♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
- 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.
- And our opinion is the only one that matters.
- Absolutely.
- Today, Brad, we're gonna talk about
one minute back pain exercises
for quick pain relief and cure.
This is gonna help probably
about 80% of the population out there.
It's not gonna help the people
with spinal stenosis or your problems, spondylolisthesis.
- [Both] Spondylolisthesis.
- But it's gonna help most of the other people.
So, let's get- - Sure.
- Let's get stared Brad.
- And there's 10 of 'em, not all of 'em are gonna work,
but you're gonna find out there's gonna be a few
of 'em that are gonna work really well, and some may not.
- 10, 11 don't count!
We're not sure how many we're gonna get done too, today, so.
- Okay.
- Let's start off with really, the standard one, Brad.
This is the one that everybody should be trying first.
Why do we make such a mess before we start?
- Eh, I don't know Bob.
- All right, I want you to do some type of press up.
- Wow.
- And so what you're gonna do is,
without me laying on my mic,
you're gonna start by laying on your stomach here.
You might even prop up on your elbows a little bit.
- Sure.
- You might just lay here for a little bit,
but if it feels okay, you can do this within a minute.
You can just lay down and you can go ahead
and put your hands underneath your shoulders
and start pressing up like this.
Now the key is that you don't want to bring on pain.
- Right.
- So if you have pain, just go up to the point
where you start to feel the pain and then back off
a little bit and eventually work your way up
further and further. - Right.
One red flag like Bob says, if it gets worse,
or if by some chance that you start getting
pain, numbness, tingling down one of the legs,
that'd be another red flag.
You'd wanna stop doing it then.
- And you can do variations of this too, Brad.
- Right.
- You can shift your butt over to the,
let's say if the pain is on this side
you wanna shift your butt over away from it,
and then try a few press-ups.
- Right, so you're gotta put
a little crookedness in your body.
- Yeah, little banana is what we call it
'cause you're kind of forming a banana.
- If you're looking from the top down,
you're putting a arch in your back side.
- And if that doesn't work,
shift your hips over the other way and try press-ups.
- Right.
- I mean, you gotta find out what works for you, Brad.
- Right.
You gotta work with your body a little bit
and just follow the rules:
If it doesn't create pain, feels better,
you continue with it.
- Yeah, Brad, as I look out there
there's some new people watching us today.
- Oh yeah, that's right.
- So in case you are new to us,
please take a second to subscribe to us.
Our subscribe buttons' over here
on the left side of Brad, your right.
We provide videos, how to stay healthy, fit, pain free,
and we upload every day.
- Good. - Next one, Brad.
This is a nice one to do
'cause you can do it throughout the day,
it's standing extensions.
- Sure.
- So, very simple.
And again, it has to be pain free.
Sorry, Lonnie, I just stood up,
she hates that, 'cause I'm so tall.
- Put your hand on your butt,
or a little bit you know, right around the waist.
Some people like to put the two fingers like on the
- Right. - right on the belt line.
And you're gonna do the same thing,
kind of some press backs here.
- Yep, why don't you turn that way once, Bob.
- Oh, sure.
- So, like Bob has his thumbs right there.
Sometimes people put their fingers
- Your hands. - in like that.
- Whatever feels right for you.
- Fists. - Yep.
- I mean you can do a lot of different variations.
You can also use a belt.
- Oh yeah.
- So you just keep a belt lying around.
Well, thanks Brad for,
- [Both] Putting a knot in it.
- I could have never done that if I tried.
- So you can, this is just an easier way to do it,
you can go ahead and yeah without hitting my mic,
you can go ahead and pull back like this.
- Right.
- Now there's variations of this too,
which we were gonna go a little bit later,
but I was gonna talk more about the mid-back on that one.
- Oh sure, yep, we'll get into that.
- Okay, Brad, you're gonna show
a standing extension with a countertop.
- Right. - This works out really well
with a lot of people that I have that,
so a lot of people that are elderly really like this one.
- Right, so if we're doing the extension backwards,
and you've got some of them that may have
a balance problem where they're old, older,
they have vertigo issues or something like that,
and you're afraid they're gonna fall backwards,
go up against the countertop so they're just touching it,
and do the same thing with your hands, like we talked about,
and then if they do lose their balance,
they catch themselves.
