♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
- Hi, folks.
I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- Together we are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- In our opinion of course, Bob.
- Today, we're gonna show you how to lift with neck pain.
This may not be real apparent to you.
But when you have a problem with your neck, as far as pain,
you can make it worse by lifting incorrectly
or lifting heavy loads.
- I've actually injured my neck from lifting.
- Oh, did you really? - Yeah, yup.
And as I...
a couple of times actually.
And it was because of the way the muscles are.
Upper trap, I believe, connecting there.
And it was a one-sided lift.
- Everything tightens up. - Yeah.
- And it strains when you're lifting objects.
So we've just got some tips here.
They're not illuminating, I don't think,
but they might help you.
Something to think about.
So number one, the neck should be aligned.
Ears over the shoulders.
You don't wanna be lifting like this.
Come forward like this and like this.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
I was gonna show the show the Booyahs together.
- Should we show the-
- Might as well show it now.
- proper alignment?
- In good time. - Oh, you're gonna do this.
Okay. - Yup.
So I don't wanna be like this.
- Big gap here, no good.
- Yup.
You want the head like that.
And keep it all aligned.
The whole spine.
- Yep.
- And this is a good thing to practice with.
- Switch arms once, Bob.
There we go.
- I always do the wrong arm.
- Well, actually it worked out this way, both ways.
So it's touching here too.
Here, here and here.
- Yeah, three points.
- Yup, and that's gonna ensure you got good alignment.
So just walk around with one of these all the time.
- Well, it's really good to practice with.
- It is.
- It's good for your low back
and it's good for your entire spine.
- Yep.
- Number two,
this really is pretty obvious,
is you wanna lighten the load, if it'd be possible.
If you can break it into phases,
if possible, do so.
Even grocery bags.
- Right, I was gonna say have your wife do it
if nothing else.
(Bob laughs)
Or the children,
- That's right. - whatever.
No, but seriously-
- I have gotten more to that now, where I ask my son
when he comes over, I'll have stuff for him to do.
When you get to six-zero, you got to start asking for help.
- But yeah, or just instead of taking two loads,
just take one load - Right.
- or three or four loads - Exactly.
- in and out of the car and that kind of thing.
- Yeah, if it's too heavy, you ask for assistance.
You're not doing yourself any favors.
- Well, one thing I do, is I have a two-wheeled cart.
- Oh.
- I never would think of it before.
And now if I get-
- Use it all the time.
When you're lifting
it really helps to have your feet wide apart.
So you have a nice base too.
I know that's more kind of for low back pain.
- Well, all connected.
- It's hard to keep your spine aligned real well
if your feet are narrow like this.
I'm gonna go like this
and everything's gonna round out more
where it's a lot easier to...
- Your balance is so much better.
I've had many, many people.
I sent with lifting instructions
and I'll observe them first.
And so many times
- Their feet are too narrow.
- their feet will be close together.
I stop him immediately.
And I say get your base out wide.
- Have you heard of...
Mike, have you heard of...
I wanna talk to our cameraman too.
Have you heard of sumo squats?
- Oh
- So that's a real wide base too, I take it.
Yeah, maybe sumo deadlifts too. (indistinct)
I heard of sumo squats.
That's what my son's doing now, he said.
- So this boils down to a wide base?
- A wide base.
- Okay. - Right, yeah.
The other thing is you wanna keep the objects
as close to you as possible.
If you think about pure physics here,
the more an object is out further away from the body,
- Out this way.
- the larger strain is gonna be on the arm
and the muscles that support the arm,
which go up into trapezius and the neck.
- Five pounds is easy to hold here.
You get it out there and it multiplies many times over.
- So yeah, wet babies or garbage.
It's tough to keep those close (Brad laughs)
but you might take another garbage bag
and put it next to you.
Number six, lift with large muscles of the legs
and glutes and the quads.
That's always the case.
You wanna get the object and then lift like that.
You don't wanna go like that.
- Sure, yeah.
Especially with that neck.
That's when you get those upper traps really involved
and other things that are connected.
- Avoid twisting your back or neck while you're lifting.
If you have to put something over here,
turn your whole body and put it over here.
And the other one which you warn people not to do,
continuously, is don't reach in the back seat
and grab something and pull it in the front,
which I do all the time.
I don't listen to my own advice.
- Yeah, you gptta put one of those glass,
plexiglass shields - Yeah, I know.
- between the front and the back seat.
So that you'll go like this,
and you'll bump into it with your elbow.
- Number eight, we kind of covered already.
The spine should be in alignment.
I wanted to finish with that
because it's the most important thing.
And so this is gonna be a short video, Brad.
This video, by the way, is a part of a series of videos
on neck pain which you can find at bobandbrad.com.
Go to the program section and look for neck pain.
You're gonna find multiple videos there.
Watch the ones that pertain to you.
- Right, so you'll do that.
The titles will be fairly clear.
You can watch that and then you'll see,
there's also a PDF printout which gives a review on paper,
you get printed out, and the exercises that we recommend.
And, we don't have exercises on this one but, and-
- It'll have the list for you. - Right.
And the beauty of this whole thing
is you can do all this, print it out,
and there's absolutely no cost.
Not even an email request.
Right, this is our gift to you from Bob and Brad.
♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
- We better, yeah.
- All right.
(gentle music)