- Bob and Brad
the two most famous
physical therapists
on the internet.
- Hi folks.
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.
- that's all that matters is our opinion.
- Exactly
- Today, Brad
we're going to talk about the 10 habits to get rid
of back pain forever.
So these are things you wanna start incorporating
into your life.
If you got back pain to slowly reduce the amount
of frequency and duration of the back pain you're having.
- Right?
And there's one thing I want to put in here, an analogy.
I think that makes a lot of sense.
I say this to my patients sometimes
is if you think about your back, you need to manage it.
Have good habits.
It's just like your teeth.
- Right.
- If you don't brush your teeth, you don't floss your teeth
They're gonna go away
They're gonna rot you're gonna have big problems.
Everybody understands that clearly.
- Yeah.
- It's the exact same thing with your back.
- I specifically relate to that
Cause I just came
from the dentist yesterday, so, okay, Brad
let's start off with the first one
the first habit you want to get into,
especially for the average back,
this would be in your case
- Right?
- If you have spinal osteitis
but you wanna avoid the C curve.
Now normally you have the back
has the curve in, curve out, curve in.
- Right.
That S curve.
- Yeah. The trouble that you'll get
into is if you put your back
into what we call the C curve, so Brad
I'll put it like you.
- Okay.
- Alright.
- So if I'm sitting with my good S-curve, I'm like this
if I slouch like this, or if I'm at a computer and I'm
- Leaning like that
- Or looking at my phone, like this, I'm going
into this C curve.
This is might be a little exaggerated, but that's okay.
It's good though.
- Just so they can see.
- Get a good visual
- See the curve.
but then the thing is about this Brad is,
you know the way we're structured now today in society
your back's in this position quite often now
- Right?
- Especially with, sitting. So,
you know, and lifting.
I mean, I see people that lift like that.
I see people that stand like that.
I see that people, you know, shovel that way.
So all these things.
- I see people in the weight room who should
know better, and they're lifting.
It's like, oh man, you put a lot
of weight on and, and it's gonna accelerate the problem
- Even worse.
So, okay.
The, the second thing Brad is you need to get the
back moving in some way.
You need to have some exercise where you're actually
getting some movement in the joints.
- And that also promotes good posture, I think.
- Right. Right.
So the one that we really like, well
there's a couple of them that we really like
one
can we start off with one of them, Brad here?
I'll go ahead and
- And Bob, before we start out
there's a lot of people who haven't seen our videos before
- New to our channel.
- Right. And if you wanna get more information like this
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between your children, yourselves, and your parents
subscribe on that button right over here please.
- Yeah. And we upload a video every day, so, and we go
we cover a wide range of topics.
- You better believe it.
Okay. So let's get to the back problem.
- The first one that this is a good one for a lot of people
especially with arthritis or if just general back pain.
It's good. Just to start doing some rotations like this.
- Sure.
- So it looks like I'm just moving the hip spread
but actually the back is turning too
and we're getting all those facet joints to move and
everything's all those articulating joints
- But Bob your tie, we gotta fix your tie.
- Oh yeah
- What are people going to think?
Okay, carry on.
- So now if you go this direction and it hurts,
well then just go the other direction
find the movement that you can do that's pain free.
- Right? Exactly.
- And over time, try to increase the movement.
- I was just talking to someone about back pain
and they talked about their stretches and everything.
They said, well, no pain, no gain right?
And that's the farthest from the truth
When it comes to back pain, you need to
find exercises that make it feel better, not worse.
- You can bump up against the pain, but you never
you never go ahead and go
into the pain or make the pain worse.
- Yeah. you don't want to irritate it.
- Right.
The one that I that's even better than this
again this is for the average back
this isn't for someone who's got
spinal osteitis or spinal stenosis
but you're going want to definitely include this
in your life is you're going wanna some back extensions.
So what you do is you start off
in what we call the prone position here on your stomach.
Hope you can still hear me with my mic
and you're gonna put your hands right below the shoulders
and you're gonna keep the pelvis on the
on the bed and you're gonna press up like this.