- And some people even brace against
the countertop and give a-
- Sure, yep.
- and gives the counter force.
- Yeah, here we got something right here.
I'll bump my head into it.
- See how I said that, counter force?
- Oh, Bob.
- The counter top is counter force.
- I was a little slow.
- Yeah, you were.
- They're laughing like crazy out there at you.
- So let's go little bit more.
Now, that was more low back,
let's go a couple with the mid-back, Brad.
- Sure.
- One of 'em is just, you're gonna take your fist like this,
and you're gonna go ahead and you're gonna go,
and back like this and you're gonna push in
and up a little bit.
- Right, right.
- And you can work your way up and down the spine on this.
And you can even go off to the side too, Brad.
Different spots here.
This is amazing, how much this feels good.
I know you've done this one.
- Oh yeah, I do that one on a regular basis,
yep. - Yeah.
So, can you see?
- I can see, I think there's, I think they had
a good view of that, Bob, but yeah, and again,
you'll find the spot that feels good and work that spot.
- You can also do it with a belt, Brad.
You can do that same one where you
work your way up and down the spine.
Now, this is a little different,
in that you're gonna put your, around you like this
and your arms are at a 90 degree angle.
- Yep, right here.
- And then I'm gonna pull up like this.
- So the force is going,
- Yep. - At an angle kind of upwards.
- Right, and now I can work going back,
and I can even work going forward too, Brad.
- Sure.
- If you find the right spot,
it's almost like you're giving yourself a little bit
of self mobilization here.
- Sure, yep.
- Works out really nice. - Yeah.
Let's turn that way so they can see.
Yeah, there we go.
So you can see we're up into the low thoracic spine,
upper lumbar, it's right in that midpoint,
which can be a source where there's a lot
of pain and problems that need some work.
- That's a good tip.
And all you have to do is have a belt around.
- Right, yep, exactly.
- All right, where we at Brad?
How about cat-camel?
- Oh yes.
- We never know what the camel is and which one the cat is.
- You know, we get comments from people that correct this,
and I gotta jot it down so I can remember.
- So, one of 'em's the camel.
- Yep. - You think it's the camel?
It's got a hump!
- Yeah, it's humping up. - And the cat.
- Right, and then you're gonna arch your back.
- But I've seen cats do this too!
I've seen Halloween cats.
- Well, regardless Bob, let's talk about the back.
Here, go arch down once, your shirt's poofing up,
we gotta get some sports equip-
- I got a puffy shirt!
- There we go, right there, arching down.
And again, this should feel like a good stretch.
If you go one way, let's say you go up.
- Go up Bob. - Yeah.
- And if it starts to hurt or create some pain,
then you're not gonna go into that,
you're just gonna go 'till you starts to get the pain
and then go the other direction.
- Right, go in the direction that's gonna, you know
serve you best - Right.
Work the pain free range.
And with, you know, with luck, it should improve
so you go back to full range.
- Now this one, Brad, is called the lion.
- Okay. - This next one here.
So you put your knees apart.
a little wider than your shoulders,
- Yep.
- and you're gonna put your hands out like this,
- Yep.
- and you're gonna stretch back like this.
Now, if that hurts, there's a lot
of variations you can do of this.
- Okay.
- Let's say there's pain on this side.
One thing you can try is put the hand
and that leg a little closer together
and come down like this.
- So what Bob said, if the pain's on the right side
of the low back, maybe the right buttock area,
bring the right knee up and the right hand back.
- Another variation, Brad, thank you.
Could you gimme the towel please?
Is you could put a towel underneath
the painful side and then try it.
- So it's gonna shift the pelvis a little bit,
putting a little different stretch on the back.
- Another thing, Brad, I'm giving you lots of
variations here, but you can actually arch this way
and go down and try it. - Yep.
Or arch the other way and go down and try it.
- Right.
- All these little variations,
find which one works for you.
- Right, right.
