- Hi, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- And together, we are the most famous
physical therapists on the internet.
- In our opinion, of course.
- (coughing) I'm gonna cough, Brad.
Okay. What are we talking about today?
- That's not in the script, Bob.
Today we're going to talk about one unique trick
or three exercises that are gonna help,
and it's a little weird, but this works.
If you have low-back pain
and it's radiating down the buttock
and down into the leg, this can work.
It's worked for me,
and I've had many patients over the years have it help.
Doesn't help everyone, but you can try it.
If it doesn't work, you have lost nothing,
- Yeah, exactly. - Doesn't take much time.
- I think we all have our bag of tricks
as therapists that we try ourselves.
- Right. Yeah.
- What are we doing, Brad?
- Okay. So pain here, going down the leg.
- [Bob] Okay. Down the left leg.
- Down the left leg, okay.
Going down past the knee.
So what you're gonna do and start out,
and this is while you're having the symptoms down the leg.
- [Bob] Okay.
- If this works, it's gonna work right now.
So you're gonna get in this position we call "hook line"
because you look like a hook from the side.
You're gonna lay there and then take a nap.
No, just kidding.
(Bob laughing)
Just kidding. Okay. Here.
And you're gonna rotate to the left.
Okay? And what I do is I lift my hips up,
and I shift them to the right,
and then my knees go to the left.
My shoulders are glued down to the table.
And then you're just gonna hang out there
a little bit and relax.
Now, this is how you're gonna know
if it's the right stretch.
Within seconds, you're gonna start to feel that,
those leg symptoms disappear.
Okay? I've experienced this myself many times.
- [Bob] This is actually a Mulligan technique, Brad.
- Yeah.
- [Bob] It is, yeah.
And what it's doing is it's opening the foramina,
the holes where the nerves come out.
When you go this way,
that opens the lumbar foramina on this side.
- Well, I beg to differ, but we can discuss that later, Bob.
- [Bob] But anyway, so yeah,
there's an anatomical reason why this works.
- Right.
- [Bob] This is a great technique.
- You bet.
If you do this and the pain down the leg gets worse,
you need to stop.
It's not the right pain.
- [Bob] Right. Exactly.
- It should happen real quick within seconds.
- [Bob] Almost immediately.
- Yeah. And then when that leg pain goes away,
if you want, you can repeat it a couple times.
But if it goes away, you usually don't have to.
At that point, then you turn over.
And this is number two, the second step of this.
And then you do some prone press ups.
And you're gonna do 10 of them.
You don't have to press up real high.
And again, the symptoms should reside
or get better as you do this.
If they get worse, you stop.
- He's keeping his pelvis on the ground.
And he's trying to get as much arch here
in the back as he can. - Right.
- He doesn't want to come up like a board like that.
- Yeah. That's that's not correct.
- That's what we quite often see.
'Cause a lot of people are stiff in that direction.
So he wants to keep his pelvis on the bed.
- Yep.
So you're gonna do a set of 10 of those.
Symptoms should continue to improve, a little more mobility.
And then when you get up, we can add this extension
and standing hands here and back like this.
Now, if it works here and it gets the leg pain away here
and you do go here,
you may not even have to do this.
- 'Cause you might do this, and it might bring it back.
- It's possible.
- It's possible. - Right.
- Yeah.
- And to be honest with you,
I'm always willing to try as a therapist.
If it doesn't work to the left and it gets worse,
I would go to the right even and see what happens.
- Sure.
- Sometimes these things don't always make sense.
- No, they don't make sense. But you're absolutely right.
- If the pain goes away like that,
you know you've hit something.
- And that's what Mulligan suggests too.
- Right. - Try the opposite side, so.
All right Brad, we're not just pretty.
- We're pretty old. - Pretty ugly.
- Oh, ugly and old apparently.
But we're gonna help you.
If you are also pretty old,
we're gonna help you get through this as you age
and help you stay healthy and fit and pain free.
- This is a maintenance program from 40 on up.
We help people, and we know 'cause we do it ourselves.
- Subscribe below.
- Right. Just like that.
- Right, Nancy? We're below now, right?
- Yeah.
- Okay. Peace out.
(whimsical piano music playing)