♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
- I'm ready to go Brad.
(Brad sneezes)
Hi folks I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- Gesundheit.
And together we are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
You threw me off!
(Brad sneezes)
Good lord.
- Wow!
- Get those germs away from me.
- I don't have my handkerchief Bob, I'm sorry.
- Today we're gonna talk about
how to fix forward head posture, three easy steps.
I like this Brad because it's all encompassing,
it goes throughout your entire day.
- Right.
- 'Cause this is a constant problem
you're gonna have to struggle against.
- Right.
And again, like the title says,
it's one of those easy things you can do or simple,
but you need to be consistent with it
but we'll show ya the tips.
- You need to make it a habit.
- Habit?
- Yeah, a good habit.
- Yeah, oh absolutely.
- By the way if you're new to our channel
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- Mhmm.
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- Bob and Brad's not that hard to remember.
That's what I like.
Two Bs.
- That's right.
- Mhmm.
- Very astute.
- Okay let's get on with this head posture thing Bob.
It's one of those things
that it's causin' problems in our society.
- A lot of problems.
People don't realize you can get neck pain
from it you can also get shoulder pain from this.
- Alright, and goin' down the arm.
- And going down the arm, right.
Pain down the arm.
- Right, from the pinched nerves,
the nerves from your neck go all the way down your arms
and that's how that all works out.
- You could also get thoracic outlet syndrome
from bad posture.
- There you go it goes on and on and you know
the big thing that's really promoting it now
is what we do in our daily life from texting,
using our smartphone, looking at a computer,
drivin' our car, sitting in soft furniture
that promotes all this slouching and the head
naturally goes forward.
- And once you train your body to be like this,
then when you stand up and walk it's gonna stay that way too
'cause that feels normal to you.
- Right.
- So you're gonna be walkin' like this all the time.
- Right we're literally training our bodies
to be out of posture by our daily habits.
- Right.
- So we need to fight against that and Bob and I,
we are on the good fight.
- We're on the brink--
- There you go.
- Of disaster.
No we're on the brink of good things.
- Okay so in bed, in the morning,
the first thing we're gonna talk about
how you address this laying down in bed,
how you can address it seated,
and how you can address it standing.
So we'll start out in a...
Laying on your back or supine position.
- Good, you want me to lay down then?
- Yeah go ahead Bob, I'm getting these.
- Since you're talkin'.
- Yeah, yup I'm babblin' away.
- So this works out really well if you have a rolled towel.
- Right.
- And you can do this on the floor also
but you can do it in bed.
- Yup.
- You could actually probably, I don't know,
could you use a pillow?
Maybe roll up a pillow?
- Actually depends on how far your head is forward.
You could do it without a towel,
you don't have to have a towel there I've done it without.
I have patients do it.
- The towel kinda makes it easier
to do. - Right.
- And it also makes it easier to see what I'm doing.
- Right especially with the camera.
Go ahead, so he's gonna do a chin tuck.
- Does that show up?
- Can you see that?
- So I'm tryin' not to put my chin down to my chest
or my chin up like that, I'm tryin' to just back it up
into the mattress.
Bascially--
- What I tell my patients, I'll put my hand back here
and I say, "Can you feel my fingers here
"I want you to see if you can touch my fingers
"with that part of your neck."
And that kinda gives a person a good idea
where they're movin' things.
Or tuck your chin into your throat without...
While you're keeping your teeth gently touching.
- And we actually have people a lot of times
do overpressure on chin tucks.
- Right, yep.
- If you've been doin' 'em for a while,
you can take a couple fingers and push your chin in.
And this stretches out the back of your neck,
helps with headaches, helps with neck pain.
And then also you can take this little,
between the thumb and the first finger.
- Yup.
- And you can push it like that
and do a little overstretching.
- Now as far as how many times, probably 10 times good.
If you do this 10 times, or if you hold it for 10,
15 seconds you can reduce repetitions
but that's gonna be enough while you're layin' there,
get up and go on with the rest of the day.
And then when you go to the seated position.
- It's a great start to the day.
- Yeah.
- You're starting off in good posture and now...
- You're gonna eat breakfast?
Well then you throw a few in there.
- There we go, right before I eat my cereal.
- First thing you wanna do is
you need to go in good posture.
So you're gonna scooch your bottom back in the chair,
shoulders back, and bring that head up where it belongs.
- Ears should be aligned over the shoulders.
- Right, if you have head-forward posture
and it's so stuck that you cannot get there,
you really need to do this even more.
'Cause we're gonna straighten it out.
Could you show that Bob?
- Yup, sure can.
- We're gonna go back up into that position and--
- It's like someone's throwin' a pie
in your face and you're like...
Get away from it.
- Mhmm.
