♪ Bob and Brad the two most famous ♪
♪ physical therapists on the internet ♪
Hi, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist, Brad Heineck physical therapist
and together we are the most famous physical therapists on the internet
In our opinion of course Bob
Brad, today we're going to show the folks out there how to crack their own back
-You better believe it -Without a chiropractor or without a physical therapist.
-Exactly -So let's start off
You can simply use a chair with a back like this
I use my office chair- my computer chair quite a bit at work.
You really need a specific chair for this, Brad
I mean the shoulder blades have to fit over the top this
Right, if it's too high it's not going to work.
And if this is not solid-- You can't have a flexible back on this
And then-- you're going to go back like this and relax and I usually go like this and
-Then he just leans over the back of the chair so the edge of the chair is using it to correct the back
-And then I slide down I'll get different levels too.
Then I usually go about like to there, and then I'm done
Some people do it as more like a hallelujah stretch, we call it
They bring their arms up "hallelujah"
And then back down again -Yeah, I'm not doing that though
As an alternative, if you don't have a chair that fits you
sometimes people can kind of put your hand in this position here and
You can actually take your hand
and you can go right up on the spine, and push up on the spine
[Brad] And kind of angle it like this
[Bob] So I'm angling up this way and you and while I do that, then I lean back
[Bob] There and it just cracked [Brad] There ya go
And you can get different levels that way -You bet
But you need to have fairly good flexibility with your shoulder on that one
Let's see one laying down Bob
All right laying down would be one with the foam roller
[Brad] Oh, this is one of my favorites too [Bob] So, you buy a foam roller
They've got them pretty much everywhere now, don't they?
[Brad] Oh yeah [Bob] Just go onto to the internet and type in foam roller
Just going to go ahead
[Brad] I like the 6-inch diameter for this one, but you could go at the 4-inch
[Bob] They have a lot of different textures don't they, Brad?
And you just roll on to it like this
And Brad and I do this one every day, don't we Brad? [Brad] Yeah, it's great for your posture
[Bob] Yeah, I do this one every morning before I run, and you do it before you bike, right?
Well yeah I-- I've vary Bob I have a-- I don't have [Bob] He has a routine that changes every day
[Brad] Yeah, but this is a-- can I do it, Bob? [Bob] Yeah, go ahead
[stretching] And I like the arch over like this a little bit differently than Bob
and I go right up to my neck
Gah, that's good
All right, I don't wanna get you jealous
[Bob] Alright, next one. We're going to go ahead and do the--
Okay, I'm going to be down this way now
this is the one for the lower back, and this is a twist, basically you'd call it
This one actually doesn't work for me, but it works for a lot of people
I want you to start on your side, and then
I got these bands on here so hopefully you can see better
you know with my black pants -Some contrast
The lower leg you're going to go ahead and straighten and then the upper leg
you're going to take the foot and put it behind the knee -Right here
Like that
and then, you want to go ahead and flatten your back
So I'm flattening my back and bringing the right shoulder over
[Brad] One thing that helps is to bring this shoulder up a little bit this direction
Okay, now I'm taking this hand-- which was the upper hand
and, by the way if you have a disc problem
I wouldn't be doing this one
And you can start off getting into this real gently. If this is too much
you could just try to work your way over
but then eventually you want to do it--
bring the hand out this way and I'm looking toward the hand
This hand is actually pushing down like this -Right there
[Bob] So you can take deep breaths
Breathe in, breathe out, and push down a little bit.
Breathe in, breathe out,
push down like this, a little bit.
Now you can vary this too, Brad.
The farther you bring the leg up the farther up on the back it's going.
And if you really want to get aggressive you can actually
put the leg over the edge like this.
[Brad] And none of these should cause any pain. If they're painful stop
[Bob] Stop, yep and I'm going to show the other way real quickly
So again, you're going to start with the bottom leg straight
This leg bent with the foot behind the knee
you're going to start straightening-- working your way towards...
[Brad] This shoulder coming down [Bob] You can actually oscillate if you want
Then, put it down bringing this shoulder forward
And now this one is there this one's here.
And again, I can take deep breaths and oscillate or
Just go ahead and give a little crack or let it go off the edge here
Alright and Brad's got another one, we're just full of them today
This, when I was younger, used to always give me a crack
and usually, you know if you're going to get a crack,
it's going to happen once and then you're done.
You're not going to get repetitive ones
Okay, so this one here
I like to call it the pretzel one. So, the right knee is up
Left elbow goes over the top, and then you look behind you like you're looking behind your rear-view...
window and your car, and then I press here, relax, and just stretch right there.
[Bob] His back is real straight when you're doing this. You're not bent
And it is a good rotational stretch
And it just feels good. If it doesn't crack it still feels good.
It gives you some good stretch
And again, we admonish you with all these
if you start feeling pain with any of these, don't do them.
exactly
and I would not do it if you think you suspect you have a
disc problem or a herniated disc
This would not be the thing for that -Exactly
So good luck and keep on cracking -Yeah
[laughing]