♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ the two most famous ♪
♪ physical therapists on the internet ♪
- Hi folks! Bob Schrupp, physical therapist,
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- Together we are the most famous
physical therapists on the internet.
- Well, in our opinion, of course, Bob.
- Who would think such a thing?
Okay. Today we're talking about traction for neck pain.
- That's right, Bob.
Cervical traction, neck traction.
Same thing that's been used for, I would say centuries,
you know, in the physical therapy. I've used it,
both of us have used it in the clinic, at home.
It can work wonders quickly.
- How old are you Brad? - I'm 29.
- Okay.
- Anyways, yeah, you can really relieve
some symptoms quickly, but not all the time.
Sometimes, other times it may take some repetition,
but one way or another, you need to do it properly.
And we're going to show you the ins and outs on how to do it
you know, if you can do at home or maybe you should go
to see a professional.
- By the way, we're doing a giveaway again
this week and we're doing a C2,
one of our massage guns.
- Oh, sure.
- So check it out.
I don't want to go into more detail on it right now.
- We'll wait 'till the end of the video.
- Yeah we'll go to the end. - Yeah, you can fast forward
if you want.
Anyways, so should we get going Bob?
- Yes. - There's two ways
that I've done traction - Traction.
- I actually just did this with my daughter,
a couple of weeks ago she had
some neck problems - Oh really?
- Went through the whole gamut here.
- Did it help?
- Actually, no.
We had some other tricks
up my sleeve that helped. - We had to be honest,
we had to be honest with our people.
- But anyways, why don't you sit down Bob?
You can do traction.
And this is a nice one where you can do it at home
if it fits appropriately.
But when I do this with someone in the clinic or anybody,
Bob, is your bottom scooted all the way back?
- Yeah, it is.
- Yeah, okay.
So he's going to start out in good posture.
So bring your head back over the shoulders. There you go.
Are you relaxed Bob?
- Hmm. - Okay.
So what I'm going to do is take my hands like this.
One hand now, Bob, I want you to bring
your jaws and your teeth so they're gently touching,
not tight, just gently touching,
you wanna make sure that's together.
I'm going to take this hand and go underneath the mandible,
the jaw, I can feel the jaw bone there.
The other one, I'm going to go back under the occiput here.
You feel okay Bob?
- Hmm - Okay.
Now, now, Bob's not gonna be able to talk
so I'm going to say, if it's painful or uncomfortable,
just wave your hand.
Stop. If it feels good, give me the thumbs up.
And I am not gonna heave and ho,
I'm gonna to gently go up, and Bob's going to let me know
if it feels good, keep your thumb up.
Feels okay.
Okay.
So it feels good?
- Hmm. - Okay. Yep.
You can do a 'hmm'.
Now, I may hold, if things feel good
and everything feels better,
I'm going to hold it, but after about 30 seconds,
I get tired.
I've done it up to a minute,
but I'm almost, - It's a lot of work.
- Yeah, I'm almost starting to shake at that point.
- I had a little discomfort under the jaw.
- From my hand? - Yeah, from your hand.
- Yeah, and you know, that's just part of, yeah.
- Right, Yeah. My neck felt good.
- Right. If it feels good on the neck,
or if you have a pinched nerve,
you may have symptoms running into the shoulder blade
down the arm.
If the person states, oh, my arm feels better,
boy, you know, it's a good thing.
And if you can hold it and I would do it again.
And if I had the same response while I'm giving traction,
as well as afterwards,
like after Bob is sitting up and may have him walk around a
little bit, if it still feels good to say,
you may be a good candidate for doing this at home
for a longer period of time. - It's a good test.
- Yes.
- To determine whether or not
you would benefit from it. - Yeah
And the only seated traction device I know that people
can do at home. The good thing about it is
it's really cheap. - Right.
The bad thing about it is it's kind of hard to set up and
we're going to go over here and show you.
It's called the over the door, traction,
neck or cervical traction unit.
It looks like this.
Now I've seen these on the internet
that do not have this frame and they hook it into the door
- Really? - with just,
with the same thing that we use for banding.