- So right here, this stays down.
Why don't you show them incorrectly that a lot of people
and that's not what you wanna do.
You want to keep this down?
As a matter of fact in the clinic, sometimes I'll actually
put my hand on here to help patients get a really good feel
- Right. Get a sense of what they're supposed to be doing.
And again, you go as far as you can without increased pain.
So let's say I go this far, oh, it's starting to hurt
just work in this range then.
And eventually, hopefully you can get it way up here
like this.
Now these things, I Brad, I, again, you don't do these
but I do these at least twice a day.
I mean, I just, it's a part of my life.
- Right.
- And actually, even after you, let's say you
do something lifting or something like that.
You can stand up and put your hands
on your back and bend back like this.
- Right.
- So
- Now so there's two conditions specifically
that we know you don't want to do that.
And one is with Spondylolisthesis
- And spinal stenosis
- And spinal stenosis.
And I know with a Spondylolisthesis
there is an estimated 7 to 10%
of the population that have that.
You don't always know you have it, but you may.
So we're talking probably, you know
70% of the people could do this.
- Right.
- And you'll know, cause it will feel good.
Typically if, if you're doing the right thing.
- I also want you to stretch your back.
And that's kind of the same way.
I mean, I'm stretching my back, but there's other stretches.
We have a whole video on, on how to stretch your back.
Back, Mid back, I can link up to that right here, Brad.
- Sure. Okay.
- But let me show one stretch.
Is this the downward dog or what do they call this?
- You know
I just had a comment by someone in yoga
and she corrected me on the names of these
and she even gave us two links and we should both watch it.
And I didn't look at it this morning yet.
- Oh. So this is probably isn't the downward dog.
- Yeah. We're gonna get
in trouble here, but she's going to watch this.
- Okay, legs apart.
- We apologize for the
- You're going to put your arms way out here
and you just kind of put your butt onto your heels
and this is just a good long stretch you can do.
- Right.
- So
- If you've got a herniated disc,
you're not going to want to do this one.
- If it makes it worse.
- Yeah. Be cautious with it.
- Right. Right.
Alright. Number four.
You're going to want to strengthen your back Brad.
- Right?
- I mean, you want to do some things that are going to
you know, help keep it nice and stable.
Strengthen your core.
We've done a couple videos
on lumbar stabilization exercises.
- There's a lot of different ways to do core strengthening.
- Yeah. Let me show just one.
- Sure. You bet.
- Okay. This is probably a little more advanced Brad
gonna get up on what we call the quadruped position
or all fours.
And you can just start off by, you know
bringing your arm up like this.
- Right.
- And then bring it up a leg.
Am I gonna kick anything?
- Doesn't matter, Bob. There you go.
- Alright. And this is the back is working.
Now this is a little more advanced, right?
A lot of times we start
down on a pillow and we, and we start like this.
- So we're working the muscles
right in through here stabilizing.
- So I'm going the opposite arm, opposite leg
Opposite arm, opposite leg.
And then I can go ahead and kick the skeleton
and go the other opposite arm, opposite leg.
So you know, very easy to incorporate in your life.
And you're going to start to feel that core strength.
And you're just going to feel a lot more confident when
you have to do lifting and such.
- Right.
- So, alright.
Number five, you wanna support your back
which means when you're in the car
or when you're in your office chair
especially when you're in your car, Brad, don't you agree?
- I agree.
- Everybody should have some type
of back support in their car
- A lumbar support.
- Can you grab the chair, Brad
- If you've got a car that has a built
in lumbar support, they have some, some of the newer cars
in the last 10 years really have some nice lumbar supports
- But if they don't
- And if they don't, you got options.
And, and this is where I started.
When my patients, instead of having them go buy one for
for $10, $15, $20, I say,
take a towel roll like this
tape it up.
And you're going to put it right about
at the belt line, and you're going to put it back there.
- And he slides his butt all the way back.
- Yep. And you're going to know if it's right
because it is immediately going to feel like good support.