- 'Cause it's a way of getting movement in the back,
and it's a way of getting things moving,
and if there's anything we've learned about back pain, Brad,
the more you can get things moving,
the better it's gonna do.
- Right, right.
It's just a matter of finding the right movements
that make it feel better, and not the ones that irritate it.
If your back is flared up,
that particular exercise you may not be ready for,
if you're right in a pretty acute pain.
- Yeah, try which one, or do you wanna do rotations, Brad?
Just simple trunk rotations, you know.
- This one, however, if your back is
in pretty rough shape and you're not moving too much,
this one you probably will tolerate.
- [Bob] You wanna pillow, Brad?
- Yeah, I'll take a pillow.
- What a nice guy I am.
- Thank you, Bob.
All right, here we go.
So I call this hook line position, feet here, knees up,
and knees and feet gently together,
you're not squeezing 'em,
and then you're just going to gently rotate right to left.
Now, you might find that going to the right,
"Ow, hurts the back."
So you just work it more to the left,
go to the right until you start to feel it,
and then work to the left.
And then with time, you'll start to get
more range of motion, back and forth.
Again, just trying to get that range of motion,
circulation, movement in the low back.
- Eventually you could go to a full stretch,
couldn't you Brad?
- Oh yeah. - Take it all the way down.
- You bet, yep, that's the goal.
- Even hook the leg behind the other, this one behind,
you know, like this, and really take 'er down.
- Yeah, there you go.
Sometimes I'll do this.
- I'll do that, yeah.
- Sometimes, either way. - Yeah, exactly.
- But we can't go this way
'cause the cupboard's in the way, Bob.
- Yep. - So we're stuck that way.
- [Bob] We have a counter force.
(Brad laughs)
- Oh Bob you're killing me.
- [Bob] All right, this would involve a purchase.
We got two of them, different ones here.
We have the Backnobber and the TheraCane.
And I really like these Brad.
I mean, this is my go-to thing when I'm having
a little bit of back pain.
- Sure.
- I just love the pressure you can put on your back.
You can do a lot of different things.
One thing you can do, you can just do self massage, Brad.
- Right. - And that's what I often do.
I just work all the way down the paraspinals here.
- Yep.
- And it just, oh, I can just really work things.
But the other thing is-
- I believe it, Bob!
(Bob laughs)
- You can push off on the side of the back,
and you can do rotations like this.
- That's a nice one.
- Yeah.
- Now we're getting into some real therapy.
- Different movements.
Again, it's gotta be pain free though.
- And you can get in and really get some good,
you get on that spot, I'm getting a lot of leverage
with very little effort.
- That's a good idea, Brad, actually.
Be careful though, don't be,
- Yeah, you gotta be nice to yourself and use good judgment.
- Last one, Brad.
Let's do a little traction.
You've been doing a little bit of this one or not?
- I do this one from a hanging position,
- Oh, that's right. - but I do this one,
I have done this one as well.
- Get a couple good steady, sturdy chairs, not steady.
Well steady too.
- Yeah, something solid.
- And you're gonna go ahead and just gonna,
you can kinda lean forward like this
and get up onto your toes
and you just kinda lean forward
and I'm still touching the ground,
but I'm getting traction through the spine.
- This one, you really learn to have to know
how to control your core muscles.
- Sure.
- 'Cause if you relax them you'll feel that back traction
come through quite a bit.
I do this one with a fair amount of patients
that have symptoms down the leg.
I gotta be honest with you,
they're the people who are not real active or
have a lot of activity in the past
have a hard time controlling their core muscles.
So this works good for some people, others not.
- And that's why we give you 10, you know, exercises.
So you can pick which one may work for you
and which one may not.
- Exactly.
- And remember folks, Brad and I, maybe you don't know this,
we can fix just about anything.
- Right, right, but wait Bob.
- Oh, wait a minute, he's got his prop.
It's already tore, it's already broke.
- I know but, that's why we're trying
to get it back together, Bob,
- [Both] Broken heart.
- We can fix just about anything except it a broken heart.
- Someone, one of our viewers said scotch tape,
but I think we tried that it didn't work real good.
- But we'll keep working on it.
- Yeah. - Thanks a lot.