♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
- Hi 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.
- Coming to you from our secret bunker.
Today, we're gonna talk about
best morning low back stretches for a pain free day.
And you can follow along and do these right as we do them.
- Right.
Actually I do them.
Well, you helped. - Right.
Do we wanna talk about our giveaway right away, Brad?
- Why not?
- Okay, but by the way Brad if you do it at our channel,
you wanna subscribe to us.
We provide videos on how to stay healthy, fit, pain free
and we upload every day.
Also, if you wanna take advantage of our giveaway,
go to bobandbrad.com, go to the giveaway section.
This week we're giving away a couple Wobblesmart boards.
These are really great balance boards
and it's got six adjustments to it.
So, from difficult to easy.
- Right, works really well.
- You can also find the contest on Facebook.
It'll be pinned to the top of the page.
Short version of us, go to Twitter, Instagram
or the new one, TikTok, 60 seconds of Bob and Brad a day.
- Say no more Bob. - Let's get started Brad.
- Okay, so here we go.
The stretch is gonna start-- I've got two sequences
for a very good reason, I'll explain it,
but you'll have to--
- Yup, I'm gonna get out of the way.
- We gotta keep our distance a little bit here.
While you're in bed and you're waking up old Bob,
- [Bob] You were gonna put your head
on the other way I thought.
Head on the other way so you can see your sign.
- Whatever makes you happy, Bob.
Oh yeah, there we go. - [Bob] This makes me happy.
- So, you wake up in the morning and you got a stiff back,
it's a little stiff from sleeping all night
for whatever reason.
We're gonna do some gentle stretching, right, to start off.
So bring your-- get the covers off your legs
so you got some move-- room to move your legs.
Knees together, feet together, and really gently
do this hook line rotation.
You don't wanna push it into any pain,
just back and forth and if--
as you loosen up, you can go a little bit more.
We're gonna do this ten repetitions.
One, two, three, so
each way is-- - [Bob] And also,
if one direction is painful, I would avoid that.
I would just work the non painful direction.
- Exactly.
And then, you get ten of those done.
Grab your knee here or underneath it actually works better.
A gentle single knee to the chest stretch
and you can do that five to ten times
and then you can also lift up your leg
and do some ankle pumps in there.
Just be careful when you go up here
and you pull your ankle this direction,
that's gonna stretch a nerve
and if you feel real uncomfortable pain there,
do not get aggressive with it, just wiggle a little bit.
And just do that three times or so on each leg
just to get things moving.
- [Bob] Now you notice Brad is keeping his back
very straight while he's doing all these.
He's not curling up at all.
Now he's getting out of bed correctly,
rolling like a log. - Take your time.
- [Bob] And now you wanna talk about
why we want people to be careful.
- We're not done stretching,
but especially if you have a disc problem,
you wanna get out of bed, take your time
and then walk around the house.
You know, 15 minutes or so,
get some weight through your back
and that's going to change the...
- [Bob] The amount of fluid.
- ...the fluid in your disc.
It takes the pressure out of them
then you can do your stretches more safely.
- [Bob] All night long, your discs
are taking in fluid and binding, as we call it,
and that means your back is really vulnerable
in the morning.
- Right.
- [Bob] And so, they actually recommend
almost an hour even Brad. - Sure.
- [Bob] For it to kind of squish back out again.
- Right.
- [Bob] And if you walk, it does advance it quicker.
- You'll know, you'll start to feel more loosened up.
So it will fast forward (making noises with lip).
Now, we've done all our walking around,
we're feeling loose again,
now you can go back on the bed to finish them.
If you got a carpeted floor, that would be better
if you feel safe getting up and down off the floor.
Otherwise, a bed works just fine.
I'm gonna go down here and
actually, the first two are the same ones.
We're just gonna do the hook line again.
I'm gonna go through these a little quick,
we're not gonna spend too much time.
Ten times on a side
and then
boy, I feel better on a firmer surface.
- [Bob] A nice solid surface, yeah.
- And that's gonna vary from person to person.
Particularly older people.
Now you can have your knee up or down.
If you want a more of a stretch, straighten the knee out.
- [Bob] Yeah, that way you're stretching the hip flexor
a little bit on the opposite side.
- Exactly.
- [Bob] He's stretching the hip extensors on one side
and the hip flexors on another side.
- I'm gonna do five times on that knee
and five times on this knee.
If you do this and the other leg pulls up,
then you really know you got some tight hip flexors.
- [Bob] And that's not unusual.
- No, actually it's, especially for,
if you're 50 years or 60 years or older,
that's gonna happen.
- [Bob] Or if you sit a lot for your occupation too.
That often is the case. - There you go.
All right now we're actually gonna go into
double knees to chest.
Bob, do you wanna talk to them about,
some people may not be able to do all of these stretches,
you're gonna do the ones that are pain free.
- [Bob] You really, absolutely,
you wanna stick to the ones that do not increase your pain.
We're looking for the fact that
it won't increase your pain while you're doing it
or that it doesn't increase your pain afterwards too.
