♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous physical therapists on the internet ♪
- Hi, 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.
- Bob and Brad. - Say no more.
- Today we're gonna talk about
headaches behind the skull and eyes.
And we're gonna show you, yeah, these are common headaches.
A lotta people get 'em.
And we're gonna show you
some great self-help techniques that you can do on your own,
and you can handle this.
It's also called occipital neuralgia, Brad.
And what's going on here, just very briefly, Brad,
you got the greater occipital nerve.
This is, by the way, your spine and your neck.
I mean, it's facing you right now.
So I'm gonna face it away, now.
- The hips are broken down. - Yeah that's right.
- We gotta get the hips right, there we go.
- So his head is facing this way.
The greater occipital nerve comes between C1,
which is the top vertebrae, and C2.
- Well, should we just-? - Show it on him, yeah,
why am I bringing this out for it?
- Yeah, look at that.
We've got something here.
And I've got a pointer pen, Bob.
- So the nerve comes out from here,
and it goes up into the head.
So that's why you get these sensations up into the head.
A lotta people describe pain going around the eye.
It's usually one sided.
- It'd be like this.
Nice nerve right there.
And then, of course, there's one on the other side too.
- It's usually one sided.
It'll, like I said, go behind the eye.
And you can give numbness and tingling,
weird sensations kind of up into the head.
And I'm sure, you know,
some people probably think
they're having a stroke or something,
with some of these sensations. - Right,
we don't wanna think about that.
Say hi to Gumby.
- Yep, bye Gumby. - All right, see ya.
Take care, thanks for the help.
- So the first thing you wanna do,
'cause what causes this, Brad,
in more instances is not, is bad posture.
Isn't that the thing that causes everything?
- Oh, posture, posture, posture, it really-
- I think it causes our economic problems, doesn't it?
(Brad laughs)
- Talking about headaches,
I think if I just left the house more,
my wife would have less headaches.
- That's true.
- (laughing) Instead of this massage.
- I don't disagree with you on that.
All right, we always like to use the bowling ball
as a good example
of how much stress you're putting on your neck.
What are you gonna do, Brad?
- I'm gonna hold onto it so you don't have to.
- Oh, you're gonna hold onto it.
- Well, I wanna have good posture while I do it, Bob.
So I don't hurt myself.
- So you can see where his face is right now.
His face is facing you.
So, the average head is about 12 pounds.
And so basically,
when the neck is straight up and down,
like Brad has good posture right now,
there's just 12 pounds of pressure on the neck.
- Right, it's going straight down.
It's like this bowling ball's quite easy to hold it up.
You don't even have to hold it, Bob.
Look at that, easy.
- Now, for every inch you move your head forward,
so I moved his head forward and Brad moved his head.
I dunno if he went an inch,
he maybe went a little more. - Ah, whatever.
- For every inch,
you're adding 10 pounds of stress on the neck.
- Let's have it face you and go this way.
- So now with one inch,
that's 22 pounds of stress on the neck.
Two inches would be 32 pounds of stress.
(both laugh)
I'm really good at math.
- Yeah, that's right, we're therapists,
we're not mathmeticians.
- And three inches would be 42 pounds of stress.
- And I can definitely, look at my,
I'm getting white knuckles.
You know, just my wrists are really working now.
And your neck muscles do the same thing,
but they're a little stronger.
- So you got all this,
the trapezius come all the way up into the head,
up into the skull,
and that's all putting stress on that nerve.
So, what we wanna do is take the stress off that nerve.
So the first thing is you have to correct your posture.
So, one thing is,
what we have people do is chin tucks.
You've seen us do this a million times.
Well, maybe you haven't,
'cause if you're new to our channel-
- Exactly. - Please take a second
just to subscribe to us.
We have a subscribe button right over here.
We'll provide you videos on how to stay healthy, fit,
pain free, and we upload every day.
- Videos.
- Wat did I say? (Brad mumbles)
- Oh, videos.
Sorry, I will enunciate.
