Hi folks, I'm Bob Schrupp physical therapist, Brad Heineck physical therapist, together
We are the most famous physical therapists on the internet
In my opinion of course
Alright today we're gonna talk about nineteen ways to stretch the spine mid back and low back and
Before you start this by the way you always want to warm up and also if you're having issues
I want you to clear this with your doctor or therapist. Don't be doing stuff that you shouldn't be doing
Right none of these should create any pain, just a stretch
We're showing you 19 ways cuz we're gonna show you different things you might want to try yourself to see if one works for you
You better believe it but Bob just wait
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It's working Bob, alright start off with number one Brad number one stretch
We get two nice chairs or solid objects that you can put your arms on that are gonna
Hold your body weight and then just simply
Relax from here down. It's a form of traction, right gravity working traction and slowly lift yourself up
Let your legs relax
And you're only gonna do this, you'll know because when you do this immediately things are gonna feel like oh
This is a really good stretch, a lot of times people just kind of bend their knees a little bit
You don't necessary have to take your feet all the way off the floor, you can just get up onto your toes
And putting stress on it, if you tighten everything up and lift up like this
It won't be effective so you've got to learn to relax and kind of go with it, number two Bob,
All right, this is a golfer stretch. I do it before I even start, but it's a good rotational stretch
So you can take a you know
Probably a broomstick or a golf club, and you can just start rotating like this, and if you find one direction hurts
just start by going this way, and if you don't want to use it a
Pole or a stick or anything, you can actually go like this
and you can
Use your other hand to kind of push you a little bit, again go into the direction that it allows don't go into the direction
That hurts and eventually try that direction again. And sometimes you'll find that that one improved just by going in the opposite direction
Be careful though, you don't wanna smack someone in the nose with that elbow, by the way, good posture
I really don't want you down, this has got to be excellent posture, chest out when you're doing this one
Okay standing extensions
This one you can put your hands like this or like this
But some support here makes a difference and then I'm already gonna stretch backwards like this
Okay, do we want to use the strap? Yeah we can use the strap too
Also, you can put your fist if you got good mobility, and you want to work on more of your mid-back
You can go up like this. I do this one all the time, right there crack crack crack
Worked it right in the mid back here, and you can see well with my fists on the white shirt
I'm sure so you can do it this way or this way, and if you've got the yoga strap
It's got loops
So I see my hands in there so you don't have to grip very hard at all and you can see I can start
Here and I can work
Look what he's doing here. He's going like this yep
That really puts stress on there, this really works well sometimes for some people and
We've got the strap down below in our list of products that Brad and I just love yeah
This is a fun one if you look at the link
It's an amazon link below, alright where we at Brad, standing extensors, okay seated side bend, so this is for the quadratus lumborum
Or the QL as they call it yeah
They're one of those big words so you can just go ahead and sit yourself on a surface, you can even hold on here
A little bit, and you can just pull over like this
And you're gonna give a good stretch, stretching the lat a little bit too aren't we Brad
Oh, yeah, you're just not gonna do one thing. We want to get right in here
You get a little lateral motion on that spine all right next one
We're number six right now Brad seated hallelujah without the ball first. Yeah, we're gonna keep things moving here
Yeah, all right so get a chair that has a backrest. This is a little bit high on me
Actually Bob would be better for this, but we're just gonna stretch back, arms up like this
Yeah ideally you want it so that it hits underneath the shoulder blades, it's gonna be a lot better
Show them Bob, it's a little bit high, yeah, see his shoulder blade is underneath here. It should be there about to there
Yeah, but you know you got what you got, well, but if you do have that this is a modification for it
Oh look at this
You just get a little ball from Walmart or K-mart
Or who's ever still around or just take it from your little brother, or your kids
See those kids on the street, just steal their ball. Oh Bob. This is a family show
All right and we're gonna stretch. This is much nicer
It works better than the chair, and you can move it up and down you can hit different spots
We really like this one, one of our physical therapist assistants came up with it- Mike
Give him credit, exactly, all right seated rotation Brad well
You could show it on there, and I'll show it going forward so again
You can put your hands like this, really good posture. You cannot be slumped when you do this and again
You can work on rotation and if one direction hurts again you go in the other direction
So I might be just going this way, one direction that's the name of a band Brad, you know that?
