- All right, if you've ever had back pain, mid back pain,
from this area to this area, we call that the thoracic back.
The common symptoms are,
perhaps if you take a deep breath in,
and it kind of bites right in there,
and where you turn and twist and you feel that pain,
there's a good chance you have a pinched nerve.
- And we're gonna show you five easy options
to help alleviate this pain that have a strong track record
with some of our patients.
- That's right, and it's all right here.
(upbeat music)
All right, I'd like to show you the likely causes
of this pinched nerve
or the pinched nerve like pain you're experiencing.
Number one, actually we're gonna look at,
at every level there is actually a spinal nerve.
Mike is pointing them out right there.
Those nerves could be pinched from a number of reasons,
and we're not gonna get into all of them.
Another location of pain source could be the facet joints,
and they're between,
there's two facet joints between each vertebrae.
So you got 12 thoracic joints, that's 24 possibilities.
And the next thing is where the ribs actually connects
to the transverse process
which is a bone that comes from the vertebrae.
And those should be mobile, but they lock up sometimes too,
and we need to break those loose and mobilize them.
- So common reason for a pinched nerve
in a thoracic spine area is often from prolonged sitting
and poor posture like I am.
When I'm rounded down like this
and putting a lot more pressure
on all of those joints we just talked about and the discs.
So getting in a correct straight posture
can help alleviate some of those symptoms.
- That's right, and also,
if you are in this prolonged posture,
driving, in your chair watching TV,
particularly driving like myself,
and you hit a bumpy road or on my lawnmower,
and you get this jolting going through your spine,
terrible on a rounded spine,
that can really set something off.
I've been awakened in the middle of the night with pain,
and we're gonna show, and I've got a solution for it,
and we're gonna show you that as well.
Thing number three or four on that.
- Well, let's get into that. - That's right.
All right, the first exercise I like,
a lot of people will like.
It's not real aggressive, and it can do the job.
We're gonna show you two options.
One is something you can just use some towels at home.
The other one, you'll need a 36-inch long six-inch roll.
You'll see what we're talking about.
Thank you, Mike.
Now this, you need to take some towels
and roll 'em up relatively tight,
and then you tape 'em together.
Don't worry, you'll use this.
So just don't wash it, don't take it apart and wash it.
Just keep it for your back stretch.
Set it down like this.
So it's about six inches in diameter.
And you're gonna lie on this
pretty much right between your shoulder.
Ooh, I just had my pop, crack, cavitated, feels good.
And like Mike is helping me out.
If you put pillows to rest your head,
makes a significant comfort different,
helpful comfort whatever.
(both laughing)
Makes it more comfortable.
And you can relax.
You can bring your arms out like this
and go up and down like this.
My shoulders right here, I feel a stretch.
And if I wanted more stretch,
I would put two weights in my hands,
probably one pound dumbbells or simply a can of soup.
Make sure you do it on both sides,
and that really offers a better stretch on my spine
and back, as well as my pec major muscles.
You're gonna hang out here 15 to 30 seconds.
You could relax and repeat that.
Again, if this creates pain, any sharp pain,
it's not right for you.
Okay, now, if you happen to have a six-inch foam roller,
they work very well.
Little more challenging in a way.
Make sure you get the one that's soft density.
Medium works well, I like.
You could use the more firm one if you want.
It's just not as comfortable.
Now with this, you need to put it on your sacrum,
that bone right below your belt line, and then right down.
So the roller's between your shoulder blades
and you rest your head right on the roller yourself.
Now, if your head does not touch
because you have tight neck, that may be normal.
You want to get a pillow, which is right here
and put that there for comfort so you can relax,
and you do exactly the same thing.
This you can kind of roll back and forth, it can help.
You know, if you wanna stretch one leg up here
just because you want something too, you can do that,
with the towel roll as well.
Use the weights just as I mentioned with the towel roll.
It's the same thing except for you have your foam roller.
I personally find great deal of comfort
in my sacrum by SI joints using this.
So I'm getting more than one area.
It's a bonus.
- So stretch number two is gonna work
on your amount of thoracic extension
or how far you can bring your back backwards.
Again, you will need a thick roll,
six-inch roll like this, or a foam roller.
We'll show both variations.
I'm gonna place this
where it feels comfortable for me personally.
