♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists ♪
♪ On the Internet ♪
(Bob clapping)
- Hi folks, I'm Bob Scupper, physical therapist.
- Brad Heine ck, physical therapist.
- Together, we are the most famous physical therapists
on the Internet.
- In our opinion of course, Bob.
- Time to work, Brad. - That's right.
- Today, we'll talk about the most important exercises
to help pinched nerve and neck pain, fast relief.
This is an updated video, by the way.
We did this one before.
- Yeah, but now we've got a nice new stretch in there.
We're gonna review it.
Look at it from a different look, a little angle.
The angle I'm talking about.
- Yeah, the old on by the way,
we got interrupted by some nursing home staff.
- Yeah. They were-
- Came in and started talking to us.
- They were rude and we had to reprimand them.
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- Clips. Yeah. All right, I'm going to show you-
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- You know, there's something I want to mention,
that there's a couple complaints about our sign,
it getting beat up a little bit.
we like to get every last bit out of it.
- That's right.
So anyways, neck, a pinched nerve or talking
about pinched nerve in the neck
associated with neck pain.
But oftentimes as a result of that,
pinch serves you
you can get referred pain into the shoulder blade
which is really common down the shoulder
into the arm and all the way up to the fingers.
- And if it's into the fingers
generally means that
you got a pinched nerve somewhere.
- Right? Exactly.
So what we need to do is kind of
show you how this works and why the nerve gets pinched.
So we're going to use our friend
Sam and Gumbo as his sidekick.
We're going to look at what I do.
I have a nerve put in here
and we're going to a low level.
Cause typically a pinched nerve happens
at C6 or C7
- And that's this bone,
- Those cervical bones
and then the nerves
here's the little nerves coming out here
- They're coming out of the framing or the holes.
And they can get pinched there,
right from bony overgrowth
- Right?
- or they can get pinched from the,
the disc itself.
- Right? So the nerves here cut off.
So I put an extended one
cause this is the route that the nerves go down
actually more than just one come off,
they come out.
I believe there's three years at
four that come together
and they formed the brachial plexus.
But the route is the same underneath the clavicle.
It kind of goes through the axillary
- Underneath the collar bone
into the armpit up there. - And then it goes down
and then starts to branch off, down into the arm.
So we're going to do is we need to unpinch it
probably most of the time the nerve is pinched
up in the neck, in the cervical column.
- Yes
- It could possibly pinch the somewhere else
possibly in the elbow.
What we're looking at this area
because the majority of time that's where it is.
And you'll know just
by some movement of your neck typically.
So any other questions with Sam?
- I was just going to say Brad, so the first thing
you really do need to do is we need to stop the cause.
- Sure.
- Cause if you do these exercises
and you haven't stopped, what's causing it.
- Right.
- It's just going to keep getting bad,
it's going to keep getting worse.
So one of the causes
- Causes of what?
One of the causes, it's a head for posture.
- I had another thought though Bob.
- Oh alright. - I just wanted one way
you can confirm it's in the low neck.
And this is what I do with most
of my patients is I haven't set
up good and tall and straight in their chair.
I haven't hit their head
over the years with a mild chin tuck.
And then I say,
can you look back like this really far?
And if they go back like that and it hurts, I'm thinking
and I don't know what the percentage is
but a high percentage, it's definitely involved in the neck.
We work the neck, we free the neck up.
Things get better.
The neck feels better down the arm goes better.
That's the majority of cases in my experience.
- Yeah, really, if you, if we treat the neck
and it gets better, obviously it was a neck.
- Right? Exactly.
So yeah.
Posture, posture, posture, posture, the three big things
in our society that causes poor head and neck posture
which can create a pinched nerve is looking
at your cellphone,
- Yep looking down
like this and you know, moving the head forward.
- Yep, yep.
- [Brad] Driving a car.
Same thing.
People that have their head over their steering wheel.
I'm exaggerating a little bit,
but you know what I mean?
