♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
- Hi folks, I'm on 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.
- I know that upsets you, Brad, that I moved this,
because you have it all set up already.
- I know it, I was keeping an eye on that.
- Today we're going to talk about the three best
leg and hip strengthening exercises
with sciatica, or back pain.
- That's right.
- You can do this at home.
Very important to do these right
and still follow Brad's rules,
which we'll go over in a minute.
- Right.
- By the way, if you're new to our channel
please take a second to subscribe to us.
We provide videos on how to stay healthy, fit, pain free.
And we upload every day.
Also go to bobandbrad.com, go to the giveaway section.
We're always giving something away.
And as luck would have it, we're giving away the loops.
They, we decided they could also be called pull-up bands.
- Yeah, pull-up bands, we have 'em under there.
But they're large loop bands,
as they're commonly known in the fitness world.
- Yeah.
You can actually hook it up to a pull up bar
and put your leg in there or your knee in there,
and it'll actually help you do the pull ups.
- We're not going to show that in our show.
- No, we aren't showing that.
Go to Facebook, it'll be pinned to the top of the page,
the contest that is.
And go to Twitter, Instagram or TikTok,
if you want a 60 second version of our program.
- Wow, excellent job, Bob.
60 seconds is all some people can take.
But we're going to give you the long version, here.
We're going to go about 10 minutes to show you this.
And it's really important because I really feel strongly
about protecting your back and spine while you exercise.
- Yes.
- If you've got sciatica, or a low back pain,
cause it fits my history.
I've dealt with back pain with my spondylolisthesis
and I know these concepts work.
- Yes.
- So the rules, number one: - Yes.
- You need to do your exercises with the spine unloaded.
- Right. - So what does that mean?
- What does it mean?
It means you do not use any weight at all.
So like if you're going to do squats, you don't have a bar.
- It's not like you're gonna...
- Yeah, exactly. - ...do this.
or this or this.
- Right.
You're not going to, yeah, overhead presses.
You're not going to do that.
Now you can do a bench press laying on your back.
- Right! - The back's not compressing.
- Right, exactly.
- So that's the big thing,
you don't want the back compressing.
- Right, none of that compression forces.
- Right.
- Number two is a neutral spine.
In other words, proper posture by the mechanics.
- Yes.
- And we're going to go through that
on the very first exercise.
- That's very important because
if you are in like a flexed a bit,
you're enhancing that disc problem,
- Right. - If you have sciatica.
- Exactly.
Number three, and this is the most important one:
You need to do the exercise that's pain-free.
It does not irritate your back.
We've got three options.
I have a feeling you're going to find at least one of them
that's going to, you can do these, strengthen your exercise.
- Now, when we say "pain-free",
if it hurts immediately after, too,
it probably was not right for you, either.
- Right, yeah.
- So it's okay to get sore, but we don't want pain.
- Yeah, so the muscle soreness in the leg and the hips.
- Right.
- But not the back pain or the sciatica symptoms.
- Right, right, not irritation.
- All right, so should we carry on, Bob?
- Yeah, let's carry on.
- All right, now this first one we call them posture squats.
You don't need any equipment for this.
It is nice and handy, we use it.
You can use a stick or something,
usually about five feet long.
We use a Booyah Stik, cause it works really well,
you can see it. - Yup.
- But you could use a piece of dowling or a broom
or something of that nature. - Right.
- And we'll show it from different angles.
If you hold it like this behind your back,
right down the center
and it's touching between your shoulder blades.
Your head's touching right there.
You don't you don't have to do that,
I'm just emphasizing.
And right here on your sacrum, or just below your belt line.
- So yeah, there's three points of contact.
If you're down to only two points or one point of contact.
- Here, switch hands, Bob.
- I always do the wrong hand.
- That's all right.
- If you're down to one point of contact...
- Turn this way a little bit, there you go.
- ...like this, now you can see I'm in poor posture.
I'm flexed. - Yup.
- If I even down to two, I'm still flexed at the neck.
- Right.
- So you got to get all three, or as close as you can do it.
- Yep!
- And once you're in that position
then you should go ahead and do some squats.
- And again, pain-free!
If you go down so far and it starts to hurt,
then that's as far as you're going to go today.
- Yeah, you can do shallow squats.
- Yup.
- These are a great one to work for the back,
'cause it's very functional.
- Right.
- This is how you want to lift things.
When you got back pain, you want to keep the posture,
and you want to lift kind of straight down like this.
You don't want to bend forward too far, you fall over.
- One thing I want to mention,
and I have had patients have problems with this.
Mike, can you go down to my feet?
Is when you go down like this, you got to keep good balance.
And that means keeping your feet flat on the floor.
- [Bob] And wide apart.
- [Brad] Yes, exactly.
I've had people, and I'll have them do this
without coaching them initially, and they'll do this
and then their toes will come off, and they're all wobbly.
And then your back is going to hurt.
- And again, it's preparing you for lifting,
where you want to have a good basis for it.
- Right.
- So I really always tell people as wide as possible,
with comfortable. - Right.
- And the fact is, you can dip down further, usually.
- Sure.
- If you go a little wider, too.
- Okay, so those common rules apply with everything else
we're going to do, too.
- I want to just say this, Brad, real quick.
- Sure.
- Now you can start off by doing posture squats,
and then you can go to without a stick.
- Yes, yup.
- Once you feel like you have it.
So I'm like doing these. - Right.
- I always like this 'cause it's strengthening
my posture muscles. - Yup.