Again, you can use a pillow under your head
for some nice support, supporting the head there,
and you're gonna see what feels comfortable.
If I go up here more,
I feel a lot more lumbar extension here.
That's not as comfortable.
I wanna hit that mid thoracic back area.
So I'm gonna go in a range that feels good.
Lay here.
You can bring your arms up to your side if you want,
or keep 'em in.
It's just working on bringing that extension
back in your spine.
- That's right.
And this, you will oftentimes get that cavitation
or that crack release.
You'll feel that or even hear it.
Again, we're gonna show with the foam roller.
It's a wonderful stretch.
This is one of my go-tos.
- So for this one,
I'm just kind of sitting in a spot for 10, 30 seconds,
and then I might kind of roll up and just get a new spot.
Just kind of work through and see what feels good.
- [Brad] That's right.
- Okay, now we're gonna do the same thing
but with a foam roller.
So for this, you're actually gonna roll.
So I'm gonna lift my buttock off the ground,
and I'm gonna kind of roll that thoracic spine region
roughly to my shoulder blades to my mid back around here.
I don't like it
once you can start getting into lumbar spine,
you will feel it.
If you are getting some headaches
or neck discomfort with this,
you can put a towel behind your head here
and pull up with your hands to give it some support
if you are having some neck pain with this.
But this is another way you can just kind of roll into it.
You can also do what I did before
and just kinda lay over it
and work on that thoracic extension.
Hi, Brad.
- How you doing?
Yeah, and actually, if you don't have a towel,
and you have really flexible arms, you can simply do that.
It gets a stretch into the shoulders and the pecs as well.
This is a wonderful, wonderful stretch.
Okay, this next stretch,
you're actually gonna need a special tool.
It's called the Bob & Bad Posture Pad.
We developed this specifically for the thoracic spine,
for the pinched nerves,
as well as helping with that hunch back
or that neck hump from head forward posture
that people get stuck in
after they've been this way for a number of years.
Show you how you use it.
It's got a nice radius here
which is there for a specific reason.
These tennis balls are in there for a specific reason.
But first you simply go like this, and you lie on it there,
and you, oh, I just, did you hear that?
- [Mike] No.
- It was there. I definitely heard a.
I'm at about T-7 right now.
I'm gonna start low, and I'm gonna work,
and you can rock back and forth,
and you'll find the area that needs the stretch.
As you can see, I'm supporting my head.
You can also take a towel and hold it across your head
if that's more comfortable,
which actually I always like to do that one way or another,
and I'm gonna work it.
Now, once you find a spot that really needs a stretch,
you're gonna hang out there for 15 to 30 seconds or longer,
whatever you would like.
It feels great.
It's nice when you can get to that one spot
in the corner of the posture pad.
Now, if you have tight muscles between your shoulder blades,
that's the reason we have these tennis balls in,
and they're not just any tennis ball.
Where'd that one go? There it is.
The light blue ones have less pressure
and the other blue ones have more pressure,
and all of 'em have less pressure
than a regular tennis ball.
But we're gonna put those in there,
and you put 'em in wherever you would want.
I'm gonna put the ones with the lower pressure
on the top here.
Now, this is a little more aggressive.
You may take a towel and go over it,
and that's gonna go into the knots of the muscle belly
between your spine and your shoulder blade on each side,
and you'll feel it.
And what I like to do on this
is I like to actually go forward and backwards
when I hit that trigger point.
The left ball on the top is actually
on a trigger point right now.
I'm feeling it, I'm working it.
And as I do this, it's much more comfortable.
The trigger point, the muscle is releasing and relaxing.
And that's the point with that.
Now, Bob uses this on a regular basis, right, Bob?
And you actually are in a position like this.
After you feel,
I wanna get more aggressive on those trigger points.
Well, you know, that one, I wanna get more aggressive.
So I'm gonna put the blue ball up there,
leave that one out, take all of them out.
Now I'm gonna put all the pressure right there
on that tight spot.
This is just an option.
And that makes a fairly significant difference.
And I'm gonna work over that.
And sometimes that pain is not a pinched nerve.
It may be just a knot that is so tight
and that muscle is so bound up,
it's really burning away and causing pain.
And this can get rid of it.
So the posture pad, you go to bobandbrad.com
and you can order one of these if you'd like to.
