♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ the two most famous ♪
♪ physical therapists ♪
♪ on the Internet. ♪
- By the the thousands - We're going live
on Facebook okay.
Hi folks, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- And together we are the most famous physical therapists
on the Internet.
- In our opinion, of course, Bob.
- Welcome again to Facebook Live
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We're giving away lots of stuff.
We just give away a paraffin bath, um
- Not a whole body bath,
just for your hand. - Yeah just for your hands.
It's kind of a nice device, but anyway
we probably should talk,
tell what we're gonna talk about today, Brad.
- Yes.
- Five advanced ways to get rid of those knots
from your shoulders, neck, traps, you know.
- Right, the stubborn ones that you can't get out.
We're gonna show you a few tricks that will help you out.
- These are some advanced ones, by the way,
they work quite well.
So trigger points are kind of
a mystery aren't they, Brad?
They're kind of little nodules you'll find in the muscles.
- Right.
- Hyper-irritable nodules.
- Yep. They tighten up and sometimes when they
I think everyone's experienced this,
you get that knot it's like
boy you're stretching it,
it just feels like something
could just let it go (clicks tongue)
and get rid of it.
- Now the knots themselves
they can emerge in the muscle itself too.
But quite often I think the majority of knots
are coming from the spine, Brad.
I'm gonna grab the spine real quick.
Keep talking. - Yeah, go ahead.
So what Bob's talking about is
something is out of place or deranged in the spine,
so to speak.
And if you can get rid of that,
then the muscle is actually responding
to the the spine issue or the spine lesion, if you will,
but we need to get rid of that and get things--
- Right, precisely Brad.
So what we're saying here is
the pain, the problem is in the spine
and it's sending pain out into the muscle.
And one sign of this,
why you may know that that's what happening
is if you move your neck or your body
and the trigger point actually goes to a different spot.
That's a good sign that it's from the spine.
- Yeah. So in other words,
you might feel the pain
way over here - Way over here.
- And then if you move like this and the pain changes
just as a result of some neck movement,
chances are, the problem is up in the low neck,
not down here.
- The problem is sometimes,
the problem is from the spine right here.
And it's really hard to treat this part of the spine, Brad.
- Right.
- And that's the first trick we're gonna show you
is how to get into this spot right here,
which is that tough spot.
- Yep. That's, they've got the ribcage supporting it
and it's hard to get to, and--
- Now one way you can do, is you can actually,
before I talk about the socks.
You can actually take a couple tennis balls,
you put 'em in the sock
and you put 'em right together like this
and they create this device here
that you can put right, you know,
on each side of the spine.
Can I show on you, Brad? - Sure.
- So you can put it right on each side of the spine
and you can lay on that and roll
and that'll help manipulate or work the spine in that area
and hopefully take away the knots that are in the area,
in between the shoulder blades or even going out.
The problem with this, Brad, that I find is
even tennis balls are really hard.
- Yeah it's pretty aggressive.
- This is actually a lacrosse ball,
but even the tennis balls,
what I have found is some people love it
and a lot of people don't. - Right.
- So I came up with my own invention, Brad.
- Let's see it, Bob.
- This is gonna be the Schrupp technique.
So this is something you can do at home.
You need five socks, yes, sir.
You need five socks.
(chuckles)
So, and these kind of work out the best,
They're kind of a thinner sock,
kind of a longer sock. - Sure.
- And you're gonna start at the toe
and you're gonna roll it up
and you're gonna roll it up real tight.
- Might help if
someone's pulling on-- - Sure
- --make sure like that to get it like tightly.
- Yeah, and now I take the end
and I take the opening of the sock
and I'm gonna go around it.
And now I created kind of a tube almost.
- Right.
There's gotta be a name for how that's rolled up like that.
- Well now I'm gonna take another set of socks, Brad
and I'm gonna roll over right over the top of it.
Again, I'm starting with the toe
and I'm going on, you know,
the lengthwise size, - Sure.
- side here.
I'm gonna roll it up again real tight.
I can do it this one, Brad.
I just pull real tight like this.
And then I'm gonna go ahead and take the
opening and put it over the sock.
- So what you're creating is
you've taken the place of the tennis ball
or the lacrosse ball, is that it?
