♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists on the Internet. ♪
- Hi folks, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- We are the most famous physical therapists
on the Internet.
- You know, opinion of course, Bob.
- What you don't see before we talk
is we do kinda warm up a little bit,
to kinda get-- - Gotta get--
- Get the energy level up, right?
- Pumped up.
- Today we're gonna talk about something else
that's stubborn besides you, Brad,
we're gonna talk about stubborn sciatica,
and we're gonna show you three advanced exercises
to cure it.
So if you have sciatica and it's just not going away, Brad.
- Right.
- It's really discouraging, isn't it?
- Right, especially if you've already looked at
some of our excellent videos on how to do it,
and you tried the exercises, the press-up,
and it's not getting any better--
- It's not responding.
- You know, this is a good option.
Look at this.
We have three other options that can give you progress
and get you back in your,
on the road, you know--
- Right, get you going on the right path.
And by the way, if you are new to our channel
and maybe haven't seen any of these videos,
please take a second to subscribe to us.
We provide videos how to stay healthy, fit, pain free,
and we upload every day. - Mhm.
- Also go to our link below for Facebook
and like us on Facebook.
Brad and I have a severe complex.
Nobody likes us. Please like us.
- Yeah. - Okay.
- Okay. Here we go.
Sciatica, we're talking about sciatica.
One of the primary reasons for that pain down the leg
is the nerve, peripheral nerve coming outta the spine
is getting pinched-- - Spinal nerves are coming out
and-- - From the disc problem.
- Yeah. - Okay.
- That's the most common reason.
- So people are wondering,
why do you have these coffee cups with a green ball?
- Right.
- That is our model that works really well
to show a disc problem.
So this would be your lumbar five, the fifth lumbar.
- It's taken out of your low back--
- Right, down by your belt line.
The green ball represents a disc
because a disc has fluid in, like this ball does,
and has a tough--
- Anulus.
- Anulus that's stretchy and it's gonna give away,
and you can see that the fluid in there
is held in within the anulus on this ball,
so it's a good model.
And so here we go, yeah.
- So it's, if I were standing
this would be my low back right here.
This is how it's pointed.
- Right. - So, so...
If you do a lot of bending forward.
- So when, okay, so the green ball represents the disc
and it has a little sponge,
so when you walk it's a little shock absorber,
when you bend forward, it flexes,
and when you twist a bit to the side
it'll go a little bit to the side.
Not as much, that's just the natural mechanics
of the ball, or of the back, I'm sorry.
Now, if you bend forward or sit slouched too often,
then eventually get a herniated disc.
- [Bob] Yeah, repeatedly,
weaken on the back of the disc
and then it pushes back here,
and then that's where it can push on
one of the little spinal nerves.
- [Brad] Right. Are you zoomed in on that, Lonnie?
- Yeah. - Okay.
Now, there are times when a disc get herniated,
but it doesn't go out the back side.
If it goes out the back side
people typically are walking around like this--
- [Bob] Yeah, it usually goes out to the back
and a little bit to the side. - Right.
- Posterior lateral. - Yeah.
That's getting technical.
- [Bob] Yeah.
- [Brad] If we turn it this way, and instead of,
you still zoomed in? - Now it's facing backwards.
- [Brad] This is the way it normally oftentimes goes
towards a backwards direction,
off to the side a little bit perhaps,
but sometimes our disc can herniate,
look at this--
- More to the side itself. - Right.
And when this happens,
this is the posture that that person will take on.
Instead of forward leaning,
they're off to the side
like this. - Let me do it, Brad.
I think I can do it better than you.
- Oh. - It's a shift.
- Let's let them be the judge.
- See, it's a shift. - So it goes down and over.
So here, the bulge
is over here. - Over here, yep.
- So it tilts the spine this way.
- Yeah. - Mhm.
- It's causing me to, what our instructors said, right?
It's like you're carrying a pig.
- Right. - Yeah.
- If the pig thing throws you off, don't worry about it.
We'll get you past that.
So let's back up to before we get to that,
if you just-- - Yeah, we'll show you
how to handle that one in just a minute.
- Right.
The first step you're gonna do, if you're like this,
leaning forward and you try the press-ups
and they're not working,
then the first thing you do
is you get yourself a couple pillows.
- Yeah. - Pillows.
- I like going like this, Brad.
I like going under the thigh and under the back.
And you're just gonna start,
you might even do three pillows.
- Sure.
- And you're just gonna lay here to start off with.
You might have a real large protrusion
and it it needs a while to sink in
and have time to get in there.
So it, and a lot of times people, like,
if they lay down like this without the pillows,
they have a lot of increased pain.
They go, "Oh, it doesn't work for me",
but try this for a while. - Right.
Get a towel roll thing
and put your forehead on it. - Sure.
- Otherwise you get a sore neck muscle.
- Right. - Now Bob likes it this way,
but I have had patients
where I put it this way with better results,
but it depends on the size of the person.
You know, some people are,
have different shapes around this part of their--
- Yeah, and this might make you arch a little more up
like, you know-- - Right.
So you do what makes it feel good.
