♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ the two most famous ♪
♪ physical therapists ♪
♪ on the Internet ♪
(clapping)
- 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 own opinion, of course, Bob.
- Today, Brad, we're going to talk about
how does an inversion table,
teetering or hanging upside down,
in parenthesis,
help back pain.
And you're, you're gonna run the show today.
- Right. I used to use one of these. Uh,I did--
- To some success, right?
- Right. I did some research with it.
I think they can be a good instrument to use for back pain.
- Kinda' adjunct, right?
- Right. So we're gonna talk about that and then at the end,
there are some people who definitely should not be using it.
- Yeah, there's--
- There's high risk.
And we'll get into that, as well.
- So you're gonna want to stick around to the end
to make sure that you fall, don't fall in that category.
- Exactly.
- These ones that should use it.
By the way, if you're new to our channel,
please take a second to subscribe to us.
We provide videos on how to stay healthy, fit,
pain free, and we upload every day.
Also, you want join us on our social media channels.
Today, I know we're giving away some of our t-shirts
and stuff like that.
- [Brad] Oh, wonderful!
- And maybe, I don't know, maybe one of our mugs.
We've got our ugly mugs on the mug, right?
- There ya go. I like that.
- Yeah, so, join us on,
go to bobandbrad.com and go to our giveaways section.
It's always listed there.
You can also go to Facebook Bob and Brad.
It's always pinned to the top of the page.
- Okay, good, join us.
- Excellent.
Okay, inversion table.
Some people call it teetering. Uh,
It's basically hanging upside down, but what it really
is doing is putting traction on the lumbar spine.
It's just a different way about going about it. It's like--
- There's actually devices that you can buy that
will perform traction on you.
- Right, without hanging upside down.
- Um, this- oh, now I lost my train of thought!
- I just completely- this is my fault. I cut him off.
- That's okay. But anyways,
hanging, teetering.
We just did decompression. That's it.
- This could also be called decompression.
We've got a video out that's going crazy with that, as well.
- Yeah.
- So, how it work and why does it work?
The theory is. Now, we're gonna look at this first.
- Okay.
- We don't have an inversion table here,
but we really don't need one to explain how they work.
- Here we have, the blue part is the frame of them.
Here's the floor. And, this-
I'm an artist, Bob.
- [Bob] I see that. You can see, it's a very prominent--
Artist in your own mind, in your own time.
- Leonardo Da Vinci Heinek. Anyways,
so, 60 degrees is where I used to always go.
Inversion, totally. I always say that is a,
you put your body at quite a bit of a, a risk.
- [Bob] Stress.
- I would never do that
the first time you get on there. For sure.
- [Bob] Sure.
- I would always start here and you know you can look
at the instructions on the, at least the one I had,
that came with it. They talked about total inversion.
I never went that far. I didn't need it.
I had plenty of traction at about 60 degrees.
- [Bob] You got relief at that level.
- Right. So let's look at what's happening with the spine,
when you invert and you get that gravity pulling
on your lumbar spine,
because you've got the weight of your trunk
your arms and your head, which is over 50%
of your body weight, in most cases,
working on that lumbar spine. So lets take the--
- [Bob] So, you want the spine first?
- Well, let's look at the spine first.
- So, obviously, we all have the spine.
You got the trunk, and the head. And, if we invert,
maybe, we can get up a little closer here, Bob, and-
- Liz, are ya- are we doing okay?
So, we'll look at the red disk.
That just represents that's the area of problem.
Where there's a disk, herniation, and we're gonna
do a nice demo on this, too. So, if you're hanging
and it pulls... Are you able to see the separation?
I'm gonna...We're just get a little separation in there,
and there's actually, extra space.
Now, this isn't exactly how it happens in the human body
but you get the idea.
The traction, the weight of the body,
puts the traction on there. Liz, you're looking... Okay.
(Liz is speaking inaudibly in the background)
- [Bob] So, you can also, you know,
because you're even opening the frame in it a little bit.
- [Brad] Sure.
- [Bob] Uh, and there's capsules around there,
whatever you call it, that you can stretch them
a little bit.
- [Brad] Sure. And you'll get the muscles in the area.
- [Bob] Right. There all gonna lengthen, too.
- [Brad] And you need to learn how to use these.
When you're inverted, you need to learn to relax
and let the muscles relax.
That doesn't happen right away for most people,
but most people catch on to it pretty quick,
I have a feeling.
- Got 'cha.
- So, if we look at the two vertebrae
and the disk that is causing the problem,
this represents the disc. Here's L4.
We'll call this one L4 and L5.
And, if you have a bulging disc, like this,
- [Bob] A bulging or a herniated disc.
- [Brad] Yep. Do you see that? Okay. Now,
if that's like that, when you put that traction on,
on the inversion table, the idea is that it pulls up
and allows that herniation or that bulge to centralize
or go back in where it belongs,
taking the pressure off the nerve. Therefore, less pain.
So, I always tell people,
if you're gonna use one,
you should get- experience immediate relief
while you're inverted.
- Right.
- And, throughout the whole time.
And, then, when you get done with it, you get off the table.
You should continue to feel relief.
- Hopefully, you have some carryover.
- Right. Some carryover. On the other hand,
if you get off the table and it hurts,
and it's like, "Oh, I'm not sure if that helped",
I would not even consider it.
