♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
- All right, hi folks, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- Together we are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- In our opinion, of course, Bob.
- This is an updated video-- - That's right.
- We did this one before, it's the worst back stretch ever.
Stop this today, it can cause back pain and sciatica.
Do this instead!
- Yeah, so we're giving some options
'cause people always like to know,
well what should we do if we can't do that?
- Yeah, if we can't do that, what can we do?
- Which is understandable.
- By the way, if you're new to our channel,
please take a second to subscribe to us.
We provide videos on--
- [Both] Staying healthy, fit, pain-free.
- And we upload every day.
Also, what are you saying?
Also, if you have a chance go to BobandBrad.com,
go to the giveaway section,
we're always giving something away.
This week we're giving away--
- That's mine, that's mine. - That's yours, yeah!.
Some of our ugly mugs.
- Our mugs on a mug.
- Yeah. Our ugly mugs on a mug.
- Or the strong-like bull.
- Yeah strong-like bull,
that's probably the more desirable one, wouldn't you say?
- Well, I don't know about--
- You wanna look at us every morning?
My God. - That's a good point.
- You'd probably spit out your coffee.
(Brad laughs) All right, you can also
find it on Facebook, BobandBrad.
If you wanna short version of us, 60 seconds,
we go Twitter and Instagram everyday.
- That's right.
- All right brad, take it away, what are we learning?
- Okay Bob, people are wondering,
what is the worst back stretch?
And it's gonna be no big surprise,
if you've been watching our channel for a while,
it's simply this one.
Oh, we need to stretch our back,
so let's touch our toes and reach over.
- Yeah, and keeping your legs straight, too.
- Yep, yep. - It just gives you stretch
in your hamstrings, it's like,
this puts an enormous amount of torque on your disks,
and actually stretches out the ligaments, too,
which is not good.
You want your back to be stable.
- Right, right exactly. - So--
- The other one, I do wanna mention
does almost the same thing,
not quite as much stress but its the same body mechanics--
- The long sitting.
- Yeah, the long sitting and touching your toes
to stretch your hamstrings, your back, whatever.
Take those two, and just put 'em, not on the back burner,
put 'em all the way out the house
and don't ever do them again.
- Yeah, throw them away.
- Right so-- - Throw 'em away.
- Throw 'em away. Here are the much better options.
Bob, you're in my way.
- Well, I was just gonna say Brad,
- What? - You know,
some people are gonna argue,
well, the back was made to flex that way,
why don't we flex that way?
- Right. - Well, this is after
Brad and I have been practicing therapy for
probably, almost 60 years now, combined.
- Yeah, we're getting old.
- Yeah, and we've seen this (Brad chuckles)
again and again, that when you use those postures,
you start getting back pain.
- And the Yoga people are saying,
oh that stretch we do all the time,
if you do it properly, it doesn't bother your back.
We're just saying, most people cannot do it
very properly. - 98% of the people
can't do it well.
- And even if you do do it properly and your not flexible,
it's well, yeah, that's where the argument could
carry on. - That's right.
- We'll skip that.
Okay, so if you wanna stretch the low back,
lay on your back on a firm surface,
probably a carpeted floor is the best,
or workout floor that's soft.
You can start out by bringing one knee to the chest,
and it depends on how flexible you are,
and hold for 10 seconds on each leg
and repeat that three times, you can do it more if you like.
- What I like about that,
you're almost just really stretching the hips
and that's really more important.
I'd rather have more mobility in the hips, then the back.
- Right, right. (coughs)
Oh, my glasses are getting in the way, Bob.
- There we go.
- Okay, two knees to the chest.
This does get more to the low back,
particularly if you go from here to here.
If you got stenosis or, which I do have partially,
that actually feels pretty good.
I don't mind doing that.
If you want just the hip, you're just gonna do here,
and you can do-- - You're still keeping the
back fairly straight here, Brad.
- Right, right.
Compared to the other thing.
- Compared to the other way,
yeah, right. - Yeah.
You can do pressure on, pressure off 10 times,
or hold it for 10 seconds, times three repititions.
You can also put in, if you wanna get more back stretching,
this is a different plank.
- Yeah, this is a nice rotational stretch on the back.
- Yeah, this is extra, because it's not flexing the back,
we're rotating. - Yeah, and you can
let it stretch down like this.
