♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous Physical Therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
- 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. - Now, Brad, we've got
some videos on how to treat herniated discs
and sciatica.
Now we're gonna show some advanced exercises for that.
- Right.
- So I'm gonna go ahead and get in position here.
- Okay, if you've got a herniated disc,
most of the time they're a posterior herniation
so that's what this treatment is for, okay?
You've got pain or numbness or tingling
going down the leg, can go all the way to the foot
or the great toe, the big toe.
And then you lay down on your stomach, go ahead, Bob,
let's start out with the first exercise.
You lay there, you can get relaxed.
As things are starting to feel better.
- You might even get up on your elbows
for a little bit, right?
- Yep, there you go.
And with that, and this may not be comfortable right away
but if you wait a little bit, all right,
30 seconds to a minute, - Might have to go
back down again. - Yep, you go back down.
Let's do some press ups, Bob.
Big press ups. - Okay, hands below
the shoulders. - Yep, yep.
- All right here and I'm just gonna do
some half press ups here.
- Now if the person responds,
it's kinda hard at first but after a few press ups
it gets a little easier, they can go higher.
- You're really trying to keep this part relaxed,
sagging in. - Right, right.
This stays down. - 'Cause this is,
what you don't wanna say is this, Brad.
- Exactly.
- And quite often we do see this
'cause their back is so tight. - Good point, Bob.
- And what are we looking for, Brad?
What's the good signs?
- If the leg symptoms or the pain of the legs
start to reduce or go up towards the back.
- Right, you might even feel more pain in the back.
- Exactly.
- And less pain in the leg, - Right.
- That's what you're looking for.
And you're trying to go higher and higher.
- Just this week I did this exact same exercise
with a patient, she had numbness in her shin.
We did five of these and she said,
"Oh, my shin doesn't hurt anymore, it feels normal."
So I said, "Let's do some more."
- Right and so once you get up to this point,
this is the basic exercise.
Now we're gonna show you the advanced exercise.
Let's say you've been doing these for a while,
you're kinda stuck, it has helped
but it's kinda stuck, you're still having some pain
maybe in the buttock here.
- Right, the pain, the symptoms in the leg
are symptom free, the numbness, the pain has gone
but it's still here and it's here
and we wanna get it all the way to the center right there.
- So now we're gonna take either a belt
or a rolled sheet or -
- Oh there's one more thing, Bob.
- Oh you wanna do the sagging one?
- I want you to lock your hands though.
- Okay, so you're gonna get to the point
where you wanna make sure that the pelvis
is still on the ground - Right here.
- On the floor. - Yeah.
- And you're gonna lock your elbows out
and you just let it sag like this.
- And then you, you wanna do it?
- No, you take a deep breath.
- Yep and then I'll have the person exhale and relax
and just think about this going down and in
and arching to the maximum, okay?
And as long as the pain goes away here
and feels more in the center, you're doing just fine.
And if that helps but you can't get it all the way
and you wanna get a little more pressure on there,
in the clinic, us as therapists,
we're gonna put our hands on or do some work
that we know how to do. - Get some extra pressure.
- But at home, why don't you lay down, Bob?
- I've seen some people even do this, Brad,
wiggle a little bit - Sure. Yep. Yep.
- Like this when they get up in this area here.
All right.
- You take, you can take a long towel, I use this sheet.
In this case I rolled it up in a nice, round cylinder thing
like this, not gonna use it for a toga.
You're gonna put it around the belt line.
Go ahead, Bob, show 'em what to do.
- Put my hands on here, hands on here
and I'm gonna go ahead and lift up like this.
Now I got some counter pressure.
This is gonna help - Yeah I don't know
if they can see this. - Stretch the back.
Can they see it or not?
- Yeah, get your, there you go.
So this goes around the back and stabilizes
the arch of the back
and it does over-pressure, what we call.
- And now you can move it down a little bit further
and then put your hands down here and get that part too.
- There you go.
- So you can move it along the spine here
and get all the pressure, - Yep.
- Pressure on, pressure off,
pressure on, pressure off.
And this is gonna work well for people
who are not really bending their back like they should.
And it gives, it's just, it's an advanced move
to help get the back moving better than it was.
- It's very important while you're doing
all these exercises that it's not increasing
the leg pain, it's not creating sharp pain.
- Can I show with the belt too, Brad?
- Sure.
- So you can do it if you have a good, long belt.
These are gate belts, we call 'em.
- Yeah. But Bob, you interrupted me.
- Oh sorry, go ahead, keep talking, Brad.
- So it should not be painful,
it should make the pain go away in the leg
or centralize it and go more towards the center of the back,
usually right at the belt line right there.
If that's where the pain is moving to, keep working these.
- Yeah if it's sending pain, more pain down the leg,
you're gonna need some help.
You're gonna need somebody else to help you out.
But here I'm gonna just show you with the belt
how the belt can do the same thing.
- Sure.
- Works out really well.
And I just did some of these last night, Brad,
even though I don't have sciatica,
I don't have a herniated disc,
but I was having a little bit of back pain.
- Sure.
- You can try these with just regular back pain too,
I mean 'cause a lot of times - Right.
- This helps get the back moving
and it felt great. - Right, good movement.
- I actually took away any hint of back pain
that I had last night. - Sure.
- So I was thinking of you, I was thinking,
"Brad wants to do this tomorrow, how about that?"
- Yeah, yeah, go ahead and do it
so you better believe it. - Yeah, good testimony, so.
All right, thanks for watching.