♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
- Hi folks, I'm Bob Shrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- And we are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- In our opinion, of course, Bob.
- Today we're going to show you top three ways
to apply traction or decompression to the spine.
Back pain, sciatica.
With equipment.
- And you can do this at home.
You can purchase this equipment.
And we'll get into a little more detail on this.
- Right.
So there's three pieces of equipment
that we're gonna show today.
We're not gonna show the detail on how to use them.
If you, like for example, we'll mention it
when we go through it.
Where you can find it.
And if enough of you say
hey, we'd rather have this easily found
in the program, we could do a separate one of these.
- Yeah, we'd be happy to add that to our program.
- So the first thing you might wanna do is
do a compression test
to see if that makes your back pain worse.
If compression makes your spine worse, maybe decompression
or traction is gonna make it feel better.
So all you gotta do is sit a chair like this
and slump a little bit and then pull on the bottom pan
of the chair.
So I'm putting some compression into the spine.
If that makes your leg pain worse,
it makes your back pain worse,
then it's possible that by spreading the spine apart,
it actually might feel better.
Now we also just did a video on how to decompress the spine
for back pain without equipment.
So if you wanna try that first, you could see
if that feels better.
Then these are probably golden
if it works without equipment.
- Right.
And with that, like Bob said, you don't have
to buy any equipment.
The things you could use, a cupboard, use two chairs
and very quickly without too much problem you'll discover
if some form of traction or decompression helps.
And if that's the case, these work better
than without the equipment.
- Yes, they do.
- It's just a little easier and you can sustain it more.
- So let's go to the first piece of equipment here.
This is the Saunders traction table.
Brad and I, I actually worked
at the Saunders clinic, did you know that?
- Oh, you did?
- Yeah I did, as a student.
- Oh, 100 years ago.
- Yeah, 100 years ago.
And he was inventing the traction tables then.
He didn't have a home unit then
but he had units for the clinic.
So Brad, why don't you just briefly tell
what this is all about.
- So this actually folds up
and you can carry it around like a briefcase.
It's hard to see now but here's the hinge point
and it folds out.
Open it up anyways and there's just four straps here
that you get in and get 'em snug.
And then there's simply a little pneumatic pump
that you pump.
And right now, if you look real closely right here
where I'm pointing,
you'll see this white plastic base is moving away from me
which is pulling my pelvis away from my trunk.
- See how this gap is getting bigger?
So the lower pelvis is being pulled away
from the upper spine.
- So I can see right now, I've got about 13 pounds
of traction.
So it's a nice meter.
It's scientific that way, you can tell
how much pressure you're putting on your back.
It should feel good.
If the symptoms in your leg are decreasing, you're gold.
You know you're doing some good effects on your back
in that regard.
Again, this, it's about at least a 10 minute video
on details on how to set up on this
and there's a certain procedure on how long you're gonna be
on the first day and so on and so forth.
- Yeah.
It's a nice unit.
I sent it home with a patient, he loved it.
I mean, and I told him it's kinda heavy to carry.
And he's like, this isn't heavy.
You know, it wasn't.
- Well actually, like on the newer ones, there's wheels
that you can put on it so you can pull it around.
- Like a suitcase.
- Yeah, like in the airport.
- Yeah, sure.
Okay, so I'll go to the second one, Mike,
if you wanna follow me over here.
So these are invented by, who are those two guys, Brad?
Bob and Brad!
- Oh I thought you meant Click and Clack.
- No.
We got the hanging handles here.
So what's nice about these is
that they're less expensive, of course.
They're not that expensive.
And you can actually just, you have to be able
to secure these anchors into the wall, into a stud.
Obviously that's very important
because you don't want them to pull out.
But these handles can hold 275 pounds, I think.
- [Brad] Each.
- Each.
So you can almost have a 500 pound person hang
on these pretty safely.
So you can leave the handles off if you want
in between treatment.
And then when you're ready to treat, you just click 'em
in place like this and just, I've been using this.
I've kinda been addicted to these now, Brad.
I use these when I work at my computer
and I take my break every 20 minutes.
It just works great on posture, I get a little decompression
of the spine.
Now mine are hanging a little bit higher.
But you can actually put your legs out like this.
- [Brad] Right, well Bob's like six and 1/2 foot tall
so you gotta take that into perspective.
- But I do this and I feel my back cavitate
or you know, crack a little bit
and it just, it's a great one to do.
- [Brad] It's wonderful for your shoulders.
Again, posture.
You're getting three different benefits from that, also.
- Yeah, you're even working on your grip, too.
- Right, four benefits, so.
- All right we'll go to the third thing here.
We got the Teeter.
Brad, go ahead.
- So it's an inversion table.
Teeter is the manufacturer of this one
which we really like the quality and how they work.
And they have different grades.
This is one of their higher end ones.
And they have some other ones
that they work as well,
there's just a few different options on them.
But it'll lock your ankles in good and tight.
You'll have to adjust it
so that when you lean back, you're in complete control
and just by the movement of your arms.
So right now obviously there's no traction on my back.
I'm level, very comfortable.
And I can slowly go back.
And I can feel the traction go through my back.
I'm securely locked in my ankles.
And I'm gonna go all the way back.
And you can totally invert.
I typically say you don't need to.
- [Bob] It's set right now so you can't.
- Right, there's a strap underneath.
I can't point to it 'cause I'm moving.
- It's right here.
He's got it set so he can't, he won't invert completely.
Otherwise you could completely be, what's the word?
Butt-over-teacups?
Or how do they say?
- Yeah, head over tea kettles.
But one way or another, I used to use one of these
on a regular basis a number of years ago
and I never totally inverted and I felt I had plenty
of traction at about 60 to 70 degrees where I am now.
And I would hang out here for two to three minutes.
Do not hang out for a long period
of time, particularly initially.
I did that my first time and I got a headache
for the rest of the night.
So, too much too soon, you have to be cautious.
- Again, we have a whole video on this one, too,
if you go to Bob and Brad.
Just type in inversion table and it'll pop up.
And where we went into better detail
of how to use it, when not to use it.
Again, if you feel like we should put this as part
of the program, we'll have to redo these
and put 'em part as the program.
Again, we're.
- Right, 'cause most
of the program does not require purchase
of any large ticket items except for this one.
Because we want you to know what is available.
We have a lot of people commenting
and I've had patients as well as myself,
they work really well but it's not for everyone.
- Right, it's not.
And I had a patient that this was,
like I said, a lifesaver for him.
It just completely turned him around, so.
All right, thanks everybody for watching.
(upbeat music)