♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet. ♪
- Hi, folks. I'm Bob Schrupp, Physical Therapist.
- Brad Heineck, Physical Therapist.
- And together we're the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- In our opinion, of course, Bob.
- Napoleon, he's outta the camera.
- Well, I know, I didn't think he wanted
to get in on this one. - Okay
We're gonna talk about today, Brad,
we're gonna talk about pull ups done properly.
There's actually a bonus doing pull ups properly,
bonus back and shoulder relief. Right?
- Right. And this is something
that we've actually discovered in the last few years
but we're gonna save that for the end, but it's gonna help.
These are, if you got some back problems or shoulder issues,
As a matter of fact, Bob, I thought, you know
five years ago, I would've said no to this,
- Right
- This is not working, but now I'm sold on it.
- Oh, my shoulders have never felt better.
I'm 56 years old, and I mean, they feel great.
- Right
- I think once I got to doing pull ups consistently
- Mmhmm
- Cuz I used to just do 'em maybe once a week
now that I'm doing twice a week, they really feel good.
it's just really been a helpful
- I've never done 'em since I was whenever I had to do
'em for presidential fitness award back in grade school
I didn't like 'em then, I thought they hurt my shoulders
when I do 'em ,I'm not doing 'em ,but now I'm sold on 'em,
I'm sold on the
- It can take a while to get to that point.
- Right, and we're gonna show you how to,
if you're not doing pull-ups yet,
we're gonna show you how you can get
into it in a proper manner so you don't hurt yourself.
- And if you're new to our channel, by the way,
please take a minute just to subscribe.
We provide videos it's over here, right Brad?
- Yeah, usually there. Sometimes up there.
- On the screen.
We provide videos on how to stay, healthy, fit, pain-free
and we upload every day.
- All right.
So, pull ups, what good are they, Bob?
Strength-wise I think they're an excellent way
to strengthen the upper body in a real gross manner.
In other words, just not focusing
on the specific couple muscle groups.
You're working the shoulders, the bicep, you're working
the latissimus dorsi - Lats
and getting some good core strengthening too, I think.
- Exactly, and the other benefits at the end
we're gonna tell as well for the back.
Okay, so a broad exercise really working you all,
you're gonna get your heart rate up with this.
Now, pull ups and chin ups, Bob, what's the difference?
- I bet you're gonna tell us.
(both laugh)
- It's very simple. Pull ups, palms away,
chin ups, palms towards you.
We're gonna focus on palms away
- Yeah
- We feel it's a better way to do it,
it's gonna be better for your shoulders.
- I think, this is me personally now,
you're internally rotating your shoulders
and you're pulling in, I just don't think it's
as good for you as, and plus there's so many other ways
to strengthen your biceps.
- Sure. Right.
- So why do you need to do it this way?
- Right
- We're trying to get more onto the lats
- Right
- If you wanna do chin ups that's fine.
We're not saying they're bad. - Yeah
- Now the biggest thing I think
with pull ups is, is good form.
This is one of those things,
one of the reasons I didn't like 'em
cuz if I went up to a pull a bar and I would do 'em,
I would have to do go through these gyrations.
I'd be contortioning - Jiggling
- If I hump my hips a little bit
and I pulled my knees up and I jerked it,
and finally I could get halfway up, but I could get down.
If I did that two or three times,
it's like I'm not getting anywhere,
my shoulders are hurting me,
but there are ways to get around that.
So clean form's really important,
a nice clean form, full range of motion.
It always is one of those irritants to me,
when I see someone only doing an exercise,
whether it's biceps,
and they're not doing full range of motion,
exercise the muscle in its full range for maximum benefits.
Pull ups, get all the way up,
all the way down with good clean form
and getting the muscles worked the way they should.
- The problem, Brad, is a lot
of people who haven't done these can't do clean forms.
- Right
- So do we have some suggestions for them?
Exactly. Well, actually let's back up one more spot.
- Okay
- We were talking about arm strength,
people think pull ups, arm strength,
which is true, but we're also talking shoulder girdle
and actually kind of the upper core strength.