So, we're looking for things that feel better
while you're doing it and while after you're done.
- So, I did ten of those and now I'm gonna do some bridging.
Just lift your hips up in the air like this.
We're not gonna do ten of these, if you want to, you can.
We're gonna do five.
This just kind of gets those muscles
working a little bit on the hips.
- [Bob] Yeah you're actually stretching
the hip flexors a little bit again too, Brad.
- Exactly.
- [Bob] Just a different way of doing it.
All right, do you want me to do the next one, Brad?
- No, I wanna do this one.
- [Bob] Oh okay, got ya.
- I wanna stretch those hamstrings a little bit.
So like this, you're gonna put the leg down like this.
A little more stretch with the opposite leg
and feel those hamstrings stretch.
You know, Bob, do you wanna talk to them about the breathing
how important that is?
- [Bob] Yeah, breathing is critical with all these things.
It's a great time of the day to be working on relaxation
and preparing for the day.
So you wanna make sure you're not just taking
shallow breaths, you're taking some deep breaths.
In through the nose, out through the mouth.
Letting your diaphragm fill up.
There's whole sections and whole videos on how to breathe.
But right now, just remember to take some time
and relax and breathe.
All right Brad, do you want me to do the next one
prone on elbows?
- No.
I still gotta do double knees to chest, remember five.
- [Bob] You just did double knees to the chest.
You did it before.
- Did we?
Oh I got mixed up, sorry.
It happens you know.
But if you stretch a little extra, it's okay.
Go ahead.
- So you-- this is your program Brad,
but you talk about just getting up
on prone on elbows here a little bit.
- Right, now there's one reason Bob's doing this
is because I have spondylolisthesis
or if you have stenosis, this would not--
- Spinal stenosis, this won't feel good.
- These will not be good for you.
- But this is a great way for the disc
to kind of just settle back into the back
if you have a bulging disc or if you have a herniated disc.
And obviously this again has to be comfortable.
If this bothers you, you can't get up on your elbows
and sit there for any length of time.
I even had people wiggle back and forth a little bit,
Brad, sometimes when they're in this position.
- If either of your elbows hurts, you can just lay flat.
- Yeah, yeah, you can start off like this
and see if you tolerate that.
Now if you do tolerate this,
number seven what you're actually gonna try
is some extension in lying.
So, I'm gonna put my hands underneath my shoulders
and I'm gonna do some mini press-ups.
Isn't that what you call them Brad?
- Yeah, mini.
- Little mini.
And you're gonna work your way up
and what you don't wanna do is do this
where the pelvis actually comes off the floor
or the mat or the bed
because that means your back is so tight
that it can't tolerate going into extension,
so it means you gotta stick with the mini ones for a while.
But eventually, you wanna get all the way to the point
where the hand is all the way,
the arms are completely straight.
And keeping the pelvis on the mat.
- Now, Bob for his age,
'cause you know he's getting up there,
most people cannot go that far into extension.
You're almost-- are you 50 yet?
- I'm 60. (laughing)
- I'm gonna be 60. - He's gonna be 60.
But seriously, you may not get that high and that's okay.
- Yup, that's right.
I set the bar high.
- You wanna stay there for the cat and the camel?
- Sure. - That's the next one.
You can do this one in bed.
This one is better on the floor.
- So, you're gonna arch up with your head down even.
If you wanna exaggerate it.
And then you arch the other way and bring the head up.
- And you can see my back doesn't arch very well.
But Bob's got a good arch there.
What are you laughing at, Mike?
The cameraman's laughing, I don't know at who.
- Magic Mike. - Look at that.
Now Bob sleeps with his tie and shirt coat.
- Yup, this is how I sleep.
- So he gets up and this is just how it goes.
- Yup I'm ready to go.
- I'm really jealous, look at that lordosis.
- I like to get dressed at night,
it's a lot easier for me in the morning.
All right, what do we got left here Brad?
- Oh.
Now we're gonna stand up.
Now we progress to weight bearing
and this, you're gonna take this very slowly.
Just some trunk rotation.
Don't try to zing it back and forth hard.
We just wanna get used to a little rotation
'cause we're gonna be reaching over here
when you're making breakfast and reaching over there.
Kind of get that motion going.
And then finally, again this is gonna be one
if you got stenosis or like me, extension backwards.
I will do this, but not aggressively.
- I was gonna say Brad, you can try these
even if you have stenosis and even if you have spondy.
- Just gently.
- But real gentle because you don't wanna get to the point
where you're just bent over all the time.
- Right, you're gonna be walking around like this.
And usually on that, three to five of those.
Ten's kind of-- you can do ten
if you like it and it's feeling good.
And then it's really important (inhales)
take a deep breathe in.
Exhale, think about what's gonna happen throughout the day.
You got this to do, that to do, this to do.
- Carry on. - Remember to have Brad-itude.
- Brad-itude, yes.
It's all gonna get done by the end of the day.
Everything is good and just be happy that you're alive.
- Brad-itude is a good attitude.
- There you go.
- Thanks everybody for watching.