♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
- Hi, I'm Bob Schrupp, Physical Therapist.
- Brad Heineck, Physical Therapist.
- And together we are the most famous Physical Therapists
on the internet.
- In our opinion of course.
- This is gonna be a popular video, Brad,
because a lot of people - I know.
- Have trouble with this.
We're gonna show you seven, at least seven ways
to get the knots outta your neck, your upper trapezius,
between the shoulder blades, all that pain
that you feel up there, - Right. Right.
- Just annoying as heck isn't it?
- Exactly, you're working on the computer
and you just need to get done but it's hurting, it's hurting
and what do you do? - All right,
first thing you're gonna wanna try
is quite often this is referring from the neck,
the pain is coming from a problem you have with your neck.
It may not feel like it. - Right.
- But this is the first thing you should try.
And we've actually done a couple videos on this
but you're gonna try first
is working on cervical extension, which is going back.
So first before you even do a few of those
you're gonna do a couple chin tucks.
- Chin tucks.
- And that's to get your neck in the right position.
So you're not dipping down like this,
you're bringing your chin back.
- Good.
- Like this, like Brad always says,
if someone was throwing a pie in your face,
you're backing up, - Right.
- We're backing up a truck, okay?
And you get that warmed up and you get it in the right spot
and now once you're in the right spot
you're gonna go ahead and extend back.
Now what you wanna feel with this
is you wanna make sure the pain in your shoulder
and traps and such aren't getting worse with this.
It actually should feel almost a sense of relief
after you've done a couple repetitions.
- Right.
If you're feeling pain here and you do this
and all of a sudden you feel pain in the center,
right kind of the bottom of the neck in the center,
that's typically a good sign that you're doing
the right stretch.
Do not go so far back that you get sharp pains,
you just go back as far as you feel comfortable.
- Yeah, as you go up to the point where you feel the pain
and then back off again.
- Mm hm.
- But like Brad said, if it goes away here,
it gets worse here in the center, that's fine.
That's what you're looking for, so.
- Right.
You can, I have people grab back here and support
with their hands at the base of their neck
and sometimes that will be more comfortable as well.
- Yeah that's a good idea, 'cause sometimes
we use a towel too. - Right.
- The second one, if that doesn't work,
I want you to try this one instead.
Instead, do a chin tuck again
and now go to the side of the pain
so if the pain's on this side,
I want you to do the chin tuck and I wanna try
and put your ear down in the shoulder.
Chin tuck, ear down in the shoulder.
Don't bring the shoulder up to you
and I want you to repeat this at least 10 times
and again, the same thing we're looking for.
If it makes the pain worse and it's going further down
or further out, - Right.
- Spread it out further, this isn't working.
- Right, especially if it's going down into the arm
or the hand, big red flag, - Right. Right.
- Stop there.
- But even if it spreads out more down here,
we're trying to look - Yep.
- For the fact that it's gonna calm down
a little bit with this. - Sure.
- And this is the one that works for me, Brad,
when I get this pain. - Right, yeah.
- So all right.
The other one, this is just a little trick
we thought we'd show you.
Sometimes it helps just to fatigue the muscle,
the muscle's got all tightened up on you,
so we're gonna show you a little trick for doing that.
You gotta follow us, there's a lot of steps in this, okay?
- Yep.
- So let's say we're gonna do this side first, Brad.
Okay, you're gonna elevate the shoulder,
bring it back, bring the neck back,
ear to shoulder and turn away looking up.
And then tighten the muscle while you're in that position.
- If you get a cramp, you better stop
and stretch it out this way. - Yeah. Right.
So shoulder up, shoulder back, neck back,
ear to shoulder, turn away, tighten up.
Now we'll do the other side, okay?
- So the idea is your muscle gets...
- Really maximally contracted.
- And fatigued and as a result of the fatigue
it relaxes when you're done.
- Right, lets go of the knot.
- Right.
- So we're gonna go the other way now,
shoulder up, shoulder back, neck back, ear to shoulder,
turn up, tighten up.
- Now, pardon me?
(Crew Member speaking)
I didn't do the lines correctly.
- You went the wrong way.
- You know, out of all these,
you're probably gonna find one or two
that work really good for you and the other ones
may not work or you don't like 'em.
- Right, we're showing you, we're showing you
a lot of options here.
- Right.
- So all right, next one, Brad.
I'm gonna go ahead and get on the mat here.
- Sure.
- A lot of times, sometimes the pain
is coming more from what we call the mid back,
up in this area here.
So this is where you wanna start getting that area moving
and so we're gonna do cat and camel.
- Sure.
- So you get in this position and you're gonna go ahead,
arch your back up, - Rounded here.
- And then arch it down.
Up, and we never know which one's the cat
and which one's the camel, do we?
I think this is cat - Yep.
- And this is camel.
- I really don't know, this looks like a camel to me,
I think this is the cat, but either way
you're gonna do what Bob does.
Maximally flex your T-spine and then extend it
and when you extend it, what I'll have some people do
is sometimes they look up towards the ceiling
and you'll get a little bit, - Oh yeah.
- There you go.
- And when you go down, head down like this.
- Yep.
- Like that, yep. That helps.
- I think you got some scoliosis there, Bob.
You better get that checked out.
- Yeah, I got problems, Brad.
None the least is sitting next to me here.
Okay, next one we're gonna do is the hallelujah stretch.
- Yeah.
- Now on this stretch, I really like to see
if you can find a chair that kinda hits you
below the shoulder blades. - Exactly.
- This is a little bit high for me even.
- Right.
