♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet. ♪
- (hands clap) 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.
- Brad, you look like a zebra.
(Brad chuckling)
Kind of a multicolored zebra.
Psychedelic psychedelic. - Well, Bob,
this is good information today.
- All right.
We're gonna bestow it upon you.
Today we're gonna talk about sciatic leg pain.
It reveals the pinched nerve
and how to release it now.
- Right, yeah, so we're gonna.
People always, you know, comment, you know,
their MRI shows L3 or L4 pinched nerve
and we're just gonna give you some information
on how you can kind of diagnose that without an MRI.
- Right, you can tell where the pain is
and by where the pain is
sometimes you can tell where the problem is.
- And then we're gonna show you how to treat it.
- Yep, if you are new to our channel
(Brad mutters indistinctly)
please take a second to subscribe to us.
We provide videos on staying healthy, fit, pain free
and we upload every day.
Also, we've got some big news.
Big day, big day, Brad.
- Oh yes.
- Yeah, on Facebook.
- What day is it?
- It's for the next two weeks.
We're having a contest, basically,
we're giving away a free mattress.
- Yeah, and it's a good quality mattress.
- Yeah, this is a high end mattress and boy,
you're gonna want to get in on this.
And it's so easy to, you know, join the fun.
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It's gonna be our first post
and you just have to like it
and then you have to comment
and be kind, you know,
give us some nice comments.
- Yeah.
The comment can be short. - Yeah.
Just say you like Bob and Brad.
- Bob and Brad right there.
That's where it is on Facebook.
- There you go.
And so this is 2018,
if you're watching this video some time from now, so.
- Yeah, August 16th through the August 30th
is when the contest is. - Sure.
- And even if you don't,
you can still go to the page,
because they're gonna have some deals there.
- Sure, all right. - So.
All right. - So, sciatica.
Sciatica referring to a pinched nerve
somewhere in the back.
It could be in the piriformis,
but it runs down the leg.
Typically one leg.
We're gonna talk about,
there's instances where it might be both legs.
- Sure.
- But, where you feel the pain in your leg.
You got this?
You got my leg in there?
Bob mentioned, we were talking about
maybe I should have had this tattooed on there.
- [Bob] Right.
If he was really to make the sacrifice for the channel,
he should have had this tattooed on there.
- [Brad] Yeah, I'm gonna work on that, Bob.
- [Bob] Yeah, we're looking at, you know,
how dedicated are you?
- Yeah, well, I felt pretty dedicated doing this, Bob.
One way or another, where you feel the pain.
Now, if you feel like pain, numbness, tingling
and it feels like it's radiating-
- [Bob] Across your thigh.
- [Brad] Kind of more in your thigh.
- [Bob] Right.
It's funny, I just got somebody on Facebook
that asked me about this.
- [Brad] Oh really?
Yeah, it's not uncommon
to have that kind of a sensation or pain in that location.
That would refer to a L3 nerve root.
Okay, this is all mapped out
and here, if we're gonna look at L3, actually,
on this particular model, can you zoom in on Sam's back?
- [Bob] So, we got the
lumbar vertebrae,
the five bones that stack up to make your back.
The lower three.
We've got 1, 2, 3, that's L3.
Right below it is the nerve root for L3.
And that means, you know,
something's happening there.
- It could be that there is a bulging disc
interfering with that.
- [Bob] Or a herniated disc.
And you look, there is one there.
- [Brad] Sure, get that. - [Bob] Oh my gosh.
- [Brad] Here we go.
But there's some other, there's something else
we're gonna go through the other nerve roots first.
Yep. So that would be relate
to this area of the leg right now.
If you've got pain that kind of comes
on the side and goes across the knee
down onto the inside part of the leg, into the medial
or the inside eight in there step that is four L four.
So that would be the nerve root right below.
- [Bob] Now these can vary
a little bit from person to person.
And, and I don't know, even from leg to leg maybe
but you know, you might even have just parts of it.
You might have pain just right here.
Or you might just have pain right here.
Either way.
It seems like you're on that nerve root, right?
- [Brad] I mean, I've had people having no pain here
but then down here that right.
Pain or numb or tingling.
So it doesn't mean it follows the complete nerve path.
But you know
this is why it's a practice for, for us in that.
- [Bob] But it's given you a generalization of,
you can kind of start guessing,
that might be between L four and L five.
So, and the last one, Brad is
- [Brad] the red one down here
L five and that's on the outside
of the calf and it kind of goes across
and it eventually goes up to the great toe, the big toe.
- [Bob] That's the one I had Brad.
That's the one that gave me trouble.
- [Brad] And this is the one I have problems,
I still do today.
But there's two big reasons
not the only reasons, but two common reasons.
You can get sciatica that we're gonna talk about is one
a disc problem, a herniated disc, like we talked about
before or bulging disc, or you could have stenosis.
Which means that instead
of a disc interfering with the nerve,
there's actually the
framing where the nerve comes out.
- [Bob] There' little hole that the,
the nerve comes
out has gotten shrunk up for some reason
- [Brad] It, it could be
from the disc shrinking over time and age
which is my case
- [Bob] Could be arthritis
- [Brad] Could be arthritis,
there could be some bone spurs.
There's a number of different things
but either way it could be stenosis.
Now we're gonna generalize here.
The big picture.
If it's a bulging disc
oftentimes it gets worse with prolonged sitting.
You'll get that leg pain.
- [Bob] Anytime you're putting that back
in that rounded out posture or bending forward.
- [Brad] Bending forward, slouching, poor posture
with standing or sitting with poor posture.
- [Bob] It's worse
- So we're gonna show you a couple options
to help treat that.
Should we get Sam outta the way?
- [Bob] So, the problem is this makes it worse.
So we're gonna take it in the opposite direction.