- Oh really?
- Yeah. So what happens is,
is you're pulling traction at an angle and it's no good.
You have to get this.
As far as I'm concerned, - Yes
it gets away from the wall or away from the door.
- From what I see, Brad
I, as I recall,
you actually want maybe a little bit of flection,
even on the neck. - Yep
- You don't want to be extended back like that.
You want to be
slightly flexed. - Right
So, and that's the difference,
so you get this frame and these are like 20, 25 bucks,
- Right. - They're really inexpensive.
Yeah.
This goes in the door. We don't have a door.
So I made a makeshift thing that you can see.
- Right, It'll hook on the door like that.
- Yep, and this is the weight,
this pulls down.
You put water in there. It tells you, it's ...
- You can go up to 20 pounds.
- Yeah, and i usually start with
five or six pounds. - Sure
- So that goes down and that pulls up.
That offers the, the force for the traction.
I'm not going to put this in,
but your...this fits in your head, around your jaw.
It is comfortable. It is a little cumbersome.
Sometimes,
I'll have the person face the door.
- Right
- And if that doesn't work so good,
I may turn it around and have the person
and go both directions and
do whichever feels most comfortable.
- As I recall, Brad last time I actually bought one of these
units and I spent a little more money on the harness.
I went and bought a harness separate.
- A little better harness.
- Yeah, exactly.
- If it's a short term thing.
- Right? I want, you could try this one.
- I had one person, you know, real severe neck arthritis.
This offered relief.
He set it up at home and it was kind of a long-term thing.
- Sure
- He would have been
a good candidate. - In that case, yeah.
So we have a video
Google, Bob and Brad over the door neck traction,
a complete instructional video for proper use of this.
- Right
- So if this were to work for you
that would be a good reference
- Cause you'll often go up to 20 pounds.
You'll get up there.
- Right. Again, it should feel good.
You don't put more pressure on just thinking it's gonna pop
and feel, you know, get better.
It's not, you need to have complete, what do we say?
Complete good. - Control?
- Good feeling, good feeling. - Oh, good feeling.
- Good results. - It's all good, all good.
- Response.The response has to be positive.
All right. So that's a seated one.
Let's go to supine. - I'm taking my mic off now?
- Yeah. I'm going to show you on Bob,
how to do a manual supine
cervical traction.
I do not recommend this for the lay person,
but I'm going to show you how a professional does it.
- It can show what you will run into when you
get near the client... - Right
- So right now, I'm fudging with my ...
- Yeah, so we can't hear him.
He's just babbling on, don't worry about it.
It's not important.
But so I have the person lie down on the plinth
without a pillow.
And it's nice because on a plinth, as long as he's relaxed,
I know his body and his neck is in good posture because
the plinth allows that.
I'm going to take one hand
and go underneath here. And I get the occiput.
And that works really well.
It's just kind of made to fit there.
You're comfortable, Bob? - Hmm
- This hand, teeth together, gently
and here. And what I'm going to do
is just gently pull out this way.
Bob's gonna, he can "Hmm" or "Hmm"
or give me the thumbs down
Thumbs up, thumbs up is good.
Thumbs down his pain.
I asked the person, where does it hurt?
Is it hurting the neck down the arm?
Is anything number tingling in the arm?
Numbness in the arm Bob? - Yeah.
- Okay So we've got right arm numbness
and tingling with some neck pain.
So I'm going to go here and we'll see what happens.
And I gently pull out.
It's good, and then I let go.
And just to see sometimes when you let go,
you get an ouch in there, but you didn't have anything?
- This was much more comfortable than the chair.
- Okay. Good.
You're relaxed more.
- I think I'm relaxed more, there's not as much
pressure on my jaw. - Sure
Yeah. I definitely have a better,
the padded part of my hand is more...
- Right.
- Exactly, ready again?
So, and typically I'll have a clock,
I like an analog clock on the wall
because I'm old fashioned,
but you should know how long you're pulling
for reference.
And I'm gonna pull, How does it feel, Bob?
He gives a thumbs up.