- Or you can do this. - Yeah.
And that may be depending how you feel.
You may want to start here,
but make sure that pasture is good.
So, there's options. - Yeah.
- Number two:
Now this is one I've used a lot
with patients with back pain. - Yes.
- I call them ball wall squats.
- Yes.
- So you need a wall, you need a ball.
And I've had people use small balls like this.
It needs to be a squishy one,
don't use a basketball or something like that.
You put the ball here,
and then you're gonna roll up against.
I got the big ball,
'cause a big ball actually works a little better.
- Yeah, it does.
- But not everyone has one.
And then you need a piece of furniture to hold on to,
a cupboard, a cane, a stick, I'm using the Booyah Stik.
And that offers balance, which makes a big difference.
Particularly if your back is on the sore side.
Again, feet shoulder width wide.
Make sure your feet do not slip on the floor.
If you've got a smooth floor and you've got your socks on.
- [Bob] Right, right.
- It's not gonna work.
You have to have good traction with your feet.
And you know, you may want to have a chair
on both sides or two sticks or whatever,
especially starting out.
And then you just roll down,
but make sure your feet are away from the wall.
So they gotta be wide, they gotta be far from the wall.
They cannot slip on the floor.
Good posture, just like we mentioned with number one.
And we're going to go down.
We're not going down this far, no way!
- Right, right.
You definitely don't want to go a past level of the thighs.
- Yep. So here's my thighs.
The Booyah Stik is following the thigh.
I wouldn't even, you know, levels of max.
- Because you really want to maintain the arch in your back.
- Yep.
- You don't want to round it out too much,
they call it the butt wink,
where you actually flex right at the end.
- Right, and when your feet are like this,
this particular is really, to do that would be,
you'd have to lean forward.
And that's what I have patients,
they kind of want to lean forward
and I'll say, "Nope, get back, stay parallel with the wall."
You know, you don't have to have the sticks,
if your balance is good.
I've had people just put their hands on their thighs,
and when they get better, put their hands out.
And I've even had people,
when their back pain's feeling better,
hold on to some weights in their hands.
- Sure.
- By that time...
- Things are going pretty well.
- Let's just show...
- But, yeah, the big ball, it definitely works better.
- It supports the back so much better.
I mean, I just feel better now, already.
And again, it's the same thing.
All of these we're going to do sets of 10.
10 is a good number to go to.
If you're starting out and you get to five or six,
and it's starting to hurt or your muscles are fatigued.
That's good enough.
Wait till the next day.
- Yeah, if you haven't been doing these
you might be surprised.
- Oh, I've had people come back and say,
"Oh my thighs are really sore!"
(chuckles)
- Yeah, if you don't work out at all,
this can really be painful.
- Yup, exactly.
And finally, now this is something I just came across
in the last few weeks, is you can use these loop bands,
these large loop bands, for a lot of different things
that you don't...
- Right.
- ...you know, their their cost is low.
- You're really becoming a fan.
- I am telling you what, these bands are great for at home,
if you don't want to buy a big weight set.
Plus they offer a lot of advantages for the back.
I'm going to show you.
Let's do the purple one.
- Okay.
- Now you need some way to connect this to a wall
or a solid object.
You're not going to connect it to a chair,
unless it's a really, really, really heavy chair
which just doesn't happen very often.
- I actually put it around my treadmill, Brad.
- Oh yeah, yeah, if you have a solid,
if you have a workout gym.
- Yeah, it's really solid.
- Yup. See, we use a wall anchor, works fantastic.
And I'm going to put this around.
- Yeah, you're going to see why it's really important
that it's anchored strong...
- Right, it has to.
- ...because you don't want that to give way.
- Right, has to be very solid.
- These bands are real solid,
they're not going to break on you.
- Nope.
The band goes around the back,
and what you want to do is experiment
with the location of the band.
And you may find in one spot, when it's in the one spot,
it's going to feel better than in other spots.
That's where you're going to want to find it.
I like it right around my belt line,
just above it a slightly.
And then this offers a place to grab for balance.
Again, same rules, feet at least shoulder width wide,
feet on the ground, good traction with your shoes
or whatever you're wearing.
And then we're just going to do, again, squats down.
Not farther than 90 degree bend,
or the thighs parallel to the floor.
- Again, what this allows you to do,
it allows you to go back a little further.
- Yeah.
- You don't have to lean forward so much,
because this is providing a lot of balance for you.
- I'm not doing this. - Yup.
- I'm maintaining.
- You can easily go straight up and down
because of the band.
It really gives a lot of support for the balance.
- I just wanted to show this large band.
This is the largest band.
This band is really too big for a lot of things, for me.
But for this particular exercise, I like it.
And they come with this clip
which happens a fit really nice into the wall anchor.
So what I'm going to do is,
and it's a bit wider on the back.
- Sure.
- It actually works really well for this.
And you know, I can lean back in this.
I feel very comfortable.
And work my squats here.
Again, 10 of these.
- Just don't pull back too far
and get slammed into the wall.
(laughs)
- Yeah, you can play a game like that.
So it's a nice option that I've just come up with,
I wanted to share with some people,
particularly some people, these are getting more popular.
- Yeah, right.
- May already have them in their work out area.
- Put 'em to use.
By the way, Brad and I can fix just about anything...
- Except for?
- A broken heart!
- That's right.
- We'll work on it.
- Yeah, I'm going to work on it
in a third chapter again tonight.
- Yeah.
- I keep rewriting it.
(chuckles)