So we're talking about the muscles.
We got the mid traps, the lower traps, the rhomboids,
all these muscles in here need to contract,
and if you can get the muscles
can you just make the, there you go.
And I'm gonna, you know, open up ,Bob, there.
And if you focus, when you do your pull ups,
on the scapulas coming together
and getting the core of the back
and the core of the upper trunk to work,
that's gonna make a big difference
on doing your pull ups easier and it's with good form,
and it's gonna help your posture.
- Yeah, it's gonna be good for your posture
and good for your shoulder.
- Exactly. All right, so
unfortunately we do not have a pull up rack
here for our video
- Right
- So we're gonna use our white PVC pipe as a model.
And if you're just starting pull ups,
and you're doing 'em in your house, you got a pull up bar.
- That's where mine is,
in between the rafters down in the basement.
- Sure. Yep.
You can use a chair, okay,
so you can have your pull up bar up here,
and if you cannot do a full one
what you're gonna do is have your chair,
put your foot up on the chair,
and I cannot do this without a pull up here.
I gotta put both feet up on the chair,
and as I pull up, I'm simply gonna use my leg power
to assist to get up to that point and back down.
Am I too high Lonnie?
- [Lonnie] No
- (laughs) I don't wanna go up there
and cut my head off on the screen
- But she gets my head on there she should be able to.
- So simply use a chair or you could use a stool,
whatever to get your feet up, and when you're pulling up
you simply use your legs to help.
and you can also do what we call negatives
or eccentrics I think, Bob,
you mentioned before with that?
- Yeah. So like, you go up,
again, I don't wanna go up too high here
but I'm grabbing onto the pole.
And so you you start on the chair
and you're just gonna
- Take the bar, Bob
- Yeah. I'm gonna step off the chair and lower myself down.
- Good.
- Then I'll step back up on the chair
and then I'm gonna lower myself down.
So that's just a good, you know, beginner's way
of starting to, you know,
get some strengthening there.
- Right
- Hold yourself as long as you can, as you go down
- Right.
- To start increasing the strength
- They have done studies on eccentric exercises
and it's a really good way to strengthen muscles.
It's faster than doing concentric ones.
and it's a little easier,
it's a really nice little trick to work on that.
- And then you might mix the two together, Brad,
you might start doing, you know,
you might help yourself do an assist on the way up
- Yeah.
- And then lower yourself down.
- Sure.
- Give yourself an assist
on the way up, lower yourself down.
I mean, and then help yourself less and less,
you know maybe just put one foot up on the stool
and push up with that.
- This is one of those things,
once you start to do 'em,
you're gonna get a feel for what makes it easier,
what makes it harder by your foot
or which stool you use it all falls into place
once you just start doing that
- You gotta stick with it though,
cuz I can tell you , again,
I used to do these more sporadically
and I used to feel pain in my neck,
I'd feel pain in my shoulders,
and once I started doing 'em consistently,
and I don't do 'em more than twice a week quite often.
- Sure.
- It really made a difference.
I mean, now I'm just, I love doing 'em
- Sure, you look forward to it.
- Yeah.
- As a matter of fact
I'll go outta my way to do 'em now
because the benefits they give to my shoulders,
I'm a swimmer. So I used to have shoulder problems swimming
because all the repetitive motion.
I start doing the hangs ,the part of the pull up
before I'll start my pull ups, here's the bar,
I'll just go up and I'll lift my feet off the ground.
So all my weight's going through my arms.
I'm not gonna do a pull up,
but I'm simply hanging there with my arms straight up.
And we did a whole video on this
on the benefits it can do to minimize
- There was an orthopedic doctor who
really touts the benefits of hanging
- Right
- Shoulder hanging for shoulder pain
and shoulder impingement
and even rotator cuff tears.
- Sure
- He was a big believer in it.
- He's got scientific studies on it to help.
We got a book that he wrote, it's a well written.
- Yeah, He has a lot of case studies in the book.
