(funky music) ♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
- Hi folks, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- Yeah, we are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- In our opinion of course, Bob.
- Today we're gonna show you
how to get rid of muscle knots at home.
These are three simple steps.
Follow our advice and hopefully we'll get you pain-free.
- Yeah, this is a nice, somethin' you can do at home,
and it's not a big deal Bob, you just
have to take the steps. - Yeah, we're gonna show you
a lotta different options, so, if one works for ya,
you don't have to do every one of these, but you could try
a few of these and see. - You'll, you'll find one
or two that work great,
yeah. - Okay,
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Yeah, so we're, we just finished one contest,
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- Sure.
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All right Brad, how're we getting rid of those knots?
- Well, I can, the title says simple three steps,
or three simple steps, so, first thing we wanna do is,
get the muscle warmed up.
Get it up, relax it, some nice warm,
that's gonna some blood flow is all,
'cause really the key is is to loosen up the muscle,
get some fresh blood in there,
and things feel so much better
when it's relaxed with blood flow.
- I'm gonna mention one thing Brad,
in case you wanna try something preventatively,
work on your posture.
Y'know what I mean, 'cause a lot of time it's,
but posture is causing this in the first place,
so you wanna make sure you're keeping up
as straight as possible.
It's not really a treatment issue,
it's more of a prevention issue,
'cause once that knot shows up, it,
the good posture probably won't take it away
until you worked on it
a little bit. - Right, right,
so, very good Bob, that's a good point.
So, different ways you can warm it up at home.
You can go, we're gonna talk about knots primarily
in this upper trap,
'cause it's probably one of the most commonplace,
that people at home - That's where I get 'em.
- get those tight knots from,
and then again, from lookin' at your phone, at the computer,
watchin' TV, driving with poor posture,
and it really starts to knot up.
So in the shower, you can go in the shower
and some hot water on it is a form of,
heating it up. - Always feels good.
- The thing about that is, it's gonna warm up the skin,
it's not gonna get in deep.
- It's very superficial.
- Right.
But it, still, you can do it at home, it works,
so you can use a hot pack, electric one.
They work about the same, they're superficial,
they'll get to the skin, but really not into the muscle,
but it's still better than nothing.
- Yeah they're, you can use ones
that heat up in the microwave.
So. - Right, yeah,
one of those hot packs.
If you really wanna get deep into the skin,
this is the best option.
Right here Bob.
- [Bob] No, I'm gonna grab this.
- Oh, you're goin' to grab somethin',
oh I didn't realize that.
What d'you got?
Oh, the ruler, yeah. - This.
- In, in therapy
we'll probably pull out an ultrasound machine,
it'll go down four to five centimeters,
but we don't have that at home, so the next thing,
best thing you can do at home is get some--
- Far infrared heat.
- Infrared heat, gets into the muscle.
This'll go 2.36 inches, and that's in the muscle.
- And that's why I wanna show you the difference,
if you look on this side,
this is what typical heating pad will do,
or the shower. - Or a shower, yep.
- Yep, just that level of thickness.
- That blue spot.
- And this is how deep the far infrared heating system
will penetrate.
So, if you are interested in getting one,
they are very expensive, I'm gonna tell you
right up front. - Yeah, they're not cheap.
- But Brad and I use these all the time ourselves,
so we're big advocates. - We're,
and we even get good comments back
from the people who do purchase them,
but they're built very well,
it's gonna last you as long as you ever care about.
So you're gonna put this on, on those knots,
maybe just get back in the recliner, and then there's gonna,
it's gonna take a little bit longer,
it's not gonna happen in 10 minutes.
You should be 30 to 40 minutes on that,
but you'll appreciate, it feels good.
Once you get the muscle warmed up, that's step one,
we're goin' to step number two,
we need to do some soft tissue mobilization,
in other words, massage.
First thing you can try is, if you have a cane at home,
a hook cane, and hopefully the end of it is not,
got a edge on it, - Yeah, not really,
a little more blunt. - it's kinda rounded.
- Or rounded.
- [Brad] And you get it right around here,
and I, I can't tell you how many patients I've had
use their hook cane at home, particularly if they're older
or they got one from their grandma's house or grandpa,
and you just go, you find that knot,
and after you push around on it for a while,
you'll find this, it's usually, it's,
it's kinda hard like a Tootsie Roll, and it's tender,
and when you push on it, right now I'm pushin',
it hurts, but it usually hurts so good, that kinda feeling.
- Yeah, hopefully it releases, it's a trigger point.
It's hyper-irritable muscle.
And, if you don't have a cane
and you don't wanna purchase a cane,
they do have what is called the Thera Cane.
We'll put a link down below, that's just a different device,
we don't have one here.
I have one at home actually. - Yeah,
we got one here at the other clinic,
but, it's made for this, it's got a big hook on it,
it's got a nice round ball on the end,
and it's easier to use than this.
And, I don't know, they're about 30 bucks or somethin',
they're really cheap. - Yeah, they're made well,
and believe me Brad, when I'd get pain,
I remember one time I drove to the clinic to get one,
when I was having pain. (Brad laughs)
So, a tennis ball.
- Yep, that's the other thing, you take a tennis ball.
Mike, can you scan over here?
You can put it on a wall, like here, and there,
and I can just roll, and I've had a lot of patients,
they take a tennis ball,
and I even give 'em one from the clinic sometimes
if I got a bunch of 'em layin' around, which sometimes I do.
