♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
- Howdy, folks, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- And we are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- In our opinion, of course, Bob.
- Ta-da.
- Let's carry on.
- Let's first talk about our giveaway.
We're gonna get away a SleepOvation mattress.
This is a sample of one.
It's got 700 tiny mattresses with the air channels.
Very comfortable mattress, will conform to anybody
and will make you most comfortable and you'll sleep well.
- Absolutely, and now the video is on spondylolisthesis,
if you can pronounce it or if you have it.
And I am a big believer, with my spondylolisthesis,
been diagnosed for 10 years,
this mattress made me sleep better.
I'm a happier person, and that's just the way it is.
- Wish you were better looking.
- Yeah, I know it.
But I'm sure there's other mattresses.
But I know this one has helped me, gratefully.
So let's carry on, Bob. - All right.
- Spondylolisthesis.
Bob, pronounce it your way, I kinda like it.
- Spondylolisthesis. - There you go.
He's got a nice twist to it, but I don't know.
Who knows who's right, but whatever.
It's a big word.
It means you have, typically low back,
you have a shift in the vertebra,
usually in the lumbar L4-L5, L5-S1.
- Yeah, one vertebra gets forward of the other one.
- Yeah, we've got videos, and actually,
I show my x-rays. - X-rays.
- Which shows a number of things.
If you go to the Bob and Brad YouTube,
and go to the playlist and all of our videos on spondy,
we got about 10 of 'em.
And just go through those, if you have spondy
and you really wanna learn a lot about it
and how to fix it.
So a little brief here, spondylolisthesis,
if you're younger, high school age,
college age, oftentimes and you're an athlete,
that's, people like gymnasts, - Right.
- They'll land hyper extended- - Land and they hyper extend.
Right. - And then you get that
part of the vertebra will get a fracture on one side
of the intar-
- Interarticularis. - Interarticularis.
Then the other one fractures and the bone starts slipping,
and then you get pinched nerves.
You get back pain associated with bending backwards,
walking, standing for a long time, very typical.
- And the pain can transfer into the leg.
- Yep, you can get some-
- When it's getting worse.
- Sciatica. - Right.
- With mine, I normally would-
- Numbness, tingling? - Oh yeah.
Yeah, I'd get down my leg all the way to my foot
would get numb after I walked
about three-fourths of a mile.
- Was it one side or two sides?
- Just one. - Okay.
- Always on the right leg.
Very consistent, that don't get,
actually I get it occasionally if I don't behave.
But for 99% of the time I'm clear now.
The good news, if you're younger and you approach therapy
and do the right things, do the right exercises,
avoid doing the wrong things,
there was a study done with a gymnast
and some other athletes at that level.
And in four to six weeks doing the right thing consistently,
they were able to get back to their sport.
- Which is amazing. - It is.
I didn't,
I was in my 40s- - Right.
- When I found out and through my 50s,
it took me a while to figure out what I needed to do.
But there's definitely options to get better.
- And let's just say that Brad is still running,
swimming, walking- - And bicycling, yep.
- And got pain under control.
- Yeah. - It's not gone.
- No, and I have to be careful of some of the things I do.
For example, this is what you have to do.
You have to avoid any activities or exercises
that make your back pain worse or particularly the leg pain.
So with me, at one time,
I couldn't walk more than three-fourths of a mile,
so I wouldn't.
I'd only walk up to a half a mile and that was it.
- And you couldn't run at that time.
- Yeah, I could just because I had to do some things
but I shouldn't have been.
Yeah, but- - He was hurting.
- I really minimized it.
Overhead activities.
If you're washing windows, anything like that
where it keeps you up and extended more than just
for a little bit, typically will irritate.
Avoid those things.
- Even lying on your stomach
for any prolonged period of time.
- Right, exactly.
You're not gonna do prone press ups.
- Yeah. - Yeah, go ahead.
'Cause I used to have, you know,
we talk about doing these for sciatica
and I would do these and it would hurt my back
and things would get worse.
And then I thought, hmm, this is not normal sciatica.
It ended up being from spondy.