And again, ten repetitions, at just a slow pace
so it's like hold, and relax.
Hold and relax.
And again, you can add some overpressure,
gently pushing on the chin
and you should feel that stretch back behind your head.
Again if for some reason this creates some sharp pain
or somethin' that doesn't feel other than a normal stretch,
something else maybe goin' you wanna stop.
But very few people are gonna have that I think.
- We also use the cue pressure on, pressure off.
- Yup.
- If you wanna know how long to do it
you actually say the words.
Pressure on, pressure off.
- Right and another little cue on this
if you want to add you can do a little massage.
'Cause these muscles here often times get tight
and if you massage this area right where the muscles connect
to your skull that occipit bone, loosen those up
and then do this and that can give you some better
range of motion.
- That you might move even further than you did.
- Right, exactly.
And it feels good too Bob.
- That's right.
- Good for headaches.
- It generally is gonna help ward off headaches
and it's also gonna feel if you have a headache
it may tampen it down a little bit so.
- Sure, right.
All this stuff works together you know,
the head forward posture and all these other problems
that you may have.
- So now you're gonna still show the standing position Brad?
- Yup.
So you don't have to go up against the wall
but I'm gonna demonstrate this against the wall
because if you put your bottom against the wall,
your shoulders and bring your shoulders back.
And then you're gonna see if you can
touch the back of your head to the wall.
But not doing this, that doesn't count.
It has to be with the chin towards the throat
and it's a little bit harder to talk this way,
a little harder to breathe this way.
But if you feel that then you're doin' the right thing.
And again, you can add a little over pressure and relax.
Stretch and relax.
And the thing I like about this is,
Bob and I have talked about this before,
is when you leave the wall,
try and maintain that posture, okay?
- It's also kind of a guide for you
to know how you're doing.
- Right.
- So if you compare yourself day to day,
if you're far, if you're not touchin' the wall,
am I getting closer?
Or am I havin' a couple bad days
where I'm farther away now so I need to spend more time
doing chin tucks.
- Sure, right.
I mean I've worked with some older people, in general,
that their head is so far forward--
- It's so fixated.
- Yeah, I really don't think they're ever
gonna get their head back again
because they've aged and the aging process of the body.
- Yeah.
- But if you're in your 20s and 30s
and you're havin' a hard time getting the head to the wall,
you're young enough and if you work with it
it's gonna correct.
- Yeah.
The body will still have the adaptability at that point--
- Right.
- That you can move back, so.
- Now this is one of the things that's absolute must
is you have to monitor, self-monitor or have your friends
or family look at you and say,
"If you got bad posture let me know."
Because workin' at a computer,
if you're focused on your work,
you don't even realize you're over like this sometimes.
- I've had young people that actually told me Brad,
that like I'll have 'em straighten up to like a,
"Oh that looks stupid, I look stupid."
It's like, "No, this looks bad."
- Right.
- And they don't realize
that this looks like a confident young person and you know.
- Right.
- [Bob] That looks a lot better, more attractive.
- [Brian] Oh right.
- [Bob] Then a person who's like this.
- Right and not even to mention all the health benefits
you get with good posture.
I had about a 10 or 12 year old boy,
he came in with a shoulder problem with his father
and he sat like this.
And I said, "You've gotta straighten up."
And first of all he says, "That feels really weird."
- Right, that's exactly right they think that looks stupid.
- I went through the whole thing on the benefits
and told his father and he came in again a second time,
again, workin' on his arm and shoulder
and he's sittin' like this.
And I made him sit up and I emphasized it really strongly.
And he never came back.
(Bob laughing)
I think the father thought,
why is he workin' with my son's posture,
when the shoulder's the problem.
And I thought I made it clear that if you don't have this,
this isn't gonna--
- It might have been another reason too Brad
that they didn't come back.
- I don't but--
- But it is interesting,
I mean if we don't solve the root problem,
you're not gonna solve the problem of shoulder pain.
- Right, right.
- I mean if you can fix it for a while,
but it's gonna come right back again.
- Right and there's so many other benefits.
I just felt it was my responsibility as a therapist
to teach him that, and I wasn't gonna back off.
- Right.
- And I didn't.
- No and--
- So he left.
(Brian laughing)
- Again, who knows, maybe some other reason came on, right?
You know, they didn't like your looks
or somethin' like that.
- Well yeah, it might've been somethin' of that nature.
- Alright remember we can fix just about anything--
- Except for,
- A broken heart.
- There you go Bob.
- But we keep workin' on it, apparently,
but yet we're not getting anywhere.
- No we're getting somewhere Bob,
remember five years ago when we started doin' this.
- Yes.
- Yeah, we're a little farther than that.
- Okay thanks for watching.