If you put it back there and it hurts
and it's uncomfortable, it is not the right thing.
But typically you're going to feel good.
And the size of the towel
of diameter is what you really have to determine.
Cause if you're a larger person or if you got a softer seat
you're probably going to use a larger diameter.
If you're a small petite person
or you got a really firm seat
it's going to be a little bit smaller.
- Yeah. Brad and I just use this real thin piece of foam.
It seems to work well for us.
- I keep this in my car all the time.
Some days I don't use it some days it feels good.
It depends on how my back is feeling that day.
- So now let's say you're on a couch Brad,
and you're going to sink in and you're really going to
need some support.
That's where you actually take, need to take like
a throw pillow, you know, and put it in there
because you know, you need so much
this wouldn't even do it right.
Neither with this.
- You get in those, that furniture is made
like big marshmallows and just sink right into you.
And you really need to get a decent sized pillow.
- Exactly.
- To support that back.
- Number six, I want you to control your environment
which means number one, like if you there's commonly
used items, Brad, that you use every day
don't put them way down below where you have to
bend to get them.
- Right.
- You want to keep commonly used items between
your shoulder and like your waist.
- Right.
- You know, somewhere right here where you're going to use
you know, your wife may scream or your husband may scream
at you for the kitchen.
But that's what I do.
I put all the things that I use
on a regular basis, right up in this area here
- Or the heavier things.
Even if you don't get them as much, but you do get them
and they're heavy.
Don't put them really down on the bottom of the shelf
cause then you have to bend way over, try and keep them at
the waist level where you're strong and you keep
the stress off the back.
That is a good example of that ergonomic buzzword.
- Right.
And the other thing is that, you know, learn to say, no
I mean, you're not, you know, if you're not
the young buck anymore, don't be trying to lift a
a couch when your kid's asking for help.
- Or a piano, if someone wants your help to move the piano.
Say no
- Right
I want you to avoid stacking events.
That means I don't want you to put three things
in a row that are hard on your back.
Like which a lot of times people don't realize I had
a patient that one time was cutting lawn Brad
- On a rider?
- On a riding lawnmower, which you think is not a problem
but you're bent, and your shock absorber,
which puts really hard stresses on your back.
- Sure.
- Then he went to driving a car for two hours
- And he probably didn't have his lumbar support
- And then he, at the end, he, he went to the back
of the trunk and, and he wanted to pull something
out of the trunk.
And if you know, trunks, you can't bend your knees.
You have to reach over like this and his back went out
and he couldn't figure out why.
It's like, well, you stacked three bad events in a row.
- Right? Exactly.
- And your back didn't have any recovery time
bed positioning, Brad
you were going to show just a quick bed positioning thing?
- This is a very simple, and you don't have to have anything
except for using your mind and listen to your body.
This is what I do on a regular basis.
If I lay down on my back and my back feels a
little uncomfortable, I take my hips and I shift
them either to the right or to the left.
And I know which way cause I shift just an inch or two
and the pain may go from a three down to a one or a zero
and then I just find it and I stay right there
and then I try to sleep like that.
And what usually happens is I wake up on my side
and then my back is bothering me so that I get myself back
in my position.
I do my shift, get the pain down to a minimum or zero.
And then I fall asleep like that
and I try to train myself to sleep on my back.
- I'll link up right here too Brad, our whole video
on positioning that we have with pillows
and stuff like that.
- Yeah we've got some more details.
- Number nine.
You wanna make sure you're doing some exercise,
walking, something aerobic really helps your back.
- Sure.
- Especially walking.
- Yeah.
- Really a good thing for you to do.
And number 10,
you want to make sure you are lifting right Brad.
when you're lifting right,
Someone should be able to take a stick
- Club you with it?
- Yeah. And if I'm lifting right
- Here we go.
- This should all be lined up. Shouldn't it Brad?
- You've got to go this way a little bit, Bob, there you go.
- This should all be lined up.
That's like this where everything's all lined up.
You're going to do really well.