♪ 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.
- Together we are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- In our opinion, of course Bob.
- Don't leave me hanging!
There we go. - Sorry.
- All right, today, Brad
we're gonna talk about top 10 exercises to avoid
if you have sciatica.
Some of these are probably even
good for people who just have regular old back pain.
- Right, yeah, a lot of times their, and you know,
back pain can lead into the
sciatica - sciatica, right.
- It's kind of a precursor oftentimes, so
these are good things to think about with both conditions.
- And generally, I think you wanted to allude to Brad
the rule of thumb is
if it starts, if you're doing anything
and while you're doing it, it starts making the pain worse,
you, yeah.
- If that's an activity or a posture,
I mean, so by posture I mean if you're sitting in a car
and that consistently creates back pain
or pain down the leg,
you need to change how you sit in that car.
- Yeah, you have to make an adjustment.
- Right.
- Because you know, this is kind of a battle
of finding the things that lessen pain
and finding the things that worsen the pain,
and you gotta do more of one and less of the other.
- Right, right,
more of the things that lessen it obviously.
- Right.
- And less the things that irritate.
- I know that seems very simple
but it's very true and it's very
- It can be very effective.
- Yeah, that's that's how you get
- 'Cause some people don't think about things,
like we're gonna go through these 10 activities
that oftentimes irritates sciatica.
- And irritate your back.
- Right but this whole, this is a big concept.
So this is just hitting 10 of them,
of the the big things that we think a lot of people ignore
'cause they're not aware of it.
So should we,
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Hit the like button - All right number one,
what's number one, Brad?
- Okay, big thing, a lot of people when they have back pain
they think they need to stretch the muscles out.
- Yeah, I've seen this many times.
- And then so they'll start doing this stretch.
- Yep, yep.
- And more times than not I'd say the majority of sciatica
is from a disc problem, a bulging disc.
And that most of the time
is gonna make the disc worse. - gonna make the disc worse.
Yeah.
- It stretches the muscles too
but it's not good for that bulging disc.
- If we have time at the end, maybe we'll show that
if not, we haven't had it in other videos.
Do you mind gimme the pole once, Brad?
- Yeah.
- I just saw a golfer,
I was an old guy that was,
he wanted to hook up with me golfing.
- Yeah.
- He took his club,
this is the stretch he was doing.
- Okay.
- Like, don't do that.
- Yeah. - This is terrible for your back.
- Yeah. - I mean, that's.
- Go the either direction.
- Yep, yep.
Exactly, should be stretching this way.
- So don't be stretching to the toes.
Avoid that one.
The next one, this is a real popular one.
People like to do the hurdler stretch.
- Yep.
- And not only does this bend your back forward,
but it twists your pelvis and it locks your pelvis in place.
So it puts more stress and you rotate a little bit.
- Yeah.
- So you're getting rotation,
excessive flexion, with a locked in pelvis.
It's true. You're stretching your hamstrings,
but you're damaging and making your back worse.
You're putting a lot of stress on it.
Oh, what do you want Bob?
- So Mr. Heineck's,
so you're saying I should never do this one?
Probably not, right?
- Yeah, there's a lot better ways to stretch your hamstrings
than this.
- Right.
- If you're a hurdler, maybe this is a good thing to do.
But if you're not there's a lot better ways to do that.
- Yeah.
- I'm not a hurdler's coach.
I don't know about that.
I mean, one of the better ways to stretch your hamstring
when you're got back problems is just to lay flat
like this and use like the stretch out,
a out strap,
- Exactly Bob. - or a belt, or a sheet
and wanna hook it on my foot.
- Yeah. These little stretch out strap really works good
for this hamstring, but.
- I heard some people say they can use their dog collar
to do the same thing.
- Oh sure. - But, you know, here's the way.
And then you can also push down and relax,
push down and relax. - Yeah, contract, relax.
- Yep, so.
- And the back is in a neutral position down here,
staying safe so.
- Yeah, great way to stretch
without putting any stress on your back at all.
- Yeah.
And then next, Bob,
I want to get into some of the weightlifters.
I have a number of, we have a number of comments.
By the way, we do read your comments?
We don't have time to answer 'em all anymore,
because there's so many in.
- Yeah, we are scanning through 'em all, but yeah.
- Lack of time.
But you know, people that are weightlifters asking.
Geez, can I get back to my weightlifting with the sciatica?
