♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
- Yeehah! (clapping)
Hi, folks, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- And we are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- In our own opinion, of course, Bob.
- Today, we're gonna show you the top three things
better than cracking your back.
And remember, this is a family show, Brad,
so don't get into your
dirty thoughts there. - Bob!
Why, Bob?
Why so early in the day?
- All right.
By the way, if you're new to our channel,
please take a second to subscribe to us.
We provide videos on staying healthy
and pain free. - Healthy, pain free.
- And we upload every day.
- Do you have a sign?
Keep going, Bob!
- He doesn't even have the sign ready.
Here he is goofing off.
But we, you wanna join us on our social media channels,
because we are always giving something away.
In fact, right now we're giving away
the iReliev TENS unit.
We're giving away a couple of those.
We're also giving away one of their roll-ons.
- Oh. - You wanna grab that
right there. - Yeah!
Hold that sign though, Bob.
- Here, no, I gotta sign it.
So anyway, join us on, like you go to bobandbrad.com.
Then go to our giveaway section,
or you go to Facebook,
and it's always pinned to the top of the page,
Bob and Brad.
There's the roll-on for pain.
So there we go.
What do you do with this thing here?
You throw it don't ya? - Yep, down there you go!
- All right.
All right so we want to go over the three things
that are better than cracking your own back,
and basically what may happen here, Brad,
while you're doing these things, your back may crack.
- All right. - Inadvertently.
But, we think this is better, because if your goal,
if you have back pain,
and you're trying to improve mobility,
posture and decrease pain,
I think sustained stretches or mobilizations
are more effective than just a quick crack.
You're gonna disagree with me, Brad?
- Well, one thing for sure is you can do it by yourself.
- Yeah, exactly.
- Which is really great. - So if nothing else
I mean, we're not trying to put
chiropractors out of business here, chiropractors are great.
- Right.
- We're just trying to show you some alternatives
that you can do on your own.
- Sure. - So.
So the reason I believe all this, by the way,
if you look at a spine here, Brad,
a spine is made up of vertebrae, the bones.
So I've got a couple of vertebrae,
three vertebrae here, actually,
and they all stack up like this.
And all this is probably from down
into the mid, low back here.
And they're held together by these tough ligaments.
- Right.
- Now these ligaments are tough,
and they can become tightened out, tightened up over time,
especially if you have bad posture
and you don't stretch em at all.
- Right.
And there's more than just ligaments.
They've got the facet joints, muscles around there,
it's quite of a
- Yeah, quite a structure. - Awkward texture.
Right.
- And you're not gonna, just by cracking it,
you're not gonna stretch those ligaments out.
To stretch those ligaments out, you gotta apply stretches.
- Sure.
- So we're gonna start with the lower back, Brad, first.
Oh, before we talk about that, Brad,
one thing that we like,
prior to doing any stretches is to heat your back up.
- Get it warmed up. - Get it warmed up.
- Especially if you're a little bit older,
it seems to be more important.
- That's right, and actually this can help with
your pain control.
Brad and I are big fans of this.
We're talking about the Thermotex Infrared Platinum Unit.
- Right. - So he's wearing it
right now.
Now that's one thing that's nice about it.
You look like you have a tail Brad.
- Well, that's just the, that's the plug, Bob.
- Yeah, that's the plug, yeah.
- That's so you can plug it in.
I don't have it plugged in so I can walk around right now.
- Sure.
So it actually comes with two straps,
or three straps, actually,
but you can actually strap it on your shoulders too,
which helps hold your shoulders back
and keep you in good posture.
The reason we like the Thermotex Infrared
is because normal heat only penetrates,
and we're gonna show this visually,
normal heat only penetrates like a millimeter
- Skin deep. - or a couple of millimeters.
Yep, skin deep.
The Thermotex actually penetrates,
Brad do you wanna say the number?
- 2.63 inches.
- 2.36 inches!
- (laughs) Oh. - You haven't said it
in a while.
- I'm a little dyslexic.
