♪ Bob and Brad, the two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists on the internet ♪
- Hi there, folks, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- Together, we are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- In our own opinion, of course, Bob.
- That's humble.
Today, we're gonna talk about how
to relieve back spasms fast, with no medication.
- That's right, Bob.
So I hope you have some good answers here.
- Bob, we've got a number of options
and I think between them, they're gonna find
at least one, if probably not two or three,
that will work for you. - That works for you.
- That's right.
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- A giveaway mattress?
- 700 individual mattresses. - 700!
- Yup, and it's got air channels.
And this is just a sample of one, by the way.
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- If you have back pain or neck pain, this is your baby.
- Yeah, we both have 'em, we've had 'em for years
and very, very excited about using them
every night we go to bed. - Yeah, yeah.
- (chuckles) Well anyways, I sleep very well.
So anyways, back spasms, Bob, we wanna get rid of those.
And the last thing I wanna do,
and a lot of the patients I've had, is take muscle relaxers.
- Right.
- They do relax the muscles,
but they get you tired. - Sleepy.
- Yeah, the side effects are not desirable.
- My mom just had a fall.
- Oh really? - I didn't wanna put her
on any of that because she could fall again.
- Right. - Because she's just sleepy.
- Tired, and you're just not all there.
So these spasms are muscles that are contracting.
Yeah, they're trying to protect the back.
They're tightening up so don't put the back
into a bad position.
- Right, and it's the natural occurring thing.
You really can't do anything about it, but what happens,
these muscles contract, they get tight like an isometric.
If you hold a muscle in a isometric,
then it starts to become fatigued.
A lot of lactic acid build up in that area
and that results in pain, so chronic spasms,
it's not comfortable, it becomes painful.
We need to relax the muscle,
get fresh blood flow in there and allow relief.
So that's the option. - Well,
and I think your first suggestion is right,
is that you wanna put it in good posture, right Brad?
- Right, we're gonna use some heat.
Now, we want some heat on these tight muscles to relax them.
But oftentimes, the problem, the muscle's tight
because of poor posture could be the only reason.
Not always, but it can be, or part of it.
So posture, posture, posture, get it right.
And you know, 'cause it'll feel better when you get that.
We're gonna show you three different options.
- So posture with heat as well
is what we're gonna do. - Yes!
That's what I meant to say.
I'm glad you're here to clarify it so that people know
what I'm trying to say. - No, this is funny.
Again my mom, after her fall,
this is the first thing I got her, Brad.
- What's that, a hot pack?
- No, a Thermotex.
- It is a hot pack!
- Well, it's a far infrared heating system.
Way better than a hot pack because it penetrates deep.
And she had a rib injury, so I wasn't worried
because I knew this penetrates, how many inches?
- 2.36 inches.
- Yeah, 2.36 inches, so it goes deep down.
Regular heat only goes basically skin deep.
- Skin deep. - Few millimeters.
- So this thing was the solution for her.
It was able to heat up the area
and she was able to get some relief.
- Now, if you have a regular standard one, you can use that.
- Try that, absolutely. - You don't have to use this.
You'll still have success, this is better.
- These are pricey and they're an investment, basically.
- Right, so that's the options there.
But if you're gonna do this in a seated position,
which is an option and I do use this option.
I use this in my recliner. - Yeah, and same as me.
- One thing I do.
Now, my recliners kinda firm 'cause I bought it that way,
but I do use my cushion or my heat pad.
I'll put that there and that actually helps my posture
and acts as a lumbar support, and I'll sit like that.
And I just did this yesterday, as a matter of fact.
Turn it on and it just felt good, the posture felt good.
I was relaxed, going that direction already.
And the heat just took that, my muscles.
- Second thing with the far infrared,
it's not an intense heat. - No, it's not.
- It's kind of a mild heat that goes deep.
- Right.
It does take a little longer to get in deep.
They recommend up to 45 minutes, which is not a problem
because you're feeling so good.
- Just sitting there. - Right.
If you're using conventional hot pack,
once you get past 20 minutes, it's not gonna go any deeper.
- Now Brad, when I use mine, I do put a pillow behind it.