So listen to your body.
Only do things that make it feel better.
Now I'm gonna show you some exercises
for core strengthening.
It's really critical, particularly the anterior,
the muscles here, 'cause they'll tighten up
and support the shift and limit the amount
of shift that you get.
And once that shift stabilizes
and the bones-
- Gristle. - Yeah, exactly.
In my case, I have no more disc
between L4 and L5, it's gone.
- Right, it's fused.
- Yep. - Nature's natural.
- Body absorbed it and it's now fused
and it's much more stable.
Let's go to the exercises.
- Now Brad really attributes his current well-being
to these exercises, right?
- Yeah, once I started doing these consistently,
it consistently got better and it's like, oh.
'Cause I was considering to go and have surgery.
- Three times a week?
- I do these three times a week.
But I did 'em a little more before, but-
- Sure.
- The first one-
- Originally you started off with more, originally?
- Yeah. - Yeah.
- Yep, and three times a week is pretty good now.
So let's see.
- You got hook line. - Yep.
- You wanna do that here?
I can do that. - Yeah, you do it.
So if you don't have a ball,
a ball, I found works much better.
Go ahead, Bob, double knees to the chest.
- Oh, gotcha. - Yeah.
And you don't have to do the stretch.
You can just do the knees to chest.
We're trying to strengthen the core.
You're gonna have to think
about flattening your back a little bit.
If you use the ball,
you don't have to think about all this.
- You can even put your hand under here.
- Yep. - And feel the back
pushing against the hand. - Yep.
Yeah, there you go.
And you may need some more resistance
and that's why the ball works good.
- Right, when he does that,
he puts the ball between his legs and lifts it up.
- I'll show you right now.
So you get a ball.
It works better if you have shoes on
'cause I get around here and then the shoe digs
into the ball and then I'll work like this.
And actually right now,
as soon as I do one of these, my back automatically,
it didn't hurt before but now it feels good.
- It feels better.
- It feels really good to do this.
- That's when you know you're doing the right exercise.
- Yep. - It actually feels better.
And you do the double crunch also.
Correct, Brad?
- Yep, so I'll do this.
I'll do this, which is a little harder.
But you start out five or 10 of 'em.
Do those everyday or every other day.
- Now he's not lifting the back up off the ground.
- Yeah, just the shoulder blades.
- Just the shoulder blades.
- And then now this is gonna vary
from person to person but I take this elbow
and I go to this knee.
And that may not feel good.
If it doesn't, don't do it. - Don't do it, right.
- For me, it feels really good.
- And even if it's worse the next day,
I wouldn't do this one. - Right.
So if you're just starting this program, be careful.
Take it a day at a time. - Use your judgment.
- Okay, very good.
Now there is another one that I really like to do.
- Pointer dog? - Yep.
- I'll do it without the ball first.
And you start with just legs, right, Brad?
- Yep, but before you do that, Bob,
let's talk a little bit about
you have to contract the abdominal muscles.
Try to get a neutral back.
So up and rounded.
Now arch all the way down as far as you can.
Now go halfway in between.
That's neutral.
Tighten it up, lock up that core.
- And then start working the leg.
- So you can go left leg, you can alternate left and right.
Now- - I like a 10 second hold.
- Yep, that can work too.
It's gonna depend.
If your back is not stable enough yet,
this very likely will be uncomfortable.
- And then the advanced version is to alternate.
And you actually lift an arm and one leg.
- Right.
Again, this is more advanced.
By this time, your back is not hurting so much.
This doesn't hurt but it gets your tired.
I'm gonna back up a little bit.
If any of these hurt, you need to get the ball.
The ball works best.
You could use an ottoman or something like this,
where you go across like this to support your mid back.
The ball- - The ball works really well.
- If you've got spondy, you're gonna use the ball.
- The balls aren't that expensive.
- No, they aren't.
And you'll use it plenty.
So you just do the same thing.
Here and you don't get quite the same motion
but this is one of 'em I still do to this day.
I lift this one up.
I do alternate like that.
And then hands here.
