♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
- Hi folks, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- We are the most famous
physical therapists on the internet.
- In our opinion of course, Bob.
- Back pain question mark?
Seven things your back will absolutely love.
Brad and I have been using some of these things ourselves
and our backs love us for it.
- It may not love all seven of them all the time
but it's going to love.
- The majority of them.
- You're gonna have to test and experiment
a little bit possibly.
- By the way, if you're new to our channel
please take a second to subscribe to us.
We provide videos how to stay healthy, fit, pain free,
and we upload everyday.
This is the big giveaway, right Liz?
This is for Monday, yeah.
- The big one?
- Yeah, the big one.
- Oh good.
- So yeah, if you want to join us on Bob and Brad
go to the giveaway section.
We are giving away a massage lounge.
- Oh yes.
- Isn't that crazy?
We're giving away like three hand held massagers,
a back massager, all to one person.
- Right, so you can set it up and have a party.
- Yeah, there you go.
You can also find it on Bob and Brad on Facebook,
pinned at the top of the page.
Want a short version of us, go to Instagram or Twitter.
- There you go.
- All right, let's start off with the seven things.
Number one, this is a surprise to many people
but walking is really good for your back.
It acts like a balm or a sav, you know I mean it really.
- Gets it moving.
Just make sure you walk on a flat surface,
not uphills and not out in the yard.
A nice known surface.
- Sometimes shorter strides helps
because you're not jamming your heel in
and getting that feedback up through the leg.
But the other thing that's surprising for a lot of people
is that your weight is actually,
your back is actually more unweighted when you walk
at higher speeds.
There's less stress on it.
So you want to try walking at your normal speed,
then try picking up the pace.
I've had patients you can just see the look on their face,
they're all surprised because it actually feels better
when they walk at a higher pace.
- Listen to your body and test the velocity a little bit.
- The second one, Brad and I are big fans of this.
This is actually Thermotex's infrared heating.
And Brad's actually wearing one right now.
This is the platinum model
and what's nice about this is it's not just regular heat,
it's infrared heat, which penetrates much more deep.
Regular heat, we always bring out our ruler for this.
Regular heat, oh I guess it goes like this doesn't it?
Goes just like a millimeter, just surface.
- If you can see the blue measurement here.
And then on the other side we have.
- How come I always forget how far that is?
Two point what?
- 2.36, Bob.
- (laughing) 2.36.
- Because you're getting older.
You're almost 60 now.
- But look at the difference
how much that penetrates.
I mean, that's gonna get into the spine itself,
into the joints, into the muscles
and it really makes a big difference.
What's nice about this,
you know another thing that's nice about this
is it'll actually, you can run it for like pennies a day.
It costs virtually nothing.
- Right, it's much more efficient
than a conventional hot pack.
You know, if you end up throwing some really,
acute back pain, so you just hurt it.
You may want to wait on the heat for a few days
and then come back to it.
- Brad and I both use this Thermotex,
especially now that we're coming into winter.
This is a great time.
We just have it in our chairs.
In your house, my house.
- Yeah. (laughing)
- We don't want to imply anything here.
- Recliner, and I put it right there on top of my
lumbar support and then life is good.
- Yep, I do too.
I got something behind it
and regular heating pads, I just found this out,
you're not supposed to lay up against them.
- Yeah, that's, yeah, I think people do it but.
- I think they still do, but.
- On the instructions, you'll have to look at that
but there's no problem with this.
- What's nice about this, yeah,
you can actually strap it on and you could be
working in your office.
It's got a six foot cord and then if you have to
go and do something, you could just unplug it from here.
- Right, leave it plugged in on the wall
and then come back.
You use it at your work station,
computer work station. - Yep, at my work station.
Now this, the Thermotex is expensive.
We're not gonna be snide about that
but the thing is, this is the best time
in the year to buy it.
They go on sale one time a year and this is it.
They're doing it for Black Friday
but it's gonna go from Monday to Monday, so.
- Yeah, it's a whole week long then.
Say no more, Bob. - It's already started.
Okay next one, number three,
abdominal bracing.
This is called natural abdominal bracing.
What it means is that when you're shoveling
or lifting or doing something,
you do wanna tighten up your abdomen.
What you can do is you take your fingers
and you can just feel, you tighten
and the fingers don't sink in as easy.
- Right and you know, you can do this
when you're doing exercises.
You might wanna do that, just help it on those muscles
and feel them tighten up.
Some people are pretty much where then,
others maybe haven't done it before.
- Yeah, I was shocked last year, Brad.
We had all that snow last year, I was shoveling.
My back was getting sore just from,
I was using correct technique,
but it's just overuse.
There was so much snow.
I went out there, oh my god, another day of shoveling.
I go out there and I just, well why am I not tightening?
So I started tightening, no pain.
I mean, it was really amazing.
It really makes a big difference, so.
- It's your own back belt built in, use it.
- Natural back belt, yep.
Number four, some type of movement.
Back pain, they don't like it when,
your back doesn't like when it's just still
and not moving at all, especially an arthritic back.
You wanna get some motion.
Do you wanna show rotations?
- Sure Bob.
This is one, you know, even when your back
is pretty darn sore, oftentimes
this one will be tolerated,
at least to a certain degree.
We call it the, I call it the windshield wiper
because you bring your knees up in this position
and then you go back and forth
like windshield wipers on a vehicle
and you just take it gently and see,
my pelvis is rotation, which does give motion
to the low back and even up into thoracic.
Oh, thank you Bob.
I might fall asleep now.
(laughing)
And this one you work as tolerated.
If it gets painful, you don't go that far.
If it hurts going to the left, just go to the right
and to the middle and over time,
it'll start to improve both directions
as your back pain hones down.
