♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists ♪
♪ On the Internet ♪
- Hi folks, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- 'Cause we are the most famous physical therapists
on the Internet.
- In our opinion of course, Bob.
- Here we are in our secret bunker again, Brad,
and today we're gonna talk about instant relief,
how to treat a pinched nerve,
we got physical therapy exercises
and tips to help you with that problem.
And this is, by the way, representing the pain
of a pinched nerve,
how it can go all the way down the arm into the hand.
- Right.
- By the way.
- Oh yes!
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- All right, is it Tik Talk or TikTok?
- T-O-K.
Tok, so like the clock. - Oh, alright, alright.
- Alright, so here let's jump right into it Brad.
You're getting pain from a pinched nerve,
it's going all the way down your arm,
possibly even into the hand.
The first thing you wanna do is, you wanna avoid,
this is a tip, avoid sitting and sleep postures
that will make your pain worse.
- Right, and just mention,
it could be numbness, burning, tingling,
'cause a pinched nerve has all these weird...
- Yes, sensations. = Sometimes they describe it
as cold water running down their arm, things like that.
- Yeah, whenever you get something really strange
as far as sensations, it's often a nerve issue.
- So the first thing,
I'm gonna show you how to sleep correctly,
let's say this is the painful arm.
So, what you wanna do, number one,
you wanna avoid sleeping on this shoulder.
- Right, right. - If you can.
So what you're gonna do, I'm asleep on my side here,
by the way, these are my actual pillows, because,
Brad, you're probably gonna have to pan down here.
- Oh, yeah!
Do you sleep with your eyes closed, Bob?
- What? (laughs)
- I was just curious.
- It's funny that you should say that,
because my wife often claims I don't.
- [Brad] Oh, I can just imagine.
- So, anyway, I'm gonna sleep on my side,
these are my actual pillows,
so what I do is, this is my throw pillow that I use.
- [Brad] Oh, you've mentioned that one many times
over the last couple years. - Yeah,
I'll show that in a minute, I don't need that right now.
But I got two pillows on my side,
and then actually here's my sleep evasion pillow too,
by the way.
So I'm gonna use all these pillows here,
I sleep on my side like this.
And so, this is the painful arm,
and then you're gonna put a pillow here,
but the key is to put another pillow on top of it
to give it support.
Otherwise the arm is down, and curled around like this,
all night long, and that's pinching that nerve even more.
- [Brad] You could stretch it a little bit too.
- Right, you can also sleep
with just putting the arm up on your body like this,
that's a good position for it too.
But it's more comfortable,
it might be better to go this way actually,
you put this pillow underneath the arm like that.
Alright, I'm gonna show, let's say you're just stubborn,
like we are, and you're gonna sleep on that shoulder
no matter what.
In that case, then you need the throw pillow.
And you've seen this maybe many times in other videos,
you're gonna create the canal here.
And so I'm gonna get my two pillows here,
and this creates a canal, I'm gonna be careful with my mic,
but this takes pressure,
now the pressure is on my ribcage and my head,
not so much on my shoulder.
- [Brad] What about your feet?
You gotta get them back on there.
- Well, I'm just tryin' to go halfway on here.
- [Brad] I'm just ribbin' you anyway.
- That'll help you with sleeping.
With sitting, you wanna make sure
you're not sitting with a slumped posture.
So when you're in your recliner, you may wanna take again,
a throw pillow like this,
and it'll help give you some support in the low back
and put your body into a better position,
the better the position the neck is in,
the less stress there's gonna be on the nerve.
- [Brad] We probably should mention sleeping supine
on your back. - Oh, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Good point, Brad.
So when you're sleeping on your back,
it's gonna be the same thing here, I'm gonna sleep,
usually with one pillow, you wanna thin pillow
or just one. - Thin, thin pillow.
- So, I'm gonna sleep on my back,
heck I'm gonna put one underneath of my legs.
This is what I do here, I put one here again,
and one here like this, and again, nice and supported.
How's that look Brad? - That pillow,
it always drives me nuts when people have their pillow
under their shoulders.
- I know, I'm just trying, I'm watching my mic.
- [Brad] I know, I know, I just wanted to clarify.
- The big idea is to get the arm supported like that.
But these are not minor things.
If you're irritating your neck all day long,
and all night long, it's not gonna go away.
Once you pinch that nerve it's gonna get flared up.
Alright, the next thing, Brad you can maybe come on back in.
You wanna flip the camera so we can see it?
There we go, yeah.
The next thing is,
you're gonna wanna do what we call directional exercises.
And there's usually three of them that we try,
but the point of the reason for the exercises
is we want the pain to centralize.
Now, Brad's gonna show you what that means on me,
using me as the example.
- So, you're gonna show one of the exercises
that oftentimes centralizes, or should we do it first?
- What do you think?
Why don't we do one of the exercises
and then we can show what we hope to see?
- Right, exactly.
- So how about we start with extensions?
Usually that's the one we're gonna start with.
You wanna grab the towel?
- [Brad] Oh, you bet.
- Now, with most people, when they start off,
I thought you were gonna do it?
- Oh, yeah, okay.
- With most people, when they start off,
usually it's extension what we're gonna have 'em do,
and with extension, usually,
you wanna share or what or what do you wanna do?
With extension usually it hurts
to do it without a towel.
So we have most people start with a towel.
- Yeah, so going back like this goes, ow,
it hurts right about halfway back
and oftentimes it may, if it goes down the arm,
then you really know you've got a pinched nerve,
that is pinching it more.
So what we're gonna do is,
we'll start out with a little chin tuck,
get the towel around the base, and get it so it's rolled up
a little bit thicker, is usually comfortable at first.
