♪ 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 talk about the number one
reason you are having back pain when you're working out.
And we're gonna show you how to stop it, too.
- There you go.
- You better listen to us.
- Well, they will Bob.
They're smart.
- By the way, if you're new to our channel,
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- [offscreen Voice] (mumbling)
- Fit Index!
- Yes.
- Right.
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- Right, it works for muscle pliability
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Very simple reason why many people
develop back pain with working out.
It might be while you're working out or it might be after,
that you feel the effects of this.
- Sure.
- What happens is, while you're working out,
the number one thing you wanna do,
is you wanna keep the spine aligned correctly.
- [Brad] Mm-hmm.
- Which means you have a slight curve in at the neck,
slight curve out in the mid back,
and you're keeping that arch in the low back, all right.
What happens is people, while they're doing, let's say,
let's say you're doing a curl, Brad.
If you're curling, you're really struggling,
and you might bend forward and you
- Give a little compensation.
- Yep, exactly.
- Cheating.
- Right.
- We definitely see it during squats.
So when you're squatting, you wanna maintain,
there should be virtually no movement in the spine.
- Mm-hmm.
- You're gonna get down to the lower part of the squat,
what happens as you go down and the hamstrings
pull on the pelvis, and the pelvis turns like this
and it rounds out the low back.
They call it butt winking quite often.
- Mm-hmm.
- Lot of people will say it's fine to do that.
It is not.
- Right.
- If you keep doing this over time,
you will end up injuring your back.
- Typically, we were just talking about this,
younger people in their 20s and 30s,
they get away with it fine, but when you getting older,
in your 50s it starts to catch up with you,
and then they start to modify their lifting practices, so
- Then they listen to us and then they finally realize
there's some wisdom coming out of these mouths.
But you will, your back is designed
to do thousands and thousands of lifts,
if you do it correctly.
- Sure.
- But if you do it incorrectly,
you're gonna shorten your lifespan
as far as what the back can tolerate,
you're gonna end up with a herniated disc
or some type of problem that you're not gonna be happy with.
- Right.
- So wanna keep the back in correct alignment.
In order to do that, you wanna make sure
you're getting a lot of mobility in the hips.
We'll talk about that in a minute, but I'm gonna show,
we're gonna have our camera man come out here.
- Right.
I cannot do squats, or I'm not a good.
- I can't either.
- I've got Spondylolisthesis, I don't do them.
- I can only go that far.
- But we've got someone, yeah, Mike does do them.
- Right.
- And we've got a good person here for it.
- Well, we want to show here that it's very difficult
to know when you're rounding out.
- Sure.
- You almost need to have someone film you,
or, filming's the best, but you can even do photos
and show how your back is rounded out.
A lot of people don't realize it!
- Sure.
- They have really poor position sense.
So Mike's gonna come on out.
He's gonna go ahead and use, we've got a,
is that an Olympic bar, right, Mike?
We won't even hear Mike.
He says it's a barbell.
- [Bob] It's a barbell.
- There you go.
- [Bob] So why don't you back up Mike, yep, side profile.
I'm gonna go ahead and I'm gonna go back a little bit.
I want, well why don't you try to do proper?
- Okay.
(laughing)
- [Bob] Let's see how well you do.
- [Brad] So we're looking right in here.
- [Bob] Yeah, he's doing pretty well.
Right there! - [Brad] Right there.
Right there, he's wrong a little bit.
- [Bob] Right there we get a subtle but wink.
- [Brad] Yep.
- [Bob] That's where L5, S1 are being overstressed,
and that disc happens to be the one that is
most likely to have a bulge or a rupture or herniation.
- [Brad] The other thing is, Mike doesn't have any
weight on there right now, except for the 45 pound bar.
And what do you do normally, Mike?
You tell me, I'll interpret for them.
- (mumbling)
- [Brad] Yeah. - [Bob] Yeah.
- [Bob] So he does 350.
So imagine how much more stress that is on the back.
- [Brad] Oh, right.
- [Bob] And that, he's probably gonna butt wink even more.
- [Brad] Right.
- [Bob] You know what I mean?
Yeah, he's gonna have trouble maintaining form.
And so many people are so interested in getting the result,
of doing it, they're not interested in
the fact that they did the squat,
they're not interested in doing it right
or what it gives you, it gives you strength.