- I'm creating a sock ball, yup.
- This is not gonna be as aggressive
but yet it's firm enough where it's gonna get in it
and relax that muscle, that, get that knot to release.
- Precisely, Brad.
And what I did is
I actually shaped it into a ball now, Brad,
after I did all that.
Now I already did it with one other, you know,
with one other,
I already created one other sock ball.
So now we got two sock balls.
- Did you have these all washed, Bob, before we--
- Yes we did. - Good, good.
- So I'm gonna put it in there
and now you have the two sock balls
and you're gonna put 'em right here
and I'm gonna go ahead and lay down once, Brad.
- Yeah. Let's, this, let's show 'em how it's done.
- So I'm gonna go ahead
and you're gonna find the spot
you're gonna hit right on that troublesome spot.
And you can put it right between the shoulder blades, Brad.
And the thing is, this is not as hard,
so it's a little less aggressive.
But you can actually get into that spot
and now I can roll back and forth on top of it like this.
- So you actually getting them to roll either--
- Yep. And there, my back just cavitated
or cracked a little bit. - Oh, good.
- So oh! Did again.
- Oh, double header.
- So it can work it all the way down, and--
- So this is something
you're not gonna do on your bed though, right?
You're gonna have to go, - Nope.
You have to do it on the floor,
cause you need a hard surface.
- Yeah. Per, usually a carpeted floor is works good.
A hard floor, smooth floor
probably won't work as well.
- You can see I flattened them out a little bit.
- Yeah, you did. Wow.
- Can you do this on the wall too, Brad?
- Well, only if I try. Okay.
- So stick over to this part here.
- All right, so,
I'm gonna line them up right here like that
and trap 'em there and now
I'm gonna actually work 'em a little bit oops
and there, - And then they work.
- there is a way to do this, Bob.
- [Bob] You probably should have tried this first, huh?
- No, there we go. Okay.
- [Bob] Maybe you'll one-hand it
where you hold onto it.
- Okay so I got it there now
but these don't roll quite as good as the, on the ball,
like you can with the,
- [Bob] It works fine laying down on the floor.
- Yep. Yep.
- [Bob] So you may want to use a tennis ball on the wall.
You also could put it in a nylon sack, sock.
And then that way you could hold onto both ends of it
while you're doing it.
- Right, or just have someone help you out.
- Yep.
All right. Next one, Brad.
This is my go-to device.
Actually, either one of these is, works out fine.
This is the Thera Cane.
And that's the Back Buddy, right? Back--
- Backnobber.
- Backnobber two. - Two, okay.
And what, the advantage of this one
is it comes apart, right?
So you can put it in a suitcase easier.
So I, when I, when my back is hurting
or when I get a knot,
this is the thing I use.
I mean, it just works out really good.
- Show 'em how it works, Bob.
People are waiting.
- So one thing you can put pressure right on,
I hope I'm still on camera here,
- Here I'll double check - You can put pressure
right on the knot
and just work on it.
And you can even massage the muscle a little bit
if you want. - There you go.
- But what I have found that really works, Brad,
is that I put it kind of somewhat on the spine
and I move with it.
So one of the girls that works for us,
she came in the other day,
she goes, "I got a knot, can you get it out?"
I had her do this.
She put the pressure on the knot
and while the pressure's on her, I got both hands here.
I had her extend,
I had her flex,
I had her turn
and I had her turn.
- So she's doing this while the pressure-
- While the pressure's on,
I'm putting good pressure on it.
I'm turning,
I'm turning.
Now if it really makes it worse,
you know, a certain direction,
I don't do that direction.
But if it feels better, you know,
going in this direction,
I'll maybe keep doing turns like this
- Go closer this way.
- Okay. - There.
- How's that?
- Yeah. Facebook was a little short on you, you're okay.
- Okay. We're getting her now?
All right.
So I turn, I turn,
I extend, I flex.
All these movements here. - There you go.
- Now, Brad, you also have a way for doing it
on the mat here, don't you?
- Yeah. Yeah and you can do it with either one.
I kind of like this one for this particular,
I'm gonna, I'm gonna use this one.
And so you're gonna use a lot of leverage here.
