♪ Bob and Brad, the two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists on the internet ♪
- Hi folks, I'm Bob Schrupp, Physical Therapist.
- Brad Heineck, Physical Therapist
- The most famous Physical Therapists on the internet
- In our opinion, of course, Bob.
- Button up - Pshaw
- By the way, let's talk about what
we're gonna talk about today.
Today we're all about easy fix for neck
and upper back pain.
These are secrets from physical therapists,
'cause we are physical therapists.
- And we're gonna share 'em.
That's why we have this channel.
- Yeah, and this is actually for my niece,
I'm not gonna say her name, I'm not sure
she wants to be named on film or not.
- Well some people are sensitive to that, so.
- They don't wanna be associated with this...
- Especially if it's you saying it.
- Especially if it's me saying it.
So she's a college volleyball player and very talented.
She just had a killer first year.
- Oh good - As a freshman
At a D1 college - Oh really?
- Not minor volleyball here
- That's kinda like a job
- And plus she's smart too, she was just
accepted into a nursing program.
- Oh wow - So this is really cool
But she's been having some neck pain.
Let me show you on you, Brad.
She's having pain right up in this area here,
and into here, and up into the neck,
and she's getting headaches when she's playing volleyball.
Now if you know anything about volleyball,
a lot of times you're in this position, right?
- That athletic stance so to speak.
- Athletic stance and getting ready
and we're gonna talk about why that, I think,
is playing a role in her pain.
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- Tomorrow - Yeah
It's the giveaway, we don't have it here do we?
The weighted blanket.
- Oh, it's right there, the Dozeology.
- Yeah so it's a cool blanket.
You can use it, it's like 15 pounds,
but it helps decrease stress levels.
Do you buy that, Brad? - Yeah
- The research has proven it.
- We gotta get on with the show.
- Okay, so my niece when I was taking a look at her,
I had her do this.
I had to her bring her head back
and I saw there was plenty of movement in the neck,
but there was no motion in the, what I would say,
the upper back right in here.
You go back here. - Okay, okay
- So if I'm like this, Brad, bring your head back once here.
- You want me to do it normally?
- Yep, like that.
She had no motion where my hand is.
So when Brad goes back, go back, Brad,
I can see motion there.
So she's actually fixated right here, really tight.
And what happens now when she's in this position
with volleyball, that movement's gotta come from somewhere.
So she's hypermoving, hypermobile in this area
and that's causing the headaches 'cause she said
right in the suboccipital area she's getting the headaches.
- Sure, yeah.
- So instead of getting some motion here,
she's getting it all up in here.
So we gotta loosen this up.
That's step number one.
And luckily there's an easy way to do this.
So one thing you just need is a tennis ball
and probably a towel, 'cause the towel
helps take away the sharp edge to it.
- It's a ball, how can it be a sharp edge, Bob?
- Well not a sharp - Just kidding
- Okay now you got me stumbling here.
Turn around again, Brad.
So we're gonna hit these areas right here.
We're gonna hit right here,
there, there, there, always on the side of the spine
I think it's more comfortable.
And you might even go down here.
So there's six areas, one, two,
three, four, five, six.
Now Brad do you mind being the subject here?
- Oh no, I mean you could go with just the ball.
- You could with just the ball.
- Probably pretty aggressive at first.
- My guess is, yeah, it's be too much for you.
For some people they might even have to
put a pillow underneath there,
if they're just starting off.
So I'm gonna put it on the first spot there, Brad.
So what I want to do Brad is put
your arms up overhead like this.
- Oh, I just felt a crack, yep.
- Felt a crack, yep.
- I could see where just the ball
would be a little aggressive unless you really like that.
- It's surprising isn't it?
- Now you want me to go to the position two yet?
- Well I would say for each position
you want go for about 20 seconds.
Take some deep breaths,
and have your arms overhead,
and even try to put your elbows on the ground.
- Well you know my shoulders, Bob.
- Right, but this would help you, Brad.
- Oh yeah - I'm trying to help you.
- I know I really should do this everyday
I'm just having fun with my other exercises.
- Okay, do you wanna go to the other side?
- Sure - Well we'll go
right to the other side.
- So I'm just below the neck, kinda upper
shoulder blade area if you want and that,
you know this side is not as sensitive as the right.
- Now you can see Brad is actually lifting his butt up
which is fine 'cause he's trying to put
a little more pressure on there, aren't you?
- Yes - And with some people
they won't have to do that.
Some people that'll be way plenty or even too much
to start right off with.
- Actually just from here to here is one big step
and then this is even more and then you start moving.
- With some people they may even have to have
a pillow underneath their head,
- Sure - And they may
have to have a pillow over the ball itself.
It's gonna depend on how fixated you are
or how tight that is.
- I'm going to position three, Bob.
- So Brad is moving down the spine
- So I'm on the right side, down about 3-4 inches
from that position one.
- So he's gonna hit all six positions
for at least 30 seconds, you can go longer if you want.
So it's very quick, it doesn't take that long,
but I'd like to see you doing it at least twice a day.
You could do it more, you could do it
every hour if you want.
I think you'll find out over time
that this works better than receiving manipulations
or something because it's giving you
prolonged stretches to these ligaments that are tight.
And after awhile you start to see
that you have more motion there.
It'll feel better. - Yeah
I can feel I'm already loosening up, Bob.