- Sure.
- Some people really like to use gloves, Brad,
because it really can be hard on your hands.
- It can.
- I mean, you know, you and I are manly,
- Oh yeah
- We like to have calluses, so it doesn't bother us at all.
- I just grin and bear it,
cuz it that's not really comfortable on my hands itself.
- Yeah. It actually is a good one to get a pair of gloves
and you're gonna be able to grip longer.
- Right.
- You're gonna be able to do pull ups better too.
- Yep.
- Cuz you're not worried about your hands.
- Right. You know if you get a blister on,
there's no fun, it's hard to do the next time.
What I do is I'll hang there for count of 10, 1001,
so it's 10 seconds, and then I relax for a little bit
and then I'll go 10 seconds.
Three sets of 10 seconds makes my shoulders feel better,
and also what it's doing
it's actually putting traction on your back.
Now I got spondylolisthesis and I'm always looking
for something to make my back feel better,
this is one of 'em.
- Yeah
- And actually not only just my low back,
but even my thoracic back, the traction on my back.
I don't have any studies on this, Bob,
I'm just talking from my personal history.
- Sure.
- And on the way home from work,
I'll stop just to do pull ups.
- Oh really?
- Yep. And it takes me 20 minutes.
It's really not worth the stop as far
as weightlifting or strengthening or whatever.
- So you stop at a gym just to do pull ups sometimes.
- Yep. I've got the YMCA,
I stop there just to do my pull ups
and then I leave because I don't have time
for anything else, but I'll make 15 minutes
because it makes my body feel so much better.
- And like I said
I've also added, hanging into mine, Brad.
- Sure.
- Because first I was just doing pull ups
and then after we read that book, I'm like, oh,
I'm gonna do some of that too.
So I'll do my pull ups
and then I'll just hang there
afterwards sometimes. - Right, right.
- Or sometimes I'll do it before as the warmup.
- You think you could attach that video to this?
- Sure. Yeah.
- Yeah. We'll put , Bob will attach it
- That one will be at the end.
- Okay.
- One of the videos at the end,
I'll make sure it's part of it
- But I'm still not sure, Bob,
if all this information about pull ups,
we're talking about the upper body, the chest and the back.
Is it gonna help fix that?
- Oh, wait a minute, Brad, you got a device though
you wanted to show real quick.
- Oh, how could I forget about it,
I was gonna wrap up the video.
- Yeah
- I cannot do pull ups and Bob used to do 'em
and he said, oh, they're so good for me.
My friend would do 'em and I said, I'm not doing 'em.
They hurt my shoulders,
I'm not doing an exercise that creates pain.
If you go to a gym that has the big equipment, you know,
with the pulleys and all that kind of equipment side back.
- This is quite a picture by the way, Brad.
- Yeah, here, if you look from the side of the view
you're gonna see a piece of equipment.
- Lonnie. are you getting any of this?
- Look at this.
I'm not an artist, but right here,
there's a tray table that comes out
you put your knees on.
- Kind of a platform
- It usually folds out of the way.
So you might see it hanging.
- Okay.
- And you're gonna bring it up like that.
There's a cable that goes up, down, and the counterweight.
Now I cannot do a pull up for the life of me without this.
When I started, I put 70 pounds counterweight
which would push my body up.
Here, I'm pulling, so literally it would take 70 pounds
of my weight off of my arms.
- Sure.
- And I'm working now, I'm at 45 pounds,
so I'm getting stronger.
It's a good way, and I can do perfect form.
- And you keep really good form.
- Really good form, and I'm really strict about it.
- So another good way for beginners,
if they have access is to it start with a machine like this.
- Right, and you might see this gym and never, you know
see this in your gym
and maybe didn't even know what it's for.
- You may want to ask one of the trainers
to know if that's it.
- Right
- All right, now we can go, Brad.
Remember, we can fix just about anything.
- We gotta get a speech therapist too,
but the broken heart, That's another issue.
- (whoops) Thanks for watching.
- (laughs)