- But if you can find a chair that's a little bit lower
and again, this is again dealing with the mid back.
- Here, let's do it at a 45, Bob, so they can see.
- Okay, so very simple, all you do
is you lean up against the chair and you do hallelujah,
you're stretching up like this.
- Now this chair has a steel, really solid rim
which may not be comfortable.
I like to do it on a firm chair
but if it's soft there's a little cush there,
it's even better. - It's even nice.
And you can even put your arms this way
and do this way also. - Yeah, yeah.
And just relax with this, you know?
Just take a deep breath and as you go back, exhale,
let everything, there you go. - Pressure on, pressure off.
Pressure on, pressure off. - Relax.
These can really make a difference
if you're doing a lot of work at a computer
throughout the day and you're finding yourself
getting knotted up and these become habit.
What are you doing with those balls, Bob?
- Right, some simple solutions here.
- You're gonna juggle? (laughing)
- Yep, either a tennis ball,
you didn't think I could did you?
Or a lacrosse ball. - Sure.
- And you can actually just, you can go up against a wall.
Shall we do a wall? - Yeah, here.
- Bonnie, can you get over to the wall here?
- Can we?
- [Bonnie] Coming.
- She's coming. - Okay,
so this is a lacrosse ball.
These are pretty firm.
I usually take a tennis ball,
'cause it's a little bit softer.
- That is probably the one that's gonna work better.
- And it's an individual preference
depending on how much bulk you got there to work with
and you get right on that muscle
and there are some trigger points back here
and you'll know when you get on it
'cause it's gonna go, "Ow."
And then you hold that trigger point
where it hurts and after 20 to 30 seconds
if the pain doesn't start to release
and that muscle starts to release then I'd get off it.
But you'll find that typically it works well,
as a matter of fact it's starting
to release right now, Bob.
- [Bob] All right.
- This is kinda fun.
Do go on with the video, Bob and I'll.
- [Bob] Please release me.
Okay, another little toy you could buy
would be the, not necessarily a toy but a foam roller, okay?
- It's a tool, Bob, it is a tool.
- It's a tool, yeah, and so are you.
So these come with different densities
and different even configurations now.
- Yeah, I like the new one that have actually,
they look like they're corduroy,
with grooves in 'em. - Sure.
So very simple on this one,
you're just gonna go ahead and put it down
and I do this one everyday.
- Yep.
- Absolutely everyday.
- Bob is disciplined.
- Yep and I just roll, I get right on
to the mid back here and I just roll over onto it.
My back usually cracks a little bit.
- Yep, you get a little crepitus.
- And it loosens it up.
I know you go up further, Brad, like way up in here.
- Yep, it's an individual thing.
Bob, your tie.
You gotta make that better, there you go.
- But this is a great way to work things out.
You actually can work the upper traps here
really quite well - Sure, do that.
- By using that.
- And if you got the longer three foot one
I put it right down my spine and then I just lay on it.
- Oh sure.
- It's very relaxing.
- Yeah, this is a great stretch to do,
you can even get a pillow too.
Like this, Brad?
- Well yeah but that doesn't work so well on the short one.
If you get these that are three foot long,
your head will lay - Oh sure.
- Right on it, it goes right down your spine.
- Oh got you. Sure.
- I wish we had one here to show
but we'll do that in another video.
- Okay, all right, let's keep going with the toys, Brad.
I'll give you one.
- Yep.
- That's the Backnobber.
- Mm hm.
- And this is the Thera Cane.
- Ah, competition here.
- We don't really care which one you use.
- They both work well.
- I love having it, I just, I leave this
hanging around in my room
and if I'm ever having trouble somewhere
and all times in the knots, - Yeah.
- You can really get pressure on this.
- All right and that's what they're for
and that's why they have the big hook and the little hook.
- Right.
- 'Cause here you can get down lower.
But sometimes you want the smaller hook,
it works better for up in here.
Oh, there it is, I got the point, Bob.
- Well the big thing about this
is I also like even doing a little bit of movement with it.
- Oh sure.
- It just seems to, I dunno,
it's something you have to work around with
and figure out what works for you.
- Right, mm hm.
- Generally don't go right on the spine
but it works really well.
- This is one thing that works good,
really if you go like this and use leverage,
and you can really get into that muscle
right down here. - Oh sure.
- It's pretty aggressive,
it's gonna be -
- Leave it to an engineering type guy.
- Certain people.
- Last thing we're gonna mention is the,
we've done a video on this,
I'll put a link up to this at the end,
the Pure Wave, this is a percussion self-massager.
So it goes up and down like this.
- A lot of the sides just vibrate horizontally
instead of vertically and you get that axio-motion
and it makes a big difference on working those muscles.
- And this comes with a bunch of different attachments,
this is the softest one. - Right.
- And so this one can go over bone
and it can work on that muscle - Mm hm.
- Really well.
I got one of these for my sister
who was having this exact problem.
- Right.
- She works on the computer all day.
- Yeah, we have 'em in our clinics.
We use 'em with outpatients.
I don't use 'em on a regular basis,
depends on the diagnosis,
but I'm never afraid and I have good luck with 'em.
- Yeah, I have patients, a lot of patients
that prefer this over a manual massage
believe it or not so. - Sure. Yeah.
- So those are a lot of different techniques
you can try.
Please, if you haven't already, subscribe to us
and remember, Brad, - Yeah, please do.
- We can fix just about anything.
- Yeah but we're really working on the broken heart
but I'm really sure we're getting closer to that,
is that popping in you?
- Yeah, it's popping.
- Let's get the massage on that baby.
- Okay. All right, thanks.