♪ Bob and Brad, the two most famous ♪
♪ physical therapists on the internet. ♪
- Hi folks.
I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- And I'm Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- Together we are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- In our opinion, of course, Bob, why do you mention it?
- Because Brad thinks he's more famous than I am.
- Well, let's have a vote. - Together.
(Brad laughing)
Today we're gonna talk about three easy stretches
for low back pain.
Now I wanna say, Brad, these are not appropriate
for everybody. - No.
- You've got to figure out which one works for you.
- Right.
But these exercises are promoted, and I don't know,
I shouldn't say invented, but really investigated
and researched by two of the most prominent
physical therapists in the world.
I think we can safely say that.
- Yes, we can say that.
One is gone. - Right.
- Just passed away.
- Passed away, that's Robin McKenzie.
- And Stuart McGill, who we've had on our podcast.
- Right, yup. - Is still humming away
and he's doing great work.
- He just lives north of us, a country.
- In the Canada. - Yep.
- Canada.
- Canada, Canada. - There we go.
- Anyways.
So anyways, it's estimated about 80% of society, people,
have back pain sometime throughout their life
to a significant degree.
They may not- - To a significant.
A lot of times they are missing work because of it.
- Exactly, exactly. - So.
- So it's a big thing. - Yes, it is.
- And so if you can get a handle on it yourself,
do some self-maintenance or some treatment,
that's gonna help maintain a healthy back.
This is a good video to watch.
It's gonna give you some good information.
So, should we get right into it, Bob?
- Let's get into it, Brad. - I think you're in the way.
- Okay. - Excuse me, thank you.
So the first one.
Simply.
And this is one of our most basic exercises.
We've promoted it many times over the years
and we'll continue to do so.
- I liked it because almost everybody could do it.
- Right, from people. - Even the elderly.
- Elderly to young people, and it does give the low back
at simply lying on your back.
You can do this one in your bed.
- Yes.
- Or on the floor is probably a little better,
but the bed's okay.
Some people can't get on and off the floor easily.
You simply rotate, now notice my shoulders are glued
to the table or the floor.
And my knees stay together gently,
I'm not contracting tightly and I'm rotating
with a nice motion to the hips.
Actually leave the bed here, the platform,
and we're gonna go back and forth 10 times
just to get the low back, the muscles relaxed.
You're getting some motion in the facet joints,
the discs have some motion and range of motion as well.
Yes, Bob, do you have a question?
- Yes.
What happens if it hurts one direction?
- Excellent question, Bob, - Thank you.
- But we'll leave that for another video.
(Bob laughing) No, I'm just kidding.
No, that's an excellent question.
Let's say I go to the right, ow! And I get pain
to the right.
Well, do not push through the pain
and think you're gonna crack your back
and it's gonna be all better.
We're gonna bump to that point and we're gonna stop going
at that painful range, Bob.
And then we're gonna go back this way,
and this way, maybe it feels better.
And then we're gonna go all the way over.
Get the motion here, come back, allow the pelvis to go flat.
Just bump.
When you start to feel that painful spot,
stop right there and then go back.
You know, I call it with my patients,
I will say it's like a windshield wiper.
So, I just give it the title, do the windshield wipers
and typically, you know.
- Pretty visual.
- Yeah, and they, you know,
it clicks right away. - Right.
- As opposed to hooklying, lumbar rotation right and left.
- Right, exactly.
- Not one of those technical-
- Now you can vary a little bit
where you put your feet to,
you could go closer to you-
- Yep. - Or further away.
- Right.
- And see how that affects your back, too.
- That can make a big difference.
- It can.
- One thing I'll do is watch my feet,
if I keep 'em stacked on top of each other,
it gives me a little more range here, as opposed to,
if I do this, it's some subtle difference,
you can, you know, do whichever feels better for you.
- Now, an advanced version of this would be,
to come over this way, Brad, and then actually
you let this one go out further like that.
- Right, exactly.
I could do it this way, but I bump into that.
- Right, right.
- Yeah, so if this feels good, well, go ahead
and give it a little more.
- That's an advanced version.
- As long as it feels good, - No pain.
- Should we go on to the next one?
- Sure. - We do have another one.
The prone press up.
- Why don't I do that one?
- Yes, that's a good one for you, Bob.
I do not do prone press ups because I have spondylolisthesis
and that aggravates and irritates my back.
- Now Robin McKenzie, he promoted-
- Mm-hmm.
- Kind of a lot of variations of this.
- Right.
- One, he would start, he could do the prone prop.
- Yeah. - Just up on your elbows.
Or you could start off hands underneath the shoulders
and do micro press-ups.
- Yep.
But with the McKenzie system,
he does promote the actual movement up and down,
- Right and getting way up here even, possibly.
- Now with Stuart McGill, he promotes this, but-
- He does not promote the movement.
- Right, so you got two of the best therapists
in the world over time and they do not agree.
So we're gonna, what are we gonna suggest?
- Well, whatever is painless and whatever helps.
- Right.
- So if the movement is making it worse,
you're gonna stop. - Right.
