♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
- Hi folks.
I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist,
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- We are the most famous physical therapist on the internet.
- In our opinion, of course, Bob.
- Today we're gonna talk about muscle tension pain.
We're gonna help you stop that back and neck pain
without using medication.
- Right.
So oftentimes, you know, we'll get patients in
and the doctor has prescribed muscle relaxants.
And oftentimes, our experiences
the patient is not real happy with them
because of the side effects, making them feel fatigued
and tired.
- I found it very interesting today that you and I
have never really talked about muscle relaxants,
but you and I both feel the same about them.
Like it doesn't seem like they really work well.
I don't see people going, oh, my pain was so bad.
I went on the muscle relaxants, now it's better.
- Right.
- You know what I mean?
And plus you said like the side effects
they get a negative view of them
because they get tired from 'em.
- Right, they're drowsy.
Driving is an issue.
That kind of thing.
But, you know, as far as muscle pain from muscle tension
that's what I really wanna get across to our viewers today
why it happens
and then we've got three situations and answers
on how to remedy it without the muscle relaxant.
But before we do that. - Oh, yeah.
- If you haven't already,
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- There you go.
Bob, again, I'm gonna do a little demonstration
and analogy that our viewers are gonna remember
for the rest of their lives.
It's gonna help 'em alleviate this muscle tension.
- So we're talking about muscle tightness
and chronic tightness in the muscle
that actually it can sometimes cause you pain.
- Right.
- And sometimes it can just contribute to the pain.
Sometimes it can make your pain worse.
- Right.
One way or another muscle tension,
if a muscle is chronically tight.
it's gonna become painful over time.
It's just like if you held onto a weight in your hand
and, you know, well, here we go, we got bigger weights.
So if I was the hold this here,
my bicep is gonna become painful
and sore after a few minutes.
- Right.
- Same thing with your neck or your back
if you got your head forward
or you're leaning forward over a bench.
- Yeah, these muscles are working terribly hard right now.
- Right, right.
- Just from leaning.
It doesn't seem like it, but it is,
it's holding up your head.
- Right, so posture, you're working and stress.
People can get really tight muscles as a result of stress
and we all know that.
- Yeah, and so when you're working at a computer
and you're working on a project that's stressful,
you're getting the double whammy here
because the muscles are working
plus you're feeling stressed
and I've seen in people
where even when they have like a disc problem in their neck,
It makes it worse
because everything's all tightened up around on it.
- Right.
So if you could have poor posture,
you could have stressful situation
and an injury that's causing pain
then the muscle really tightens up.
But why does that muscle get so painful?
That's what we are gonna talk about.
- This is where Brad is gonna show a demonstration here.
- So briefly, you know, muscles contract then they relax,
muscles need blood flow to operate
and they need the blood flow to flow appropriately
so they are not painful.
So muscles take in oxygen,
they take in nutrients from the blood,
they work and then they release bad stuff.
Okay.
- That are the byproducts.
- Yeah.
They call it waste products, byproducts,
lactic acid, uric acid.
What's the other?
Well, carbon dioxide.
And you breathe out the carbon dioxide
and your system takes care of the rest
and it's a lovely system, works pain free
unless it's interrupted by a tight muscle
because the blood is not allowed to go in.
It is not allowed to be released
and it's just like a sponge.
If this sponge represents a muscle
and it's loose and flacid, blood can go in,
it can be released and we get that system working properly.
Just like in this, I put the sponge in this bucket.
- By the way, bucket by this is dye.
This is red dye.
I saw this bucket full and it looked like blood.
And I'm like first thing I wanna know, Brad,
where's your wife?
I wanna call her right now.
I wanna hear her voice.
- She's at work making money for us.
- That's his excuse.
That's what he's saying.
- But you can see a relaxed muscle can accept blood
or the sponge accepts the water and releases it very easily.
That's the way things are healthy
and happy and paid free.
However, if there is tension in the muscle
and I'm gonna put tension in the sponge,
I got it all wrapped up tight.
I'm gonna submerse it into the water
and I gotta bring it out and look at that,
There is no blood in this, no water in this sponge.
- So I think you had learned this at a continued education.
- Right.
Learned this analogy and it's stuck in my head
and has been there for years
and I wanted to share with everyone.
- And that really shows it quite dramatically.
How, again, you go in, when it's regular sponge
and then how the blood just comes right out.
And when it's tight, there's nothing there.
- Right.
So you need to relax it.
So I think that the three situations we mentioned stress,
poor posture can cause it, if there's an injury,
the muscles contract around the injury.
It's kind of a natural phenomenon.
- Yeah, you've seen that where your back spasms
with an injury
what the back is trying to do in a natural fashion,
the muscles are tightening up to protect your back, right?
- It's a splinting mechanism, it can be called.
So we need to alleviate that.
- So we're gonna give you some solutions here.
- And they're not easy.
I mean, they're not hard.
- No, they're easy.
- They're relatively quick.
And they're very effective.
The first one is simple.
You need to just relax and learn how to breathe.
- Yeah.
I think deep breathing
and relaxed breathing is really highly underrated, right?
I mean, you'd be shocked
at how much you can decrease your pain in life
and decrease your stress in life if you just do breathing.