You're in control, you're more relaxed
when you're in control of the ball
versus someone cracking on you.
- Right someone pushing on you.
And I've been doing this, I've been actually
using a different device, but man that has
made a difference in my running.
'Cause it brings my shoulders back
and I'm in so much better posture when I'm running.
- I can believe this is getting where the ribs connect
up to the vertebrae as well, loosening those joints up.
- That's a good point, Brad.
All right Brad, if you don't mind,
we're gonna move on to something else now.
I know you look comfortable there.
We're gonna move this over.
I'm just gonna bring the chair into play here.
So one that you can do throughout the day
is actually just take a little ball like this,
an air filled ball, this one's a little flatter.
That's fine it doesn't have to be completely flat like this
but it seems to work a little better with that.
- Yeah that's a little more flat, but it's okay,
but yeah if they're full and they're relatively
firm and hard that's usually not quite so good.
- So what you're gonna do is you're gonna put that
in your mid back here and you're gonna do
what we call hallelujah stretches.
Hallelujuah!
So what's nice about this one is
it's one you can do throughout the day
when you're in a chair.
So it's just real simple to do
and it's gonna stretch all that area out
and you can move it up and down to different levels.
I'm actually running out of chair here.
- Yeah well Bob's pretty tall in the torso.
- I'm pretty tall so yeah if you have
a higher chair you can get that area up in there
which is actually giving you some trouble.
- Or you could have someone just hold it like that.
(laughing)
- And you can go lower and that's what's
nice about it, again you can get all
those different areas, bringing the arms back.
You can even put the hands behind the neck like this
and stretch back like this.
It's a good reminder, this is the one
that is kinda a maintenance one that you do
throughout the day to prevent you from
getting in that tight position.
- And with all of these, even one laying down,
make sure you relax, breathe.
Take some deep breaths in, exhale, that really
makes a significant difference.
- All right then I'm gonna show you
one strengthening technique that you can do
without the gym and Brad's gonna show you
how to do one with a gym setting.
I'm just gonna have you squeeze
your shoulder blades together throughout the day.
Just like that and that's just gonna help
teach those muscles to get back where they should be.
- Can you see his shirt wrinkling up there, Liz?
'Cause that's, what he's trying to do,
get those shoulder blades to touch.
- And you can just count to five, 1-2-3-4-5, 1-2-3-4-5.
If you wanna while you're doing this,
you can actually do a chin tuck while you do it too.
A chin tuck is your back and your neck up
basically like this.
You're not bending down, you're not going up,
you're just going back like this.
- Like someone's gonna throw pie in your face.
- So I chin tuck, squeeze the shoulders together.
- Chin tuck, squeeze the shoulder blades together.
- I'm not sure, we might have mentioned
this one on some other videos.
- Oh yeah, a few thousand times.
- It's important.
- I don't think she's been watching our videos.
Brad's gonna show you a strengthening exercise
that you can actually do at the gym
with probably a set of cables, right?
- Yeah, if you're at a gym the cables,
they may have some of these bands around.
And at a gym I've done these where
I just wrap it around one those steel uprights
for the bench press or whatever.
We use a wall anchor because it works really well.
You just snap it on there, and if I could hold on.
So now we're just going to, you can do this
at different levels, you may come down here,
hands to the hips or below, but the same idea
if you look at my shoulders.
- Again he's squeezing those shoulder blades together,
getting some motion in here.
This is all gonna help your posture
and it's gonna help you so that when
you're in volleyball you got the musculature
to keep you in good position.
- I'm thinking if she's in volleyball,
she could do, work on the spike thing too.
- That's right.
- That's not gonna help what we're talking about
but it'll give her some resistance training.
- That's right, we're always adding
little tips and benefits here, aren't we Brad?
- You better believe it.
- Okay the last thing I wanna mention is
you really gotta do something about the laptop issue.
- Yep, posture.
- If you're, and we're seeing this, I'm not
trying to single you out because believe me
Brad and I are seeing this as an epidemic basically.
- Oh yeah, we could write a book on it.
- We're seeing people, and this is what
they're like all day long.
They're laying in their beds or they're at a desk.
And even if you're like right here,
you put it on a desk, you're like this to use
the keyboard 'cause you want your arms kinda level here.
But then you gotta go like this in order to see the screen.
- So what we, this should be how high the screen should be.
- Right, this where the screen should be.
And you're saying, you're kidding me.
How am I gonna do that?
Well you almost have to get a separate keyboard.
Obviously it wouldn't look like this.
Is this from the 30's?
- Well you get a wireless
- A little wireless keyboard that you would
use like this and you'd have a stand to set this on.
This is really high because I'm really tall.
- Yeah - So it wouldn't be as high
But you really can't be like this
for prolonged periods of time.
You don't wanna take your phone and have
it down like this either. You wanna bring it up to you.
They call it the dinosaur arms.
- Rex - Tyrannosaurus Rex
- The rex guy, yep.
- By the way, that's the joke about
me and family by the way.
Well for being so tall I have short arms.
So my little nephews always come up to me
and they always go, "Uncle Robert."
- I can just imagine.
(laughing) We'd better get on with the show.
- All right so anyway you wanna keep everything up here.
You gotta avoid that, you gotta think about that
throughout the day when you're working on things.
All right we're gonna say goodbye, Brad,
'cause I see we're coming up on our time.
- Oh yeah, we're on a schedule.
- So long. - Good luck.