♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
- Humma, humma, humma,
hi folks,
I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck physical therapist.
- We are the most famous physical therapist
on the internet.
- In our opinion of course, Bob.
- How to fix a bulging disc, no surgery.
- That's the goal of physical therapy, right?
- We don't wanna send you to the surgeon if we can avoid it.
- Right.
There's nothing more exciting as a therapist
is to have someone come in that's scheduled for surgery
and they give one chance to therapy
and you take care of the problem.
And it happens, you know?
It's not a rarity.
- Our belief is, the body wants to heal itself.
That's amazing abilities it has.
So we're gonna show you some options today.
We got three options,
but before we do-- - Oh yes.
- If you are new to our channel,
please take a second to subscribe to us.
We provide videos,
how to stay healthy, fit pain for you
and we upload every day.
Also very exciting news,
very exciting news.
If you go over to Facebook, BobandBrad,
we are giving away a mattress.
Actually, we along with SleepOvation.
- SleepOvation. - Are giving away
a very nice mattress.
I've been on it for a week now,
I love it.
It's like my mattress is giving me a hug, Brad.
I'm serious.
It's like, I'm getting molested by a mattress.
- Don't tell your wife that.
- Yeah,
I already did this morning,
but anyway all you have to do is
there's a post on there,
it's the top post on the page.
You'll like it
and you comment and you are in the contest.
- There you go.
- So, alright Brad, you're in charge.
- A bulging disc
leads to a herniated disc
which can lead to the quote unquote sequestrated disc.
You know that's technical terms,
that means you got a lot of pain.
You have pain down the leg--
- Sciatica. - Sciatica,
all those things.
The sooner you get after it the better, okay?
So we're gonna look at a herniated disc right here,
or a bulging disc.
Oh no, my pencil Bob.
Thank goodness.
- [Bob] Oh Lord he's lost without it.
- Can you zoom in on that Liz?
- [Liz] Yep.
- So here, if you look at now,
you don't have a a red disc
and the other ones are these colors.
That just sort of highlights the involved one.
But this is a really common area for disc to bulge
between L4 and L5.
And right on here, you see this nerve right here.
It's pushing on that nerve
which that leads to the sciatica.
And we want to eliminate that,
get that bulge back in where it belongs.
So that's what we're gonna show you how to do.
We got three good options.
- Three ways to try.
The first one Brad, is gonna be extension.
Sometimes this causes the bulge
and a lot of times this helps reduce the bulge.
- [Brad] Sure.
- But we've done whole videos on this.
We're not gonna go too crazy on it today.
Basically the idea is,
you're gonna get down,
you're gonna probably start,
just prone like this for a little while.
Then probably you're gonna try
up on your elbows for a little while.
In every case,
you're looking for a reduction of symptoms
down the leg.
- Right, precisely Bob.
- So if this makes your leg symptoms worse,
you're gonna have to try some other things
or try different variations of it.
Again, we've done full videos on this,
just type in Bob and Brad,
herniated disc or sciatica. - Right.
- Because we're gonna spend more time today
on the traction part of things.
- Right. - But eventually
you're gonna start working on extensions here.
- Sure.
- Your hands underneath your shoulders.
You're gonna do half press-ups like this
and eventually you wanna do full press-ups
and again the idea is reduce the symptoms in the legs.
- Right, so if you got pain,
if the white stick represents the pain.
If it's coming up like this, it goes to the back.
That's a good sign.
If it gets worse and goes down the leg
that means the bulge is too far out.
And we need to probably go to the options
we're gonna talk about.
- All right.
- Could you show one way not to do it,
with the hips coming up?
- Oh sure.
- This is very common. - It is very common,
your back is tight.
So what happens is
your pelvis starts coming up like this.
- Do not do it that way.
- You're not helping.
- Right. - It's just
not doing anything.
You're in neutral basically.
- Yeah, can you go over this way?
Listen now,
this is, we're gonna talk about traction now.