We're gonna go into extension.
So, and we've done extensive videos
on this and we're only gonna touch on it today, right?
Correct. Brad, we're just gonna go going again.
You know, if you have that L three L four L five
you can try some of this.
You can get up on your elbows first.
We're starting to bend the back
in the opposite direction and now you can go ahead
and eventually work up to doing some press up.
So I got my hands
below my shoulders and I'm pressing up.
And what we're looking for is
that the symptoms first off don't get worse.
And secondly,
maybe even start to feel a little bit better.
You might have a little bit less tingling
or numbness or pain down in the lower extension
lower part of your leg.
And I mean, the ideal situation is
that it starts taking it outta the leg completely.
And maybe even you feel a little bit more in the back.
But it's, it's going
out of the leg, the worse it, you know, the farther
it's going down the leg, the worse it's getting.
- [Brad] And we have a number.
If you go to our playlists, we have a lot
of sciatic videos that go through this in much more detail.
If you go to our favorite products
we have a book section McKenzie books.
They're only about $10.
They go through this in detail.
And that's excellent reference for that as well.
- [Bob] The point we're trying to make today is that
if it's a bulging disc or a herniated disc
you're gonna probably try some type like extension.
And if it's not, if it's more stenosis
then you're gonna do the flexion.
Right, Brad?
- Right. You wanna demonstrate that?
- Well, first off, why don't we talk just real briefly?
What, a lot of times, what makes that worse?
If it stenosis?
- [Brad] Right? The big thing
with that is typically standing right in a long term period.
I have stenosis in my back.
And if I stand in one spot
for more than 15 to 20 minutes, I'll start to feel
the leg pain that L five starts to go numb
or sometimes walking will also create it.
Mine's not that bad, but it's very common
- [Bob] very common to have shopping cart syndrome where
it feels better to lean forward a little bit
on a shopping cart and walk.
Because it, it is opening up that frame
or that little hole and giving a little more room.
So in that case, well
you probably should do this, Brad.
You're the flexion guy.
- So see if my tape holds on for our Dermatomes.
So the first thing you can do is just take one knee
to your chest like this.
And you can do that, you know, up to 10 times
and depending on your situation
you could go right to two knees to your chest.
It's a little more aggressive, but
if you do this and it feels good, then it's a thing to do.
These should immediately make your leg start feeling better.
Okay? If for some reason they don't,
it could be something else.
It could be a pure form of syndrome, possibly.
Which we didn't cover.
- [Bob] Actually what you might even start seeing is
that instead of it going all the way to the foot
maybe now it just goes to the ankle, right?
That would be a positive side.
Keep doing actually keeps moving up
to the point where it's gone down here
but you still feel it here could be the same with this one.
And the same with this one, you know, in any case
you wanna try to get that to not go as far distally
as we say.
- [Brad] Now if you start doing this particular one
and you think it's stenosis, but it really is a disc.
Well, this'll probably start making it worse.
- [Bob] You'll make it worse.
You'll start getting more pain into the foot.
And you're like, oh gosh, that's not the thing to do.
- [Brad] So you wanna do things no matter which
which it is that make the leg feel better.
- [Bob] We go by symptoms.
Brad's gonna show a little trick here.
He does with a roll.
- [Brad] This works really well for
people that have stenosis
and you put a six inch roll.
That's a firmer one.
Like I have here from O PTP.
We've got this in our favorite products list below as well.
If you wanna find it easily.
- [Bob] Look at that, your L five is already getting better.
- [Brad] Yeah. It's going right off.
But you have to put it below the belt line.
It's actually at the sacrum
and the lower part of the sacrum.
And you know, for me right now, this feels fantastic.
It's just, I can just tell it's opening things up.
I could lay here for probably five minutes and feel
- [Bob] and you don't look goofy at all.
- No. Well, look at that.
Well, there we go.
Feeling better.
No, but you know
you may feel that kind of a reaction
- sure it is true.
Sometimes it's like a switch.
It just clicks it right off.
- It'll go within, you know, less than a minute easily.
- And then you can do these like every hour, right.
To the point where it starts to improve slow.
- I look a little goofy like this, huh?
- Oh no, no.
- Liz, what do you think?
- So do you wanna talk about sitting real quickly Brad?
- Yeah, we should talk about lumbar support.
If, if it is from a disc, then you're gonna use
Lumbar support was sitting while it's in your car
maybe in your couch or your soft furniture that you use.
You can use a towel
roll towel to start off with it.
Just take a simple towel, roll, roll it up
tape it up like this, and it should feel you're gonna put it
around your belt line.
It should feel real comfortable
like real good support right away.
- [Bob] And then if you find that works, yeah.
- Then you might wanna invest into a nice cushion power.
These are the McKenzie roles we like.
'em just because they're good quality.
We know they're good.
But the size of it, if you look
we've got 1, 2, 3, 4 different size rolls here.
Some different shapes, different sizes.
And if you have a big towel, this would be small.
So if you this, oh yeah.
You'd probably use that size.
Right. And you know, these are listed.
They tell the size of them.
Some of them are firmer density, some softer density.
- [Bob] It's a little bit of a experiment you have to do.
- Yeah. You do have to take a little bit
of time to get
- if you're a bigger person
generally you take a big, bigger role.
Yep. And it seems like if you're, if you're in a throes
of back pain, a lot of times you need the bigger role.
And, and as the back pain starts to
or the leg pain starts to get better
you can go to a smaller one.
That's just been my experience.
- Yep. So, so very good.
I hope that clears up.
So, you know, giving you some good information
on how to correct it
and where the pain is and how it relates.
- Yeah. Remember, go to Facebook, get that mattress.
- Yeah. There you go.
- Boy, that'll be fun unless you're watching this in 2020.