As it feels better with that, then you take one pillow out.
- And then you lay like that for a while.
- And this may take five or 10 minutes.
- And you might even try at this point
that if it's feeling a little better,
you might even try doing the extension
with the pillow in place. - Right. Exactly.
- But if it, you know, eventually you wanna get it
to the point where you take it out completely.
And these are the extensions that we've been referring to.
You're gonna put your hands
underneath your shoulders like this,
and you're gonna bend up like this,
and you're keeping your pelvis down the whole time.
You don't wanna be doing this.
- Yeah. We're not doing pushups.
- So if it doesn't go any further than this, that's fine.
Just keep working in this range here,
and eventually you wanna hopefully get up to here.
Actually, this feels really good
on me today, Brad. - Sure.
Just remember, while you're doing this,
the leg pain, numbness symptoms
must be going upwards or away, okay.
If you're doing this and you can go higher
but the leg pain gets worse,
that usually doesn't happen--
- That's a bad sign. - Right.
- If, yeah, if your leg pain is getting worse
then you're gonna have to try
one of the other advanced methods
that we're about to talk about,
or go back to the pillows.
- Right. Yeah.
So again, remember the whole goal,
if you watch some of our other videos, is--
- You've gotta get the pain out of the leg.
- The pain, numbness, tingling, whatever it is.
Can you come over this way, Lonnie?
Over here.
You got it?
Now, traction can work well,
but very few people have a traction table at their house,
but you can do some self traction
if you have a couple good solid chairs like this.
Now I'm just gonna relax from here down.
I'm gonna push up.
And you can, right, I can do it with my toes off
but you can start out with touching your toes.
But the only reason you're gonna do this
is if when you start doing this,
the symptoms in the leg start feeling much better
right away. - Right.
- I've done this to myself
as well as with a number of patients.
A lot of times it just doesn't work,
then you gotta go to one of the next advanced techniques.
But when this works, it works really quickly,
and things feel much better when you do the traction.
You're gonna hold it for two to three minutes
depending on, you know, it should feel good.
And as a result, when you get done,
it should feel better as well.
- Sounds good. - Okay, now.
What if the person's walking...
Now look at this, this isn't bad I think.
- Did you wanna mention
an inversion table, too, Brad, or not?
- Well, you could use an inversion table--
- But I hate to have you buy one just for that reason.
- Right. Yeah.
- If someone you know has one,
you can try it. - Right. Yeah.
- Sorry. Okay.
- Yeah. That's a good point, Bob.
- Let's say you are,
we'll go back to the crooked walking, Brad.
- Right. - So.
- So if you are a crooked walking like this,
alls you need is a wall--
- Yeah. - To help the shift.
Now, Bob was taught, one of our instructors--
- It'd be like this, Brad.
- Oh, see, that's why I get.
If I'm gonna carry a pig, I'm carrying on this side.
- Nope, it's this way.
It's what's pulling you over.
- Yeah, okay. - So the shift is like this.
And either way, what you have to remember
is if your body has shifted this way,
this is the side that's gonna go to the wall.
- Right, so he's gonna put his right shoulder
because he shifted to the right
to the wall. - 'Cause usually,
I took a towel, Brad. - Sure.
- I don't know if you do the same.
Lonnie, you're gonna have to probably
come around over here on this one.
Let's give her a second to adjust the camera.
- [Brad] Okay. We will go to commercial.
(Bob laughs) There we go.
Okay. Come on back.
- So I usually put the towel right here, Brad.
- Yep. - And I put my forearm there,
and my belt is below the forearm here.
- [Brad] Yep.
- And I'm bringing my legs out like this
and I'm shifting my body over like this.
- Sure.
- It's just, it's a minor shift, but it,
believe me, it should be enough.
And again this should be decreasing your symptoms--
- While you do it. - Yeah.
- By the time you do the first one,
we do 10 at a time.
By the time you get to the 10th one,
the pain or the symptoms in the leg should be improving.
If they're getting worse or it just hurts,
it's not right for you.
- Now you can do these every hour.
- Right. - That's how often
you can do 'em. - Right.
- And you are gonna keep doing these
until you're kind of straight.
And then at that point,
then you're gonna go to the extensions again.
- Right, yep. Always back to them.
- Eventually gotta get back to the extensions.
But if you have a crooked back,
the extensions will never help you.
You'll never get better, so. - Right, yeah, yeah.
I did, now the only thing I do differently on this,
but it's the same thing, instead of putting,
if you don't have a towel roll, I--
- Just use your forearm.
- I hike this up. - Oh.
- And then-- - Yep, and that works, too.
- But it's the same thing. - Yeah.
- Just a different way about it, you know,
two ways to catch a fish or whatever that--
- Yeah. - Whatever that saying is.
- So, but again, that has to, you know, it's funny
I had a story where this lady came in and she was like this.
They were about to make a brace for her, Brad.
- A turtle-- - Yeah,
a turtle shell brace. - Yeah, mhm.
- 'Cause she was in so much pain.
I saw her twice, we got her straight,
and by the third time the pain was gone.
