♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ the two most famous ♪
♪ physical therapists ♪
♪ on the internet. ♪
- Hi, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- Together we are the most famous
physical therapists on the internet.
- In our opinion, of course.
- Brad, today, we're gonna talk
about different lumbar supports, right?
- Right - Stuff you can buy,
stuff you can make, stuff you can-
- Whatever, yep. - create in your own mind.
- You need to know when you hear that word, lumbar support,
first of all this is your lumbar back.
- Right.
- This is what we want to support.
If you're having back pain
oftentimes you need a lumbar support,
it's gonna give you comfort.
Particularly if you have pain with seated positions.
- Also, Brad, I wanted to point though
a lot of times people say lumbar
but actually sometimes it feels better
if they put it a little bit lower over the sacrum.
- Sure, yeah. - That's where I like mine.
- Well, yeah.
Now he's getting technical.
- Well, I am, it's just that
you may want to go lower than
the belt line sometimes. - Sure, yeah.
- You wanna experiment.
- Okay, sure. Absolutely. And we can get into that more
- Do you want me to sit or you wanna sit?
- Have a seat, Bob. - Okay.
- This will work good with your shirt.
Now this is,
I've got four or five different lumbar supports
you can use. And actually-
- There's a lot of them. - Right.
You, you know, you can just take a towel roll,
like I have here, I've got red tape
wrapped around it and you're just gonna put that-
- I think that's a good way to start, Brad.
- Sure.
- See, one you can see how much thickness you like.
- Right.
- Because this is one that's fairly thick.
Wouldn't you say? - Yep.
- And I, again, I like it to have it a little bit lower
but that would almost be too much for me.
- Yep. Too much. And-
- But for some people they would like it.
- Sure.
- They might like it more in the lumbar area.
- Right. And the reason we use a towel is
because it doesn't cost you anything.
- Right.
- So if you spend 20 bucks on one, you find out
you don't like it, maybe they'll take it back.
Maybe they won't, then you know, try to get the right one.
- A towel is definitely the place to start,
and then you can get something more permanent
once you see what-
- How thick it is, yep. - Thick, yep.
Here's another one.
This is kind of a flat one.
Now I use one like this and I like it quite a bit
and it's gotta be a dense material.
- Yeah.
- Sit back in there.
- Those are the ones we actually give away-
- Right.
- in our clinics because we get them
for cheap and we can-
- It's a long story.
- It's a long story, yeah. (both laugh)
- But, yeah - I think also
as a point, Brad,
quite often I've found people that tend to be
in the throes of back pain,
if they're really suffering,
a lot of times they like a thicker one at that time.
- Sure.
- And if you're not, if you're just doing more preventative,
then usually thinner. That's just my feeling.
- Sure. And one thing for sure is when you use it
it should make your back feel better right now.
- Yes.
- Otherwise, if it makes it hurt,
it's not the right one to use.
- Right. Good point.
- Here is our traditional lumbar support.
A lot of times they're round like this
and I like these in some ways,
because they can get specific
to that spot sometimes and you know,
- And they squish up.
So they're kind of nice.
- Yep.
- Again, I prefer it lower.
- Usually it is a little bit lower.
- That one feels pretty good.
So this is a McKenzie one.
- Right.
- For a brand name.
If you're looking at it, I'll put the name up
but you can get it from OPTP.
- Yep.
- But some of them- - These do-
- come inflatable too, right?
- Right, yeah.
Actually the inflatable one I had, I didn't like
because it would lose air.
It was really nice at first, but 20 minutes later
it'd go flat and I'd blow it up and it continue to do that.
- It just didn't hold it, huh?
- Right.
They oftentimes have a strap like this to go around
the back of
- Like an office - or the car seat
or the office chair.
- Sure.
- Yep.
They oftentimes will fall down pretty much
every time you sit down, you'll need to make adjustments.
You'll know where it feels good.
- I would also say Brad, if you're a bigger person
you're probably gonna need a bigger support.
And if you're a slight person
you're gonna need a smaller support.
- Yep. That's typically true.
- Yeah.
- The other thing homemade one, I don't know
if you can put a link
onto how to make- - Sure
- one of these out of- - I'll put a link yeah.
- Out of a, a noodle. This material happens to be just
about the right density and you can cut a noodle
a pool noodle that you swim with, with your kids.
Cut it in half with a serrated knife
or a hacksaw blades as I used
and that can work well. And the price on those is wonderful.
- It's actually nice.
- Yeah, yeah.
- It fit well.
I, I mean, and you could keep the noodle together. Right?
- Right, you could have a full one if you need a thicker one
- Full one and that would give you a thicker one.
- Right. - So.
- good way to go for cost, and-
- Yeah, I think that's a great option.
- Actually this one that I made, I like as much
as this other one and I keep it in my car,
I switch. I don't just use one
because sometimes my back feels like it needs more support.
This is another one.
And you'll see some lumbar supports.
This is a mesh one you can see through
which is nice because it keeps the heat away from your back.
They make 'em solid in a similar shape.
Now this is a real broad support.
This one I've used this morning and I'm okay with it. It's-
- Interesting.
- Yeah. You cannot get specific with it-
- No. - on the level
but it's a broad support to your back.
And that may be the thing you want too.
So lumbar supports is an individual thing.
It depends on the shape of your body.
And a big thing is the shape
- of your car seat - of the chair,
car seat, or your office chair
and how soft the cushion is on that.
If you've got a really soft car seat
you're probably gonna need a bigger support
larger diameter, a little more dense, possibly.
- I know my daughter is in, in a Toyota Corolla.
- You can talk to the, they-
- Oh yeah. My daughter's in a Toyota Corolla
and she's actually, we're gonna get her a
what is called a yoga back.
And I'll put the link to that.
It's actually developed by a friend of mine
and what that is,
- Why don't you sit down, Brad - Sure.
- That actually is a
it's a full piece of foam that goes from here,
and you just sit in your seat
goes all the way up to about here.
And it's got two supports on it that you can adjust.
So one hits you in the mid-back and one hits you
in the low back.
And it fills in that scoop of the car.
- Sure. - You'll see
this, this friend of mine, Dennis Zacharkow,
he's an expert on posture.
- Yeah, he does.
- And actually if you make it, if you call an order
- Yeah.
- He'll, you'll speak to him.
- Oh really?
- Yeah. And he'll talk to you about the posture thing
but that's the only thing that worked
for my daughter in that car.
Cause again, it's so scooped out
and I was reading also somebody that owned a Prius
had the same problem that they,
they really liked the yoga back.
- Yeah. - So.
- They don't make car seats all the time for specific,
They make, they give us business Bob!
- Yeah. They do. (Brad laughs)
I mean there's people
that literally their car seat causes their back pain.
- Right. - I mean,
and that's what's happening with my daughter right now.
- Sure. - All right.
Well good, good video, Brad. Nice job.
- Yeah, and then, you know,
if anybody's still watching anymore
it's kind of a long one so far you can watch one
of our next future videos on how to adjust your car seat.
If you have adjustments.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
- That sounds good.
- That's a request.
- All right. Thanks.
- You gotta mention that.
Yeah, goodbye. - Bye.