- [Brad] And us as therapists that work for back pain
people for 30 years, we're concerned about getting
these people to last until you're into retirement
without back problems!
- [Bob] Mike, why don't you do another one
where you really do it wrong this time?
Ooh, yep.
(mumbling)
- [Brad] Right there, that last little bit.
And some people put that that little bounce in there,
- [Bob] Yep.
- [Brad] and Mike was just talking about that,
which puts more stress on the back.
And we'll get comments on this from avid lifters,
saying this isn't done right, that's not done right.
- [Bob] I'm gonna give you a source.
Okay, Mike, thank you very much.
So there's a guy named Stewart McGill,
he's a PhD,
- Mm-hmm.
- He has spent his life studying backs.
- Right.
- He's got a book out for the layperson,
which is called The Back Mechanic,
although it's pretty heavy reading too,
even for the layperson.
- Sure, yeah, I read it.
- But he's got a bunch of textbooks too that I've read,
and he talks about this,
- Yep.
- And he said that again, you're not gonna be able
to get away with it, I mean, he is the expert.
If you don't believe us, believe what he says.
- Sure.
- And he's telling you, you do not do the butt wink.
- (laughing)
- You keep the back straight.
- Right.
- He also recommends, believe it or not,
if you're having back pain, he recommends avoiding
all the seated lifting machines in a facility.
- Sure.
- So if you're going to work out in a gym,
cause what's happening is, when you're in seated position,
your back's gonna probably round out a little bit.
- They don't have lumbar supports in those things.
- Yeah, exactly.
So you're back's already rounded out a little bit,
now you're putting some weight on there,
let's say you're doing overhead press ups,
- [Brad] Yep, the military press.
- [Bob] Yeah, military press ups, or curls, or something.
- [Brad] Sure.
- [Bob] Your back's gonna round out.
- [Brad] Yep.
- [Bob] Therefore, you're gonna end up with problems.
And if you're having pain after you're lifting
or during your lifting, that's telling you right now,
you're doing something wrong.
- Right, listen to your body.
- Yeah, so again, Stewart McGill's book,
if you want to check it out, it's called
The Back Mechanic.
I'm gonna show you one last thing he had recommended,
this is actually from one of Stewart's textbooks,
he had said if you want to figure out
how wide should your legs be when you're doing squats.
- Mm-hmm.
- Now a lot of people I think think the wider the better,
because you can get down and keep your back straighter.
- Sure.
- That's not necessarily true,
depends on the makeup of your hips.
- Right, it's a custom thing, it's like,
my hips, my torso,
- Yeah, your hips externally rotate.
- Right, so me, I'm definitely more comfortable with
my toes out like this and some people may not be.
But this is a really nice test.
- Yeah, so what you do, and I'm gonna show this way first,
so you're gonna try squatting back,
just leaning back like this.
- [Brad] (laughing) You want me to do it without a tie?
- Yeah, maybe you could.
- [Brad] I've actually got workout clothes on.
- Sure.
- This might make a little more sense.
- So you can do it with your legs together,
and then you could do it with your legs apart,
you're gonna rock back,
why don't you show them to the side, Brad?
So he's starting to round out right there.
So now try it, Brad, with your legs further apart.
And now he's going,
now he's definitely doing better with the legs wider apart.
You did fantastic with the legs wide apart.
- Well, and it's much easier for me to do this,
but when I'm here, I can do it, but...
- He starts rounding out.
See how quickly he rounds out?
- Yeah.
- So Brad would be the type of guy that definitely,
the farther he can get apart while he's squatting,
the better off he's gonna be,
cause he can keep that back straight.
So this is just a minor thing to point out,
but it's major in how it can affect your back.
- Right, particularly over time
if you wanna do these exercises for years.
- Yeah, I mean, believe me, as you get older,
you're gonna wish you did it correctly,
because when you get, I'm almost 60,
Brad's on the latter end of 50s,
- Somewhere in there.
- Somewhere in there (laughing)
And I hope to work out for another 20, 30 years.
- Right.
That gives you, 90 years old, that'd be good.
- I hope to, I hope to be that guy that's in the gym,
and I hope to be running yet.
- That's great, I like that idea.
- Thanks everybody for watching.
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