And they were gonna make a huge,
expensive brace for her. - Right.
Probably a couple thousand dollars, yeah.
- All right, what's next, Brad?
Yeah. Thank you.
Thank you very much. (Brad laughs)
All right, what's next?
- This is what I call the package deal
because this is if you're crooked a little bit,
but the wall's not working,
the press-ups is not working,
so you can try one of these options, okay.
- Yeah, you can try these
if your back isn't crooked either, right?
- Right. - I mean,
if you're doing extensions
and it's just not getting better, you tried the pillows,
these are some, you want me to--
- Go ahead, lay down, Bob.
- So these are some of the things you can try.
Which one do you wanna do first, Brad?
- Let's say the pain and the symptoms
are on the right side. - Okay, right leg here.
- I tell my patients, keep your knees glued to the table
and I'm gonna have 'em,
lay down so your head's down on there.
Imagine your shoulders are glued to the table,
and you're gonna, not roll,
but you're gonna shift your hips to the side
away, I'm sorry. - Oh no, it's this way.
- Away from, yeah.
Away from the pain. - So the pain is on this side,
I'm shifting my hips away from the pain.
- Right. So if we look at it from the back,
his body's got a little curve in it away from the pain--
- We call it the banana sometimes
'cause you're making the shape of a banana.
- And then just laying there like that,
if that helps reduce the symptoms on this side,
and usually it takes, doesn't happen instantly,
it may take 20 seconds or 30 seconds,
then you can actually try a press-up--
- Yep, in that position. - In this position.
- Yep. - Yep.
And the same thing,
it should be taking the pain out of the leg.
Maybe making it worse in the back even a little bit,
but it's gotta make it better in the leg--
- In the leg.
- All the symptoms, numbness or tingling,
or something's gotta get better.
- And then the next one
is what we call roadkill.
So--
- In that one, we bring this one up.
- Right.
And so if it's on the right hand side,
the right knee's gonna come up.
- Yeah.
- And I call this either roadkill or the GI Joe,
like those little green army men when I was a kid
that there was like-- - Oh yeah,
they were commando crawling.
- It's always hard to tell patients to get in this position,
'cause how do you say it,
you know? - Right.
- Get, bring your knee up,
and they're, you know.
- Right. They're doing something weird.
- You'd have to be a PT
to understand that. - Yeah.
- So in this position,
within seconds it should start feeling better.
If it doesn't, if this makes it worse in the leg, stop.
- Right. - If it makes it better,
lay there, allow it to settle down,
and then I have-- - Then the same thing again,
you can do press-ups.
- This is a strange way to do press-ups
and it feels different, but I've had people
get rid of their leg pain doing this one.
- Now the other one, Brad,
I don't think you had it on your list,
is you guys, you can take a towel--
- Yeah. - And put it under here
and try press-ups, too. - Sure.
- A folded towel and the same thing.
It does a little bit almost the same what the roadkill does.
- Right. - It's lifting up that--
- It's just a kind of a variation of that.
Now, I don't know if we should really show 'em
the last one or not
because that's the one I wait,
that's the, you know, the ace in the hole for me.
- Well, it's up to you, Brad. - Shall we do it?
- Sure. - All right. We'll do it.
I don't do this just for anybody, so hang on.
- All right. - It does work well.
- Are we back on, Lonnie?
Okay. - Okay.
So you're gonna lay in your back for this one,
bring up your knees to here, and in this situation
I'm gonna say it's my left side.
- [Bob] The pain is on the left side.
- Right, my left leg is numb and tingly.
- [Bob] I could use the pointer this time.
- Sure. Yeah.
Be careful with it, Bob.
That is a very sensitive area you're striking.
Okay.
On this case, I'm gonna shift my hips.
I'm gonna lift up a little bit, shift my hips
to-- - To the right.
- To the right, away from it.
Then I'm gonna bring my knees up
and gently roll this direction
while my shoulders stay flat to the table.
Now, when this works, you will know it
'cause it'll work right away.
You have to do
a little shift here-- - So shift it to the right.
- Up. - Pain's on the left.
And then he brought the knees to the left.
- Right, but I'm not doing this.
I'm not rolling my whole body.
I'm actually putting a little,
keeping this shoulder and both shoulders flat to the table.
And while you're doing this,
that leg should start feeling better very quickly.
If it does, you're golden.
If not, it may not be the right one for you,
it may be one of the other ones.
- [Bob] Now that one is, was that McKenzie?
- Yeah, I learned that at a McKenzie course.
- Mulligan has that too. - Sure, well, you know--
- Yep, they all, they have variations
of it, so. - Right, exactly.
- Which always tells me, when there's two people doing it
there's some merit to it. - Right,
when two of the greats are doing it.
So there you go.
If you're having problems, we gave you
one, two, three. - Lots of options.
- Yeah, actually we said three,
but there's a lot of twists, yeah.
- Yeah. Three main categories.
- You may have to go through this a couple times
if you're having problems,
but you can get this zeroed in,
so good luck with it
and be careful. - All right.
(Bob mimics guitar)
- Oh Bob, why? Why Bob?