- So here's 2.36 inches.
Compare that to this.
- Right.
- So what this does is actually,
if you wanna bring the skeleton over here Brad.
- [Brad] Oh, yeah it shows there.
- It can actually penetrate into the joints of the back,
whereas normal heat's just gonna hit the surface.
So that's gonna heat up those ligaments
and make 'em easier to stretch.
Also gonna decrease your back pain.
- Improve circulation.
- Yep.
So we gotta link below.
They give a big discount to Bob and Brad fans.
So if you're interested, take a look below.
- I do have to say though, if your back has really flared up
and your, it's very tender and you're having a hard time
just moving, then you may wanna use a cold pack.
- Yep, you wanna start off with ice.
- Right, so, - Exactly.
- it's all gonna, there's some variability
that we gotta be honest with that.
- That's right.
All right, so we're gonna start off.
What's the best exercise for your lower back?
Now this is for the majority of people,
We gotta lot of fans here.
This is not for people who are like Brad,
have spinal stenosis or spondylolisthesis.
- Spondylolisthesis.
- I cant' say it.
- You know that. (laughing)
But I-- - Anyways, if you have it
you probably know it.
- You probably know it. - All right.
- And we don't want you bending backward
is what we don't want you doing when you have that.
- So this - All right.
- For the vast majority of people,
their day is spent sitting or bending forward.
They're, you know, kind of getting tight in this area,
and what I find is when I have them lay down,
they're very tight going into this direction.
- [Brad] Right.
- So this is the first exercise,
the first thing that we think is better
than cracking your back, especially with low back pain,
is to try this.
You'll lay down flat on your stomach,
put your hands below your shoulders,
right beneath the shoulders,
and you're gonna work on trying to get that arch
reestablished in your back.
- So he's keeping his belt-line, or his pelvis
down to the floor, or the bed,
wherever you're laying on,
and we're getting that reverse arch or lumbar lordosis
in the back.
We didn't invent this, by the way.
We can't take credit for it.
It's from Robin Mckenzie - Robin Mckenzie, yep.
- It's been around, really made a big impact
on the back pain overall in the world.
- So what Brad was saying is that I shouldn't
be lifting up like this - There ya go, right.
- with the back.
And so if you're tight,
you may wanna just start with small osculations here
and work your way up to this eventually.
- That may take, you know, a few weeks.
- Months. - Or months, yeah.
It depends on how tight you.
So don't get too aggressive with it.
Take your time.
- And that's how those ligaments are worked.
They're very, again, very tough,
and they don't stretch easily.
- Right. - So it could take
a long time.
Now, you can do that exercise several times a day.
- Sure.
- You don't have to do it just once.
So, but you can go on.
Brad, you want to show how we can stretch the mid-back?
- Sure.
- And I'll give you the ball.
- Now I'm gonna say this,
'cause I don't know if we mentioned it.
If these exercises do create pain and sharp pain
or pain down the leg,
you need to stop doing them.
- Very good point, Brad. - Because you could have
stenosis or spondylolisthesis and not be aware of it yet.
- [Bob] Yeah, we want these to feel good, actually.
I mean, you don't want to have increased pain with this.
You want to actually
sometimes help but take away pain
while you're doing them even.
- It should feel like a good stretch.
Like when I do this,
I'm stretching up above my spondylolisthesis.
It just feels like a wonderful stretch.
I'm opening up my chest, arching the thoracic back.
Shoulders back.
I can clearly breathe better like this. (breathes)
- [Bob] Yeah, Brad made a good point here.
This is not for the low back.
This is for the mid back or even, you know,
you're gettin' up to almost between the shoulder blades.
- Yep, I'm gonna move it up here.
And it's a good thing to do is
do it a few positions.
- THat's what the nice thing about the ball is,
is that you can actually move it up and down
into different spots.
Now, Brad, if people wanna get
a little aggressive with that,
they could actually do that on the floor too.
- Oh, sure, right.
- They could lay down on the floor
and roll over the ball that way too.