Can I lean back, Lonnie, and you can still see me?
Or, no, I'll lean forward.
Okay, let's go on, Bob.
- All right, so the thing is,
you wanna correct your posture.
One of the good ones to do is just chin tucks here.
So you're gonna tuck your chin in like this, Brad.
And one thing it does,
it starts to help relax this area
where the greater occipital nerve comes out.
And secondly, it puts your head in the right posture,
so you're only getting 12 pounds of pressure
instead of the 22 or three.
So, you wanna do those.
The other thing I want you, Brad,
is make sure when you're working throughout the day,
driving or when you're at your computer,
I don't want your arms up like this.
'Cause this attaches into the trapezius.
Now they're pulling more onto your neck.
- Arms like this, yep.
It all works together to make a lotta leverage
and force going through your-
- Yeah, if I pull your- - Not only your neck,
but you're upper back too, and low back.
- Exactly, Brad is just so correct.
Hold it right there once, Brad.
If I push down there,
I'll bet you feel even a little bit up there in your neck.
- Oh yeah, right.
So we need to change our posture.
- Yeah, your arms need to be vertical like this.
When you're at the computer or when you're driving even,
you wanna be close enough that you're not like this.
- You don't wanna have that seat so far back,
or the seat tilted back.
My sister-in-law drives like this?
- I know.
- And it just drives me nuts.
- The one that kills me is the motorcycle drivers,
that have the, oh my God.
- What do they call those?
They have the, eight bars, or something like that.
- Eight bars, oh my God.
- They look cool though, Bob.
- So first thing,
let's give 'em some immediate relief, Brad.
I want you to get an ice pack.
Just take an ice pack and put it right on there.
And that's gonna give you some immediate relief,
after you've corrected your posture.
- And you can do that really nice
in a recliner that has a high back with good posture.
Put it back, you can lean back.
Or laying down in your bed.
You can do it laying on your back.
- All right, next thing,
I want you to go ahead and try some of these stretches here.
So what you're gonna do is
you're gonna kinda tuck your chin in like you did.
And now you're gonna bend down straight forward like this.
And you're gonna feel a good pulling in there.
Don't you feel that, Brad?
- There's a little trick that I learned.
This is not on the list, Bob, but this is the neat one.
You take a fist like this,
and you put it under your chin,
and then you just gently go forward.
And it gives a little-
- A little leverage. - Yep.
- You gotta be careful,
'cause you can really put leverage on.
Sometimes people go like this instead and can go like that.
- It gives you a little stretch back there.
- Now, variations of this are
you're gonna go ahead and turn to the right a little bit
with your chin tucked.
And now go to the right.
- Okay, so you're gonna get this side of the neck.
- And then I'm gonna go to the left
and go chin tuck like that.
- Get on the opposite side.
- And you can even give a little bit of pull if you want.
Don't get too crazy on those though.
- Just fingertips.
- All right, next one is you can do a self massage.
We've showed this one before.
Basically you're just gonna go in there
and you're gonna go ahead and take your fingertips,
and you're gonna go ahead
and work on the base of the skull here.
You can also do kinda more of a splaying massage,
where you put your fingers together and then pull 'em apart.
- Like you're stretching the skin apart,
but you're getting all the tissues underneath as well.
Little myofascial work, they call that.
- Working it just like this.
This'll help relax things and-
- You'll know, 'cause it'll feel good.
It'll feel like I'm hitting the right spot.
- That's one you should like.
The other thing that I found, Brad,
quite often in a correlation with this
is that they'll see is that
you're actually not able to turn as far as you should
in one direction. - Right,
so if you're trying to look behind you
when you're driving, to back up, you might notice it.
- Yeah, and this actually, believe it or not,
if you correct the rotation
and get it restored to where it should be,
quite often that pain gets better too.
So this is a Mulligan technique.
M-U-L-L-I-G-A-N.
He's from New Zealand too, isn't he?
- I think so, Brian Mulligan.
