♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous physical therapists on the internet ♪
(cheerful tone)
- 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.
- Today, we're gonna talk about answers
to stop chronic pain,
even after your doctor says there is no cure.
And we're also talking about no medication here, right?
- Right, right.
Yeah, we've got answers for people who suffer
from chronic pain.
It could be after surgery, fibromyalgia, RA,
rheumatoid arthritis, all of these things are talked about,
and we're gonna give you some possible solutions for this
with some really good clinical and research behind it.
- And, plus, it's not harmful, that's for sure.
If it hurts, you don't do it.
I mean, we're not gonna push back in pain.
By the way, if you're new to our channel,
please take a second to subscribe to us.
We provide videos, how to stay healthy, fit, pain-free,
and we upload every day.
Also go to bobandbrad.com, (laughs)
and go to the Giveaways section.
We're always giving something away,
but today we're on a one day hiatus.
Check it out tomorrow.
We'll be giving something away.
I think we're giving away a mattress tomorrow.
- This is a Saturday night, isn't it?
- Yeah, it's Saturday night.
It'll also be on Facebook.
You can go to Facebook. - There you go.
- It'll be pinned to the top of the page.
Go Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok
if you want a 60 second version of our program.
And Bob and Brad have a what?
- Podcast now with some outstanding
people being interviewed,
not us. - Leaders in their field.
- Right, okay, so let's get into this, Bob,
'cause people, I'm sure, are interested.
This whole video is revolving around a book
written by Amanda Oswald,
who was I don't know if you could say a victim,
but she was suffering from chronic pain
for a number of years.
And then she got into this, her treatment,
which is actually a self-treatment.
You don't have to go to anybody else.
She explains it in the book.
And there's research now that's coming up
in the last few years that's supporting this more and more.
Whoop, go ahead, Bob.
- I'm just gonna read the name.
That's "Living Pain Free: Healing Chronic Pain
"with Myofascial Release."
- Right, right.
Yeah, and myofascial release, that term has been around
for years, but there hasn't been a lot of research,
and she's very involved with this in the UK.
- It's really come to the forefront.
It's being recognized more and more by the mainstream.
- Right, well, mainstream as far as?
- Medicine. - United States,
maybe, the Western.
But one way or another, I think it's...
And we were just talking how it relates
to other treatments that we have success with.
It's not way out there.
It's not a weird guru. - Not ooh!
- Exactly.
So, I suppose we should get into some of the treatments.
- Go ahead.
Why don't we show some examples?
- We're gonna show you examples, but if you really want to
and you do have chronic pain,
you're gonna need to get the book,
and sit down and read it, which if you're in chronic pain
and you wanna have a strong desire, it's no big deal.
It's just not that expensive, particularly compared to-
- Yeah, we can't do it justice here.
- Right, but we can give you a good taste of it.
So let's go into this.
Actually, I was gonna mention,
she was very active in her younger years with running.
And I don't remember the sport that she was in.
It was a sport in the UK that we don't do much here,
but anyways, repetitive motion.
She got so painful, she couldn't do her sports anymore.
And then she got into this to release that.
- Was it cricket? (laughs) - No.
I think it might've been rugby.
I'm sorry, Amanda, if I'm getting that wrong.
Anyways, what we need to do,
and she says there's three different categories
that she separates the book for the self-treatment part,
and she goes through it very well, general stretches.
I picked one of those out.
We're gonna go through that.
The next one is
- [Both] Specific stretches.
- And the other one is doing myofascial using these balls,
which we've done a lot of videos.
- Yeah, with the balls.
- Right, so anyways, let's start with the first one,
so general stretches.
And she suggests you really need to do this
in a quiet atmosphere where you can relax.
You're gonna think about your breathing,
all of these things we talked about.
- Breathing is a big part of it.
- Exactly.
And it's a postural exercise,
which she's very big on as well.
Posture, posture, posture is gonna make a big difference
in your pain.
So she recommends taking a towel roll, not like this.
This is a short one.
A towel roll that- - A real long one.
- The length wise. - Like a beach towel.
- Yep, and you roll it up,
or she suggested using a foam roll.
I just brought this, because I really think this works
quite a bit better, but you don't have to go out
and purchase one.
You can use a towel
- And if you like it, you can eventually buy one.
- Exactly.
Should I? - Yeah.
- Can you go down on the floor?
Yeah, 'cause, really, you're not gonna do this on your bed.
You're gonna do it on a floor.
Now, there's different densities.
I would really suggest that you get a softer one,
because it's more comfortable.
You could use the black ones, which are the hardest,
but this is much more comfortable in my opinion.
- Yeah, this is the one from OPTP.
It's softer and it's a lighter blue.
- So you just lay here, allow your shoulders to relax,
which is gonna stretch out your pecs a little bit.
You can put your hands here or here, whatever's comfortable,
and you're just gonna hang out in that quiet atmosphere,
relax, and it's gonna allow...
Some people may have problems getting their head back.
If you're so tight
that your head is not hitting this comfortably,
it's uncomfortable, or doesn't touch,
then you're gonna wanna actually put
a little pillow in there, or fold up a towel,
and eventually take that out as your posture improves.
- These actually, they do sell a little attachment to them.
- Yeah, we used to have that around here.
We apologize. - Oh, here it is.
I got it. - Oh, yeah.
Why don't you get that, 'cause it is pretty handy.
And she's suggesting you're gonna lay here 10 to 15 minutes.
So you may not tolerate that at first,
but you'll get to that with time.
Do these daily,
- You're not gonna lie here for 10 to 15 minutes.
- I might take a nap. (Bob laughs)
But anyways, there we go.
That really is stretching a lot of things.