I say, I'm gonna find that knot
with the ball at the end there
just like Bob was doing.
Either one will work.
And now, I'm just saying that
but I'm just gonna very, it's all leverage.
It leverages right through the floor or the table
and oh, I've got a lot of pressure
and I can easily maneuver it and get, I'm,
I gotta get up a little bit there, whoa.
And when you hit that knot, it doesn't take much pressure.
So this is really,
- Be real careful with this,
I don't want you to get worse by doing this.
And I would start with
standing and doing it first, Brad, wouldn't you?
And then you could experiment with laying down.
- You could see with one finger,
I can easily get enough pressure on that tight knot.
And I'm just gonna hold it for about 20 to 30 seconds
and see if it releases, you know.
If it releases after 20,
and I like to time it.
After 30 seconds,
if it just feels like it's getting worse,
then I change or I'll move
or I'll do something different - Go onto a different position
- Another position, yep. - Sure.
By the way, as we do with all these programs,
at the end
if there's any questions,
we'll take some from Facebook. - Sure.
- So, the next one, Brad, is
especially if we believe it really is coming from the spine.
What you may wanna try
is some neck extensions first, Brad.
Do you mind bringing the chair over
and showing how they could do these, Brad?
So first you're gonna do it, is just try to do
without a strap or without a towel.
He's gonna try to do some extensions like this
and he is gonna see,
does that help take away the pain
that's going into the shoulder blade?
So you're trying some of these,
some repeated ones of these.
And if you, if it hurts, when you go back so far
don't go back as far,
just go as far as it will allow.
Eventually over time,
you wanna see if you can go way back.
Most people, I find they can't do it.
It hurts.
- Get back to here and it'll be locked up
and don't force it.
Just means you gotta, you know,
use something else and it can be a towel roll.
- So that's what Brad and I do.
Our go-to thing is either a towel roll
or he's got the Stretch Out Strap here
which works out really good too.
But he's gonna start with the towel roll.
- Get it low on the neck
and in here.
Now there's a couple different ways you can start here.
And just having the support there
oftentimes can allow you to go back farther pain-free.
And the more advanced method is
to go up like this.
As I'm pulling up,
putting a little traction on,
and I'm looking right at my thumbs
and I go up like this.
And again, you're only gonna do that
if that pain,
by doing this,
goes away or dramatically releases it.
And oh, that feels much better.
And then as you're done,
you'll feel the release and you'll feel it feel much better.
- Quite often, Brad,
sometimes for me,
it's the next day sometimes.
I stretch it and it didn't help that much,
but the next day it's a lot better.
- Okay, yup. - I got it moving, so-
- So again, this just allows you to get more specific
to one level or the other.
I may start down here at the lower neck
and I'm gonna work up a little bit
and up, and,
now what I find with patients when I do this,
I'll start low
and if there's, if it's not feeling better there
I'll move up, you know, a half inch.
- That's what's nice about the strap.
You can really focus in on a certain level of the neck.
Again, the whole idea behind this
is that it feels better on the spine.
Usually like to be in a solid back chair
when you're doing these
and leaning back over the chair.
Not a flexible back.
The one that works for me when I get knots
is I actually do chin tucks
and I do side bends.
The one that works for me,
I'm gonna repeat this
because I think we got cut off on YouTube
is that you do chin tuck
and then side bend
to the side where I feel the pain on.
And a lot of times, again, it feels good to do it,
but it sometimes it doesn't necessarily
take away all the pain.
But after I do it for, you know, throughout the day
by the end of the day or by the next day
it's gone. - Okay, yup.
- So it's not always an immediate thing for me.
But eventually it does work.
The final one, Brad,
that we're gonna try is
you wanna go ahead and pitch a ball in there, Lonnie,
let's see what she's got.
- Whoa. - There we go.
Is, and this again is one where a lot of the knots
are maybe more in the mid-back or upper back.
You're gonna go ahead and find a little ball like that
that you can get at any big box store
and or online.
Nice little soft ball
and he's gonna go ahead
and do some Hallelujah stretches over the top of that.
- And you gotta have to, you know,
a firm chair works best for this.
So we're gonna go back like this
and we can stretch back.
- So again, he's going Hallelujah,
my pain is gone. - I can feel like
I gotta go up just a little bit.
