♪ 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.
- Today, we're gonna show you
how to use a riding lawn mower, riding mower
when you have back pain or sciatica.
Now, the first thing we're gonna say, Brad,
is that we're gonna highly recommend
that you do not use it.
- Right.
- Most lawn mowers have poor back support.
I have seen the standing models,
but those usually are commercial models, right?
- Yeah, usually the homeowner doesn't have one of those.
- Yeah, in most cases,
your back is gonna be in a flex position,
which is really bad on your back
and really bad for sciatica.
You're also gonna have vibration and bouncing.
- Oh, yeah, there's--
- And Brad's gonna talk about the seat
that he's been looking at, but you know,
a lot of them just don't really measure up,
do they, Brad?
- Right, I've got a two acre lawn,
been mowing it for 10 years, and
I got a lot of experience with
my back issue when I mow lawns.
- Yep. - So, I'll talk about some,
- We'll talk about that.
- Tricks that'll help you out if you have to.
If you can't get your kids to do it,
you can't hire someone or get your wife
or husband to do it, well, then... (laughs)
- We'll go over the options but we really,
a lot of people say,
"Well, who would do it if I don't do it?"
I say, "Who's gonna do it when you have back surgery?"
- Right.
- Have that same person do it.
- There you go. - Because that's
where you're headed
if you don't take your back seriously.
So, these are the recommendations.
First, you're gonna start off with,
if you're in a riding lawn mower,
most of them do not have very good back support,
so we do wanna have some type of support.
- Sure.
- Trying to maintain the arch in your back,
so that when you sit,
you're not in a slouched position,
so you get your butt all the way back.
- Yep.
- And you might start with a rolled towel,
do we not have a rolled towel?
- Oh, it's right here, Bob.
- You might just start, as an experiment,
taking a rolled towel,
depending on how large you are,
if you're a slighter build like I am,
you probably don't need a very thick one,
'cause there's not that much gap between my,
you know, in my arch and my buttocks.
But if you're a larger person,
you might need to roll up a larger towel.
You can use a rubber band or duct tape
or whatever you wanna do.
- Sure.
- And put it in there and just see,
find the place where it feels the most comfortable,
it's usually around belt line or a little bit lower,
and it's just gonna give your back some more support.
If you find one, you know,
the size that seems to work,
eventually, you might wanna get something
a little more permanent.
We got some...
- It has a strap that goes around,
we got the McKenzie rolls
and they have a variety of sizes and shape and densities,
if you look on the site.
Here's another, here's an air-filled one.
I do wanna mention, there's a number of
home owner lawn mowers that do not have a back rest
that go high enough.
- Oh, yeah. - If that's the case,
they just come up about four inches,
then you don't have this option,
you really have to monitor your posture.
But...
- You're right, I've seen that and,
- Yeah.
- That's even worse.
- Right, yeah, that's even, yeah.
- So, you like that one, Brad, right?
- Yeah, this is what I use,
I actually have an old one
that goes, 'cause you know, grass is flying around,
and I just put that in there
and I push my back up against it and--
- So that really made a big difference for you,
really helped a lot?
- It helps.
- Yeah, it helps.
- The suspension on a lawn mower would help better,
I don't have suspension,
and they're quite a bit more expensive.
If you're gonna buy one, get suspension,
although they're about $3000 more
from my pricing. - Wow.
And you looked at trying to put a better seat on yours.
- I did put a better seat on mine,
and it wasn't the very good one, I didn't know,
I just spent $300 on it,
took the factory one off, put that one on.
It helped, but it wasn't very good.
Now I'm looking at some new ones,
that was five or six years ago I did that.
Actually, Toro makes a really nice
rider with suspension, the seat is nice.
I gotta talk my wife into buying that one, it's expensive.
- Well, it's important, because if you
hurt your back to the point you can't work,
you really can't put a price on that, you know.
- And I enjoy doing the lawn.
To me, that's just a nice thing to get out
in the fresh air. - It's a relaxing time
for sometimes. - Right,
so I have a two acre lawn.
If you have a lawn that, your back bothers you,
if it's more than a 15, 20 minute cut, then you're gonna,
instead of doing it all at once, do a third of it,
that's what I do, a third, third and a third
and I break it up throughout the week
and I don't have a problem.
- Even if you break it up throughout the day,
you know, like, - Sure.
- Even if you do a third, stop, walk a bit, rest, you know,
and also maybe do some back extensions if you have,
if you have the typical back pain
or if you have sciatica,
you actually wanna put your hands on your low back like this
and do some back extensions here for
a good 10 repetitions.
Not good for spondylolisthesis or
spinal stenosis. - Right, right.
- But, it would be good for everybody else.
And yeah, the breaking up is,
and the walking really gets things lubricated
and feeling better.
- I just wanna say, if you ride your lawn mower
and you're bouncing around and your leg is getting worse,
you feel the numbness, tingling, pain going down your leg,
you gotta get off the lawn mower.
- Yeah, yeah.
- You're not gonna get up and do this,
it's probably gonna hurt.
It's time to get someone else to do it,
for sure. - Yeah, very good point, Brad,
and also, after you do some lawn mowing,
you definitely wanna avoid any lifting or bending
for at least an hour,
because it's been stretching the back into flexion
and stretching out the ligaments,
your back is unstable,
you've been putting pressure on the disk,
so you're just more likely to hurt your back even worse
right after you've been sitting and bouncing for a while.
- So, you're mowing the lawn and you see,
I gotta move some brush over here,
don't get off your lawn mower and move it right away.
Get off your lawn mower, walk around, come back
and do it at a different time.
- I think I'm just gonna cement my whole back yard,
so I don't have to worry about it.
- Paint it green. (laughs) - Yeah, paint it green.
All right, thanks everybody for watching.