- All right, we've got a plan.
We are going to show you why you should
decompress your spine.
- And how it can help your back pain.
- There you go.
Hold on 9.3 seconds and we'll give you
all the information you need.
♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
(upbeat music)
- Okay Bob, I think before we go any farther we better
clarify decompression and what we're talking about.
- What it means, right. - Yep, with the spine.
So, let's look at the spine.
We've got the vertebrae, we've got discs,
and there's muscles and connective tissue
holding it all together. - Nerves, right.
- Decompression refers to...
- If we took the spine and pulled it apart.
- Yep, so we're just pulling some force on it.
And it's not real aggressive, you don't rip anything.
Technically this is known as traction, medically.
It has been going on for years, decades,
maybe you know, centuries you know,
traction has been a treatment.
So this is things you can do at home to decompress
or put traction on your spine.
And we're gonna show you in just about 2.3 seconds
how it can work.
- Right.
- Okay, let's just go down to one segment of the spine
and see what we can do.
If we look here at vertebra L5 and L4, and this red disc
happens to be kind of a injured disc.
Now when we decompress it, or put traction on it,
you can see the gap that pulls away in there.
And now we're gonna show you...
You don't create a gap, something else happens good.
And hold on, we're gonna have a nice model for that.
(air whooshes)
Okay, so we'll just look at this.
Here we've got a vertebra, L5, vertebra L4,
and the disc being the red tissue right between there.
And when we put traction or decompression,
this disc happens to be bulging, and when we decompress it,
show what happens, Bob.
It allows it to go back inward,
supposed to be relieving pain.
And- - The traction is good.
- Yep, the traction is a...
And like I said, this has been going on for a long time.
- Compression. - Yep.
- Decompression, right. - And decompression.
- So, and you may not have a disc problem,
that also stretches and can relax the muscles,
the ligaments, other tissues.
- Also takes the pressure off the joints.
- Right, yep.
Oh, the facet joints.
- Right. - Good point, Bob.
So it really is one of those things
that if it's done properly and not too aggressively,
can be wonderful and benefits.
- Plus you could get taller.
- Yeah, get taller.
Exactly right.
And if you got 'em, I really suggest getting one of these
'cause they're fun to play with, but.
Okay, let's go on. - Fun.
(air whooshes)
- Okay, the first way to do this is really cool
because it's simple, you can do it in a seated position...
- You could do it anywhere.
- Anywhere, but you gotta be seated.
- Yep, you gotta be sit down. - And you can-
Bob's gonna show it on a seated position without armrests.
I'm gonna show it with armrests.
First thing you do is you scoot forward a little bit
so you're not leaning into the backrest if you have one.
Then we're gonna put our spine in neutral position.
So there's rounded, slouched, and then there's overarched
like this, and we're gonna go halfway in between.
Okay?
Then like Bob, he's gonna put his hands...
- On my thighs.
- So fingers towards the knees.
- Right.
- I'm going to grab the armrest.
If you have armrests this will probably be a little better,
but you can do it you know, try either way.
Then the next thing you do is push up.
And when you do this, keep your stomach muscles loose
if you can. - Right.
- That takes a little practice, but you'll get it.
That allows that low back-
- Really straightens your spine.
- Yep.
Now if you look at Bob's shoulders, they're kinda forward.
And make sure you bring the shoulders back
while you're up.
And then relax that abdominal muscles.
I feel decompression, Bob.
- And you could do it throughout today.
- Yeah.
Probably you know, when you first start out,
five to 10 seconds and then after that
your arms will get tired.
- Right. - You know?
And you may go up to 15 or 20.
- Look how tall I am.
- Yeah, Bob gained inches. (Bob chuckles)
Not that he needs to.
All right, let's go to number two.
(air whooshes)
Take two, number two.
- All right, number two. - All right.
So this one you're gonna, in a seated position again.
Do the same neutral positioning procedure with your back,
not fully- - Flexion, extension.
- Somewhere right in between. - Middle ground.
- For this, you're gonna need, you know you can use
a Booyah stick, you can simply use a broomstick,
you can use anything that's about four or five feet long.
- PVC pipe.
- PVC pipe, wooden doweling, and put it
right in front of you just like this.
If you got a smooth floor and it's slippery,
simply take a shoe, put it down, and put it in the shoe
so it does not slip on the floor.
- And then you walk your way up.
- Bring the hands up as high as you feel comfortable, okay?
Bring that in.
Alls you do when you get to that point
is lean forward and relax.
And when you lean forward, it puts traction on your back.
And it does it in a way that you don't have
to work very hard, simply lean.
- Yep.
- Don't let your hand slide down, you'll lose the traction.
And then of course, again, breathe, relax,
let the back stretch out. (Bob exhales)
This is a nice stretch for your shoulders as well.