This lift here, we call it good mornings. - Good mornings.
Right. So when you're doing this one
I would take that lift and throw it in the garbage.
- yeah. - In the trash and never do it again.
- Throw it away. Yeah.
- Right, that one is really hard on the disc,
on the low back. - Yeah
- It's true, it works the muscles.
It works the hamstrings,
but it's really putting stress on that low back.
So, good mornings, just forget about those.
- Say good night to the good mornings.
- Yeah, exactly.
Alright, Squats.
- Yeah.
- Now I would even put this
on the hold until your back is completely fine.
You have no more sciatica,
because even if you do perfect posture with this,
you're putting a fair amount of stress.
- It's too much compression force.
- Exactly, exactly.
- Now we're not saying that you should never do squats.
- Right.
- The squats are fine for your back.
In fact, I would recommend them to strengthen your back.
- Sure. - You know, but I,
not if you're having back pain.
- Right.
Anything of back pain, or especially pain down the leg,
that's a big red flag.
Put a hold on the squats,
get back to 'em when you're feeling.
- If you're coming back to squats after having back pain,
I would start off with doing real shallow ones.
- Right. - I mean, you know, with real good form,
because the further you go down,
the more your back rounds out, the more stress.
- Yep. You get that butt wink.
- Yep. That butt wink.
- And there's controversy on that,
but we're pretty firm believe, not pretty,
we are firm believers, - Yeah.
that don't want to get in that butt wink.
- It really stresses a deal.
- I just, I'm sorry.
But I, people make the argument,
I've seen it online.
Like, no, no this is really good for your back.
You know, after I had my back injury, I came back.
It's like, yeah, you got a back injury
because you were doing these.
(laughs)
And they kind of gloss over that fact.
- Right. Right.
You know, if you're a hardcore lifter, they wanna lift.
- I know they do.
- I can understand, I can understand.
- I understand too.
- Okay. The next one is the dead lift.
This one is even, this one's hard on your back.
- Yeah.
- I mean, that's a great exercise.
It really the good overall body, hips, leg.
- Again, it's gonna strengthen your back,
but not when you're having sciatic or having back pain.
It's too much compressive force.
- I've been, I've seen a lot of people do dead lifts anyways
you know, it probably created the back pain.
So if you're gonna do dead lifts, really work on your form
but put a big hold on it.
- We always talk about the three points of contact.
Why don't you go, Brad?
- Oh, sure.
- If he's doing it correctly, you know?
Yeah. Right there.
Point of contact, point of contact, point of contact.
And if he's doing it incorrectly, one point of contact.
- Right, puts a lot of stress on the time at one point.
I was at a high school tournament, lifting tournament.
And I felt so bad for all those kids.
It's like, they're gonna have back problems
if they continue to max out, really poor form.
- Yeah. Literally, Brad and I can watch people do things
and we know eventually they're gonna have
this problem or this problem.
- Right. If they continue with that kind of body mechanics.
- Yep, and it's just the way mechanics work.
I mean, it is just, the body's gonna give,
if you're doing things incorrectly.
- Okay. The next one. - Number six.
- And this is something I'm near dear to is cycling.
If you're a cyclist and you've got back pain, particularly
if you've got a road bike where you really get hunched over.
- Yeah.
- It's gonna take your toll.
And it's I know, you know, including myself,
I've gotta work on my posture.
The taller you up on your bike,
the less stress on your low back,
the less, you're gonna be slower too.
You're a lot more resistance.
So if you're concerned about that, change your posture
or just take a break from the bike for a while.
- So I have the upright handlebars.
- Yeah. - Brad, and I would even,
I just even if I'm feeling a little bad back pain,
I don't really go biking.
- Right.
- So it's that, it's that upward movement.
It's kind of putting you into a little bit of flex.
- Right, yeah.
Especially if your seat's too low.
- Yeah. And my seat's not too low.
- Okay.
- Yeah, especially if your seat's too low. - Right.
- So cycling is definitely, you know,
it's a red flag on that too.
Walking, if walking,
if you, makes your back feel good, your leg feel good.
That's a good thing to walk.
- It's wonderful to do.
- But walking uphill,
you have to lean forward with.
- Yeah.
- Just to keep your balance.
That's gonna put stress on your low back.
So if you're gonna walk, do not walk uphills.
If you can avoid it, walk on the flats.
- The other thing I would say about walking, Brad,
with sciatica, sometimes it helps to take shorter strides.