You may not realize, but it's stretching the neck extensors
if you're getting down there.
It's stretching the chest muscles and pull them out,
so you're in good posture.
- Right, and actually the next specific stretch
does relate to the shoulder posture,
and it's going to be stretching if you're tight here,
you have pain in the pecs. - Pectoralis.
- Now when you do this kind of a stretch,
it's a little different than this.
You're not gonna hold it for 10 to 15 minutes and relax.
You are gonna relax, have a quiet atmosphere.
Why don't you come over here?
And I'm gonna stretch here.
Now she suggests doing it in a doorway,
which we like that too,
but we don't have a convenient doorway to video.
If this was the doorway coming out,
and here I'm out the door, I'm in the door.
Here's the wall.
The door opens up that way.
Everyone's got a good imagination.
I'm gonna put my arm here,
and I'm gonna rotate and lean forward,
and I can feel that stretch there.
Now this is where she's very specific.
You need to hold that stretch for 90 seconds to two minutes.
And the reason is is
we're talking about myofascia, by the way
We should have explained that earlier.
That wasn't my intent.
The fascia is a tissue that kind of wraps your whole body.
It is between your muscles in your skin.
And it's in three layers.
And the fascia is meant to slide back and forth,
so it's smooth, so you have good range of motion.
You have good motion in that fascia,
but it binds down like after surgery.
- Quite often. - Scar tissue gets
in that fascia.
If you don't have a lot of motion-
- Immobility. - Right.
Continuous motion, that's particularly like jogging.
If that's all you do is jog right, there's a good potential.
So we wanna break that fascia apart,
and it takes 90 seconds to two minutes to do that.
And that's what the research is showing.
Oh, and it feels good.
I'd like to stay here, but I don't wanna bore you.
- And most people, it's difficult for them.
They're stretching before they run or whatever.
They don't wanna sit there.
You don't sit there long.
- No, I don't.
Well now I do my exercise before I run, so I'm improving.
I'm getting better as I age.
The other one is if this the door,
she suggests you put both arms and do them both
at the same time.
And she has a quite a number of specific stretches.
- She has specific stretches
for different parts of the body.
- Exactly, Bob, yup.
And the last one, which I like this.
I'm gonna do it on this.
- The ball? - Yep.
And she is specific.
Now, she has balls that you can buy right from her
in the book.
I actually have these.
They're basically the same ball.
She says it's important that you use a smooth ball,
which sometimes we recommend a bumpy ball,
but she says for the myofascia,
you should have a smooth ball, and one that you can inflate.
And the reason is is if it's uncomfortable for you,
or it's too hard, then you let some air out.
If it's not firm enough- - Are these are the same ball?
- Yeah, they are.
- So this one's inflated more?
- Exactly, good point, Bob.
- That's the Franklin Method ball, I guess, from OPTP.
- Yep.
So here we go.
Now, normally I would inflate both of these
to the same diameter for this next stretch,
but this is a really nice stretch for those people
that have that chronic pain in the head,
maybe headaches associated with it,
pain going down into the shoulder blades,
or possibly even into their arms.
You can take this.
I guess I can go down to the floor,
because you would not do this in your bed.
- It can't be done in a bed.
- A carpeted floor would be ideal.
Again, remember the balls will be the same.
And what I'm going to do,
is kind of like for that neck hump or Dowager's hump.
It may help with that too.
You're gonna position those balls on each side of the spine
at about C7 or just below
where the neck contacts the shoulders.
And then you adjust yourself, like for me, right there.
Now, I can tell the ball on the right that's bigger
would be the diameter I need.
The other one's too small, and it's too soft too.
And then you're just gonna lay here.
Actually, this feels quite good.
This is a wonderful thing.
So, again, here, you're gonna go for a number of minutes.
- Sure.
So more than the 90 seconds to two minutes.
- Right, yeah, 'cause this isn't necessarily a stretch.
Let me go off of that.
You can roll back and forth.
Like, let's say you have problem on your wrist.
I did wanna show this.
See, that's a little too firm for there.
I'm gonna go with this one.
You're just rolling back and forth.
You can do this for shin splints.
She shows wrist pain, elbow pain,
pretty much all over the body with the balls too.
It covers, it's a complete system.
- Did you wanna talk about the IT band, Brad?
- Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
- The IT band is a band that runs right along your hip
all the way, even crosses the knee.
- It's right where the stripes are.
- Yep, and it attaches to the tensor fasciae latae
muscle right here and down onto the fibula,
I believe, right?
- Yeah, it crosses the knee joint.
So there's a muscle belly of that up here,
but most of it is it a wide tendon.
But that tendon could be a source of pain,
particularly for active people running and whatnot.
- I just read some stuff on this, Brad,
and there's no way you can stretch that tendon.
There's no way you can stretch that tendon.
You can lift a car with it, but it can get adhesed down
just like when you're talking about the fascia.
So it is good to roll on it.
I mean, some people say, no, you can't stretch it,
so why you rolling on it?
It can get adhesed down, so you can do just as well.
I've read this a couple of times now.
It's good for it.
- Well, I hate to say this, Bob,
but about 20 years ago, when I was a young therapist,
and people would talk about stretching your IT band,
I thought the same thing,
'cause we just had the cadavers apart.
It's like that's not gonna stretch.
It's a ligament.
Try and stretch it with a...
This makes a lot more sense
- It does. - to get into there.
- And it adhese down.
- Wow, Bob, I'm really happy with Amanda's book,
and I think, again- - "Living Pain Free."
- Right. - Amanda Oswald.
All right, thanks.
Thanks for sending us your book.
- Thank you, Amanda.
(cheerful tone)