- Right. 'Cause what, what, you know, what is it
worthwhile to get relief only while you're on it?
- Right.
- You wanna have some carryover time.
- And, it could make it worse. If, if it does make it worse,
then it's a red flag.
- Yeah, then it could be something else
besides a disc problem.
- Right. Mm-hmm.
- You know? And, that's something that doesn't feel good
to have it stretched, so--
- Exactly.
- So listen to your body. It's one of those things
that should feel good while you're doing it,
and, then, some carryover.
- Right.
- And I'll give a little word of a caution:
When I first got my table,
I tried it out in the store first.
And, it's like, I tilted back. Oh, it felt good,
so I bought it. Took it home. And, uh,
I did it again and I went for five minutes at 60 degrees.
It was feeling good. Well, I-
the longer the better, I thought!
- Yeah, that's right.
- Well, I got off there and had a headache
for the rest of the night.
- Wow.
- So, then I went to 30 seconds.
I went up to uh, 60 seconds.
And, then I went 2, 3 minutes at the most.
And, I'd get all, temporary relief.
In other words, it, it'd feel good while I was on it,
and it would last a little bit longer throughout the day,
but my back would come back.
And that's exactly what the studies show.
It's shows temporary relief, but, for me it was worth it.
- When you say temporary, how many hours?
- Oh, I'd say after I get off of it. You know,
if I did it in the evening, it'd carry into the evening.
You know I'd go to bed and I'd still have relief.
- So that's pretty good relief.
- Yeah, it would be a couple of hours, typically.
- Sure, and Brad has Spondylolisthesis.
- Right.
- And, um, you have anything else? Do you have spinal--
- Well, a little stenosis.
- Stenosis. Yeah.
- I, I don't have a bulging disc. But, either way,
you know, if you got back pain the rules are the same.
If it works, use it. If it doesn't give relief, do not.
- And learn from his mistake of don't
completely invert too long for the first time.
- Right. Which leads us into the big, red flags
of precautions when you do not even want to consider this,
is, and this is, I, I found this in a number of,
uh, studies and literature.
- Got 'cha.
- And I'm gonna take it from Doctor Edmund Laskowski.
He's from the Mayo Clinic here in Rochester.
- Alright.
- Um, this is a paraphrase from a couple paragraphs
that he wrote. Uh,
- Sure. You're summarizing.
- Yep, summarizing. He did, concurred,
with the temporary relief.
- He didn't say you shouldn't use it.
He said temporary relief.
- Temporary relief.
- It's not a long term thing.
- Uh, number two, if you have cardiac problems,
high blood pressure, any type of cardiac issues,
you're probably gonna not want to do it.
- Well, I definitely want to get it approved
by your doctor.
- Right. Exactly.
- Your cardiologist, because,
you don't want to mess with that.
- Right. I, I would just stay away from it.
- I, I would, too.
- But, if, if you want to call a doctor,
that would be a good idea- you know, a must.
Uh, because what happens. Your heart rate slows down.
Your blood pressure goes up, naturally,
when you invert. It's just the natural response
of the body.
- So, if you're at risk, if you're at risk already,
for a heart issue, I mean. You don't want to make it worse.
- Yeah. Exactly.
- And, in my case, I got the headache
when I inverted too long.
Um, and then, if you got glaucoma,
or some problems with your eyes.
What happens when you invert,
the pressure in your eyeballs actually goes up.
So, if there's an issue or you've got, uh, a lesion
or some kind of health problem with your eyes.
That's a big, red flag, as well. Do not work with it there.
- All makes sense.
- Right.
- Yep. So, uh, and the other thing, once again,
the full inversion. You know, I've always wondered.
You know, you have to trust mechanics
that it's gonna hold your ankles in there.
Because, if your feet slip out of there
and you don't put 'em in properly, you land on your head.
- Yeah. Down you go.
- Yeah. That could be a major problem.
- I wonder what there incidents of problems
like that are?
- I've always wondered about that.
- I mean, obviously, obviously, if you're fully inverted,
you are gonna get a little more traction.
- Right. Oh, I agree with it. But, I-
- But, is it worth the, the extra risk?
- Well, 'cause got plenty of re..tr.-
you know, at 60 degrees. Um,
another thing is they'll show you on the video is,
when you're hanging fully inverted,
to do twisting...
- Yeah, I wouldn't do that.
- and kind of sit ups.
Then, they're saying it's gonna loosen up the muscles.
But if you got back pain, and you're inverted,
and you go traction and then you introduce
some more stress, I would- I won't do it.
- I would highly recommend against that.
- Yep. So, that-
I think that should answer everyone's questions,
hopefully, about inversion tables.
We've got another video that goes into more, uh-
- How to use it.
- Yeah, how to use it. Right. A little more detail.
- Uh, so you can go to Bob and Brad inversion table,
and that'll pop up, as well. So...
- Very good.
- Now, Bob you think this fits into our...
- Yeah, Brad and I can fix just about anything.
- Except for..
- A broken heart.
- But, I don't think this gonna fit.
- No. This might be worse on the heart.
- Yeah. I don't know what to say.
- It's worse on a broken heart.
- Well, good luck anyways.
- Thanks for watching.
(music beats)