- So you're gonna take a towel like this.
This is a little complicated, so stick with me.
Has that little, what they call shelfage, he called it.
- Yeah, I call it the edge of the towel.
- Edge of the towel.
You're gonna get it up underneath the eyes,
or underneath the ears like this.
- Yeah, let's show 'em from that direction, there you go.
- So you can see that it's kinda level with my eyes
and underneath my ears, right Brad?
- Yep, right here. - Okay.
So now what are you gonna do,
I'm gonna work on going to the right first.
So I'm gonna sit down in a chair.
You got me, Lonnie?
If I'm in this chair? (Brad chuckles)
All right, I'm gonna drop down one like this,
and I'm gonna switch hands.
This is the tricky part, right Brad?
So I'm switching hands.
Now this one goes down, this one I'm pulling out.
I'm putting a little pressure on.
And now I'm going to the right.
- And it's amazing how this really,
the support of the towel around the neck
really makes a big difference on how you get the stretches.
- Excellent, Brad.
What I don't wanna see, Brad, is doing this.
- Right, right.
- So sometimes people even
kinda hook their arm behind the chair and go like this.
- Yep, right here, he's talkin' about.
Now the other thing is, Bob, do it again once.
I just wanna show something
that's pretty obvious to most people,
but he's going across his jaw bone.
If you go underneath the jaw
you do nothing but choke yourself.
And it doesn't do anything for range of motion either.
So make sure it's across the mandible or the jaw.
- You're not gonna be happy with me with that.
And with some people,
I don't think we're gonna mention,
some people even actually add over pressure on that,
but I'll show you the other direction now.
How 'bout that, Brad.
So here again, we start here.
I'm gonna drop this one down.
The direction I'm moving to, the left,
I drop that one down.
I switched my hand over.
I go like this, I give a little yank.
- And keep this shoulder- - Oh yeah,
keep this shoulder back, good reminder.
- There you go.
- Sometimes you can even hook it on a chair.
And give a little pressure here.
Wonderful stretch.
It should be pain free, absolutely pain free.
- Should feel like a good stretch.
You're saying, oh boy,
I shoulda done this a long time ago kind of a feeling.
- Yeah, if it's not pain free, don't be doing it.
- Right, exactly. - Absolutely not.
Do you wanna show the ball one, then?
- The tennis ball? - Yeah, tennis ball.
- Yeah, this is a nice little trick.
You take two tennis balls,
and you put 'em inside a sock.
I already have 'em inside the sock.
You see there's one, there's the other.
And you can tie a knot on there,
put a rubber band if you want.
And typically, you maybe can try it on your bed,
but usually on a carpeted floor
where it's a little more firm surface.
And you get that right in those right spots.
And you'll know, 'cause it'll feel comfortable,
and like the right kinda massage.
And if you want,
you can work it with your head like this a little bit.
And I can see, I need to roll up this way.
There, I'm on the spot right there.
Oh yeah.
And I can feel those muscles relax as I just relax,
relax with the head, go down in there.
And you'll move it around.
You'll quickly find out where you want it to go.
- [Bob] The spot that you wanna be.
- Oh, this is good, Bob.
- All right, Brad, before you fall asleep,
get up. - Oh yeah.
- All right, the final thing is
make those corrections on your computer,
you know, as far as the posture this way,
but make sure you raise your screen up high enough,
so you're not going like this.
And on your telephone, when you're using your telephone,
don't be going like this.
Bring it up to you.
Get the Tyrannosaurus Rex arms,
the short arms like this, and bring it up to you.
- And that way when you're walking down the sidewalk
and it's up like this,
you can see where you're walking better.
Did you ever see that video where that woman (laugh)
walks into the telephone pole?
Boom. - Oh no.
- She's got her head down. - I'm sure
there's lots of 'em, so.
And remember, Brad and I can fix just about anything.
- Yes, except for that- - Broken heart.
- Yeah, but we're workin' on it.
- We're workin' on it.
Thanks a lot.