It's gonna feel better there
and you'll get a feel for that.
Oh, that is a nice stretch.
I think this is a good stretch to do,
even if you don't have a knot
just to help prevent.
- Oh yes, that's a great stretch to do,
for anybody to do, that's correct.
- Particular if you spend a lot of time
on your cell phone or computer
or watching TV - Lonnie, you wanna look
and see if there's anybody on Facebook
with any questions at this point?
So those are the five.
We got the sock method,
we got Thera Cane,
we got neck extensions with,
and then we got neck and side bending,
and then we got the stretch over the ball.
So,
- Is anybody out there?
- Is anybody out there- - [Girl] I have had
C5, C6 problems for years.
I am in late sixties lately.
I have been having pain with my ear and mastoid area.
- Okay. So she's having C5, C6.
This lady's having, she's in her sixties,
you said? - She's in her sixties, yeah.
- And she's having pain in her ear and mastoid area?
I find that more often is from a higher cervical problem,
C1, C2.
And quite often,
what we work on when someone's getting pain
that's traveling like down here and up into the head
and maybe even at the ear,
I mean, it could also be her jaw.
I mean TMJ definitely sends pain into the ear-
- Right. - and that,
but for, if it is like the suboccipital area there,
a lot of times we work on rotations.
And actually work on trying to improve that,
the turning.
There's an advanced method we use with that,
but I can't really show on film here.
- Right. Yeah, that's more for the therapist.
- Yeah, it's more for a therapist.
And sometimes just taking the two fingers.
Yeah Brad, you wanna show that?
And doing yeah, circular massage
or even a splaying massage
where you put your fingers together
and just massage that upper area there
to see if that provides you some relief.
And a lot of times it will.
- And you'll see, you should check to see
if one direction rotation versus the other
- Oh very good point, Brad, yeah.
- If one is farther, if one creates the,
or makes the pain worse,
then you can do the massage and work those muscles
and then turn that same direction
and see if you can go further.
And or if the pain is reduced as a result.
- Yeah, very good point.
In case you weren't hearing on Facebook,
Brad was saying,
check your rotations
and if you find one is limited compared to the other,
that often is an indicator
that you're having trouble with your higher cervical area,
the higher cervical- - Right, sure.
- [Girl] So will the tennis balls work
for neck as well as the shoulders
if you have compressed disc in the neck or anywhere?
- No, if you have a neck problem,
I wouldn't do the tennis balls.
I would do the the ones we were showing at the end,
the cervical extensions
and the cervical chin tucks and side bending.
That's, are gonna work for the neck.
- Right. And if you had surgery on your neck
and you got, particularly,
if you have hardware in your neck,
I would just avoid these altogether.
- Yeah. You can't do any of these
if you've had surgery anywhere.
Even a compression fracture,
I wouldn't be messing with this.
- Right. So if you've got a history
and you had surgery or some serious problems in the past
then you should see a therapist.
These are, this is for people who have,
are reasonably healthy
and you get those knots that come and go
here and there.
We're gonna try and work those out
so they don't have to, you know, live with it for a week.
- You know a lot of, we're seeing it because
a lot of the knots are caused by bad posture.
I hate to say, we always keep coming back to that,
but this forward head posture,
that is causing the trigger points.
The more you can correct that,
the better off you're gonna be.
Any other questions, Lonnie, or do we,
- [Girl] That's it.
- That's it, okay.
- [Girl] Just asking if the Thera Cane
would be on YouTube too, just the-
- Oh the Thera Cane,
yeah I'll make sure
that we put a link towards it on YouTube
and eventually I'll get it on Facebook too.
I won't get there 'til later
cause I gotta work today now, I gotta see patients.
(chuckles)
So um,
I, you know,
again the point I want again, make about posture
especially when you're working at a computer
or if you're looking at your phone,
make sure you're bringing the phone up to you,
not going down to the phone.
Make sure you're bringing your screen up
in your, on your computer so that you have good posture.
That's gonna take away a lot of these problems.
- Yeah.
- So, all right.
Thanks everybody for watching
and make sure you subscribe to us
and like us.
- Stay knot-free.
- Oh, stay knot-free.
How, isn't that nice.