♪ Bob and Brad, ♪
♪ the two most famous physical therapists ♪
♪ on the internet. ♪
- Hi folks, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- And together we're the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- In our opinion, of course, Bob.
And Bob, today we are absolutely so lucky
to have somebody that's actually good looking
on our program.
- Right, right. - This episode is definitely-
- We're bringing a little class
to our program.
- Exactly.
This is my wife, Julie
and she's gonna help us out
with this shoulder episode.
But before we get farther,
we need to talk about this.
- Right, we are giving away
a full size mattress.
This is a sample of one.
It's actually a sleep-efficient mattress.
It's at 700 tiny mattresses
and it's got air channels
which makes it really cool.
- Cool, yes.
- And cool in temperature.
- Yeah, and they'll send it
right to your house, no cost.
And Julie and I absolutely love ours, don't we?
- We do, yes, it's great.
- And I love ours. - That's right.
- Better than ours, better than yours.
All right, I'm gonna step off to the side.
I'll comment once in a while.
- Yes, yeah, chime in, Bob, chime in.
Come on over here, Julie, please.
Yeah, don't be afraid.
- [Bob] Don't be afraid to sit by that man.
- Okay, so we're talking about
shoulder and arm pain release.
So we're gonna offer a little bit
of pull in traction
in a gentle manner to help it,
your shoulder and arm,
increase range of motion.
If you have a problem
lifting your arm up,
say after injury,
and it's been in sling for a while,
frozen shoulder, if it's in the thawing phase,
and you can't get it up
and you need a way to stretch it.
And actually, if you have injury
like carpal tunnel surgery
where your hand was down a little bit,
you can get some tightness in here
and you can also have tightness all the way
up into the shoulder.
So you may do it as far as after that.
So, the whole goal of this exercise, Julie,
is to relax your muscles.
So if muscles are tight, they don't work as well.
So, hopefully we can get your muscles to relax.
- [Bob] You're hoping to stretch the fascia, right, Brad?
- Yeah, that was the third goal.
- [Bob] Oh, gotcha.
- We're gonna get the fascia released
and that's why we're doing it
in the manner that we are.
And then, sometimes the nerves
can get bound up in there.
We want to loosen those up.
- [Bob] Do a little flossing, almost.
- There you go, exactly.
So this is kinda like flossing
but we're cheating a little bit.
- [Bob] Gotcha.
- It's a little easier for the layperson.
These stretches should only take two minutes.
- [Bob] Gotcha.
- Once you do them.
The video's going to take more
than two minutes, though.
So I don't want to hear-
- [Bob] Surprise, surprise. - Yeah.
Anybody who's saying,
"Oh, two minute video.
"Two minute exercise
"took 10 minutes."
Anyways, shall we carry on?
- Yes.
- Okay, Julie is here.
She's going to do the third exercise.
It actually takes two people.
I'm going to show the first two.
But, can we listen,
Julie has an interesting shoulder by the way.
I mean, they're beautiful of course
but this one actually has notable crepitus or clunks.
And go ahead.
Let's see if we can...
- [Bob] I'll see if I can hear from here.
- Yeah, go ahead.
- [Bob] Yep. (shoulder cracking)
- Ooh. - [Bob] Right there.
- Okay. I'm going to get close.
I'm not going to kiss you, Julie.
Just so the microphone is there, go ahead.
(shoulder cracking)
- [Bob] It's on the way down.
- One more time, do it again.
(shoulder cracking)
- [Bob] Yep, I can hear it really well.
- It's clear?
Tanner says that he can hear it through the mic.
So, some people might get pretty nervous about that.
And what we always talk about is
if your joints
or your shoulder in this case, clunks,
and there's no pain associated with it, you're okay.
You don't have to go to see the doctor.
So how long has yours been clunking, Julie, years?
- Yeah. - Yeah.
And you're active.
She does all kinds of exercises.
She's at the bootcamp, this exercise place.
And you just let it clunk away and life is okay.
- Yes.
- But we're going to stretch that shoulder out anyways
because it's the one you can see.