- Yep. - Unless you have a problem.
If any of these create pain by the way,
you are not gonna do 'em.
You stop immediately and try the next one.
- Again, do it throughout the day.
- Throughout the day, hold that five to 15 seconds.
And a couple, three times.
This will be interesting here.
Like if you work in an office and you pull out your stick
and just... (Bob laughs)
You know, why not?
- They're already talking about you.
- Yeah, that's right.
(air whooshes)
All right, another option.
This is in the standing position.
We're gonna show you two different variations.
One, if you have two solid objects,
like two chairs like this that are solid,
stand between them, get your back in that neutral position.
We're not like this and we're not arched, in between.
We're gonna let our abdominal muscles relax,
arms are going to push up.
And you can see I got all my weight off.
You don't have to have 100% when you start,
you can just vary it.
You go 50% off, relax, your arms will get-
- My God, you're getting taller.
- I'm getting taller every time.
And then relax.
Now you could do this off a chair like this.
This chair doesn't work because it tips backwards
so that's not an option.
So a countertop or something solid.
A park bench.
- Solid bench. - Good, concrete park bench.
You know, that has someone's name on it or whatever.
- That's right, in memoriam.
- I'll demonstrate it here.
This is a little low, but you still can do it on a low area.
You just have to go like this, it's a little more-
- Sink in.
- Yeah, it's a little more work.
And there we go.
I'm getting compression.
Bring my shoulders back. (breathes deeply)
- Spine straight.
- I'm stretching, I'm decompressing.
Oh yes.
Okay, next up. - There's your best friend.
(Brad grunts)
(air whooshes)
- All right, number four.
This is a nice one.
You can do it in bed before you go to sleep.
Simply lie sideline like Bob is here.
- Don't curl up too much.
- Yep, okay.
So not too much like in the fetal position.
- Right.
- Put a pillow between your knees, keep things in neutral
and then go ahead, Bob.
- Take the right arm, put it on the bed.
Push and straighten out the spine.
- Right, so this is not a real aggressive decompression,
it's gentle but- - You feel it.
- It's non-weightbearing so there isn't
a lot of compression there to begin with
so that's a big advantage.
So you can do that a few times before you go to sleep?
- Yep.
- Again, you can try this or maybe you should do it
right side and left side. - On both sides, right.
Yep.
I'm now seven feet tall.
(Brad laughs)
- Darn, you gotta start playing ball again.
(Bob chuckles)
(air whooshes)
Alright, and the bonus for this video
is we do have a giveaway.
You say, "What are these things?"
They are our pull-up systems.
- What are those things?
- Yeah, we developed them, they work well.
It comes with three wall anchors.
Mount those on the wall, you can put 'em here,
you can put 'em here, they'll hold over 300 pound person
no problem.
And simply, here we go.
And if you like pull-ups, these work great.
My wrists rotate, it's a freedom of pull-ups
and work 'em any way you'd like.
They also work good for...
- Hanging.
- Hanging or decompression of the spine,
decompression of the shoulders.
There's a wonderful device.
And at this position you can actually work
abdominal strengthening, some rotation.
- Twists.
(Brad groans)
- I have these in my basement, I use 'em all the time.
They're great, Bob.
- I think I'm gonna go back to pull-ups.
- Back to pull-ups? - With ease.
- Oh yeah, you can't go wrong with pull-ups.
And do the one arm stretch as well, which we're finding out
particularly if you're Rick Olderman, that this is good
for more than just the shoulder and the arm we're going-
- Your high hip.
- All the way down to the back, all right.
Be careful, have fun, and maybe you can win one.
Two, they're two.
- Sign up. - Yeah, sign up, sign up.
(air whooshes)
In your bed or on a carpeted floor, I like to do it
on a firmer surface but it can be done in bed.
Bob's laying on his back, knees up,
I call that hook line position.
Put your hands on your thighs, close to your hips, and push.
Now it's really important, if you tighten up
your stomach muscles this is not going to work very well.
You have to learn to relax the stomach muscles
and do the decompression force here.
If you tighten up the stomach muscles,
you're just fighting it.
Would you agree with that, Bob?
- Absolutely. - Absolutely, we concur.
- Absitively. - Where Bob and Brad concur,
you know, it's rock solid, so anyways.
So this is a nice deal as well.
So this is something, we got five of 'em here.
Try 'em all, use the ones that work good.
Again, this should feel good while you do it
and after you do it.
If it doesn't, then you need to discontinue
that particular stretch.
- Great.
- Anything else, Bob? - Nope.
- Once again, we can fix just about anything except for...
- A broken heart.
What's that? - That's a heart.
- Yeah, oh, but you can't see, the camera.
He's doing... - Oh, yeah.
- I'm getting better at it.
All right, adiós!
(upbeat music)