- [Bob] Right. - Traction was started,
it's been around for literally thousands of years,
if you look in the history of it.
But really in the 1950s in modern medicine
is when it started to be used a lot more in the '60s.
Probably not as much anymore.
And we were discussing, we don't really know exactly why.
But you can just hang your body
as a form of traction without getting a traction unit.
And it's nice like this
if you have a pull-up bar
or a bar that you can hang on
that's safe to hang on with your body weight.
And now I'm gonna gently take the weight off of my feet
but I get about 50% of my weight through my feet.
And I'm relaxing my core muscles around my stomach and back.
And I'm allowing the weight of my hips
and legs to be traction through that lower back.
And if you do this in your back
and particularly if your leg feels better.
You're gonna wanna do this more often.
- [Bob] Yeah, and then you can do it quite often.
- Right. - You can do it
every hour if you have access to a bar.
- Sure.
- So, the idea is again,
he's pulling the the lumbar vertebrae apart.
It's helping suck that bulge in.
- Right, exactly.
Because a disc is not solid.
It has gel inside
and that's what bulges out
and we didn't get that to reduce.
We call it our go back in where it belongs.
- Yeah, remember
that one image where they used the jelly donut.
I think we did it one time too.
- Yeah. - Like the jelly inside
the donut was the disc. - Right.
It's been a few years since we've done that video.
For me, I like to do this,
just because it feels great on my back.
- You put your feet out like that sometimes too?
- Sometimes I do,
I have to do this for a while
and you know how your back responds to it,
you'll figure things out.
But if you're doing this in
the throws of sciatic or that bulging disc,
you're gonna take your time with it
and then come back off and see how it responds
after you've hung for 15, 20 seconds.
And as long as it feels better than it did before,
sometimes I'll have a tough patient,
where we'll do this
and then--
- It actually feels worse?
- Or it comes right back.
- Oh sure.
It all depends on, I've got one right
now that I'm working with and he is pretty tough.
I haven't done this lumbar traction yet
but it'd be an excellent option.
- All right, so let's move on to this, Brad.
- Right now, this is a portable.
As you can see, you can pick them up and around.
- What does that weigh Brad?
- Well, I would say it weighs about,
oh 19 1/2 pounds.
- Do you know that? - No.
Oh, I'm making it up,
it's not that heavy.
- I think it's more than that.
I think it's about--
- I mean because you and I are both strong, like bull,
we can do curls with it.
- I would say it's about 30.
- It could be. - Yeah.
- It's not bad,
it does have wheels, so you can roll it around.
- Take it outside.
- So, usually when I have
used this with someone,
I have them do it on a carpeted floor or a floor.
But you couldn't do it on a bed if it's a firm bed.
So you just open it up like that.
Bob's volunteered to do this.
You gotta get an adjuster.
Are you gonna,
now, when I work this with a patient,
typically you're not just gonna buy one of these
and do it, if you're a layperson
and have no experience whatsoever.
It's good to get instructions from a therapist.
- Yeah, eventually you'll be able
to set this up on your own.
- Oh right,
I've had patients,
they work well for 'em.
They buy one or their insurance company buys one.
They take it home and use it on a daily basis
and do everything independently.
- How am I,
probably there?
- Oh, Bob.
I'm thinking you're good.
- Okay. - There you go.
So these all work well, just simple clips.
And like I said, I'll set up people initially.
We're gonna do this together, so it just takes up less time.
'Cause we don't want you to get bored on YouTube.
- I could sing.
- Yeah, you could sing.
Then, then we would be losing viewers.
You wanna tighten those up
to the right? - Sure.
- They tighten really easy,
just simply pull and they lock.
- There we go.
- So the pressure is going here.
These two go here around the pelvis
up here just below and then a lower rib cage.
- So these two are gonna separate
and pull me apart, make me even taller.
- Yeah, Bob's gonna go from six foot six
to six foot seven by the end of this.
- So this pump has three settings.
