♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ the two most famous physical therapists ♪
♪ on the internet ♪
(upbeat music ending)
- Hi, I'm Bob Schrupp,
physical therapist. - Brad Heineck,
physical therapist. - Together,
we are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet. - In our opinion, of course,
Bob. - Sometimes you gotta get
that motor running here. - Yep.
- So today we're gonna talk
about lumbar stabilization exercises, that are also called
dynamic lumbar stabilization exercises.
They're good to get your core strength up.
- Right. - They're good for back pain
'cause you're trying to stabilize
your lower back. - Right.
Right now I'm using these similar exercises
with someone that just had spine surgery four weeks ago,
and now she needs to get everything
tightened back up so she can get back to work.
- And this is a good progression.
- Right. - 'Cause we're gonna
start off, these are all gonna be done on your back.
There are other ones we may do in the future,
maybe a little more advanced ones
that you can do on your stomach and then even kneeling.
- Sure. - And then even standing.
- Yep. - But the big thing
is we're gonna start off with is you need to find out
where your neutral position is for your back or kind of-
- Neutral, like in a car? - Yeah. Like in a car.
- Now, what you're doing, should we show right away,
Brad? - Yeah, let's look
at the spine.
There is a neutral position therapists refer to,
that Bob's talking to, and this is one extreme.
This is the other extreme, - Right.
- And we wanna go in the middle, and that's what
you need to find out. - So on me, if you look at me
this would be extreme. - Arched.
- Arched. Yep. - Yep.
That's called lordosis, a little pelvic tilt.
Yep. - And then we're gonna
tilt it the other way. - Right.
- And that would be almost
too much, probably. - Right.
- So you're trying to go back off
just a hair from that. - Yeah.
- And that's where you wanna have
your neutral spine. - Right.
That way there's less stress on the discs
and the tissues in the spine,
and it lets the muscles do the support.
- Right, so Brad's gonna do the exercises.
- We're gonna go this way. - Do you need
a pillow, Brad? - No, Bob I'll do it without.
Thank you though. - Okay.
So the big thing we're gonna point out here with Brad
is that when he's doing,
before he's gonna do these exercises,
he's actually gonna tilt his pelvis down, do a pelvic tilt.
So if my hand's underneath there, he's gonna squish my hand.
So he's tightening up his abdominal muscles,
and he's providing some core stability
while he's doing these exercises.
So that needs to be done throughout the exercise.
- Right, and that's what we tell our patients.
We'll put our hand under there, they squeeze into my hand
and then they need to do that,
think about pushing their back down,
maintain that position while the exercises
are being done. - Yep, throughout
the entire exercise.
So that's what makes it difficult.
- And it is not easy. Watching it looks easy.
- Right. - But when you do it,
if you haven't done 'em before,
it takes some concentration. - Yeah.
So let's start off with the easiest one.
Brad's gonna get into position.
He tightens up, and now he's just gonna do his arms.
You can do alternating, Brad.
Yep. Good.
Doesn't seem like much.
It isn't too much, but when you're weak,
maybe after surgery, - Right.
- This is the way to start.
The second one is, I gotta make sure
I'm not missing anything,
now you're just gonna go ahead and lift one leg, Brad,
like this and then down.
Again, he's got his core. He's got his position.
Lift up, lift down.
- Okay. - Okay.
Now opposite leg, opposite arm.
- Okay. I like to start with my right arm back.
I'm gonna bring my left knee up and back,
and I just felt my back arch up,
So I'm gonna concentrate on keeping that back down,
and you can tell by the way I'm talking,
it's work. - Yeah.
He's pushing down on his diaphragm there.
(Bob chuckling) (Brad chuckling)
Okay. Good.
Number five, you're gonna actually do leg lowering, Brad.
So you're gonna go ahead, Keep this one up.
You're gonna go ahead and raise that one up straight.
Yep. - Tighten the back.
- Tighten it up. - Go down, slow,
and as it goes down, you're gonna feel your back
want to come up. - Yeah.
- You're gonna keep
it tight, tight, tight. - Keep it tight.
And then you can switch, Brad.
You can go to the other leg.
I mean you could
do alternating. - Sure.
One important thing is don't hold your breath.
Do not hold your breath while you're doing this.
- Make sure you're breathing. - You should be able to talk
just like Brad's doing, as you're doing these.
(Brad exhaling)
Okay. Now alternating leg thrusts, Brad.
You know what
I'm talking about? - Yeah.
So we're gonna go out - Out.
- like you're kicking something.
- Yeah. - Maintain that flat back.
Repetitions, Bob, what are you gonna recommend for this?
- [Bob] I would say, I don't know that you do 10.
Would you?
Maybe eight? - I'll start people at five,
and as they improve, we can go to eight.
After they've been doing 'em for a while,
before they go to the next phase,
they're probably able to do 10 pretty easily.
Then we go to the advanced ones, which is another video.
Right. Okay now bridging, Brad.
- All right. Feet down, hands here.
And we're gonna push up. - Again,
these are gonna get harder now,
'cause now the next one is bridging with tiny step spread.
- Yep. - So bridge up.
- Hold it up tight right here.
Keep your pelvis still,
and this is a lot harder than it looks,
as you can tell by the voice.
I'm not just faking it either, Bob.
(Bob chuckling)
- [Bob] All right. Now bridging with leg lifts, Brad.
Okay? - Okay.
This one is even
more difficult. - Yep.
This is a guy that works out on that ball though.
That physio ball and that exercise ball.
- Yeah. - And that's why
he's able to do this. - I have a pretty good core.
There you go. - And the last one
is the dead bug, and you'll see in a second,
why it's called the dead bug.
- Oh, this is my favorite one, Bob.
Just kidding. (Bob laughing)
It's like a bug on its back. - Yep.
- But keeping that back tight, and you got your arms moving,
so the core really has to be stable
- Yep. - to keep everything in.
And if you time yourself for a minute
you're gonna find your heart rate's up,
and your muscles get fatigued.
- And you probably wanna do that one in private.
Maybe not do that one in the gym.
You'll have people talking about you
- You're right. Exactly. - more than they already are.
- We'll have none of that.
- All right, remember, if you haven't already,
please subscribe to us. - Yeah.
Are we gonna put it down here or up there?
- Oh, it'll be at the end here.
- Oh, okay. Good.
- I think so. - Yeah. Yeah.
- All right. Thanks for watching.