- Oof.
- Thank you sir, may have another.
(laughing)
- The foam roller is an excellent pain control tool as well
as good for correcting posture
but, you must know how to use it properly
and we're gonna show you some simple techniques
that will show you how to use it.
- You will do it right?
- Absolutely. Wait 9.3 seconds and we'll get right back
to you after you hear a beautiful little song.
(laughter) (upbeat theme music)
"Bob and Brad
the two most famous
physical therapists
on the internet.'
- Okay, We're gonna show you five different techniques.
Most will, both, improve your posture as well
as decreased pain.
It's important that we do 'em properly.
And Bob, I always like to say-
- These are fairly inexpensive.
- It is very inexpensive.
It's, I like to say it's the beauty of the foam roller.
- Right.
It works very well.
The thing that you need to do is-
- I thought is was the beauty of the ball.
- The ball and the foam roller, Bob.
The thing about the foam roller is after you watch this
and if you want to purchase one
you need to make sure you get the right one.
- Right.
- I suggest getting the three foot long one,
like these are. Six inch diameter.
They do make 'em four inch.
I think most people want the six inch.
And then the density is key.
There's a soft one like I have here.
If you look, I can squeeze it.
- It is a very soft one.
- Yep. There's a medium.
Most people will probably wanna start with that one.
And then there's the, the dark black ones.
They're the most firm, the most aggressive.
Some people will want those.
If you got a lot of muscle.
- Right.
- That kind of thing.
Otherwise, probably the medium.
Alright, we'll get on with the techniques.
Okay. All these techniques must be done on the floor.
I mentioned the soft and the medium.
One thing we didn't mention
about the soft is if you have osteoporosis, that's
- That's a lot more appropriate.
- Yeah. I'm gonna use the medium one.
Bob, what were you?
- No.
- You got more input.
Alright, here we go.
- Off you go.
The standard perpendicular rolling
of the thoracic spine. Here we go.
- Matches your shirt.
- Yeah. Oh really? Most excellent.
Here we go. I hope it doesn't blend in
so they can't see it on camera.
- No. - Like stealthy.
So, I'm gonna roll back like this on, where your ribs are.
That's your thoracic spine.
We're not going down to the low back,
and then go like this and roll across gently.
The higher you lift your butt, the more aggressive it is.
I've been doing this for years, so I go up high
and it's even more aggressive and you go back like this.
Oh, and I just had a little cavitation my back crack.
- Right?
- Oh, another one.
That's a wonderful thing.
- Well, it's about putting in sound effects.
- Yeah.
- Crack, crack.
- Now, Bob, what do you spend like 30 seconds
to a minute doing this?
- Yeah. - Yep? - Absolutely.
- Oh, my goodness.
I am popping like popcorn in there.
Too bad I couldn't put the mic down there.
- Yeah, I saw you used it yesterday.
- Yeah. Oh, and another one.
See you can see I'm moving by arm posture and I'm just
kind of shifting around and that's one
of the keys to getting it to work well,
to mobilize that you that-
- You don't push them all back, right, Brad?
- Right, Right.
We're gonna get to that on number four.
- Oh, gotcha.
- Okay. Now we are gonna go to number two.
What we're gonna do is turn this at about a 45 degree angle
but keep the alignment with your body where it was.
You cannot do this outta bed, by the way.
It needs to be a hard floor.
I don't know if I mentioned that.
Now I'm going-
So, it's kind of crooked, but I've done it where
I've done the one I just did, the perpendicular, nothing.
Nothing's happening. Turn it this way.
And you get some-
- Action in.
- Yeah. Then things happen.
And it's different.
As much as mine popped on the first round
I probably won't get any more.
And then you go that direction.
- And 45 the other way.
- Yep. And work it that way.
Again about the same amount of time.
Whatever you want, really. There's no rules on it.
Now this is the one I like to do
particularly at the end of my exercise routine.
Put it lengthwise.