But I would definitely start this way,
because you don't know what your back's
gonna be able to tolerate.
- It's gonna be a firm chair,
not in a soft recliner or a comfort chair like that.
- All right, the last one.
So we, if you wanna come on over her, Brad,
if you don't mind.
- [Brad] Well, all right!
- (laughs) So, we already did one for the low back.
Then we did one for the mid back.
Now we gotta get up in this troublesome area up in here.
And this is very hard area to mobilize,
because, quite often, people have kind of that neck hump,
where those, again, - Right, right there.
- those ligaments have,
might have been forming this over years.
So what we're gonna do is
we're gonna have you take a tennis ball
and a towel.
Now even this may be too aggressive for some people.
- Sure.
- Now, it's not as bad on a soft surface like this,
but we're gonna have you try this on the floor.
- Mhm. - So what we're gonna do,
I'm gonna have you come back here, Brad.
What, just face that, yeah.
What we're doing is we're gonna try different spots here.
So you're gonna lay on the ball, here's your spine,
you're gonna lay on it so there's pressure here.
Then you're gonna go pressure here, here, here,
basically six spots.
And they're gonna mobilize the vertebrae at those levels.
- So it's not on the spine,
not on those bumpy parts. - Right.
- It's in the muscle, just to the sides of that.
- Exactly.
Brad, do you mind trying
a little bit of this? - Yeah.
Now, we're doing this on this soft plint.
You don't wanna do it on something soft.
We're doing it 'cause it's easier to film.
- Just to demonstrate, right.
So this kind of softens it up a little bit.
Brad, why don't you lay down. - Oh, there's the ball.
- And then I'm gonna show like,
if you're just starting this,
in fact, for some people, especially if you're tight,
you may need to start with a pillow underneath your head.
'Cause this may be too much to tolerate.
Eventually, you wanna work to the point
where the pillow,
can you tell a difference here, right, Brad,
now even when we do this?
- Yep, it's a little more aggressive
with the pillow, for sure.
- And your arms are gonna be back here like this.
And you're taking deep breaths,
trying to let it stretch out, yep.
- I just did this with a patient last week.
And, you know, she was workin' it just like this.
You know, she could tell when she got on
a tender spot or not.
So, what I had her do is don't go right on it,
'cause it's real painful.
Work around the tender spot, loosen the muscles up,
get things movin',
and then (mutters) - Yeah, good point.
both sides.
Now, I'll probably,
on a carpeted floor would be the best
if you're able to get down - I agree.
- on the floor safety
and not (mutters). - I just did the same thing
with a patient last week, Brian.
She was, she had been working at a bank for 30 years,
and she had, you know, basically no mobilization
in her at all.
And so, we definitely had to start with the pillow,
maybe even sometimes two pillow.
- Sure.
- But she was surprised at how much she felt,
how much had stretched.
So, you seem to be--
- Well, I wanted to get (mutters),
'cause it felt good on the right side,
so I wanted to get the left side too while you were talkin'.
- Yeah, you know, take it from someone.
I've used this myself.
When I (stutters), times in the morning
when I'm doing my hamstring stretch,
I'll do the same stretch at the same time.
And it just really has helped up in this area here.
Really taken away the pain
and really helped me with my posture.
So, Brad, you have anything else you wanna add
while you're doing these treatments here. (laughs)
- Well, I'm doing it now without the towel,
'cause I couldn't tolerate that aggressive,
more aggressive treatment,
particularly on the soft
side of it. - Yeah,
on the soft surface here.
Yep, exactly. - Right.
So you do need to work with it,
depending on what you're laying on.
But, no, I think these are all,
all lace treatments are gonna get into that spine,
help you out.
Things you can do on your own and take care of yourself.
- Yeah.
Remember, Brad and I can fix just about anything.
- Except for--
- A broken heart. - There you go, Bob.
But we're workin' on it. - That's right.
We're working on it. - We're not gonna stop.
- All right, thanks.
(upbeat music)