♪ 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, you wanted to talk
about some stretches you could do for the neck.
And this is particularly good for ankylosing spondylitis.
- Right, yeah.
We've had some requests from people who want
to get some more detailed stretches for the neck.
Again, you don't have to have that diagnosis.
If you just have a tight neck, these are great exercises.
- Yeah. Things aren't moving the way they should.
And the thing is, what you'll find is, generally,
if it's not moving, it's gonna eventually lead to pain.
- Right.
- If you're not getting full motion.
So you're wearing out the neck at a smaller range.
- Right.
It's amazing how when people get older,
rotation really becomes limited.
- Yeah.
- We've got two good exercises.
All these actually gonna help with that.
All right- - Alright. Let's roll.
- The first one is rotation. Number one, look to the right.
Keep your shoulders still.
And look as far as you can. And then take either hand.
I like to use,
if I'm going to the right, my left hand,
and little gentle over pressure and just stretch
and hold it for two to three seconds and relax.
So, it's getting pressure on.
- Yep. - And relax.
- The reason he's saying the words, pressure on,
by the time you say that it takes one to two seconds.
So it's a good way as a reminder.
- Right.
- Pressure on, pressure off.
Pressure on, pressure off.
- Good.
- And we really emphasize,
you need to have very good posture when you're doing these.
I don't want you down like this and going like this.
- Right, exactly.
- You gotta be sitting up as straight-
- Sure. - Almost overcorrect.
- Right.
So we're gonna do five to 10 reps that way.
Same thing to the left-
- Five to 10 reps the other way-
- Yeah. - Okay, good.
Excellent one to do.
- The next one is our,
we always like this one, chin tucks-
- Oh, yeah.
- Just bring the chin in toward the throat
and keep your face, you know,
it's like, you're gonna take a pie.
And you're just gonna retract.
So there's back like this, good posture again-
- You're not doing this- - Right.
- And you're not doing this. You're going straight back.
- Yeah.
- This is a tough one for a lot of people to do.
- Exactly. - Yeah.
- And if you want, you can put a little
over pressure on your chin to give a little extra stretch.
And again, I like to do pressure on,
pressure off, pressure on, and again,
I think up to five of these, if you wanna do more, you can.
- I seen some people take the, kind of the-
- Sure. - The thumb like that-
- Yeah.
- Go back- - A little more comfortable-
- This step,
just another this way to do it.
- And this is just another modified example
of this and it gets a little more stretch back here.
You're gonna push in on your chin,
grab behind your head
and the bump, that occipital bone, that bump there.
You're gonna pull up here and press in here, gently.
None of these should cause pain-
- Right. - By the way.
Just a gentle stretch-
- We're not trying to, exactly.
We're not trying to cause any pain here at all.
If it is, you shouldn't be doing it.
- So again, I'm going in and up.
So it's...
If you could that motion
but I'm gonna grab and push, pressure on, pressure off.
Don't try and talk to your wife
or your spouse when you're doing these,
'cause it doesn't work.
- A modified version of this, Brad,
is some people actually take their fist
and put it underneath their, like this.
- Right.
- And then they go like this-
- Right.
- Now you've gotta be gentle with this.
'Cause you can put a lot of pressure-
- Right. - On your neck with this one.
- I think your arm was in the way-
- Yeah-
- But the way Bob was doing it was here.
- You put your thumb. Yeah, thumb down.
- And then your pressure goes up this way
and you go like this.
And that puts a little bit of traction on the neck-
- Yep. - Actually. Mm, hm.
- It actually takes some of the stress off of this.
- And this next one is a little advanced.
But if you got a long enough belt,
you take the buckle into the belt
and you put it down underneath one leg, right there.
And that's just to lock it in there.
Then this goes around your shoulder
and then around the back side of your neck.
And it's gonna go across the jaw,
not across the neck, 'cause that's-
- Yeah, probably not good.
- Right, so you're gonna look to the left
and take this across the jaw
and actually up towards the ceiling
and you're gonna pull the pressure.
This is gonna give extra pressure, up that direction,
and backwards.
We're gonna rotate that neck that way and hold.
The problem is that this one,
if someone has a shoulder problem,
they don't have good range which a lot of people,
some of our older people are gonna have problems.
Then, this is not gonna be for you.
- Right, and you're trying to actually stop this shoulder
from moving, too.
- Right.
- This one is supposed to stay back.
This one is a complicated one. - Right.
- But it actually does work really well, sometimes.
- Right. It supports the shoulder here.
- Yeah.
- It actually does some mobilization
on the first rib, a little bit.
So, you're getting more than one stretch of the-
- Can you show the other way, Brad, there?
- Sure.
- So then, he'd go under the opposite leg.
- So, I'm going under the left leg
locking it down over the right shoulder,
around the neck.
There you go.
And,
I had a twist in there-
- Little twist-
- Yeah. - Yep.
- There we go. - Okay.
So I'm gonna look to the right
and go up across a jaw and stretch.
Hold pressure on-
- Again, good posture, yeah.
- Pressure on.
And with this, I like to actually extend the-
- Yeah. - Chest and the thoracic back.
I don't know if they can hear me with-
- And again, this is going up.
- Right. - Yep.
- Okay-
- So, a little complicated
but the other ones are easier to do.
You can do throughout today without even, you know,
needing any equipment.
But again, great for anybody who,
if you have arthritic neck
and you're starting to lose range-
- Yep.
- Those are great ways to try to regain it.
- Start out gently.
- So- - All right.
- Alright, thanks for watching and make sure you subscribe,
if you haven't already.
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- Oh, there's a snowman out there, Bob.
- Yeah, there is.
- I couldn't find that before- - Oh, fun.