You're gonna sit on it like this
with your arms here and rock yourself back slowly right
down the middle of your back on the spine.
It's nice to have it so your head can rest on there.
- Right.
- And then just simply relax.
And this is really nice for a posture.
Let gravity pull your arms
or your shoulders back to get that posture.
Bring your head back if you have a tight, real tight neck.
And I've had a number of people
particularly if they're a little older.
They're so tight, their heads won't even touch the roll.
So what you can do is take a towel roll
or a small pillow, otherwise it gets pretty uncomfortable.
- Right.
- And over time you get that to stretch out so you can-
- So Brad, you could do snow angels, right?
- Excellent point, Bob.
Yep. I'm gonna go like this.
Am I gonna hit ya?
- No, I think-
- There we go.
Now, if you got tight, your arms might be up here.
And as you loosen up
my hands are getting closer to the floor.
- To the ground, yeah.
- Yep. Look at my left shoulder, Bob.
I was so tight. Let's-
- You're doing, doing better.
- Yeah. Two months ago-
- Bravo.
- Yeah, so I, I've got a shoulder problem on this side
but it's getting much better.
Bob taught me this snow angel one by Rick Olderman.
- Rick Olderman. Right.
- Rick Olderman.
A therapist that we've been working with.
He's been teaching us a lot.
That feels good.
Okay, let's go on, Bob. Shall we?
Gotta get back to work.
- Get back to work, Brad.
- Okay, number four. We are on number four.
We went through three.
Now on the lumbar spine between the belt line pretty much
and where the ribs connect, there's five vertebra there.
Some people have six, most have five.
You want to avoid rolling on that and I'm on there now
and it already kind of hurts, so don't do that.
- You're really jamming the facets.
- Yeah, it's too aggressive.
- The joints.
- Especially with my back.
I got spondylolisthesis. It's painful.
- Yeah, not good for you.
- Yeah. So avoid that.
Now I am going to go to just below that where it gets
to the sacrum where all of your vertebra are fused.
S1 through, was it a S5, Bob?
Doesn't matter.
- Yep, I think so
- It's one chunk of bone there. - Right.
- So I'm on there now and you can roll on that.
And I find that very comfortable and it feels good.
And sometimes I'll roll to the left
and I'll get a little bit of the glute,
ham roll to the right.
Have you ever done this, Bob?
- No, I have not.
- It it's so I really like it,
but I've got a SA, SI problem.
I think it's helpful with that.
Now we're gonna go on to last one, number five.
This is a trick I learned just about two years ago
on a continued ed. course.
If you have lumbar stenosis, this is a nice stretch.
It's not for everybody. You have to be pretty mobile and
- And it should feel good.
- It should.
So you're gonna roll down to, close to your tailbone.
Take one knee like this and pull, and I have stenosis
and this already feels good doing this.
And make sure you do both one at a time.
And if it's feeling good, then you do the more
aggressive one.
Make sure the roll is in the correct place and you go
like this and I'm gonna roll that out
and I kind of noodle on that a little bit. - Oh sure!
- Oh, and right there, I'm on the sweet spot.
It's stretching out my low back.
Stenosis people, certain people and stenosis
are gonna just love this one.
Do it carefully. Make sure it feels good.
Otherwise do not do it.
- Right.
- Alright, Bob, once again, these people have-
They didn't waste it, it was a wonderful five minutes-
- Right.
- Of video doing things
with your low back and I really hope-
- A beautiful learning experience.
- Yeah. So if you're thinking about a six inch roller,
you know make sure you listen to this video
and I think you'll be very pleased with it.
It's something that feels good almost.
It's not one of those exercises that you don't,
you look forward to. - Right.
- You think, like, "Oh, I got that one again". -Yep.
- Yeah, so very good. Take care.
Be careful and-
- We can fix all these things.
- Except for. - A broken heart.
- That's right. But you know what I can do?
I can balance this, Bob.
- Good for you.
(cheerful music)