Okay. Thumbs up.
Now I'm just going to hold there.
I don't know how many pounds of pressure I have,
but I know from experience and that's why you should have a
professional, I know from experience
this is about how much I usually pull,
I'll keep and eye on it for 30 seconds.
I'll start to get tired after about 30 seconds.
I've gone up to a minute, but I'm starting to shake.
I'll gently let it off
Does it still feel good, Bob? - Yes.
- Okay, the pain or numbness feelings
down your arm get better worse or the same?
You can't can't talk now?
- No, you can't hear me.
- Oh yeah, so he said it felt better.
And as a result, I'm going to, you know,
I may have him get up, we won't do this here,
I have the person get up,
walk around a little bit and still make sure that the
symptoms have stayed improved.
Because when you go upright things change a little bit.
As far as the forces on the neck.
Now, if that all goes good,
I don't like to just do traction, you know, over a minute.
And we want to get more than a minute.
What I'll do is I'll take a towel roll.
This is step two.
I got three options
and I'll roll up a towel roll.
Bob needed to take his glasses off.
And I will show with a family member
or a friend.
If they feel comfortable doing it,
how to do this so you can do it at home.
You roll up,
This is a pretty thick towel.
Does that feel comfortable, Bob?
Now I'm going to go like this
so it's just covering the ears,
and I can pull with some my body weight.
Again, Bob's gonna let me know.
Feels good. Feels good.
I'm going to wrap it like this.
Cause I feel it slipping on his head a little bit.
You okay, Bob? That's comfortable?
You can breathe good? - Yep
- Alright, now I can hold this
easily, about three times,
about two to three minutes
using my body weight, not my arms and I can relax.
And you know, Bob can talk.
Now, if you want to chat a little bit,
he's always communicated to me
if it feels good.
And then I'm going to let off slowly,
see how the response is.
- That was more traction but it was still comfortable.
So Bob was saying, I had more traction than
with my manual, with the hands
And it was more comfortable. Is that because of the,
the towel roll? - Yes, it's nice and soft.
- Yeah, the soft towel roll,
It wraps around distributes a pressure where it's supposed
to nice and evenly.
And again,
I always emphasize to the family member or whoever's
doing it. You need to be gentle. You need to be careful.
After you do this a few times and
you get a good feel for it. You have a good rapport.
And the person having the traction done is always the boss,
whatever they say you do.
Now, if that works out good
and you're sick and tired of doing this
and you're getting good results,
you can purchase a Saunders.
Now they make, there's different manufacturers.
I'm going to promote Saunders
and we get absolutely nothing from it.
I just know from personal and professional experience that
these are nice units. I'm not going to go through how to go,
how to work these in detail.
There's a Bob and Brad YouTube on
Cervical Saunders Traction Unit
and they'll come up and it's about a 15 minute long video
that goes in detail. How to use this.
They're excellent, you can do it all by yourself.
You don't need anybody else to help you
and you'll get good results with excellent control
of this little hand pneumatic pump.
So we're not, we're not going to go any further
into that, Bob.
All right. How do you, how you feel Bob?
- Good.
- You feel like going out and playing a game of golf now?
- I feel taller.
- He's taller. Exactly.
Good. Cervical traction at it's finest.
Now, you know everything you need to know
and good luck with that.
Bob, is there anything else you'd like to comment on
like maybe the traction and the gun?
- I don't have my ...
- Well just that we do that the C2.
- Massage gun
- Massage gun, I got it going here.
Very important, never massage
with a gun like this, your neck.
- Yeah right, It's not gonna feel good.
- It's no good.
You can do it on your traps and stuff
but every other part of your body.
- Five attachments, five speeds.
Very well received on amazon.
4.8 stars or something like that.
It's good, we approved it and this is our giveaway
so sign up for it, you can go to
bobandbrad.com
go to the giveaway section,
give us your information so that you can possibly win.
Or the Facebook. - Right
- Pinned to the top of the page.
Say no more, Bob.
- Very well done, Brad. Very well done.
What am I here for?
- I don't know.
Be careful.