- Yeah, that's a good point.
- My chair doesn't have enough support,
so I put the pillow behind it
and it gives me a little lumbar support
and put me in that good posture.
- And you'll know, 'cause if it's too big
of a pillow, it'll feel like a big bump.
Like right now, this is a big bump for me.
- If you're using a regular hot pack,
don't fall asleep with it because you could get burned.
- That's a possibility, yeah.
'Cause they are three different heat settings
and if you put it on high right away.
- Yeah.
Harder to get burned with a far infrared,
but I still don't want you falling asleep with it.
- Yeah, it's best just to set a timer with your phone.
Now, let's go to the prone position
or you can do this lying down and put the hot pack.
You wanna, okay. - Go ahead, Bob.
But you're gonna give me a pillow?
- Yep, and we're gonna talk about the use of a pillow.
Now, if you're lying down, chances are you're gonna find
and you've got a spasm in your low back,
particularly if you put a pillow underneath.
It might go this way or the other way may be better,
but you can experiment.
Oftentimes, that's gonna feel better.
- A little more comfortable. - On your back.
- Right, and at that point, put this on
and you can just relax there for your 45 minutes.
Now, don't fall asleep, again,
here because you may get a neck ache
if your head's turned one way.
So when you're doing this, just make sure you turn
your head right to left every few minutes or so.
And some people, you can go straight down,
like Bob has his hands like that.
- Yeah, you can even put a rolled towel here
and put your head straight.
- Should we talk about if you wanna lie down on your back?
- Sure.
- To get rid of those muscle knots.
- It's right behind you, Brad.
- Oh yeah, yeah, so you can do two things.
If you're gonna lie on your back,
we suggest putting your feet, we use a leg wedge.
It's probably the best thing we've used.
- Ah, that feels so good. - It does.
All the sudden, just doing that on a healthy person.
- It feels good. - It feels relaxing.
There's something about this angle,
and then it makes contact with your hamstrings
and we don't completely understand it.
We just know it works for some reason.
- Yeah, 'cause for some reason if I go like this,
it's not as comfortable.
It's that full contact all the way
along the sides of the block.
- Right, now, you don't have to buy these.
You can take some pillows and put 'em in there.
It doesn't work as good,
but it's still a lot better than lying flat.
And then, once you find that relaxed position,
you've got enough pillows, then you put
that hot pack underneath or cold pack, you can use one.
- On spasms, you could use a cold pack.
- Sure, yep.
And you're gonna lie there for 20 minutes or so.
You can go a little bit longer.
I've used this, I use heat or cold.
It all depends on my circumstances.
But anyways, it's a wonderful cure,
not cure, but it really-- - Helps you get to sleep.
- Calms my back down, exactly right.
So that's the heat and we mentioned,
you could try cold as well.
Now, the second thing to get rid of tight muscles.
- A spasm. - Spasm,
and this a little faster, typically.
And it is direct muscle mobilization or a massage.
If you don't have a professional masseuse at home
that's gonna take care of 'em for ya,
we're gonna show you the other options.
If you have knots in your upper back,
this is what I like to do.
Matter of fact, we did a video on this not too long ago.
- This might be more for knots and not as much spasms.
If it's spasm, I don't know if you're gonna be able
to tolerate this or not, you might be able to.
- Yeah, and it's going to depend.
Now, this is not a real hard roll, it's a medium density
so it's not as aggressive on those knots.
- Six inch or more.
- Yep, and so I'm just gonna roll.
Now, you wouldn't do this on a mat like this.
You'd do it on the floor, but for demonstration purposes.
And sometimes people like to cross their arms like this
to get their scapulas or the shoulder blades out of the way.
And you can really get into that mid back then.
- Now if this is too aggressive, and it might be,
like Bob had mentioned. - It might be.
- We didn't mention that you could use a hot pack
on the thoracic spine as well, using the same rules.
- And you could use a ball like this, too.
- Yup, now that's a lacrosse ball.
- That's a lacrosse ball. - That's pretty aggressive.
- That's pretty aggressive, yeah.
- You might wanna start with a tennis ball.
