- ♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
- Hi folks, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Braid Heineck, physical therapist.
- And we are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- In our opinion, of course, Bob.
- Today we're gonna talk about how to fix
your low back pain for good.
We got five simple rules to follow.
- That's right, Bob, we've seen thousands of patients.
We've took courses, read a lot of books
and other literature.
We think we've got this down.
You concur with the system?
- I concur, I think this is,
what we've been doing for years and it's worked well.
- We wrapped it all up into five,
and actually number of five is a real accumulation
of the first four so it's almost four.
Making it simpler yet.
- I like the number of five.
By the way, if you're new to our channel,
please take a second to subscribe to us.
We provide videos how to stay healthy, fit, pain-free,
and we upload everyday.
Also go to BobandBrad.com, we're always doing a giveaway.
This is a one day of transition.
We're going off of one giveway and going to the next
big giveaway.
- [Brad] This is Saturday.
- [Bob] This is Saturday so on Sunday we're gonna be
giving away a Thermotex infrared heating system
so check it out.
You can go to BobandBrad.com, it'll be pinned
to the top of the page, the contest.
Go to Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok or our podcast.
- Oh, that's right.
- Those have a 60 second version.
Podcasts obviously are longer actually.
- Right, well, yeah, you wouldn't wanna listen to
a 60 second podcast.
- Yeah, that's true.
- Especially in your car.
All right, so let's talk about this, Bob.
The first one, exercise.
What kind of exercise are you gonna do?
I've had this so many times, people with back pain
and they say, oh, I wanna stretch my back muscles out
so immediately start doing the one from gym class
50 years ago or wherever.
And that can be, and oftentimes is one of the worst
exercises you can do for a back.
So I'm gonna mention the number one rule
is find a directional exercise.
In other words, an exercise in a specific direction
that can consistently makes your pain feel better
as opposed to irritating it.
Now, oftentimes, people find when they bend forward,
it hurts their back or if they have sciatica
with the back pain, it makes the sciatica worse.
Either bending or sitting are both forms of flexing the back
so what we wanna do, and this isn't for everyone,
but this'll be for a number of people is extension.
Now, Bob, do you wanna start with the--
- Yeah, so again, flexion makes it worse.
Extension makes it better.
And you may not know this right away because
sometimes you lie down and you sometimes you can
lie on your elbows here a little bit to give
a little bit of extension to the back.
And then you start off with some micro press-ups,
mini press-ups.
Put your hands underneath your shoulders
and just start working like this.
Initially it may be stiff and like, oh,
that doesn't feel better.
But keep doing it for a little bit anyway
to give it a chance.
And eventually you'll find out.
And if it's, like Brad said, if it starts to
centralize the pain, so the pain was traveling
down the leg a bit, and now it's no longer,
it's just up in the back itself,
you're golden then, you're really doing a great job.
- [Brad] And if you do like five of these and it seems like
it's getting worse, that's not one of your exercises
you're gonna do then.
- Right, if it's worse while you're doing it,
or worse after you've done it,
right after you've done it, then it's not for you.
- So the other thing you can do,
and it might be if your back pain's not too bad,
but it's kind of nagging you.
And if you find standing and just putting your hands here
and extending backwards, if that offers some relief,
you may wanna do that throughout the day,
you know, do three to five of them.
You may wanna do that when you get out of a car
or before you get into the car where you're sitting
for long periods of time.
- Or you're gonna do a lift.
Right before you do a lift, do an extension back first.
It's a very good preventative without exercise.
- For a lot of people.
- For a lot of people, not everybody.
- Okay, so the next one for stiff back
and I shouldn't say this, but maybe for older people,
but not always, is get some rotation direction.
And lay down, I want you to show them that one, Bob.
You can do this one on your bed, on the carpeted floor.
- Lying down.
- Lying down, very good.
- Okay, I'm putting my two knees together,
I'm putting my ankles together,
and I'm just gonna rotate back and forth.
Now it looks like I'm just moving my hips,
but I'm actually rotating my lumbar spine here too.
- Obviously because the clothing and Bob's body,
you can't see it, but that lumbar spine
is doing a lot of rotating.
- Yeah, and if you wanna go further yet,
you actually go farther up the spine,
you bring your legs up farther.
That goes farther up the spine.
Down goes further down the spine.
If you find one direction is bothersome,
like let's say I go to the right,
ow, ow, oh, then just work going to the left for a while.
And then every once in a while, check that right side again.
But this is one most people can do,
and it's a good one to even show along
with the extension if you wanted to do the extension.
- Yeah, you could combine two of these.
Now this last one is flexion.
In other words, bending actually makes it feel better
and if you repeat bending, it even feels better.
- Now, I still wouldn't do it standing though.
- Probably not.
We're gonna say, actually we're gonna do this
lying down.
- So there's no stress--
- Can I show this one, Bob?
You've been stealing the show.
- Yeah, here we go.
You're back in the limelight.
- And there's another reason I do this 'cause
I cannot do extensions very well because
I've got spondylolisthesis which about five percent
of the population has, according to studies.
Then you may wanna do this or if you have stenosis,
this could be a really good typical exercise.
Or if it just feels good.
If you do this and it feels really good
and it makes that low back feel really good,
well then you'll do it and usually you just start
with one knee.
This is doing a partial flexion to the low back,
it's a good way to start.
And pull it up and stretch.
And I can tell you right now this feels really good to me.
- Again, gauge how you're feeling and if it's
making the pain worse or does it make the pain worse
right afterwards?
