- Hi, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- And together we are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- In our opinion, of course, Bob.
- You notice, I didn't say handsome.
- Right. Had nothing to do with that.
- Okay. Today, we're gonna talk about fibromyalgia.
We're gonna show you some pain relief stretches to perform.
These are friendly and gentle.
Now, when you're stretching for fibromyalgia, you know.
This is a tough disease to go through.
- Right.
- And you really want to pick a time of day
where you feel the best.
You wanna start off real slow.
You may not even wanna do all these to start.
You may wanna just try a few.
And understand that it's not gonna get better very quickly.
This is something you need to do over time,
a month or two before you,
I mean, you know, a couple weeks
before you're gonna probably see some improvement.
- Sure.
- And we prefer kind of what we call dynamic stretching,
where you're actually moving the muscle,
not just holding it in one position.
We're actually kind of moving it and stretching it.
- Right.
- Does that make sense?
- Right. So yeah.
- Okay. Let's start off.
We're gonna start with,
we're gonna go from seated to laying down.
So that's the, the two way,
directions we're gonna do it.
- We're going through 10 stretches all together.
- Okay. The first one,
you can actually do this with your arms in front,
or you can put 'em actually behind you
and clasp your hands.
- Like that.
- Yep. Thank you, Brad.
- You can do it standing as well.
- Yep. And you're just gonna gently
pull your neck to the side.
- Gonna feel that stretch right in through here.
And you're not gonna pull really hard.
It's not a contest of how hard you can get your neck over.
It's just a gentle, make sure you're breathing, relaxed.
- And kind of pressure on, pressure off.
I'm not, I'm not really holding it
for a long period of time.
- Right.
- Again, dynamic stretching, going back and forth.
Okay. Next one.
Again, you might wanna show this one from the side, Brad.
I like shoulder rolls.
I, some people do 'em forward and back.
I like to just do 'em back.
I bring shoulders up,
squeeze the shoulder blades together,
and down.
Up, squeeze the shoulder blades together, and down.
So Brad.
- From the back, it looks like this.
- Yeah. He's pullin' those shoulder blades together.
It's a good posture one,
and it's a good one
for helping to relax the muscles up in here
which a lot of people do have tenderness and tightness.
- That's those trigger points that Fibro has.
- Next one, you can put the hands behind the head
or behind the ears,
and you're gonna bring your elbows back.
You're stretching the chest.
Good posture.
Always good posture.
Kind of flapping your wings here.
Kinda like Dumbo, right Brad?
- Yeah. And again, breathing throughout all these
make sure you breathe in your nose, out your mouth.
- Very good point, Brad.
- Relaxed breathing.
If you find yourself holding your breath
you will not stretch as well.
These exercises are great for posture as well.
- Yeah, these are good for everybody to be honest with you.
Okay, next one.
You're gonna grab your elbow
and you're gonna just kind of pull across.
And this pulls on the tricep
and gets a little bit of the trap, doesn't it, Brad?
- Yep.
- Okay. Again, pressure on, pressure off.
Pressure on, pressure off, breathing.
- How many on each one?
- I, well, again, I want you to start off slow
but eventually you can go up to five, 10.
- Sure.
- You know?
All right. Next one.
You may wanna show this from the angle, Brad.
- Yep.
- You're gonna grab your hand
and you're gonna pull it back,
keeping your elbow straight.
- Versus like this, out here.
- Right. Stretching the forearm.
Kind of pressure on, pressure off.
Pressure on,
pressure off. - This is an easy one
to get carried away and pull really hard.
- Yeah.
- Don't, you don't need to do that.
Just a gentle stretch.
You might wanna do it this way,
but this is more aggressive.
This is probably what you'll wanna do.
- And it gets both sides.
- Yep.
- All right, next one.
You're gonna, now we're going to the lower extremities.
Again, it's an active stretch.
We're stretching the hamstrings.
Good posture.
And you're just gonna bring the leg up like this.
Down.
Bring it up, give a good stretch.
- You should feel that stretch
right under the knee and back a little bit.
If you happen to be a real flexible person
and you don't feel the stretch when you do this,
- Then you can lean forward. Yeah.
- Lean forward a little bit.
- That'll pull on, anchor the hamstring
and give you a little more pull.
- Right.
- Do both legs again.
- Yeah.
- Five to 10 repetitions.
- And then we're gonna stretch the calf.
But you can do that with the leg straight, too
and just pull it, the toe toward you.
- Right.
- So
- Stretch.
Again, pressure on, pressure off.
- Feeling it right in here.
- Okay. What's your calf joke that you make always?
You gotta make it moo.
- Moo the calf, cow.
Get it, moo it.
That's a bad joke.
- All right.
Laying down, Brad.
- All right.
- Let's keep it moving here.
- All right.
This is my favorite part.
You get to lay down.
- This is a great one for nearly everyone.
This is good for your back.
And it's gonna stretch the hips and the back.
Just gentle trunk rotations.
So he's rotating his hips back and forth.
Good one to do before you get, get up in the morning.
Nice dynamic stretching.
- Note, your hip comes up, but the shoulder stays down.
So you're not moving your whole body back and forth.
But it's shoulders glued to the bed or the table,
hips and knees move together.
So we get that low back involved with the hips.
- Okay. Then while in the same position,
you're now gonna
let's just grab this one, Brad.
And you're gonna go single knee to chest.
Good, pressure on, pressure off.
You're gonna probably hit your mic there,
but that's all right.
Good.
- All right. Next one.
- And the last one is you're gonna get,
turn, flip around now,
and you're gonna go ahead
and do that stretch on your,
where you get on your knees
and you're gonna stretch your back.
- All right.
So on all fours, you can do this on carpet.
- You can actually bend back on like this.
Yep. And then you're gonna bend.
Yep.
Stretch. It's a good stretch for the low back.
- And as you-
- Stretching up in here too
- Stretch. I like to exhale
when I go into this part of the stretch,
relax, relax, exhale.
Breathe in when you come up,
and exhale and relax.
You know, you could play some music,
probably not hard rock
but some soft or slow music.
- Are you saying that head banging music
wouldn't work for this one Brad?
- I don't think you're gonna get relaxing effects with that.
- All right.
Give this a try and again, give it some time
because it's gonna take a little time before it works.
And, and if you haven't already,
make sure you subscribe to us,
'cause we're gonna give you lots of videos
on how to stay healthy, fit, pain free.
- And active.
- I had to get one word in there, Bob.
- It was cool.