- Well, one thing if they have
the seat leaning back too far
it causes you to move your head forward like that.
So that's why I want the seat upright.
So you're in good posture
- Exactly, sitting at a desk, computers,
a little laptop.
- Especially laptops
because you're going to go down like this.
We got to get, you got to get the screens raised up
- Get your chair position properly.
We've got videos on that as well.
We're not going to go into detail, but posture is big.
So adjust your posture
make sure you're sitting up
tall ahead over your ears.
If you will
- Like chin tucks.
Yep. That'll be part of the exercise program.
- As a matter of fact, we throw it in right now
because then we're going to show exercises
while you're sitting at your desk in your car.
- It's a great correction exercise.
- Chin chin goes in towards your throat
not down like this,
- but up right, It's a reminder to you.
Not only does it does the job of moving your head
head back button sort
of reminder where your head should be positioned.
- Right? I've had a number of patients I say
can you do a chin tuck?
And they've got the pinched nerve.
Even that will start to irritate it in a sec.
So then we have to work into that gently
but we work with them
- or even do one lying
down on your back just to work on
it tall behind your head.
- Exactly. So we're going to start
with the chin tucks and good pasture.
Another exercise too.
So you know, you've got good posture.
Can you swing over this way?
Mike is we use our friend the wall
and make sure you put your butt up against a wall.
This is the way I teach it.
And then your shoulder blades.
And then if you can get
your shoulders back like this
as opposed to forward
so we'll get the shoulder
back now we've got good posture.
But then the last critical thing is
can you get your head to touch the wall there
with a little bit of a chin tuck?
And that might be difficult
at first with this pensioner
but we're going to show
you a trick to get out of it.
And then from there, do the famous Wes.
Now you can do this without the wall
but the wall lets you know
for sure if you've got that good posture
because you touch your elbows and your hands
and you can work wall angels up and down, depends
on how tight your shoulders are
and just do some repetitions
like this five to 10 repetitions
and do that throughout today
- And why we do wallet angels and why we do this.
Next one is because if you are rounded
out in this position
right up here in the upper back
that if you're rounded out there
there's no way you can straighten your neck out.
I mean, it's going to affect your neck.
So we got to get that all stretched
out to the wall angels,
do it, do it a foam roller.
Does it, do you want them to go length twice
or do you want to go rolling?
- Well, we could do both.
If they got a roller, they might as well do both.
- So the one is just,
you can just work on the upper back.
And a lot of times, if you fold your arms
you can really get between
the shoulder blades as well.
And you can just work on
that area and stretch it out.
- If you're doing a roll
or don't do it on your bed
you can see on the soft cushion,
it doesn't work well
you know, on the floor works a lot better
with the exception of this next one,
you could do this.
I never get on that thing.
Well, so then you turn,
if you've got a three foam roll
or you turn it this way, right down your spine
especially if you got the one
that the lower density it's
it's more comfortable.
And then you get your chin.
Now this is just like doing a chin deck.
As a matter of fact, you can do baby chin tucks
while you're just relaxed
and you're going to relax
or you know, for five or 10 minutes
- and straighten out your
entire posture here, it's
it's straightening out that upper back,
lower back.
It's stretching out your pecs.
So it's an easy one to do in a relaxed position
your head by a bale to get
all the way back to start off.
You might not use a roll towel or something, but yeah
- if it doesn't go back, you can put a
a rolled or folded up towel.
They make this device as well.
But if you want to get rid of
that and get your head down
that's going to help free up
that pinched nerve as well.
One last thing, Brad quickly, I worked
for my patients a lot is if
you're having pain down
let's say the right arm, just whenever possible.
Put your arm up on a pillow
because if the arm is being hung like this
it's going to pull your shoulder forward.
It's going to put more stress on that nerve.
- Right This is just a great way
to start getting good posture
and taking stress off the nerves.
- Sure. Should we show
that the new exercise plan Stuart, Miguel?
- Sure. This is where is this strengthened neck
without putting stress on it.