- I found just about everybody can do that one,
haven't you Brad?
Even like when they're really hurting
or if they have spasms.
It seems like that might even calm it down a little bit.
- Right, it's not uncommon for one side.
- One side to hurt,
I agree. - And then work through it.
Be gentle, couple three minutes worth.
- Another one is cat and camel, real simple one
if you can get on your knees in the quadruped position here.
You're just gonna arch up like this
and arch down like that.
This is a little more for the mid back
but it's also getting the low back.
It's working both.
- And again with this too, work it in pain free motion.
If it hurts when you get way up,
don't go that far, just keep some motion in there
but pain free.
- That's probably one you wanna do
in the privacy of your own home.
You probably don't wanna do that on the floor.
Not in the office. - Not in the front yard
either.
- Yeah, not in the front yard. (laughing)
That would be quite a sight, wouldn't it?
Next one, Brad we need a Booyah Stik.
Your back's gonna like it
when you're not putting stress on it.
(laughing)
- Let's try that again, Bob.
(laughing)
- All right so what you're gonna keep in mind here
is that you want the movement coming from the hip
and not the back.
You wanna think of the back like
it's almost in a cast.
What we like to use is, I mean,
you could take a broomstick or anything.
- Switch it around. - Oh yeah,
you always tell me to switch it.
And what you're gonna have here
is you're gonna think about three points of contact.
Do you wanna point those out Brad?
- Head's touching, between the shoulder blades,
and right at the belt line
or below the belt line or the sacrum
and then your back is in good alignment
and the motion's coming from the hip versus the back.
Really, I use this for people with back pain
as part of their home exercise program.
It gives them a really good education
on how to maintain good posture
while you're lifting.
- [Bob] Yeah this is, you're right Brad.
This is a great exercise just doing squats like this,
just shallow squats and they learn that pattern then.
And what's a wrong pattern would be
if you only have one point of contact.
- Yeah and that's typically where it is,
right here in the mid back.
The head goes forward and it doesn't touch the sacrum.
- I mean, you learn that and you can used that
for leaning over the sink,
leaning over the bed, picking things up off the floor.
Even if it's the smallest thing, your shoe,
you wanna do it correctly
because you're putting stress on your back if you're not.
Right.
All right, number six, sitting with support.
A lot of times people they're,
what are they doing
if they've been in a chair for a while?
They start slouching.
- Or their nice chair in the living room.
- They sink right in.
- They sink in and that rounds the back out
so we need to use something.
- Yeah, you can start off with a rolled towel.
This is extremely important in the car I think
because most of us spend a fair amount of time in the car
and so you wanna start off with a rolled towel.
That way you can kind of figure out
the thickness of it that you're gonna need.
Generally as a rule of thumb,
if you're a larger person
with maybe a little more ample area
in the back there, you're gonna have more of an arch
and so you're gonna need a larger rolled towel.
If you're a smaller, lean person
with a small frame, you're gonna probably
get by with the center one.
- Figure that out.
- Yeah, figure it out and then you can purchase
one that is more permanent.
It looks better too.
- Right, and they're a little more comfortable.
They have a strap to go around the chair.
These are McKenzie Rolls.
We really like McKenzie Rolls.
- Yeah, there's an air filled on too that,
my wife likes using this one.
- Does she? - Yeah.
- Yeah, it's adjustable and it adjusts easy.
You don't blow it up, it's self inflating.
- Right, it's self inflating.
This actually is pretty comfortable.
I can see why she likes it so anyway,
your back's gonna love you if you keep
your back supported, especially in that car.
The last thing, your back is very vulnerable
in the mornings because overnight,
your discs, the shock absorbers
that are between the vertebrae, the bones,
they fill up with fluid.
- They imbibe. - They imbibe, right.
I love that word, imbibe.
And that makes it more vulnerable
to injury in the mornings so you really wanna,
the first thing you're gonna wanna do
is get out of bed correctly
and put stress on them right away.
What we're gonna do, this is how a lot of people
get out of bed, they go like this
and this is a lot of stress on the back
and the low back.
They get up there, they do that little sit up thing here.
The alternative is to actually roll onto your side.
- And keep your back like it's in a cast.
- Rolling like a log here,
bringing the legs off and then I'm pushing up
with my arms at the same time,
keeping my back straight the entire time.
- And you may wanna contract those abdominal muscles
just like we mentioned earlier.
- Yep, do the abdominal bracing.
Brad, do you mind showing the other one
that you showed me?
The one that you lay?
- Forward?
- Yeah, yeah.
- Yeah, this is if you're really hurting.
You just take your time
like this. - He's gonna show you
how to get on and off.
- Get this leg up. (grunting)
You've had this happen, right Bob?
- [Bob] Yeah, I told this story many times. (laughing)
- You have to roll to your stomach.
If you're on your back or your side,
get to your stomach, tighten up,
get one leg off first and tall
and I always say wait 'till you fill that with your toe
'cause you can't see it
and that floor is there, keep everything tight
and then you're gonna keep your back straight,
walk with your hands up 'till the other foot touches.
Oh, and once you get up, it's okay.
- Yeah again, Brad told me about this technique
three days before I hurt my back.
- Well, I could tell Bob.
I knew it was coming. - You knew it was coming.
And it was amazing because I didn't know
about the bracing at that point.
I think if I would have braced,
I maybe could have done it.
- That was in his younger years.
- I couldn't get down.
I couldn't, I mean I literally couldn't lay in bed
and I'm like, oh my god, what am I gonna do?
And then Brad had showed me that way
and I could easily get in bed that way.
All right, give those a try
and not only will your back love you,
but we love you too.
- There you go, Bob.
We care.
- We care. (laughing)
(electronic chiming)