- So, Brad and I are gonna
show you- - Yes.
- Three safe exercises for sciatica.
- That's right, Bob.
- So, stick around.
♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
- So, let's pretend you have sciatica
down your right leg, Brad.
- Okay, right here it is.
Without my shoe, that's gonna be how I remember it.
- Quite often, what might be happening is the right side
of the body is tight and it's causing the compression.
- So, if these muscles here are tight,
it's throwing the back off. - Right,
it's squeezing the bones together.
- Yep.
- So, we wanna take 'em apart.
(both chuckle) - Reverse that tightness.
- Decompression. - Loosen it up.
- So, one way to do that is to use a stick.
You could use a broomstick or a Booyah Stik.
- Yeah, piece of doweling. - Or PVC pipe.
- PVC.
- So, I would grab as high I can
and I'm gonna lean forward and it stretches this whole side.
- Right, right in there.
You can see it stretch his clothing right there.
The same thing, the muscles are doing the same thing.
You need to have a rubber pad on the end of the stick.
If you don't that's okay.
Just use a shoe
'cause you don't want it slipping around
on the chair. - Yeah, you could
unhook your broomstick.
- Yep, just put your shoe there.
Then it will stick the way it needs to and get that stretch.
- And you don't let the hand slide down.
- Yeah.
No good. - No.
- I remember, I showed this to a patient,
I didn't emphasize that.
And he came back three days later and he's going like this.
It's not working! - Not working.
- Yeah, I didn't do a very good job at teaching.
- All right, we'll go on to number two.
(air whooshing)
- I know there's gonna be some questions about this.
People are gonna ask, "Well,
how long do I hold this stretch?"
You know, it's gonna be anywhere from three to five
to 10 seconds, depending how it responds.
If it creates pain then-
- Don't do it. - Don't do it.
Particularly if the pain down the leg gets worse.
So, only do it if it feels like a good stretch,
let's go to number two.
- All right, Brad this might be
the easiest exercise in history.
(Brad chuckles)
You just lie on your stomach. - Yes.
- And you can actually take one fist
to put it under your chin or two.
And what we're trying to do is coax
that disc back into place
or to take the pressure off your nerve.
- Right.
So, if you can lie on your stomach good.
Then you're gonna start with one or two fists.
It's like when you're a kid watching TV.
- Yeah. - That's how it is.
- If you can't, you could start
with a pillow under your abdomen.
- Absolutely right.
And yeah, again, you're gonna hold this for a few minutes.
As that relaxes and releases,
you'll feel the leg pain improve, particularly the leg pain.
(air whooshing)
- So, with this final exercise,
we're trying to do the same thing.
We're trying to coax the disc back into place.
- Right, get it to-
- We're also trying to get some movement in the back.
- We call that reducing.
We're gonna reduce that disc.
- So, I'm gonna move my back up.
- [Brad] Arch.
- My head down, my pelvis up,
and then I go the opposite way.
- [Brad] Some people call it the cat camel.
- Right.
- [Brad] But we really don't know what's the camel
and what's the cat. - We got another name for it.
- Yeah, so, whatever you want.
But this is the motion that you're going to do
and do it like Bob is doing, not too fast, not too slow.
If you go up to certain level, it starts to hurt.
Don't push it. - Don't do it.
We're not into pain.
- Yep, no pain, no gain
is not the philosophy you want to follow.
We just wanna follow pain free or relative pain free range
of motion and allow it to loosen up.
So, if any of these exercise again, create pain
or make things worse, don't do it, go to the next one.
You may only find one of these three that help it out.
That's the one you'll work with.
(air whooshing)
- All right, Brad, what should we mention?
- Right, if you have sciatica,
you're working on it with these exercises
and you want some more options and more details.
We have an outstanding library of videos called Programs,
go to bobandbrad.com.
That's our website and this is completely free.
We don't even ask for your email.
Go to Programs, click on Sciatica.
- We got 40 videos. - 40 videos.
- On sciatica. - Every video
has a PDF printout of exercises and a review of that video.
It's just a wonderful way
to improve your knowledge and get better.
- Get rid of that manic disease.
- Manic disease, whoa, Bob,
you've been studying over the weekend.
It's very good.
It is a nasty thing to have and we want to help you out.
(bouncy music ends)