♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ ♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ ♪ Physical therapists ♪
♪ ♪ On the Internet. ♪
- We need oil,
What's up?
I think we need an oil can,
like the "Wizard of Oz,"
- Yeah. - Where, you know,
get the joints moving again. (Brad laughing)
Hi folks, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- That's right.
Oh, Bob, Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- Together, we are the most famous
physical therapists on the Internet.
- In our opinion, of course, Bob.
- Brad, you got something you wanna talk about today?
- Bob, yeah, there was
something I wanted to talk about a long,
Oh, about the body,
yeah. - Right.(laughs)
- We're talking about low back pain.
And if you got low back pain,
and you wanna strengthen your core,
there is a way to do it and isolate the muscles
and keep that back intact.
And the reason I know that is because I've done it,
for years, - That's right.
- And-- - A personal benefactor.
- as well as patients I've worked with,
so we are gonna go through this, so,
- By the way, aren't we giving away a massage gun?
- Oh, yeah, yeah.
It's this one right here.
- Yes we are. - Yep, there you go.
- So, it's a T2, right?
- T2, yes. It works really nice.
- And it's got five different heads,
five different speeds.
- Yeah.
- It's very high-quality.
Very powerful. - Yep.
- [Brad] And you could use this on your back,
but that's not part of the topic,
really. - [Bob] Go to
www.bobandbrad.com, sign up at the Giveaway Section.
- Okay, so, let's talk about reasons
why you'd wanna strengthen your
- Right. - core muscles,
when you have - Right.
low back pain.
So, the core muscles are like a belt.
- Right. - A support,
or a back brace that goes around and supports that back.
So, when you tighten those muscles up,
it keeps that back from moving and irritating them.
Bob, you don't wanna carry on
with this? - No, I just remember,
I didn't understand this
when I was really young. - Hmm-mmm
- Like they tell you to strengthen your core,
because my back hurt. - Yeah.
It didn't make any sense to me, but,
- Right.
- You explain.
- And technically the core
is all the way around. - Right.
- Some people think it's just abdominal muscles
but it's more than that.
The next thing is,
is when we tighten our muscles in the front,
the opposite muscle group relaxes.
- Right.
- So when we strengthen the abdominals,
the back muscles will automatically relax,
which can help relax those
For example, - painful muscles.
- We strengthen the bicep - Yeah.
- on the front of the arm,
- Yep.
- This relaxes the tricep.
- Right. - So.
- The antagonist muscle - Right.
- is just, - The agonist antagonist.
- Yep, it's not just here,
it happens all over the whole body.
And lastly, well we did
cover that one already. - Yeah.
- Hm mmm.
- Well it worked for Brad, - Right.
- It worked for his patients. - Right.
So yeah, I've got spondylolisthesis
and there was a time where my back was unstable,
and I couldn't do any type of sit-up,
not just any one.
So I found out how this works really well.
- Yeah. And I will vouch. I mean, I've seen his x-rays,
I mean Brad would be in surgery if he didn't do this stuff.
I mean, - Well!
I don't know about that. - I think you would've.
- It would've definitely changed
how I lived my life. - At some point.
- At some point you would've been,
I think. - I'd be much less active.
Anyways.
So let's carry on. - All right.
Brad, shall I do the first three?
- Yeah. Yeah. - All right.
Let's do the first three.
So we're gonna just talk
about when you're back is really irritated
and you wanna work with, you need to lie down,
probably not on your bed.
It's gonna be - Right.
- on a carpeted floor, - Right.
or with the exercise mat.
And now you can support your low back
with a rolled towel,
- Hm mmm.
- or you can use your hands.
And the towel, I just wanna say,
you might wanna have it flat or you might wanna roll it up,
so it's a little more of a bump.
You will know, - Depends,
- because it's gonna feel good.
- Yeah.
It depends how much of a curve you have there.
Yep.
So, I got it in place, and we're gonna do the first one,
it's a real good beginner one from you, Brad.
- Yes.
- Because you can just start bringing your leg up like this.
- If you don't have a history of doing sit-ups,
and you've got back pain, - Right.
- this is how you wanna do it.