I didn't know that but maybe we should get their album
I'll bet you they don't even have albums anymore Brad. Well you never know it could be coming back
Actually some vinyl is coming back, but we we are digressing here all right next one Brad
If you want to grab this, I'm going to lay down, all right so
We start off with just bringing one leg to the chest here
This is not one you're gonna want to do if you have a disc problem
Usually flexion's gonna make it worse, but I usually stretch one leg like this
And then I stretch the other leg, if you've got a total hip replacement
You can't do this, right and then once the other leg is up there
You can bring two legs up there, and I'll stretch it this way now
this is the hip, but it is stretching the low back
the L4 L5 area good for spinal stenosis good for spondylolisthesis good for arthritis
Not good for a lot of other issues, if this hurts do not do it
Same with all of these, same with all of them, but really with that one. Alright
I'm actually doing a supine foam roller here, this is not something we recommend for the low back
This is only for the mid-back, so I've got a nice foam roller here
We got this one down below in our list too. It's a little bit softer
It's from OPTP, low density. Yeah costs a little more, but it's really built well, and it works well
Did this one this morning Brad, do it every morning, and I just roll over on my mid-back here, now
You know Bob
I noticed a couple comments of some of our viewers
Said they did like to go to the low back
But I'm saying if you do, you're very cautious if it hurts you don't even want to touch it, I do not like it
Yeah if they find out it does work for you, I'm not gonna argue with you,
Next one Brad this is kind of a staple. This is one
We have almost everybody do with back pain is supine rotation. I call it hook rotation
So yeah you're gonna bring your legs up like this and you're gonna rotate back and forth like this
What's nice about it is you can do it when you wake up in the morning,
I bet you feel sorry about that. All right, so we're just rotating back and forth again if it hurts in one direction
Don't do that one, do the other direction, and then if you want to get advanced on this one this is really advanced
You're gonna go ahead and bring the leg over to the side
I'm keeping this shoulder down, and I'm giving it a little bit of a stretch, so the hip is coming away over
It really gets a nice rotational stretch on that mid-back as well again
Definitely one you're not going to want to do if you're having a disc problem
Or I mean, this is just a stretch to try it, should feel like a good stretch and a lot of times
I find out Brad is also sometimes you bring the leg up a little higher
And you go up higher on the back, or if you go lower it goes lower on the back
I didn't wanna kick you, he was really watching out for me
prone
Go ahead get this way Brad and we're doing the cat and camel
This one is a good mid back one you get a little bit low back too but
so it's just how it sounds you're going into a cat
Camel I think it's that way isn't it? I'm not really sure but we'll have people comment, cat camel I don't know which way it is
It's really lordosis in the low back, but it's just what we got here. Just do what Bob's doing
And a lot of times you can bring your head down when you bring your body up
I'm sure I was really loud into my mic there
You got to do that to wake em up, all right next one Brad, prone press ups
So we love these this is probably one of our favorite exercises for people for the average back pain person, hands underneath the shoulders
You're gonna start pressing up. You're keeping your pelvis on the bed or on the floor
You're certainly not lifting up like this, and you just work it, if it hurts
Just go in the range that you can and eventually you like to try to get all the way up like this, there you go
You want to
Give it a little overpressure, if you're kind of stuck
You can get one of these again yoga straps put your hands through the loops
And you can work different sections of your back then so I'm gonna work this lower part here
And I can stretch up and now it's giving me some lower pressure while I'm while I'm working on it
Kinda hard to do Brad
And then I can go up further to it, I can work my mid-back here
Doing some extensions here, this strap works out really good because I can really get some leverage while I'm through the loops
All right where am I Brad? You're on the table. All right prone press, oh roadkill
This is one of my go-tos if I have a problem patient
They're not centralizing, the pain's not coming out of the leg
This is often more of a disc issue like if you're having a disc problem you probably would start with these, not getting better
You're still having pain down the leg, you take the painful leg, and you bring it out like this
into what we call the roadkill position, so I got my foot by my knee
And then within this position you can try and do some just gentle press ups
You can't go up very high on this, on this one typically when people put their leg up like that all of a sudden
Right away the leg starts to feel better, then I know we're on the right track
If it's worse when you put it up there, you don't even try, go to the next one
You're gonna put your knees apart like this
Pretty wide stretch there, and you're gonna go ahead and lean forward like this Brad
You're just gonna stretch down like this, so you're getting quite a
full stretch with a lot of flexion in the low back, flexion in the low back, extension in the mid-back
And this one's again probably good for arthritis
probably good for spinal stenosis probably good for
spondylolisthesis, that one should just feel like a good stretch
If it doesn't feel like a good stretch while you're doing, if it's creating any pain
Particularly down your leg you stop immediately and put that one off to the side
Yeah, nice job. What's our last one, do we have one more? Oh yeah the one that you do Brad when you're hurting and you're out and about
Brad's got
Spondylolisthesis, so what he'll do to give himself relief when he's standing is he'll just lean forward like this
Yeah, you know this is one that also for SI problems too, so it could work a little bit of both
It's like these stretches can cover more than one area, but this one
Works particularly my right leg, the left is fine feels like a good stretch
But when I do this on my right leg, when it turns things off, comes from a man with experience
You want to try both legs to see which one might help, right
So all right remember Brad we're not just pretty, we're pretty ugly Bob, no we're pretty helpful and handy so make sure you subscribe to us
Yep, if your wife don't find you good looking, she can find you handy, that's right, red green
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