So you stay right there.
The first thing I'm going to show,
if you don't have a partner to help you out
these are the first two.
The last one,
you need someone to help you stretch.
- [Bob] Right.
- So this is assuming
you can get your arm up to here
before it gets tight
somewhere in this area.
You take, if you got a broomstick,
we use the Booyah Stik.
They work really well.
A piece of doweling,
anything that's four to five feet.
This is five feet, actually works good.
Put it down here
so it doesn't slip on the floor.
You may do it on carpet
if you don't have a rubber tip.
And you bring your hand up to here
and you go forward.
And as you lean forward
it's actually pulling on my arm
and stretching it.
Offering that traction.
- [Bob] You get a little traction, right?
This works really well.
We call it,
Brad calls it the Statue of Liberty.
- Yeah, 'cause you're like that.
It's amazing,
it doesn't really look
like you're doing much - [Bob] No, it doesn't.
- It's a lot of,
a lot of leverage here that's going on.
- [Bob] But, Brad, I had people start low.
- Yeah.
- [Bob] 'Cause they can't go any higher,
and then creep up the, you know,
walk up the stick with their hand.
- You have to go like that.
- [Bob] Yeah.
- You can use the other and get it up and that stretch-
- [Bob] But they come back
after doing this for a week
and they're so proud of themselves.
'Cause they-
- They're up here
when they started here
and all of a sudden
they can start doing this without pain
and better range of motion.
So that is that.
If it creates sharp pain
you're going too hard,
too aggressive.
Do not do it, okay?
Just stretch it to that.
A gentle stretch-pain, if you will.
And this is a nice technique, but it's a-
- [Bob] Be kind your shoulder.
- Pardon?
- [Bob] Be kind to your shoulder.
- Yeah, be kind, take time with it.
If you have a pull-up bar,
anything you can grab up above your head.
I'm going to use our hanging handles here.
It works very well.
I'm just going to grab here
and I'm going to
give a little stretch like this.
Now you might, you hold it,
and you may hold it 15 seconds, 20 seconds.
Maybe only a few seconds
when you get started.
Again, no sharp pain,
just gentle stretch-pain.
You might turn your body
to get a different stretch-
- [Bob] Angle. - Yep.
Test your good arm first.
And then do the other one.
They should be, you know, in theory, the same.
You want to make them the same.
And again, you're not going to
spend more than two minutes here.
Actually, the first time you may spend 20-30 seconds
and it's tight and a little sore.
Give it a break and then go back to it.
You can do this daily.
- [Bob] You're stretching a lot of structures here.
- You are. - [Bob] Including fascia.
- Yep, fascia.
You got up in the shoulder. - [Bob] The joint.
- Yep, all the way down.
And you're doing some back
because you got the latissimus dorsi that kind of-
- [Bob] And the fascia extends down into the-
- Yeah, that's why it's such a nice, overall stretch.
Okay, so.
Now number three, let's go on.
Julie is going to assist me here.
Now, at home, because you probably don't have
a massage table or a plinth,
you can do this on a bed
if the bed's not too low,
or depends on how tall the person is.
So on the edge of the bed,
this is Julie's clunky shoulder
and we're going to stretch it a little bit
and see if we can make it less clunky.
- [Bob] Sure.
- Oh, okay.
So on this one, palm will be up, okay?
Julie's job is to completely relax her arm.
And this can be a little challenging for some people.
If this person does not feel comfortable with this person,
this technique isn't going to work.
'Cause they won't relax.
They're afraid that,
if you don't trust this person.
So make sure you have someone you trust.
And now if I let go
Julie's hand,
her hand should drop down.
There, yeah.
And a lot of people have-
- [Bob] Really, she trusts you?
- Yeah, I think so.
Do you trust me dear?
- I do. - Okay, there you go.
Now, Julie, I want you to give me feedback.
I'm going to, palm is up.
My thumb goes here.
The other thumb goes here.
I'm going to splay the palm open.
- [Bob] Sure.
- That gets the fascia opened up
and that should feel good.