- Sure.
- If it's pulling on that sciatic nerve
if you're taking longer strides.
- Right.
- So if you're getting back to walking,
cause walking is really good for your back.
- Right.
- Especially if you can get like 20 minutes in.
Try to just take shorter strides
and see if you can do that pain free.
- Right.
Okay, the next one, burpees. - Burpees
You know, this is one of those exercises
that good overall getting to get your heart rate up. - Yep.
- You're working your legs, your hips, you're.
a good part of your body.
But boy does, when you're going from down to here,
you're putting your back at a maximum flexion,
with everything curled up in that fetal position,
which really stresses that low back.
You're putting max flexion on there.
It's really gonna take that.
- People maybe don't know what a burpee is, Brad.
- Oh, go ahead. You wanna show them?
- So I don't know if I can even do it.
So you come down here, right.
You kick out like this. - Yeah.
- And then back up like this and then up like that, right?
- Right, yeah. But, and then, you know.
You go, one, two, three. - Sure.
- And you go to one of these classes and you know,
everyone thinks that if an exercise is really,
really hard, it's really, really good for you.
Sometimes that's true.
In this case, it could cause, if you got some back problems,
it could be good for you.
- We gotta come up with a modification on that.
But he's absolutely right.
There's two spots in there
where you're really hurting your back.
One is right here.
And then you come back and right here again.
- Right.
It's throwing you right into flexion.
- Right there. Yeah.
- And violently.
- Right.
- So it's.
- It's a pretty dynamic exercise.
So again, great exercise for aerobic and you know,
strengthen that area.
But it stresses the back pretty good.
- Next one is, sit ups
- Sit ups. - Brad, number nine.
- You know, we've got a lot of videos on how, bad sit ups,
and how to do good sit ups.
- Right. - For back pain.
But if you've got sciatica,
you might wanna leave the sit ups alone for a while.
Because when you're doing,
- Where'd this come from?
- I don't know, Bob.
I saw that string before.
- It's on you.
- It's fishing line or something.
- Yeah.
- Well show to you.
- How bizarre.
- If you're doing this type of sit up, that's terrible.
Forget those.
Those old traditional sit we did in school.
Would you leave the line down?
- Yeah. I don't know. - Just forget about it.
- This is intriguing me.
- God.
- It looks like it's hooked up to the.
- Let's get to the sit up, Bob.
- Alright, alright.
- Or if you're doing like these things,
great for the abdomen, not good for the low back at all.
So really avoid those, the sit ups.
I'm not gonna get into it,
but there's sit ups you can do with the ball that
- Right.
- That can decrease the stress on your back by quite a bit.
We don't, it's not part of this video.
- I'm doing one of those next week, Brad.
- Oh, okay then.
- A whole thing, a ball,
exercise for your back to do with the ball.
- Okay, good.
- I just saw a whole article on it.
It was really in depth. - Oh, cool.
- And I can go ahead and go through with a ball.
- Excellent. We're gonna learn something new.
And the last one, this is one nobody thinks about.
I shouldn't say nobody, but a lot
of people don't think about after you run, or you walk,
or you do something that exerts you a little bit.
What do you do?
You bend over like this to get your breath
or to get catch up, and when you do that your
- McKenzie talks about this.
- Mhmm
- He said,
a lot of times people get pain after athletic activities.
It's because they're maximally warmed up.
They sit down and they do this.
- Yep. Slouched over.
- They slouch over.
And they really slouch over,
because they're really warmed up and really stretched out.
- And they're tired and relaxed.
- And they're tired and it's really bad on your back.
- Right.
- So when you get done with your workouts,
you gotta stay in good posture yet, sorry.
- Yeah.
- There's no time you can take off from having good posture.
- This is one, when I,
when I do my pull ups, a lot of times I'm tired
and I wanna lean forward.
And I think, oh, then I'll correct myself.
I'm breaking my habit of leaning forward.
Same thing we're talking about here.
So there you go.
Those are 10 things,
but remember there are other ones and if it makes the
leg pain worse, or the back pain worse while you're doing it
or afterwards that's an activity, or posture to
stay away from.
Good luck with your sciatic.
And remember Bob,
we can fix this about anything except
- A broken heart.
- Exactly.
- But we're working on it.
- Yeah. We're just, there it is. Boom, boom.
I read a book on something last, I didn't
I just made that up.
- Alright, good liar.