One setting is pump,
which then it's gonna apply the pressure
and separate me.
Then there's a hold that you can put it
on once you get to where you want to be.
- Sure. - And then
there's a release.
- Right.
And this is all pneumatic,
so it's air pressure, there's no hydraulics.
- I'm gonna go pump first
so you can see it's just real easy to do.
It's actually,
when I separate it,
it's adding the air.
And also when I push down, it's adding air.
- I think that's like a dual action.
- Is that it is? - I think.
Look right here you can see these two pieces,
there is a light color and then a dark color.
Plastic is separating
and that's putting the traction through Bob's lower back.
And how many pounds of pressure do you got?
- I'm at 50 right now. - [Brad] 50?
- And we were talking about this.
It doesn't feel like a lot at 50.
I mean, I'm gonna probably go up to 60
to start off with. - Right.
- But I know, I could go higher than that.
I think it's pulling my pants down too.
- [Brad] Oh Bob, it's a family show.
- Okay.
But I'm now seven feet tall.
- So there's different ways you can position the person.
You can go like this.
If this feels good for the person
and their leg symptoms and the pain is improving,
I'll go like this.
I would say more times than none.
I do use this leg wedge just because--
- And that would be a lot more comfortable
and it is more comfortable.
- Yeah, can you lift up
one more time? - Sure.
- There we go, there.
- Yeah that's really comfortable.
- Right, this does not come with the unit.
- Right. - You have to
purchase that separately.
It's about 25, $30,
but boy, they really work well.
- So how much is the unit?
That's incredible.
I'm glad you asked Bob, $375.
- Yeah. - They've come down
over the years.
- They come way down. - Right.
- I remember a patient paying,
I mean, he was pretty upset actually.
'Cause they had told him 600
and ended up being over a thousand.
- Sure.
It's like, everything that's been around for a while,
production whatnot.
I do wanna mention the pressure on that.
I do not go by the pounds so much.
I do keep track of it, but I'm always asking my patient,
how does it feel?
Is it getting better?
Is it getting worse?
Is there any, creating any pain?
If it creates pain, particularly down the leg
the numbness, the tingling those things get worse.
We do not go any further.
It may be,
that's not appropriate for the person often.
- I would also, the time span.
I would start off at a very short time span, wouldn't you?
- I usually go five minutes. - Right.
I wouldn't go beyond that the first time.
Even if it feels good.
Just do five minutes, see how you react afterwards.
- Right. - Because you never know.
Sometimes it might feel worse after.
- Yep. - And if you went 10 minutes
you can't take that back.
- Right, precisely.
So five minutes, let off on the pressure
and then make sure you stand up
and see how you respond with weight going through your back.
'Cause that can be a game changer there.
You should have positive results, you should stand up.
Oh, if it feels good, the leg pain feels better
when you're walking around.
Then you go up to 10 minutes,
up to 20 minutes you can go on this.
And if you get those positive results
the leg pain's getting better every time.
Every time you get up, move around it feels better.
You can do this two to three times a day.
- Well I would say beyond that even Brad,
if you have just a bad back,
I had a patient that just had a terrible back,
just arthritis and all that.
And he would just do this once a day to give himself relief.
- For a maintenance.
- Yeah, for maintenance. - Yep.
- Right, and I mean,
it was that thing that he could get through the day.
- Sure.
- How we looking at time Brad?
- Oh, we're doing great, Bob.
You wanna release that?
- Oh yeah, sure.
Please release me.
- Yeah, so you can watch this
and you'll see see how these come together.
The air's coming out right now.
You can hear it.
There we go.
- Yep.
And then I can just unbuckle.
- Yep, go ahead.
Big question.
- All right.
Am I smarter too?
- Taller and smarter, there you go.
Oh, look at that.
He's feeling strong and looking tall.
Not handsome yet
but he's still looking better.
- But I'm handy.
(chuckles)
All right.
Thanks everybody for watching.