You're doing okay?
- [Julie] Yes.
- Julie did have carpal tunnel surgery on here last year.
- [Bob] On that hand?
- It's very successful.
And naturally, I actually didn't do this technique.
But I did some other stuff.
I worked with you, dear right?
I helped you recover.
- [Julie] Yes. - [Bob] We'll say so.
(Brad laughs)
- Don't be shy.
Look right at him and tell him yes.
- [Bob] Don't lie.
- He did a great job.
- So I'm going to pull with my body weight.
And does that hurt?
- No. - Okay.
So I'm just, it's not a big pull, gentle pull.
It should not hurt.
It should feel like a good stretch.
And I'm going to hold it up here.
You may have it down here
but for the camera viewing
we're going to do it up here.
You go whichever angle
feels good for the person.
- [Bob] Right.
It should be most comfortable for-
- Yeah, and then you just simply, slowly go up.
It should take about 90 seconds
to two minutes
to get from here.
I'm going to speed it up.
And you just hold that tension.
It's a lot of work for me, actually.
Not a lot, but it is.
And you go up-
- [Bob] And you're pulling out the whole time?
- Yes, yes, exactly.
Julie, can you tell me
when it starts to feel like I'm high enough?
Should not be painful.
- [Bob] She's got a lot of range.
- Feels great.
- Yeah, and she's doing very well.
So this is normal range of motion.
And then you can go back down.
It depends how tired you get.
The whole thing should take no more than two minutes.
Now, some people
that have a problem,
they're gonna pull
and you might find when you get about to here,
start developing pain.
It might be in the shoulder.
If it's a nerve issue,
might be numbness or tingling down the arm
or anything that feels uncomfortable.
Do not force it at all.
You bump up to that pain.
"Eh, it's hurting a little bit.
"Julie's telling me-"
- [Bob] Can you go back down, or away?
- Yep, then you go back down.
- [Bob] Yep, gotcha.
- Just like a normal stretch.
- [Bob] Sure.
- And then you can work that again.
My hands are getting tired already.
And that's normal.
That's a good thing.
How are you doing, Julie?
- Feels great.
- Does it feel good?
- Yeah, no pain.
- [Bob] So if the arm pops out,
you just pop it back in like a Barbie doll?
- Yeah, yeah.
If it dislocate, the shoulder joint.
- [Bob] I'd like to say,
you wouldn't do this on a total shoulder?
- Nope. - [Bob] Replacement.
And you wouldn't do this on somebody that has-
- Hypermobility?
- [Bob] It would be hypermobility.
- Yeah, if you did, it would be real gentle.
You don't want to dislocate it.
And some of those people dislocate easy.
Now, otherwise I might be down here.
- [Bob] Right, it might feel better down there to her.
- This is what I do in a clinic.
I get on one of these
and then I can sit
and get it at this level.
- [Bob] Sure.
- And I roll up,
but, you know,
very few people have that available at home.
- [Bob] Right.
- And it's not necessary, just is helpful.
All right, Julie, what do you think?
Tell 'em, that you got to, you just-
- I got to get up.
- [Bob] So often, would you find
that you would increase
the range of motion by doing that?
The person's range?
- Right, right.
And oftentimes I'd have to do it with an impingement.
I've done it that way, too.
- [Bob] It helps that.
- Yeah, yep. - [Bob] Gotcha.
- And again, if it feels good, if it helps,
particularly the next day,
you're going to do it every day,
but you should wait until the next day
before you repeat it
to give it that 24 hour cycle.
- [Bob] Gotcha.
- How you doing, Julie?
- Good. - Let's see.
You got the clunking yet?
- Little bit. - Still there.
(Brad laughs)
- [Bob] Ah, might be a snappy tendon.
- Yeah, it's okay.
It's functional clunking.
- [Bob] Yeah, that's right.
- All right.
Good luck with those shoulders.
Give Julie a hand for helping out.
- [Bob] Yeah, thanks, Julie.
(hands clapping)
(electronic noise)
(long silence)