- You need to follow only one simple rule when you sleep.
Plus find out how you can win a mattress. (laughs)
- So stick around.
- Stick around, stick around.
Think about sticking your body on the wall with Velcro.
- David Letterman.
(Brad laughs)
♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
- All right, if you continue to have back pain, neck pain,
or even sciatica going down your leg,
it may be because you're breaking this one simple rule.
- So Brad, what is the rule?
- Bob, you think I'm gonna tell everyone?
(Bob laughs)
- Keep your spine. - Keep your spine
in a neutral position, the optimal position
so it does not become stressed.
All right, so the spine,
if we're looking at it from a side view, here we have it,
there's actually a curve, or a couple curves in the spine.
You can see it here, it goes back and that-
- Slight. - Slight curve.
- Curve.
- But they're important
and you wanna keep them in that position.
- So from a side view, you don't want a C curve.
- Slouched over. - One curve.
- That's bad.
- Bad, bad C, bad C. - Bad.
- C as in criminal.
All right, you also don't wanna exaggerate the curve,
particularly in the low back where it goes like this,
and Bob is demonstrating that there,
compressing some tissues in the facet joints.
- That will be painful.
- Yes.
So if you look at the spine from this view,
the back view or (indistinct) view,
you wanna avoid a curve in the side direction
or a rotation in keeping those positions while you sleep.
It's gonna cause pain.
- We'll show how that works in the bed.
- Yep, we'll demonstrate it all.
Okay, the first thing we're gonna talk about
is if you're on your back
and you have low back pain,
you may have too much arch in your back
or we call that lordosis.
If you're laying like that, one way you can test it,
and you have some back pain,
simply lift your knees up, just like Bob is doing here,
and if the back pain goes away, feels much better,
then what you're gonna wanna do is a simple fix,
is take two or three pillows
and put 'em underneath your knees.
Can you lift up a little higher, Bob?
There we go. - Oh, sorry.
- That's it.
Now you can put 'em like this.
- Ah! - There you go.
And this is one thing that I have found in the clinic
that has made a lot of people less painful
lying on their back. - Well, you like it, right?
- I do actually, especially if my back is bothering me,
but there's even one position
that consistently bothers me more in one of the other rules.
- Sure. - But yeah.
- We'll get do that.
- Yep, we'll get to it.
So besides, this is not about me, Bob,
this is about everyone else.
- Yes.
(Bob laughs) (Brad laughs)
- Another common problem is if you sleep on your side
and it causes back pain, there's a very good chance
is because your spine is actually dipping down
in this area where my hand is
in the lumbar. - Exactly.
- Yep, it's saying this is the exact problem
I have when I sleep on my side.
There's two easy ways to correct it.
Number one is, which would I do,
I lie on my back, pain goes away.
If you really like lying on your side,
you can simply take a pillow, a smaller pillow,
it'll depend on you and your bed,
and you put that just above the belt line
and you fill that gap in so that-
- Oh, that does feel good.
- You feel good, Bob, huh? - Yeah.
- Yeah, I'm not making this stuff up.
- [Bob] Good.
- So right there put the alignment back in where we need it.
Ta-da, problem is solved.
So once again, those are two simple options for that.
Another common predicament
is the low spine actually gets rotated because the hip,
when you're lying on your side,
moves forward with your knees like this.
And when this hip moves forward this direction,
it twists the spine.
Simple solution, and people really find this comfortable,
is simply take a pillow, put it between the knees
get things- - Ah!
- Bob is moaning with pleasure, right? (laughs)
Thumbs up.
And so get things lined up and you'll find that comfortable.
It's really comfortable on the knees
and even the ankles as well for many people.
- [Bob] Thanks, Brad.
- You're welcome, Bob.
Have a good night, nap.
Okay, and lastly, we wanna talk about people
who are stomach sleepers.
Bob and I aren't real big fans of it,
but we know people like to sleep on their stomach.
A couple things you need to address is,
first of all let's look at the neck.
It's at end range looking all the way over.
One thing you can do to get your neck
in a more neutral position in the spine
is slide the pillow over so that you can turn down slightly
as opposed to having your neck, oops,
neck all the way over there.
Slight rotation down.
And there's discussion about the pillows
that have the hole in the middle
so you can put your face down in there and still breathe.
And again, that's an option.
The next thing is looking at the low back.
It can also oftentimes put too much arch in the low back.
So again, these pillows are the key
for so much with spine alignment in bed.
That can make a big difference right there.
How you feeling, Bob?
- Good. - He doesn't have his mic on
so you can't hear 'em luckily,
but he said good.
Thumbs up.
All right Bob, are we done?
- I think so.
- And that's all the positions that we're gonna work with
to keep your spine in that healthy, neutral position.
Sleep well and be careful.
- We got a giveaway.
- Oh, the giveaway!
Ho-ho, break break.
Bob, I almost forgot you helped me out.
We have a giveaway and this is a big one.
It's a SleepOvation mattress.
We love ours.
- Very comfortable. - We've sleeping on 'em
for years. - Yep.
- So go to bobandbrad.com, go to the giveaway section,
you'll see the giveaway.
Enter it and you could win one of these.
They have 700 tiny mattresses. - And air channels.
- Air channels to make it-
- Pretty cool. - Not so warm.
It's a comfortable mattress.
- They're really comfortable.
- It's got these nice springs but-
- Individual springs.
- You don't get it like this.
You get the whole mattress with a complete cover.
- It's a bargain. - Yeah.
- And a free pillow.
- Oh, and a free pillow along with it.
So very good.
That's so you can put it under your head, under your knees,
under your spine. - It might be two pills.
- Might be two.
Well, whatever. - Nice one.
- Just be happy whatever you get.
Just be happy.
(upbeat music)