Now, let's talk a little bit more about the spine,
and Bob is gonna tighten his abdominal muscles.
Can you stop that Bob? - Oh!
- (laughs) Just like the Energizer.
So we wanna get the spine in neutral,
so that means he's gonna tighten the abdominal muscles
into that towel roll.
- So my hand was here.
It's like I'm trying to flatten the back
against the hand. - Right. Exactly.
But actually it's a good feedback mechanism,
it's actually you put your arms like this.
- Right.
- Push your hands underneath,
and you go ahead and start these off.
- So this is actually moving the low back.
Not dramatically, but when you got a sore back
we just wanna start easy.
- Now to be a little more advanced,
you could just start tapping the heel.
Right.
And it makes a big difference.
- And then more advanced,
is just to actually not touch at all.
- Yeah. That is quite a bit.
Yeah.
- By the time you get to that level,
things are going pretty good. So work on that
as tolerated. - Next one, Brad?
Yes.
- What is that? (laughs)
- We're gonna do the crunch.
- All right, that's right.
So I'm just gonna, I can put my hands like this,
- Hm mmm.
- and I bring my head straight up, I don't curl it.
- Right. - I don't go like this.
I just go straight up like this.
- Lifting the shoulder blades off the floor,
one inch is all you need and everything else,
is stable. - What Brad likes to do
is take his hand and put it under the chin,
to stop me from going like this.
- Yep, hm mmm.
So like that.
It's a good idea, Brad.
- Yeah, it works pretty good. I just, I dunno,
I kinda, I don't know. It just happened.
Yeah. (laughs)
- Okay.
- That's a good one.
- So that's the more beginner,
now, there's another way that I've found
that makes this much easier.
The only thing is,
is you have to have one of these bigger balls.
- Right.
- So, you know, - I've always been
a big fan of using the physio ball,
or the exercise ball, for years, I mean, for core strength.
Yeah. It's definitely a core, I mean,
they're really, they're relatively cheap,
20 bucks - Right.
- or something like that.
And they're available all over the place.
I like to put shoes on with this.
Typically if you have back pain,
when you put your legs up like this and relax them,
it offers relief to the back.
- Right.
- And I don't put anything under my back,
you may have to put a towel or your hands,
but if it feels good,
and what we're gonna do is this exercise.
Just flip the ball up. - [ Bob] Yeah, the back
gets flattened easy enough with this exercise.
- If you happen to have stenosis,
this is probably gonna actually make the back feel better.
If not, you're gonna tighten.
And you're just gonna lift the ball up as far as you can,
and then that's it.
- [Bob] With all these you want to breathe.
- Hey.
- [Bob] And you also wanna make sure
no pain. - Exactly.
- [Bob] If this increases your pain, you don't do it.
- Right.
- [Bob] Any one of these.
- And chances are, they're gonna be tolerated fairly well.
- [Bob] Right.
- For repetitions, start at 10 on all of these.
If you can do 10, great.
And then you build up over a period of weeks.
You know, I get up to 50,
and that's where I stop. - [Bob] Right.
- But it's taken me a few months to do that.
When I started this, - [Bob] I do 60,
just to outdo Brad.
Yeah. Yeah. 60. I'm gonna go to 61 now.
(Bob laughing)
- (laughs) Okay. The next thing you can do, is, um,
the double crunch.
- [Bob] Yeah.
- This is a little more advanced.
- [ Bob] And again, you wanna work on going,
mainly the head straight up, not curling.
- Exactly. Yep.
So, my goal is to touch my knee, elbows to my knees,
but you don't have to,
you can just do baby ones to start with,
and then, you know, work up from that.
Okay. And then the next one to get some oblique muscles is,
think about bringing your right elbow to your left knee,
and you don't have to touch 'cause it may be difficult.
So you're gonna lift the ball up a little bit,
and you're getting a little bit of a twist.
Now, if this hurts your back, you just don't do it.
'Cause we are doing a slight rotation
- [Bob] Right.
- on the back. But you know, if it doesn't hurt it,
like, now I do mine like this,
and it actually feels really good on my back.
But that would be an advanced phase.
You do things as tolerated, not to irritate your back.