Sometimes we even have people stick the leg out like this.
Now again, should all be pain free.
- [Both] Should feel good.
- If it doesn't feel good, you don't do it.
- Okay, good. - All right.
- Number two, if you are working on hamstring--
- Oh sure.
- Then, you might as well stay right here
and you can get a nice hamstring stretch
without affecting the low back.
Just like this, I'll put this leg down--
- One leg down.
- I'm stretching this hamstring.
- What's nice about these pants you have on Brad,
you can see that you're keeping the leg straight.
- The other nice thing is they were cheap.
I got 'em on sale. - There you go.
Do we have strap Bob? I thought I had it right there.
- Ah, here it is. - Oh good.
What you can do if you wanna get more aggressive,
and it's a little easier, you can take
a strap, the stretch-out strap works really well,
but you don't have to have it,
you can use a belt or a towel or something
where you can put-- - A sheet.
- Yep, but the nice thing about this is
that you can use the loops and really get the hamstring.
The knee should be straight, relax, relax, breathe.
Presssure on, pressure off.
There's a lot of different ways to stretch your hamstrings.
I'm not gonna get in to the detail because,
just go Bob and Brad hamstring stretch
and you'll see the options right there.
- All right, how about if I show the next one, Brad?
- Please do, because I'm all tucked out.
- So, the next one is, and this one,
a lot of people lack motion in this direction,
because this is a stretch they don't typically do.
Unless, if you are older than 55
and you have spinal stenosis,
or really severe arthritis,
then you may not wanna do this one.
But for anybody younger, you go ahead and put your hands
underneath your shoulders like this and your gonna do,
what'd you call them, baby press ups, right,
first to start off with? - Yeah, just little ones.
- Notice Bob is keeping his pelvis,
his belt-line, to the table.
- What you don't want to see, which we see quite often
because people are tight, this happens.
Because the go, well I'm doing it aren't I?
And they aren't doing it,
because there's no movement in the back.
The pelvis has to stay down and keep working it,
and eventually over time, you get to this point,
where the pelvis is down, your arms are straight,
but you're getting full range of motion in the back.
This is a stretch I would recommend
for the vast majority of the population,
to maintain good spine health.
- Right, right. - So.
All right what's the final one, right Brad?
- Yes, now this is a nice one.
We're working our way up the back a little bit,
but I decided to throw it in for a bonus, because--
- I think it's a great stretch.
- Yeah, as a matter of fact,
my wife has just started to do this one.
She didn't have a problem with her back but
you know her Carpel Tunnel? - Carpel Tunnel, right.
- Yeah, she said, well maybe it's coming from my neck,
and thought I'd cleared her neck a long time ago.
So she started doing these,
and her Carpel Tunnel-- - If only she could
be married to a therapist. (laughs)
- Yeah, no kidding, it's like you know,
she's my wife, I don't have to help her.
- I don't have time to
take a look at her. - Well you don't help
your wife. - I know!
(both laugh)
- I try to. - Well, anyways,
this is a nice one.
you stretch back, and get a ball
that's kind of flat or squishy.
- Yeah, you can just get a ball
from one of the big ball stores.
- Yeah.
- No, from the big box stores.
- Yeah, I just go down to the neighborhood park
and find where the kids leave theirs.
And you can stretch--
- Steals one from a little kid.
- Well. (shushes)
- But anyways, you stretch back like this, and relax.
And you adjust the ball to the proper position.
You know it's the right position
because it's gonna feel good.
- Now, we have to give credit here,
this was invented by our cameraman Mike.
- Put your hand in front, wave.
- Yeah give a thumbs up or something like that.
- There you go. - There you go.
- That was him.
So, really good idea.
- It is, it really is. - People use it a lot.
- It's really helped a lot of people.
You've probably have helped thousands of people
over the world, Mike.
- Well, there's no doubt about it.
- There's no doubt about it.
(Bob laughs)
Those are great stretches.
Those are stretches that we advocate.
We feel like they're safe,
and you're not gonna get into any trouble.
- Well it's clinically proven, so.
- Right.
- So you can't get any better than that.
- All right. - What say you Bob?
- Remember sign up for our--
- Oh, the coffee mugs. - Go get the ugly mugs.
- You gotta have a mug.
- All right.
(Bob laughs)
(outro tune)