- And we're talking about after too, like, you know,
the next 24 hours.
- Right, yep.
- But with Stuart McGill,
well, he would start off his hand like this,
and then he might even go up onto a fist.
- Kind of a progression.
- Yep, and then you go up to two fists.
- Sure.
- But he would just have you lie here
and you know, eventually you'd see how the back does
with just gravity.
- Yep, allow things to settle down the muscles to relax.
- So now this is often, quite often,
used for disc problems too, sciatica.
- Mm-hmm.
- But I used to use these with patients, all patients.
- Yeah.
As long as it made things better while you're doing it,
and as a result afterwards, we continue to run with it.
- It's not gonna help probably spinal stenosis.
- Probably not.
- And it's not gonna help Brad's problem.
- Spondylolisthesis. - Right.
- Which typically extension of the lumbar spine.
- Yeah, it's gonna make it worse.
- Which that's what this is.
- Quite often, if you're 55 and older,
and it hurts to extend your back,
you might have one of those two.
- Yeah. Should we go on to number three, Bob?
- Sure, what's number three?
- Well. - Oh yeah.
- The infamous- - Cat-camel.
- Cat-camel, which has been called every
from the cat camel to the horse and the cow
(Bob laughing) and everything else, but let's just go
through the mechanics.
- Now, I believe both people,
both McGill and Mackenzie advocated the use of this.
- Sure.
It's a great way, just to get some nice
non-weightbearing range of motion through the lumbar spine,
which Bob is doing a nice job of presenting.
- A lot of people can do this one.
So you bring the arch back up like this
and my head comes down. - Yep, look at that.
- And I go the other way, and I bring my head up.
- I do wanna mention, I know Dr. McGill oftentimes says,
"Make sure your knees-"
- "Are further apart."
- Right, further apart.
Shoulder width gives you a wider base
and it stabilizes the pelvis, and he mentioned
a few other complicated things I can't remember,
but it made sense when I was reading it.
- Right. (Brad laughing)
So, again, we don't know if this is the cat or the camel.
- Right.
We will get feedback from our viewers and I'll read it,
and I'll be appreciative.
I'll be grateful, Bob.
- And I'll always forget.
- I'll forget as well,
because it's not that important to me,
what is that it gets better and you do it properly.
- This really is a nice one for mobility.
- Yeah, it is.
Now as oftentimes as we do,
we don't stop at giving you just what we say,
we give you bonus, a little extra information,
and this is something they both promote-
- Absolutely. - Is walking.
Again, walking on a flat surface, don't go up and down hills
and definitely not in a terrain where it's uneven
because that's a little more stress on the back
than you need.
But walking on a daily basis.
- Several times a day
- Right.
Only at a distance that's tolerated and don't overdo it.
- Right. - But try-
- It might be 10 minutes. - Right.
Matter of fact, I'm gonna do a detailed video
on Stuart McGill's walking thing.
- Oh, good.
- With really breaking this down.
It'll be coming out in a week or two.
- I had a friend who worked at a back clinic.
- Yeah.
- That's all they saw, was patients with back pain.
And that's the first thing they would have them do is walk.
- Right.
- I mean, as a overall.
- That's pretty easy as a therapist.
- Yeah.
- Number one, walk.
(Brad laughing).
- Go walk, and we'll have lunch while you,
let me know when you get back.
- And the second one as sole is posture, posture, posture,
particularly seated posture. - Yes.
- It's so easy to-
- You don't wanna be seated in a slumped position.
You know. - Yep.
- You wanna have nice upright.
Lot of times we use the support in the low back.
- Lumbar support.
- Maybe a pillow, a throw pillow.
- Yep.
- If you're in your recliner or in the couch.
- I use the throw pillow quite a bit.
In my car I have a special memory foam one.
So whatever, there's a lot.
Well, we've got some excellent detailed videos
just on lumbar supports,
if you go Bob and Brad lumbar support.
- Yeah, Brad is specializing.
(indistinct)
Speaking of which.
- Booyah stick.
- This is our giveaway.
If you go to bobandbrad.com, go to the giveaway section.
- That's right.
- We're always giving something away.
You can also go to Facebook.
- To Facebook.
- It'll be pinned to the top of the page.
- Right above. - (indistinct) Bob and Brad.
And we've been mentioned in our podcasts.
- Oh yes, yes.
- Again, we got an interview with Stuart McGill on there.
You should check that out.
- We didn't erase that one, did we?
- No, that one's going gangbusters.
- It is, it is.
- 2,000 people a day are watching, are listening.
- On the podcast, if you're listening to it,
you can't see his mustache.
He's got one of these mustaches that Sam Elliott-
- Yep. - Used to have.
And so you can't go wrong. - Award winning.
- Yeah, it is, no doubt.
So I hope Stewart, you don't mind me.
- Yeah.
- Comparing you to Sam Elliott.
- We're admiring it.
- Yeah, whatever, anyways.
Be careful on everything that you're doing and that's it.
- Thanks.
- And my finger's.
(gentle music)