- Or against the wall. - Yeah.
- But you basically, I'm gonna hit some spots.
Brad, you mind coming over just so I can show
where we're trying to hit? - Oh, sure.
- Usually we hit between the spine
and between the shoulder blade, right in here,
different spots on both sides.
And by rolling onto that area, it helps mobilize.
And again, you have to determine if you can tolerate that
if you have spasms. - Right.
- You certainly can try with trigger points.
- You can do it like this, this is what Bob was saying.
You can do it on the wall and it's not as aggressive.
And once you get to that spasm,
you wanna work it slowly and as you get relaxed,
you can get more and more onto it
and get more aggressive, and you'll feel it release.
And when it releases, it just feels good.
You know things are going well.
- In the right right direction.
- Right, the next thing, and these massage guns are out.
If you happen to have a massage gun,
I'm gonna show you how to use it,
particularly on your low back with Bob.
We've just discovered this recently, how well this works.
But you do have to use the right head
and it's hard to do to yourself.
You almost have to do this with someone else assisting,
so we'll give you a little instruction on how to do it.
So here, Bob is lying here.
Now, because we wanna make Bob as comfortable as possible,
let's put a pillow right between the knees there.
That's gonna help relax everything.
You want a pillow under your head, Bob?
- Sure! - There ya go.
- That's it, so he's got low back pain.
Let's see the spasm, and typically you won't have wire
from a mic on a person at home.
The spasm can be, I got cold fingers, Bob, you see that?
- That's all right. (chuckles)
- I'm giving you a spasm just touching
with those cold fingers.
We're gonna get into that muscle right there.
Let's say the spasm is right there.
We're gonna use this massage gun
with the pointy head, but you gotta be careful.
You do not wanna massage on the bone
or the spine, 'cause that's gonna hurt.
Start on a low speed.
These guns have five different speeds.
We're gonna start on level two right here.
And I'm not gonna go straight in right away.
I'm gonna come in at an angle,
and there's a quadratus lumborum muscle in there
that oftentimes could be a spasm muscle.
And I'm gonna get in there, and then Bob,
he's going to tell me how it feels.
Is that okay, Bob? - That feels good.
- Okay, it's not too aggressive?
- No. - Okay, if you want me
to go a little more aggressive, push harder, let me know.
So as the person giving the massage
with the massage gun, you have to listen
to the feedback of the person getting the massage.
- [Bob] So he's basically going
around the lumbar paraspinals there.
You wanna show where those are, Brad?
- Yeah, see this muscle group right here,
this massive muscle bulge. (talking over each other)
- [Bob] He's going underneath that, basically,
to try to get to the QL, the quadratus lumborum.
- I could go on it like this. - Yeah, go onto it.
- Is that getting too aggressive?
- [Bob] No, no, that's fine.
- So it just makes sure you don't get
down on those spinous process, those bumps,
those bony prominences on the back.
- [Bob] And you can't go too far
up here 'cause you hit the ribs.
- Yeah, you get up and that 12th rib,
there's a floating rib that's kind of sensitive.
And then you get up in there and you don't wanna get in.
The main muscle groups that are spasming
are typically in this area.
Now can you see, Tanner,
that the skin's getting a little red?
If you zoom in on that, it's not real red but you'll see it.
What's going on when you see the skin getting red,
that's okay, that's actually meaning
there's some-- - Blood flow.
- The blood supply blood flow is going
to the area, which is a good sign.
Obviously, if there's any skin irritations
or rashes or anything that, this is not an option.
The other option I should mention, excuse me, Bob.
Usually these guns, our guns come
with a number of different heads.
This air cushion head may be an option
that might work out well.
We've just found to get in deep
into those muscles, this one works well
if it's used properly, the way I demonstrated.
Bob, I'm done, I'm not gonna do any more massages on ya.
- I was enjoying myself.
- I know, but I had to draw the line.
- I gotta wake up.
- So anyways, good luck with those spasms.
You can get rid of them without taking the medications.
Just one of those options are definitely,
I think it'll work, if not maybe two or three.
- Check it out.
- That's right.
(bright music)