And, you just roll on it, and it's gonna be 30 seconds
to a minute, you could go a couple minutes.
- [Bob] What's nice is you could start with the wall,
if you feel like that's not pushing hard, you can actually
put it on the floor. - Oh yeah, yeah.
Come on down here. - So. (laughs)
(grunts)
- Oh yeah.
See this is a little more aggressive, but you can roll,
and you're gonna do this on a shell carpet probably,
or you can go on a hard floor, depends how tough you are.
And I can, this is much more aggressive.
And also, the other option let's you work this out,
if you may have something like this,
if you wanna get something is, electric massager.
So, here we got a RENPHO, we really like RENPHO,
it's a cordless masssager.
(massager buzzing)
Hear that?
Look at that, that's on my ring.
So I'm gonna take that, and it, this is percussive,
it doesn't vibrate. - Yeah right,
it just, doesn't just vibrate, it actually gets
into the muscle back. - It's working into
that muscle.
(groans) - And it comes
with different heads on it, that you can put onto it.
- [Brad] Yep.
- So, this is probably one of the more milder ones.
So. - Yeah, this one is,
for this it would work out fine I think.
If you wanna get more aggressive, one thing,
no matter what you use,
if you're using one of these percussive type massagers
is you do not wanna get over the spine,
and you do not wanna get up into the neck.
- Yeah.
- This is the shoulder, that muscle,
that upper trap, it's got--
- Pretty big sick muscle,
the trapezius, sub-occipital of all.
- Yeah, we do not wanna get by the spine with this
'cause it will be uncomfortable.
- They do have higher-end, the massage guns.
Like this is a RENPHO one that actually adjusts the head,
and it comes with what, six heads I believe?
- [Brad] Yeah, they're right in here.
- Yeah.
- I'm puttin' this big one on here, 'cause for this area,
I think that's good for me, and I'm gonna,
get this one movin'. - Now you can see this one,
really percusses.
- Yeah, it's got about a twice the displacement,
it's a little more aggressive, and I'm gonna try that.
Nah, it's not bad, Bob.
Actually.
- You approve?
- Yep.
But you know, if you're a smaller person,
you don't have a lotta muscle mass there,
you're probably gonna want the smaller one.
- Sure.
Now this one is, if you're one that has frequent aches
and pains, these are nice to have around the house.
We, my wife and I are always usin' our massage gun,
like I used it on my hip this morning,
and she was using it on her hamstring.
So. - It is one of those things
that, once you have it, you're gonna be usin' it
on the first-- - I was gonna mention this too
Brad, real quick, another, - Oh, yeah.
- unfortunately this is quite expensive,
it doesn't look like
it should be worth that much. - It's not that much,
80 bucks?
- I know, but that's expensive
it seems but-- - It's not gonna break
the bank.
- I know, but it,
it-- - If it works,
it's worth it Bob. (laughs) - I know, and I do use it.
This is my favorite thing,
and I lay on this instead of a, instead of a tennis ball.
- Right.
- So, and I lay on it so that it hits this spot, this spot,
you wanna take it down Brad?
- Six spot, I do exactly the same thing.
Actually it's designed for, it's good for posture for knots,
I use it for costochondritis.
That's chest pain, and that's what the,
the inventor was a therapist who had costochondritis,
he invented it for that.
But it works for knots as well.
- Yeah, it's my favorite thing, my go-to thing for knots.
- I'm gonna actually show 'em how,
how we do it, Bob. - Mmkay.
- 'Cause one thing that Steve says, the inventor,
'cause we did a video on this and I was showin' the thing,
and he emailed me, says, well make sure you do this,
you roll your arms up and back, and he's right,
'cause that adds a little, - That makes a big difference.
- yeah, it does.
- [Bob] For most people, this'll actually be too aggressive
for them to start off with.
You'd have to start with a towel on it or a pillow on it,
or maybe a pillow underneath your head.
So, Brad's worked up into it so that he can use it
just as it is and so have I, but I,
we've got decent posture, so someone who doesn't,
this actually may, may bother them,
so you may wanna start with the tennis ball or the--
- Sure,
exactly. - Or somethin' a little,
less aggressive.
- Now, if the tennis ball's not enough,
then it may be time to go to somethin' like this.
And it is, the way it's designed it,
it works well on the back, it's longer,
y'know that's what it's
specifically designed for. - And you could run a car
over this.
We're gonna do that one day,
we're gonna run a car over it. - Oh absolutely,
I think we should make a whole video on that.
- So, what's the stretch Brad?
That's step number three.
- Oh.
So once you get the muscle relaxed,
and it's gonna feel good.
By this time it's gonna feel pretty darn good,
then you're gonna bring your head forward
and over to the side, kinda like I always say,
if you got a shirt pocket here,
it's like you're looking down into the shirt pocket,
and then very gently stretch.
Fingertips only, only two fingertips is all you need.
And relax and breathe,
and this is gonna be 30 seconds at the most.
It's not a, this is the smallest part of the whole routine,
but it's nice to give it a little stretch,
and then think about your posture.
Shoulders back, - Yep, go back to the posture.
- chin in, and there you're gonna stay like that.
- You're off and runnin'
and you'll be able to be productive once again.
- Right, life will be good.
- All right, everybody stay safe out there.
- There ya go.
- We know these are unusual times, so, thanks.
(happy music)