And you can lean right back in the chair
to relax your shoulders, chin tuck,
and gently go back until you feel that pinch,
and then come forward and you can kinda pull forward,
you're not pulling hard on the towel, just support.
- [Bob] And Brad, you might actually,
if you're in the same case with me as I am,
with the right arm, on the right pain,
you might just use one arm to pull on the towel,
and let this one relax.
- You could even...
- Yeah, and that's a good point by the way,
this is another thing I want you to do,
is throughout the day is,
I want you to go ahead and put a pillow underneath your arm
whenever you sit in a chair.
Under the arm on the painful side,
because that can actually help, again, also take away,
oh you can't even see that, there we go.
That'll help take away the stresses on the nerve
as it's pulling on the neck.
- And as it goes further and further back...
- [Bob] Eventually you might get to the point
where you don't need the towel anymore.
But for most people,
it seems that they need it to start off with.
- You wanna get here, Bob?
And we'll show what happens to the symptoms?
- Yup, I'm gonna put this back up again and flip it.
This is like old school,
Brad and I used to do this all the time.
We used to not have a camera person
when we first started off.
So, if the towel is working,
the extension is working,
you should start, what you wanna see is that the pain
that's furthest away from your neck
starts to be relieved first.
So if this resembles the pain, boom, gone,
it's no longer in my hand, the numbness or the tingling,
it's not necessarily just the pain,
let's say the tingling even gets better.
You know, look for something that's making it better.
Then the next step would be, hopefully,
the pain's gonna go out of the upper-lower arm. (chuckles)
So you see now, now I'm not having any symptoms in my hand
or my forearm, that's golden,
that means you're doing the right thing.
Now those exercises, though, you must realize this,
they aren't just done once a day.
You're doin' them like every hour,
maybe five to eight times a day,
10 repetitions, y'know doing 10 times,
and that's where you're gonna start getting some results.
- And you have to continue to monitor your posture,
no head forward posture, slipping sleeping pillow,
no recliner with your head forward on a pillow behind it,
those things have to be maintained.
- So the next thing would be, hopefully,
as it starts to improve, you can actually see the pain
leave the upper arm, and...
- Why don't you turn so they can see this?
Stand up. (chuckles)
- I don't know if I can stand up.
- 'Cause of it's cut your head off.
- Is there anything left?
- Yeah, that's fine.
So right here, the pain'll be here,
even as the pain's getting better in the arm,
if it's starting to hurt a little bit more
up by the shoulder and the neck, that is okay.
As long as the pain is gone from further down the arm.
They call it centralizing McKenzie technique,
and as it gets better then, actually,
it all the way goes away
and you're feeling pretty darn good by this time.
- Now, if you find the extension gets to a point
where it just doesn't seem to be helping anymore,
the pain is kinda stuck,
you then might try,
you might try side-bending.
- Right, yep.
- So you might try, with really good posture,
Brad, do you wanna show to the side?
We're gonna chin tuck,
and then we're gonna sideways flex towards the side of pain.
So if the pain's on this side, you're gonna chin tuck
and go to that side.
Chin tuck, and go to that side, and you're gonna see
if that's gonna help take away the pain.
This is always an experiment,
we're tryin' to figure out what it is as far as tips,
and exercises, what takes away the pain,
especially if it takes it away down here first,
and then starts centralizing up
so that you no longer have it in the entire arm.
- So this one, you bend to side,
that doesn't mean you should grab and pull hard.
Just the movement is typically all you need to assess that.
- One thing I kinda forgot, Brad,
is before you start extensions,
you might just do some chin tucks to start off with.
So Brad's showing it from the side,
I'm showing it from the front.
Just this is kind of the warm up,
and you can do these throughout the day.
One thing I'd forgotten is that,
prior to doing the extension,
you might wanna do some chin tucks.
Because that'll warm up the neck,
and it's kinda putting the neck in the right position.
You're gonna go ahead and tuck the chin in,
you're not going down, you're not going up,
you're just bringing it straight back.
And these are ones you can do prior to doing the extensions,
and it's also ones you can do throughout the day also.
So, that's the directional exercise,
find out which one works for you and work with it.
Number three, you wanna avoid the pain-makers in your life.
Any activities or any work that increases your pain,
you shouldn't be doing it.
A common one is people looking at their phone.
And a lot of them have to do with posture,
- Very much so. - I mean if your posture's bad
almost most of them have to do with posture.
So you wanna go ahead, you wanna avoid this,
you wanna make sure you have the Tyrannosaurus Rex arms,
and bring it right up to you.
You wanna avoid slouching in your chair
while you're watching TV,
and having the head forward like this.
You don't wanna drive with your seat too reclined,
'cause it's gonna be the same thing again.
Yep, here look how your head's gonna go forward
as you reach up to the wheel.
These are, pretty much anything,
if you're having pain with it, like lifting a heavy object,
don't do it right now.
You gotta get that pain to calm down.
The last thing I'm gonna mention is,
we've covered a lot of information here today,
and we just touched upon it, and there's a lot more.
An excellent resource is Robin McKenzie's
"Treat Your Own Neck."
That's what everything we said today is based upon.
Just excellent books.
They're only like 10 bucks, aren't they?
- Yeah, and they're written for the lay-person,
so you'll be able to understand it,
follow along with what we recited here in the video.
It's a great source, and the price is good,
you'll be happy that you purchased it.
- Yeah, you'll see that it actually has great reviews,
I mean people all over the world have used this, so.
Alright, remember, Brad and I can fix just about anything.
- Except for...
- A broken heart.
- There you go, Bob, but we're workin' on it.
Even through this issue.
- Yep, alright, thanks.