes the problem with that
it's not the right height.
- Right.
So you have to adjust it up and down
until it feels right.
I can tell you right now
this is a little big for me.
I would need a bit little smaller one
and they make about six different varieties of size
and density of the foam.
- That's why Brad and I often recommend
when you first start off
maybe you just want to take a rolled towel
and try it.
That way you can try different thicknesses.
- Yep.
- See which one tends to work out for you.
Then once you decide that
then maybe try buying one that's similar in size.
- Right.
Here's another cushion
that I've already used on the bottom.
You can use a pillow.
You don't have to go out and buy something
right away.
- Maybe a throw pillow.
- Alright, so let's get rid of that.
Here's another sample of a
lumbar support.
This is actually my support that I use.
If you have -
- Spondylolisthesis.
- Yep. Or -
- Spinal stenosis.
- Stenosis.
I drove a lot this last weekend
and with this in this particular seat
I was a happy person.
750 miles, I was happy!
- Wow!
But you really want to be careful here.
It is very personal.
I don't like this one.
- Right.
- I like this in an office chair.
I don't like it in my car seat at all.
- Sure.
- It's not like we're advocating a certain type.
You have to experiment.
- It's an individual thing.
- Right.
- The next thing,
most cars have something called a
dead pedal.
- And we didn't know that's what it was called.
- Right, one of our viewers said
it's called a dead pedal and that's
on your left side
if you're in America and driving
on the right side of the road.
- Right.
- Your gas pedals over here
the opposite side.
This isn't exactly what they look like.
Bob, can you hold your foot there?
- Sure!
- There's a little,
they call it dead pedal.
You can put your foot there
in a space so that you can
push your bottom back into the seat,
and that makes a big difference
on your pelvis position,
which makes a big difference
on your back.
- And it keeps your back
in position.
So you're not sliding forward.
You keep your foot there basically.
- Right.
Every five or ten minutes or whatever
you push yourself back,
in case you scooted forward
with the vibration of the car,
hitting bumps, whatever.
- It makes sense it's a dead pedal
because it doesn't do anything, right?
- Right.
It's just there.
- It's dead.
- That's a cool name.
I like it too.
- Next, head forward posture.
Big, big thing for neck,
shoulder, arm pain.
People that drive like this.
If you're like this and you're
not aware of it.
This is what I use with this seat.
If my head's not touching back here,
I know my head's too far forward.
I'm always monitoring
am I touching the back of this?
Then I'll do some chin tucks
every now and then as well.
Which helps stretch the neck out
and keep that posture.
Which relates down to the next one.
- Can I make a point about that?
- Absolutely, Bob!
- First off though,
you want to make sure the seat is fairly upright.
- Good point!
- Because if the seat is back like this
Can you go back further, Brad?
Now look what's gonna happen.
Yep, his neck is gonna go forward automatically
in order to adjust.
So you need to have the seat
upright, about, fairly,
almost vertical.
Not quite.
- Right!
You'll know.
- Yeah, you'll know.
And that will keep your head straight
and keep your chin up.
- If the steering wheel's into your chest,
you're too far forward.
- Yeah, right. (laughing)
- Anyway, I'm exaggerating here
although you'll see people.
- You'll see people.
- It's amazing what you'll see.
Look at other drivers and
you're gonna see a lot of head forward posture.
If you pull up to them at the stoplight
and you notice
roll your window down and just suggest to them.
Your head's forward.
Go up, and it's gonna make you feel better.
See what kind of response you get.
- Oh, yeah!
Do this in New York!
It's really gonna go over well.
- So anyways.
Seriously, watch that
and then scapular retraction.
This is big.
You can squeeze your shoulder blades.
- You try to put your shoulder blades together.
'Cause over a while
you start to round out your shoulders
and it rounds out your upper back.
Gonna lead to pain.
It's gonna even lead to pain in your low back
because you're gonna round out that too.
- So I'm gonna suggest do five of them
at least at the time.
If you're doing a long drive,
at least every hour
do five scapular retractions.
Keep a good hold on the steering wheel though!
- Yeah, that's what's nice about it.
Those chin tucks.
You can do those every few minutes if you want.
- Right.
- They're really good for you,
and they actually can feel relaxing to some extent.
- Sure.
It helps the circulation!
- When you're in that tense traffic situation.
- Man, I'm feeling better already, Bob.
- Alright, wish you looked better!
- We're not done now.
The next thing is continue to monitor -
Why Bob, why?
Now twice in one video!
- Did I?
- I think so!
Monitor.
Monitor yourself all the time.
Get a habit of that.
You may even want to put a sticker
by the radio.
Monitor your posture, a little sticky
and leave it up there for a week
and that will help.
Seriously!
- Yeah, that's true.
It's almost like bathing.
You've got to do it daily,
otherwise it's not gonna help you.
It's like motivation.
You don't stay motivated
unless you have something that does work.
- I've got to get this back in.
I feel so much better with my cushion on.
Anyways, very good!
I hope you have pain free driving
from here to L.A. to New York.
- And remember, Brad and I
can fix just about anything.
- Except.
- A broken heart!
We're working on it.
- Put it right here, Bob.
No.
- Marcus!
- I don't know who's putting what, where.
Goodbye!