- All right.
Do you have back pain?
We're gonna show you the number one thing you
should start to do.
- Excellent, Bob, I can't wait.
Say no more.
♪Bob and Brad ♪
♪the two most famous, physical therapists on the internet. ♪
- Okay, if you have back pain Brad,
the first thing I want you to do
is find out your pain relief position.
It's a position where you get a relief from your pain.
So everybody is different.
- Right.
- You have yours, I have mine and you're gonna have yours.
We're gonna show you seven of them.
- Okay.
- And you can give them a try,
and it's gonna help wind down your nerves.
- Right
Which can get over sensitive.
So give these a try.
All right, this is the first position.
And it's actually the one that Brad uses.
Brad you wanna talk about it?
- Yeah, so you lie down on your back.
You can do it on your bed
or a floor carpeted floor preferably.
And to elevate your feet,
this happens to be a wedge cushion made for this.
It works very well, I've had-
- Yes, it does.
- Good success with it personally,
as well as in the clinic
with the one majority of back pain people.
You can use something other than these,
you could use two or three pillows under your legs
or your calves like that.
It can be helpful.
Or, and I've used furniture.
- If you're on the floor you could use the Ottoman stool.
- Yeah, anything that's about this height.
Then I've had people go up to the 90-90 position.
- Right, exactly.
- With success on their furniture.
And then along with this especially if it's acute back pain
it just started that day or the day before,
and it's very sore.
Oftentimes I'll suggest going to a cold pack.
Make sure it's a good one,
a gel one that does not get hard when you pull it out.
- Right
The cheaper ones do.
And you'll put that.
So it's comfortable.
You can do a homemade cold pack which works really well.
We do have a video on how to do that with...
- Right
- Rubbing alcohol and water.
- So Brad, when do you do this?
- Well, actually I'll do this,
say I've done this a number of times.
If I'm out doing yard work,
doing things I shouldn't be doing.
- Right. - I know it,
but I just gotta get the work done.
- It fires up the back.
- Yeah, I'll go in the house.
I'll lay down like this for 20 minutes, settles it down.
And then I go back out to doing stuff
but not stuff I shouldn't be doing.
- Again, pain relief position.
- This is mine.
- That's Brad's.
- Yep, for sure.
- All right, number two.
All right, Brad, this is a position for someone
who their back hurts when they bend forward.
- Pooo!
- Right. So we're actually moving
you in the opposite direction
but you can try it with three pillows.
- One, two, three.
- And ice pack, like that.
- Right over the back.
- Or you could do heat.
- yeah
- Or you could try two pillows.
- The goal is to get down to no pillow,
- right
but a lot of times you cannot do that right away.
- It might take days or you try two, one pillow.
- I've gone from three down to no pillows
in one hour session
- with a patient, right?
- Not always though.
- We got a roll tower here for our comfort of the head,
can also get down to zero pillows.
- Yeah.
- Whatever works for you.
Now you may even try putting your head to the left
and putting your head to the right.
That can make a difference in your back pain.
Believe it or not.
- Typically you'll lay like this 10 to 15 minutes,
probably not more than 20.
And again, just keep going down.
As long as that position, it feels good.
It feels much better as opposed to sitting or standing.
- Yeah, it's gotta work for you
- yeah
- or you don't do it.
- Exactly.
- So Mr. Brad.
- Yes.
- So this is actually the position that I often use.
- Yep.
- And I use it for upper back pain.
- Okay.
- So I use the therotex which is far infrared heat,
along with a reclined position.
- You do it in a office chair or a recliner.
- A recliner.
- Yeah, so this, and I should do the same thing.
- [Brad] It's a simulation
- Right, yeah, we don't have a recliner in the studio.
Maybe we'll get one someday.
And so you'll be like this.
- Or you can even put a throw pillow behind it, right?
- Sure.
- Behind the thermotex.
- Yep. I'll do this on my low back, on my recliner.
And then I'll use this if it's not acute
and particularly in the wintertime,
boy, does that make life better?