Otherwise, we got the other options
that we've already talked about.
- So this option, again,
we're gonna work on straightening that spine
and fighting against that rounded posture
we're in most of the day.
So you can do this at a chair,
at home or maybe your work desk.
You can use a ball for a little bit more stretch.
You can use a smaller one or larger one,
whatever you got available.
So I'm gonna put this behind my back
in a position that feels good.
Kind of gonna go mid back here,
and then I'm gonna lean back into it.
And if you have good shoulders, you can lean back into it
and then bring your arms up as well.
Really opens up everything in the front
and gets that spine extending
combating that flex forward posture we talked about earlier.
- I do wanna mention the ball they use,
like Mike said, different sizes,
but it really needs to be a soft, squishy ball.
If it's, you know, for example, I mean, extreme,
but a basketball would not work or anything,
even a soccer ball is too hard.
You need a squishy ball.
So if you don't have one, go to the neighbors,
and see if you can get one from the neighbor kids,
and then bring it back, of course.
- Do you ever just keep it?
- No, I do wanna mention, Mike,
we believe is the originator of this exercise.
How many years ago, you were working with patients
and showing 'em this like 10 years ago, wasn't it?
- I don't know, I don't remember.
It's too long ago.
- Well. (Mike laughs)
- So you can do this stretch throughout the day.
You can do repetitions.
Say you wanna do 10 repetitions,
and you can hold it for 5 to 10 seconds each time.
If you'd rather just sit here and hold it for 30 seconds
to a minute, that's perfectly fine as well.
And just do it throughout the day.
The whole idea is,
if you're sitting like this most of the day,
take frequent breaks to go
and bend your spine the other direction.
- Most excellent, thank you so much.
- So number five, if you're having referral pain
all the way down your arm and into your fingertips,
it may be referral pain
coming from the low part of your neck.
And Brad is gonna show an excellent option for that.
- Right, we're getting out of the lane of the video,
but it's so closely related to thoracic or mid back pain.
We're gonna address it anyways.
So the pain down the arm can be simply numbness,
tingling, feeling cold.
It's a pinched nerve at the low neck, upper back.
And one way you can try to alleviate this,
sit up tall as you can and simply do chin tucks.
So you bring your chin in towards your throat like this,
breathe and relax and see how the pain
or the numbness and symptoms in the arm respond.
If you do this 5 to 10 times, and the symptoms
in the hand or the forearm seem to be improving,
it's gold, you're gonna have progress with this.
You may wanna put a little over pressure.
On the other hand, if the pain, numbness, tingling,
down in the arm, and you do this, and it makes it worse,
then you're gonna need to stop right there.
Now the next option, if this is getting better,
then you can try add to neck extension.
You take a towel roll,
and you roll it up like this any way you want.
So we have some cushion and support on the low neck.
Use a firm chair, scoot your bottom back in the chair,
start with a gentle chin tuck,
support here, not pulling hard,
just support and look up.
And you can bring your hands up like this
to offer a little traction, or you can keep 'em down.
And what we're looking for is, if you do this,
and it hurts a little bit, come forward,
repeat that a few repetitions.
And if it starts to feel better
or the pain and the numbness down
in the arm and hand are improving, then it's a green light.
You continue up to 10 repetitions.
And if it feels better in the arm after that,
you take a break come back in an hour and do the same thing.
And you're gonna do that every hour
as long as symptoms in the arm and the hand improve
and are moving upwards towards the shoulder and the neck,
and eventually your range of motion, less pain,
everything will improve,
and you'll start to go back in a normal supported way
until the arm pain, that pinched nerve is then released.
It's a little more complicated.
So take your time with this one.
If it doesn't make the arm better, you stop.
It's very clear on that.
And that camera thing, I always get mixed up.
We're pointing over here.
Anyways, we're done with this.
This can be an excellent option if it works, but only then.
Mike, do you have a finishing outro?
- I would say pick which exercise worked for you.
Obviously, it's five. They take a lot of time.
Try them all and see what works.
And stick to that one for a while to see if it helps.
- That's right, easiest ones are first.
The harder ones are a little bit later in the video.
So now they're tired of us, and we're tired of doing this.
- And we're rambling and a little sweaty. So.
- Take care. Have a good day.
We gotta get some lunch.
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