And I'm not trying to get a really strong back
but I am trying to strengthen slightly.
But mostly healthy range of motion.
- Yeah, and it's funny, Brad,
you're really not extending that much.
- No. - You're kind of going up
to neutral when you do those. - Right.
And that's the goal.
I go as far as I can comfortably without discomfort.
And then I'll also do a little rotation, not a lot.
Because I wanna maintain rotation.
I wanna be able to look behind me
when I'm backing up my vehicle,
even though you've got videos- - Cameras now.
- Yeah.
So I'll do that.
I'll do just 10 of those.
Three sets of 10 of those.
I don't do a lot of 'em. - Sure.
- Works good though and they feel good.
All right, Bob, should we continue on to-
- Some squats. - Some standing exercises?
- Sure. - Number one.
This goes, everyone across the board is just walking.
- I really like these.
And also the other ones that you're about to show.
- Oh yeah. - You were talking
about walking, I'm sorry.
- Walking on the flat. - I jumped ahead.
- As tolerated.
Don't walk two miles.
If it starts hurting at one mile, stop at one.
Or maybe you're gonna start out at a quarter mile.
- You might take a break.
You might walk in chunks. - Yep.
- So in a park you might walk a quarter mile,
take a rest, a sitting rest. - Exactly.
- And then go back to it.
- 'Cause if you've got spondy,
typically when you sit, and if it hurts when you're standing
and you're walking, when you sit,
the pain drops down considerably.
That's my experience and my patients'
so it'll probably be yours.
Oh, should we get on with the next one?
- Yes. - Bands.
- These are great.
I think they really serve a good, functional purpose.
- Really, bands don't cost that much.
Get ahold of 'em.
You need to have some place to attach the band.
Either to a piece of furniture,
a handrail on the stairway.
We use the wall anchor 'cause they really work well.
- Well, they all come with a door attachment too.
You can attach them to the door.
- Oh yeah, yeah.
So this goes into the door.
You've gotta lock it into the door.
They show you how.
And they work reasonably well too.
It's nice to have them available.
So this is one of my favorites.
It's a stir the pot, tighten the core.
Get things where it's comfortable
this way and this way.
And tighten and then get resistance on the band
and then simply go like this.
- A lot harder than it looks.
- Yeah, especially after about 20 seconds.
- It looks like it's nothing, but it,
you're working the entire time.
- And you have to do both directions.
- The thing is, you're teaching your body
to tighten up when you're doing something.
So let's say you're out shoveling snow
or you're lifting a little grandchild,
you learn to tighten up those areas-
- While you're moving. - While you're moving, yes.
- I like to do diagonals where I'll do this
and I'll go down.
Tighten and I'll go down
and working good core.
So I'm not doing a lot of twisting.
I twist my body and my hips.
And I take this hand and I push into the side
of my stomach 'cause those are the hardest muscles
to activate.
But if you feel 'em, you can train your body
to work those core muscles.
It's a little thing that therapists work on a lot
with back pain.
- It's almost like you're pulling the cord
to a lawnmower. - Exactly.
- And that's a really important time
for you to tighten up and keep your back stable.
- Can you come over here, camera?
So I'm going down to a lower area here.
If you have a door anchor,
you slide it down on the door.
Wall anchors, you just put it down to the lower one.
They come in sets of three or four.
And then I get in here and I'll do some pulling up
and twisting.
And it's good for your arms too.
It's a good balancing, it's good for that core.
- Good for giving somebody an upper hook.
- Yeah, if you're in boxing or karate,
that would be a win-win situation.
- Right, there you go.
- All right, so again, if you wanna learn more detail
about spondy, go to our playlist on our YouTube channel
and we've got a complete list,
with again X-rays and our demonstrations on-
- We've got lots of videos on it.
- Oh yeah, it's fun, Bob.
- It's good when you had it
because we've become experts at that.
- Yeah, you're really more motivated.
And just reading this book, Bob,
I know we're babbling here.
Oh, it's 13 minutes.
I'll talk about it a little later on.
- Thanks everybody, thanks for watching.
- Adios.