- All right,
today we're gonna go through stretching
of the low back muscles.
If you stretch 'em properly,
you can really get some nice relief.
We're gonna show you six nice and easy methods
how to stretch it.
- They should feel good.
- And they should feel good.
And it's different positions,
so it's gonna work for everyone out there.
One of, at least one of 'em will.
Hold on 9.3 seconds
and you'll hear a beautiful song about two crazy people.
♪ Bob and Brad, ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet. ♪
- Okay, just to reiterate,
we're gonna do these stretches,
standing, seated, lying down,
and actually a bonus one at the end.
- Sure.
- And also, we're gonna hold the stretches.
So it's kind of a blanket protocol,
10 to 30 seconds,
depending on how it feels.
If any of these stretches-
- Always should feel good.
- Right.
If they create pain,
particularly a sharp pain that's doesn't feel normal,
immediately stop that stretch.
- Right.
- Put it off to the side,
forget about it,
go on to the next.
They should feel good while you're doing it
and after you do it,
after you get up and walk around or whatever,
still should feel good.
Those are the rules.
- This is a feel good tale.
- Yeah.
Fuzzy wuzzies.
Okay, here we go.
Number one.
We're gonna show you the first two that'll be done
lying on your back.
These work better on a floor.
Carpeted floor works best.
You can do 'em on the bed,
the first one for sure.
And the second one,
not so well.
But anyways,
lying on your back.
This first one does work well-
- I'll do 'em on a bed.
- Yup, on the bed.
Simply relax.
You can start with one knee pulling to your chest.
See how that feels.
If it's a good experience,
try the other one.
Okay, hold that one.
And these again,
10 to 30 seconds.
If that feels good,
a little bit better stretch
is both knees and up and stretch and relax.
If you have stenosis
this typically works very good for stenosis.
Okay, if you have,
it worked at Quadratus (indiscernible) muscle,
the erector spin muscle group.
- Or tight lower back.
- Yep, exactly.
General tight low back.
Very popular stretch over the decades.
The next one,
I learned this one from a stenosis class
cuz I have stenosis on my low back.
You can take a six inch roll like this.
If you don't have one,
it doesn't have to be three foot long.
The short one works fine.
If you don't wanna do that,
take a towel, roll it up tightly,
tape it up like this so it's about six inches of diameter.
- Beach towel.
- Yup, beach towel.
Put it under there.
Now you're not gonna put it
under your back at the belt level.
- Yeah.
- That's too high up.
You need it down low below the belt a few inches.
You know, anatomically you're gonna be at the lower part
of the sacrum by your tail.
- On your butt.
- Yep.
There we go.
And what that does,
that intensifies that low back stretch.
And boy, I really enjoy this one.
If stenosis people,
if pulling your knees to your chest works well,
this will probably if that feels good,
this will probably feel better.
- It should feel good.
- Yeah.
You can do a little rocking if you want.
Relax and that's it.
We're gonna go to number three.
Okay, the third one in a quadruped,
or hands and knees position like Bob is in.
You're gonna go just like that.
Stretch down buttocks to the heels
as far is comfortable.
The hands kinda stay glued.
This can be done on the bed
or the carpeted floor as you choose.
Hold it again for the time amounted.
Now if you wanna stretch more
of the muscles on the left side,
you're going to reach over the opposite direction
with your hands,
in this case to the right
and you can get that stretch here more.
And of course,
the opposite hand position
for the opposite muscle group on the back.
All right.
That's as simple as that one is.
Okay the next one on your stomach like Bob is lying here.
You're just gonna prop up on your elbows.
We're gonna get an arch in the back.
Now if this feels very comfortable
and makes your back pain reduce,
then you're gonna hold it there.
You can do the option of doing what we call press-ups
where he keeps the hips glued
to the floor and go up and down.
Not more than 10 repetition.
Again, this is one of those things that should feel good
the longer you're up or the more repetitions.
Otherwise, don't do it.
All right, the next one where you can do it in seated
or standing we're gonna start in seated.
You need a stick, a broomstick,
a piece of PVC pipe, a piece of doling.
You're gonna put it on the floor in front of you
in a seated position-
- Or on seat.
- On the seat, exactly, good point.
It needs to not slip.
So if it's on a floor
and it's the bottom is slipping around,
simply take a shoe,
put it there and put that inside the shoe.
That'll grip well.
Reach up with your hands
as high as you can comfortably.
You're gonna hold onto it there.
Don't let it slip through your hands as you lean forward.
Now this stretches the low back
and it really gets that latissimus dorsi,
which those fibers or those muscles
do connect to the low back
and it really gets a nice fascial stretch.
Oh, stretch it.
Oh, it feels good Bob, doesn't it?
- It sure does.
- You can do this one standing.
You just if you're putting on a countertop or a chair
and again it's the same concept except for standing.
Ooh, all right.
Okay the next one,
there's two options,
seated or standing.
This is kind of an overall back stretch.
We'll show the seated position first.
Bob looking from the sagittal plane,
me from the profile.
Now when you do this,
you're gonna relax,
let your back round out,
let all those muscles.
Okay, I'm at T10, T11, T12.
That's a joke for a therapist.
Now you just go down and again,
this needs to feel good.
- You can grab your ankles.
- Yep.
I would not grab and pull really hard.
We're not doing aggressive stretches,
this is relaxing stretches.
Breathe and relax.
- No pain.
- Come back up.
If you wanna do this one standing,
again and it feels good when you do it,
otherwise don't do it,
round here at the shoulder.
So we're trying to start at the top right below the neck
the upper back rounds,
mid back, lower mid back,
upper low back, middle low back
and lower low back.
- I also wouldn't do it if you have osteoporosis.
- Right, right.
If you happen to have a herniated disc
I would probably not do it either.
- Right.
- Unless you happen to do it and it feels better
and makes your sciatica feel better,
but be cautious with that.
These are more for healthy backs maintenance.
- Right.
Bob, is there any, oh yeah, we got one more bonus.
Hold on.
Okay, you know Bob and I decided we're gonna
add a number one here.
This is gonna be actually seven little bonus information.
If you happen to have a pull-up bar,
something where you can suspend all your weight on,
we're using our pull-up system here.
If it's close to the wall,
it actually works better
cuz you can use the wall for support
and for posture and simply put some decompression
through that low back
and stretch those muscles out that way.
And the nice thing about
you don't wanna be hanging right away.
You want to be able to slowly and very controllably
decompress and stretch those muscles.
I'm about 50% weight bearing.
And you may start out there if it feels good
and you put more weight and it feels better,
then you go ahead and do it.
Typically, you don't go full weight bearing
like this right away.
It may take a few days or you may not
if it doesn't feel good.
If I hang for about 20 seconds,
I'm doing good.
If I go past 30 seconds,
then it hurts when I let off.
So I don't go too long.
Listen to your body
and stretch away.
Six nice ways and a bonus.
Oh, and actually these are really nice pull up systems.
You can use it for hanging.
And if you go to bobandbrad.com,
50% off right now while supply last,
if that doesn't sound like a commercial huh?
Anyways, once again we can fix just about anything
except for-
- A broken heart.
- That's right.
And stretching your back is not gonna help that.
- No.