- 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.
- Brad, you wanted to talk about thoracic pain, today.
Single best, most effective exercise
for thoracic pain, something like that.
- Right. Or the mid back?
- Mid back.
- Okay. So let's use (indistinct) apart here,
our skeleton.
If we're looking at the spine
little quick education of the spine,
we got the C spine.
There's seven vertebraes here.
- Right
- We're gonna go down here.
Five vertebraes here. are the lumbar spine
and 12 vertebrae in the middle thoracic spine or mid back.
- Right? Or on Brad it would be from right here again,
his neck stops here.
His low back starts here.
So right in this whole area right there.
- Right. So if you're experiencing pain in that area
and a lot of people, I think get this
if they're at a computer workstation seated,
lot of seated things, or,
- Exactly.
- Yeah.
- You got it from your bike.
- Right? Exactly.
- Bike's a lot.
- I got a road bike.
One of those kind that you hunch over and looks
like they're not very comfortable and sometimes they're not.
- Okay.
- So this is what I found with myself.
And a lot of patients,
is you need something to reverse that arch in your back,
that gets you rounded over,
and at home,
you can take a towel or a few towels
like we did here and you roll 'em up pretty tight.
- Really tight.
- So you get some, a round form here
and we got duct tape there to hold it
cause you need it round and you need it to stay that way.
So Bob, can you lay on that?
- Sure.
- So he's gonna lay on it in that thoracic area
of the spine.
You know, let's get the pillow out of the way.
- Yeah.
- Okay. Now let's this arm up Bob.
So you can see right here.
He's got it there.
Now you should feel some pretty immediate relief
or sometimes it's that it hurts, but it hurts so good.
It feels like it's gonna pop and it's very common.
You'll get at the cavitate or crack you'll hear
and feel your back crack when you do this.
- You might even move up and down on it a little bit.
- Yeah, exactly.
You may have to adjust like Bob is doing here.
- Now we should warn you though.
If this is too much, if this is too aggressive for you,
then you shouldn't do it.
- Right.
And then I'll be honest with you.
- Not for everyone.
- If you're a sedentary person
and you and you don't do a lot of activity or exercise
it's probably gonna be uncomfortable and not work.
- It's gonna be too much for you.
- Right.
Let's go to the next option.
- Yeah, the better option.
- The better option if you,
if you find some success with that
or you don't mind going online
and getting a six inch foam roll
if you go OPTP, that company will have good quality roles.
- optp.com
- .com. Yeah.
Or Amazon has it.
- Amazon foam rollers just put in there.
- But here we go.
Six inch foam roller there's densities.
They make some softer ones actually.
- Densities.
They got they got different textures now on 'em too.
- Right.
- They got rollers and stuff.
- I would just get the standard one to start out with
and the firmer density,
and about 15, $20
you can get a one foot long one
which is good for the thoracic spine.
We're gonna do this on the floor
because it will not roll good
on something soft carpeted floor works good.
Can you got me Lonnie?
- [Lonnie] Mm.
- Okay.
Now I'm convinced personally,
- [Bob] Keep our carpets together.
- Oh yeah.
Keep our carpet (laughs).
We gotta get that guy in here sew those up.
- [Bob] Yeah.
- I'm convinced.
Now I'm gonna start here.
My low thoracic spine and I'm just gonna roll.
Oh, did you hear that?
- [Bob] No, I didn't.
- Oh, I felt it.
That baby cracked nicely and all up to my neck
and I was just telling Bob
I got off my bike the other day and I keep this
in my garage and I laid it down on the concrete
and I did it right after I got off my bike.
Cause I was going for a run right after that.
And I had about a half a dozen cracks in my back
and psychologically it's wonderful
and does good for your back as well.
And I was able to run quite well.
A lot of times getting running off a bike is hard.
Oh yes.
So you're gonna spend about that much time and you're done.
(slaps foam)
- Yeah. Simple treatment again, not for everyone.
You may wanna try the towel first to see
if you can even tolerate that.
- Right.
- OK, you know you're not probably gonna be able
to tolerate this.
- Right.
- So.
- But I'm convinced
that this is superior over the towel.
Bob and I were talking about that, but I really like
- Brad's always right, So.
(laughs)
- Sorry, Bob, but it really works.
- He can't help it, he's always right.
Take care.
- Towel is junk compared to this.