Now, we're not gonna talk, you know,
the correct way to do it right now.
That's a whole video in itself.
- But the whole idea is relax, breath in
typically in your nose, out your mouth,
you're gonna fill up those lungs.
- Fill up the diaphragm.
- Right.
And if you can do it in a quiet area
where you can just focus on relaxing,
those muscles will just start to relax
and then that blood flow will come in
and you can feel it, things are starting to feel better
just with proper breathing.
Number two is get some exercise.
- Yeah.
- Go for a brisk walk,
typically something go your heart rate gets up a little bit
and 20 to 30 minutes is a real good time duration
to really let things go.
As you're walking, you're gonna think about your breathing.
So you're gonna get, you know, two-
- A double benefit.
- Double benefit.
- You know the thing about muscles
they're obviously are working and getting blood flow
and getting the lactic acid out
and all that when you're walking.
- The whole system is going to become complete again
and get relaxed.
So you can step it up
to put on your personality, go into an aerobic state
where you gonna walk faster
or maybe running bicycling and swimming any-
- Or run, walk.
You can do it.
You can mix it up, right?
Run, walk.
- Oh, run, walk.
Sure, there you go.
- You run a little bit and you walk a little bit.
- Right.
Again, and then this it's different
for different personalities.
Some people are not gonna exercise,
that's just the way they are.
I have some friends that they just say,
I'm not gonna exercise, but they'll respond well to heat.
You know, muscles like warmth, it allows 'em to relax
And get that blood flowing.
- Gets more blood flowing.
- You know, if you have a hot pack at home,
that can be effective.
If you really wanna get deep into the muscle though,
you need to get the infrared, - Infrared.
- The infrared.
I was gonna say ultra.
- Ultraviolet again?
- Yeah.
- You were gonna say that again.
I thought we had that corrected on you, Brad.
- Yeah.
So anyways, the infrared - Heating pads.
- Heating pads.
- Thermotex, we are big fans of it.
Yeah, regular heat just goes, you know,
a couple of millimeters.
- Basically skin deep.
- Yes.
And this goes 60 millimeters or 2.?
- 36.
They studied it well over two inches,
it's easily gonna penetrate all the muscles in your neck
or back.
- Now, what's nice about this particularly unit,
this is the Platinum unit.
It actually has straps too that you can put on.
And Brad, you had it on wrong the last time.
It actually is this way.
- Yeah, this is the second time we did this video
because we had a technical error.
- It better not be the third, by the way.
- Yeah.
- Better not end up needing a third,
but what happens, they sense sell straps along with this,
they come with it, with the unit
and these straps actually pull your shoulders back
and put you in good posture.
So I actually put this on when I'm working at the computer
and it keeps me in good shape.
You know, it actually decreases the pain
through two mechanisms, one the heat
and also the correct posture.
- Right.
- If you wanna get one of these, use the link below
because you'll get a discount if you use our link
and we get a little referral fee
that helps keep the lights on,
but it'll also that give you free shipping.
- Oh, another benefit.
- So that is a nice option.
Now, if you happen to have back or neck pain
and it's in the acute phase, in other words,
it's very tender, maybe swollen up
then you're probably not gonna want to use heat.
At that point, a cold pack.
- Especially first 24 to 48 hours
when it's starting to come in, I'd try a cold pack.
- I just actually experienced this with my back yesterday
doing a remodeling project at home.
So I was working on it and I rode my bike.
I did everything that I shouldn't have done,
but this is what I did to correct it.
- This is Ab.
Let's see your throw.
There we go.
- I have one of these and these are not very expensive.
You can get these online for 25, $30
but I keep one in my house.
I took my cold pack nice gel cold pack outta my freezer,
no meds for this at all.
I put my cold pack here,
pretend that would be my cold pack.
I put that there, I put this here
and I did this literally on the living room floor.
We have a throw rug,
- Your glasses are falling apart, Brad.
- Oh, don't worry about the glasses, Bob.
I'm on a roll.
And this is how I laid about 10:30
I laid down last night and I fell asleep very comfortable
and relaxed.
I woke up about midnight and I thought, well,
it's time to go to bed.
- That was right after he murdered his wife
and got that blood.
- Oh, Bob, why, Bob?
Why?
- That's what a sociopath is
if he can fall asleep after that,
but I have to admit these feel really good.
I don't know why to some extent they feel that good.
- They work well, but it allowed my muscles to relax.
The cold pack got the inflammation down
and I'm feeling great today.
- And that'll knock spasms down then too.
- Oh, yeah.
It all fits together.
So some natural remedies, very simple.
It's gonna make you feel much better
and remember to breathe.
- Yeah.
You want to correct your posture.
You can do massage too,
Do you wanna mention that just real quick?
- Yeah.
- Kind of hard areas to massage
sometimes, you know, we'll recommend the Pure Wave.
This is listed down in our preferred products too
cause it is kind of easy to do
especially if you're feeling pain up in this area
or in this area here.
It's a little harder in the low back, better in the upper,
you know, you're really not gonna be able to do
a manual massage to yourself.
You know, if you have a family member that's good at it
or, you know, go to a professional masseuse, another option.
- Now that your wife's gone,
you won't have her to help you out.
- Bob.
- All right.
Thanks everybody for watching.