- [Bob] When you say oblique, Brad,
I always think of muscles
on the side of the core. - Sure.
- Yeah. And the fibers go,
- [Bob] Right, like that. - this way.
- [Bob] Yeah.
- You know, you really wanna work those.
Now, if things are going pretty good with all of this,
or if you don't have a ball, - [Bob] Sure.
and you did the ones that Bob did,
and you wanna increase the strength,
and you happen to have some bands,
- Yeah.
- either the large loop band,
or just a regular band,
- Right - with the handles.
They're gonna come in really handy.
I'll show you first of all, - I tried these
years ago and they're tough.
- Yeah, I mean--
- Yeah, you will feel it.
- But you're doing 'em lying on your back on the floor
which keeps your back in that nice neutral position,
- [Bob] Right.
- in a much easier position - [Bob] Safe position, yep.
- So if you've got the handles,
you gonna need shoes on for sure.
And you take 'em like this and you
simply put 'em over your toes.
You're kinda wondering what's going on, I suppose.
You're gonna have to pull your toes up towards your knees,
dorsiflex to hold it. And I wanna be like this,
and it's the same exercise, and you can start out
with one knee to the chest.
And as it gets better, you can do this.
And that just offers a little resistance,
but a little bit of resistance really adds up.
- [Bob] Now, Brad, couldn't you use the cuffs too
that come with these sets or, or not?
- Oh, the ankle ones? - [Bob] Yeah.
- Yeah, you could, which is a good point.
It's a little easier that way.
But yeah, you can take these Velcro cuffs.
- So why do that, then? (laughs)
- Wrap 'em around there.
- If it's easier, why do that?
- Right.
- Yeah.
- Yeah. - Just slow.
- It's just a little faster,
but that would be an option. - Yeah. That's true.
- If you have - You can still set up a,
- the loop band, now we are using the wall anchor,
which works really easy and fast.
If you don't have that, you simply use
a leg of a heavy table or a chair,
that doesn't move and wrap it around that,
works just fine.
If you have a loop, I found that it works really well
just to go like this.
And it's a same concept. - [Bob] Sure.
- One at a time.
- [Bob] Yep.
- Or whoo! Once you start getting running.
It really does well.
Now, if you wanna work the opposite.
Leave the setup there, turn your body around.
And instead of doing a crunch like this,
you want more resistance.
Grab the handles like this.
I like to do it just like this.
- [Bob] Sure.
- And simply do little ones,
and boy, does that really make a difference,
as opposed to this. - [Bob] Yeah.
It's one of those things that doesn't look that tough,
- Yeah.
- [Bob] But man, I remember doing these, Brad,
and I mean, wow!
- And if you want just to put your hands up here,
- [Bob] Yeah.
- just to make it harder yet, or simply move your body
away from the wall,
increases resistance. - [Bob] Right.
- And I like this one, and Bob and I were talking about it,
this is like
a double win situation. - [Bob] Yeah.
- We're going to do lap pulls.
Bob, tell 'em why lap pulls help the low back so much.
- [Bob] Well, it's two reasons.
One, you're strengthening the core,
but two, you're strengthening the latissimus dorsi.
- [Brad] Yep.
- Muscles, and they attach into the core.
- Right.
- So they will actually help strengthen your back.
- Yep. They go right into that lumbar fascia,
which is back in that low back.
- [Bob] Yep.
- So right now I'm just doing the last,
if I wanna do the next step up,
it's up,
and do the laps at the same time
as I bring my shoulder blades off the floor.
And, woo! - [Bob] Yeah, again,
a double bonus and, yeah.
(Brad groaning)
You'll work!
(Brad groaning)
You're working hard.
- Yeah. So very good,
good luck with this. - That'll be
several months down the line,
if you haven't been doing these.
- Exactly. - Yeah.
- This whole procedure,
start with the first one on the table,
get used to those and then do the ball or this.(sighs)
- All right.
- I gotta take a rest, Bob. - You want me
to hit you in the stomach?
- Yeah, come on (grunts)
(Brad groaning)
We digress. - All right.
Thanks for watching. - Thank you.
Good luck with those abs.