Oh, there we go.
- [Bob] Right.
- Yes, yes, yes.
- [Bob] It might be heat.
- Yeah.
- [Bob] Maybe ice.
- I need to have something.
- What Works for you? That's what you find out.
- Are you asking me?
Yeah, (Bob Laughing)
- No, I actually do use both an acute cold,
otherwise tightness, heat thermotax.
- Why do you like thermotax?
- Well, Bob it's a far infrared it goes 2.36
inches versus skin deep.
- right
When you have a typical standard heating device
can you just let me relax, Bob?
- It's a lot more comfortable.
(Brad Laughing)
All right. This next one, Brad is
for people who have pain on the right side
the right leg or the right side of the back.
And for some reason, the way this works is you
put a couple pillows under your ankles
on your feet and ankle and it twist your back a little bit.
- Yep.
- And it creates a little more opening in the framing.
- Yep. So then eliminates
or helps reduce that sciatica and you'll know I mean...
- If it Works, You use it.
- Yeah.
- [Bob] If it doesn't...
- And you'll realize it pretty quickly when
you put the pillows there.
- Right. Do you wanna do the other side bed real quick?
- You want me to
- Yeah.
- Lie on this side.
- Yeah.
- Well, Bob, I'm gonna smoosh my microphone
so I'm not gonna talk.
- No, that's fine.
Same thing on this side.
There we go.
- All right Brad, what are you trying to do here?
- Okay. So we're gonna do a form of traction you can do
at home with two chairs and what the traction is going to
do here We have the red disc, which is injured disc, perhaps
herniated or bulging
and Bob's gonna lift his torso and trunk up off...
- My hands are on seat of the chair
- off of the floor
and the weight of his legs is going to pull.
And you'll see, I'm gonna pull that.
And it's gonna relieve pressure on that injured disc.
So it's a nice, simple way of traction.
If you do it, you should feel relief right away
as well as when you're done Bob, you wanna...
- Right. It might even feel good
with osteoarthritis or anything
- yeah
- Would get that decompression.
- Exactly. Yep.
I've used this many times,
- right?
I actually use a little bit different system
but the chair one works, works well.
And you do have something under your knees,
just for cushion.
- You can, you can move it all the way to
- yep. That's optional
- Now. That's right.
We're gonna show the next option.
Okay. We are another option for traction, Brad.
- Yeah. We're gonna do some traction
using our body weight again by hanging.
Now this can be done through a pull up bar.
Anything above your head that you is very solid and safe
To hold on.
- Branch. Like a tree branch
- Tree branch, yeah possibly.
As long as it doesn't break
we use these hanging handles.
The big advantage to these is that you can go
and put your back against the wall
- Right
- And whether it's the hanging handles
or a pull up bar, it's important
that when you reach up and grab it, you're still
- [Bob] right
- On the floor So that when you gradually
put traction through your back
like I'm doing now, you can control it very safely.
The wall promotes and really helps maintain good posture
as well as some resistance for control.
And I'm going down, going down and now I've got about
50% weight and I'm gonna relax my core muscles
my stomach muscles to allow the traction to occur.
And it should feel good.
And it does for me right now, as I relax, it feels
like a good pole.
I'm actually, look at my hips.
I'm not doing this to be cute.
I'm doing this because it feels good if you loose up.
- So go back and forth
they can twist a little bit too.
- Yep.
- It all works for you?
- Only do this, if it feels better,
- right.
- Some people may find a twist to the right.
Oh, that's good.
And you go to the left, Ouch! Well,
- Right.
- Only do what feels good.
Typically hang for 30 seconds.
I know my hands get tired after for 30 seconds.
- Right
And I, I feel like I had enough.
- And the other advantage is you can have this
in your office or bedroom
- Right? Yeah. You can put it anywhere.
- If your wife lets you
- as long as you've got a nice solid wall to put it on.
But yeah, I'm just gonna hang out for a while Bob.
All right.
Have a good day.
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