So you're going to be in good posture.
And I want you to put your tongue
behind your teeth in front of your teeth, right?
- Okay.
And then you squeeze and tighten
up the muscles here in the neck
- in the front of the neck?
- Yep, in the front of the neck.
Then you're going to take your hands,
your two fists here.
And you're going to, if, if I wasn't holding
that I would actually be pushing the neck up.
- Okay. So it's like an isometric
- It's isometric and one
two, three, four, five,
six, seven, eight, nine, 10.
So we could do a 10 of those two
three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10.
What that does it strengthens the correct muscles
without putting sheer force on the balls is so
so it's a comfortable way to strengthen.
This is what I'm trying to, right?
- And that should help.
Posture is going to take pressure
off that nerve deep fluxes
which get weak because you're, you're
you're strengthening the extension when you,
when you yeah.
- [Brad] Bad posture.
- And now the other exercise.
What happened to all my ...?
- Right here.
I wonder you can take a towel roll
and what we're going to do.
I got a towel rolled up.
This is how a lot of times I have patients start.
As I mentioned earlier in the video,
if you can't go back
like this and it hurts,
- This is a Mackenzie exercise
by the way, Robin McKenzie developed it.
- Yeah. You take a tall roll
and go back in your chair
good pasture and gently go back like this.
And oftentimes I say, Oh, that's a part there
it feels better.
And I can go back farther.
And then you gently work that, you know, five
maybe 10 repetitions.
Then you're going to take a break
and then come back at it in an hour.
So if your arm and your hand is feeling better
it's a really good sign.
If you start to do this
and it starts to hurt worst on the arm
that means you're pinching
the nerve a little bit harder.
And then you have to go to the next option.
- Now Brad was saying
that the towel helps better than no towel,
- Right.
If you just try these, if you can do these
without the towel going with the towel, Oh
- I've had people that have success just
by putting their hands back
with your fingers down
- give it some support
- low on in neck.
And then you don't even have to use that towel.
It gets similar results.
And that depends on the situation
and the individual
you can use what which can work well
is just the edge of a towel.
So instead of a thick towel, we get more specific.
- The salvage.
- Yep
The edge of the towel or the salvage
I'm going to get low on the neck.
You can kind of adjust it.
- And yeah, that's the advantage
of using the salvage is
you can really get focused
in on one area of the spine,
- Right where that nerve is.
It will do the same thing,
and we can roll up a
- And pull up towards the eyes
if you want to.
- I've had people do it this way and this way
and whichever way works better feels better.
It gives you more range.
- Often I might recommend is
grabbing it with one hand.
Like if you have a painful arm grabbed
with a non painful arm and just do one hand
because it's just going to be a more comfortable.
- Yeah, cause with the injured, the arm that sore
it could even irritate it so you can relax it
put a pillow.
- Now the thing about these
you can do these throughout the day.
You don't just do them once and say, Oh, I'm done.
I did what Bob and Brad said, no, you do it like every hour.
If you can.
And that's how you going to get some relief.
You, you know,
you can get the benefit of it, right?
- As long as the symptoms are getting better
out of the arm or moving from the shoulder
up to the neck and you don't
have to do it forever.
You're only going to do that for usually.
I've had patients do that within a couple of days
- And they start seeing relief,
and then they're motivated, right?
- And then the maintenance exercises usually
posture the posture exercises
and chin tucks.
- By the way can also use the strap.
- If you have one of these
these work really well,
- Those work really well
particularly if you have a arthritic hands
or you don't have good grip
cause he couldn't go like this in the loops
- But they just, they,
they can hit right on a spot.
- You can get specific and, and,
and again, I'm not gripping
but I'm using my hands
and it does really work well.
And of course you can use these
for a lot of other stretches and whatnot.
Just stretch out strap.
They're not very expensive either
but I wouldn't buy it just for this.
If you got it, laying around,
- Give the towel a try.
So thanks for watching folks.
- Good luck.