Then again, it's not for you.
- Exactly, Bob, you can go both these at the same time.
And you don't wanna pull really tight right away,
just get a feel for it, first gentle like this.
- [Bob] Yeah, get a little motion in that spine
and get the fluids moving in and out
and just making it a lot more healthy.
- So those are directional exercises.
There are more than that, so again,
you're gonna have to do a little more homework
if none of those help, you'll go to BobandBrad
and go to our website and go to,
well, that would be for sciatica.
- Yeah, we have a whole program on sciatica.
- If you have pain going down.
- It's a free program.
- But any Bob and Brad back pain is gonna show you
other options as well.
We wanna get to number two and this is really important
is posture.
Posture, posture, posture, particularly with the low back.
So many people are slouched over, they don't know it,
in front of the computer, in the car driving,
at the kitchen table.
So I'll just demonstrate this.
- Yeah, back pain has really become more than
a lifting problem anymore; it's more often
a sitting problem, that we sit all day long
and then you might do a lift that bothers you.
But it was the sitting where the damage occurred.
- Right, so the slouch position like this,
and most people aren't even aware of it
until they see a picture and someone says look at this.
I've had patients and they'll sit there like this
and they came in with back pain,
and the very first thing I'll do is I say sit up straight
and they say, I am.
And then I correct it and I put their butt
all the way back in the chair, up like this,
tuck the chin in a little bit,
and they say, oh boy, that feels really weird,
and it's like--
- Yeah, and I've had younger people tell me,
it feels stupid.
I'm like, you look like a confident young person now.
- And the back is gonna tolerate it.
This maybe uncomfortable at first
if you've been sitting like this
for a long period of time, but you wanna get back to this,
take a rolled towel's a good way to put for your low back,
lumbar support.
Put that back right about at the belt line,
maybe a little below.
It's really up to you, you're gonna feel like
it's good support like oh boy, that feels good.
- Then you don't have to work as hard.
It'll help hold you upright better.
And the thing about, what's nice about towel,
you can figure out what width and what girth you need.
- How big you want that.
- 'Cause for some people if you have a larger buttock
or larger meaty areas there, you're gonna need
a bigger roll.
- Or it depends on your chair, like your car seat,
if you've got a hollowed out car seat,
you may need to have something bigger.
You don't have to buy one, you can use a bigger towel.
These bought ones typically feel better, I gotta admit.
- They come in a bunch of different shapes.
That's why you have to decide what the shape you need.
- For me, that towel felt good, but this feels better.
You can look below the video, we've got a link for options
if you would like.
So posture and standing posture as well.
Obviously you don't use a support when you stand,
but just monitor, are you rounded forward,
are your thumbs pointed towards you?
Get your shoulders back, arch the back, sternum,
you know, that military type posture.
- Did you wanna do it against the wall, too, Brad?
- Sure, yeah, that is a nice idea, Bob.
- Little bit of a change.
- Yep, just go up against the wall and check it.
Then if your butt's hitting the wall,
the shoulder blades and then your head,
and then bring your shoulders back,
then you know you're in good posture.
So gonna stand there and then walk away from it
and see if that's the way you feel normally
or is this happening?
So correct that: very critical.
I cannot say enough about posture with back pain.
- You know, therapists are big on posture
and there's a reason.
- Yep, exactly.
Now this next one can be difficult,
but it's really important.
Anything that irritates your back,
like if you sit for a long time and you find your back hurts
it's probably a posture thing.
So change your posture.
If you bend over and it hurts your back consistently,
then you're gonna change your body mechanics
and squat like this.
Actually you should do that regardless
if you got back pain so you don't get back pain.
But posture like this, keep that back straight,
down and up, take your time.
- The other thing is if there's things
that really are bothering your back
and you can get away from doing them.
Like let's say you ride a lawn mower
and it really bothers your back,
you have somebody else in the family who can do it,
let them do it.
You gotta get that back calmed down.
A lot of times you get it calmed down, it stays calmed down.
When it gets flared up, it stays flared up.
- Exactly, so and that can be difficult,
particularly if your job demands some flexed posture,
that's a real challenging situation and I've worked with
a lot of patients like that and it's hard to work with.
The next one is easy: walking.
Typically, regardless of the back pain,
you're walking on a flat surface, not uphill or downhill
through the woods or whatever.
On even, flat ground is best.
Go for some walks, typically really helps--
- Really good for your back.
The other things is sometimes it actually feels better
on your back if you pick up the pace,
there's actually a little bit less stress on the spine
so you walk a little faster.
And sometimes what we have people do is just
grab your hands or grab a wrist like this
and bring it back and then let go of it.
- So we're not walking around like this.
- You can every so often go like that.
- It's really a reminder for posture.
- Right, because you're gonna start going like this,
and you go like this, and hopefully that
straightens you up and off you go again.
- Which goes back to one of the previous rules.
And number five, like I mentioned early in the video,
you're gonna find out certain things that are really key.
I've had some people just changing,
putting lumbar support on their car
makes all the difference in the world with their back
for the rest of the day.
Sometimes it's the press-ups, whatever.
Find the exercises or the tactics that really
make the difference and have it become part of your day
and part of your life.
- Yeah, make it a habit like brushing your teeth.
I mean, that's what you wanna do.
- That's a good point, Bob.
- By the way, Brad and I can fix just about anything
- Except for
- A broken heart.
- Broken heart, and this video's not gonna help.
But if the back feels better--
- Keep following us, eventually we'll figure it out.