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. I almost forgot your name there for a second
Okay today Brad we're going to talk about a new treatment combination
For back and neck pain, it's kind of a one-two punch
And this video again is being done in cooperation with Thermatex and that's a company that
manufactures products that
Provide far infrared heat, far f-a-r, I think it's on the spectrum, that's what they're talking about
This is a family owned company so we like that because
We're kind of family, Brad I consider you my family, exactly and they've been around for 21 years, they're from Calgary
That's in Canada and
All their products by the way are registered with the FDA and also with health Canada so they're legit
They're not fly by night, they've been around for many years, this is not just a 4-5 year company
Exactly Precisely so before we get into that Brad I see
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Yes all right let's get talking about what we're talking about
The first thing is that the treatment combination is
going to be the use of infrared heat to calm things down
Get your pain levels down and then you got to figure out which specific movement's gonna help you and that's what
we're gonna help you find out today, right this deep heat is not gonna calm it down but it's gonna increase the circulation
Help relax the muscles too, so like you said it's a double punch
We're gonna do some gentle stretching to get things moving more and add that heat so it's more pliable and just a natural relaxation
It's gonna make it a lot more effective, the stretches that you're going to do and by the way
I gotta confess right now Brad, I can't even wait any longer
So Thermatex sent us two of these to give away, and we made this promise
One of them is what they call the big slipper
You can put your feet in it and it works out really cool
And we are going to be giving one of these away but they also gave us one of these and we're not giving it
Because Brad took the other one and he's got it at home
This is actually yours, yeah I use it on my recliner
In the evening, and so yeah during this last week I got a little episode of you know my back
Was hurting a little bit from sitting too much and I took it out, I'm like I'm sorry this baby's staying with me so
We're gonna give away one of these and we'll give away something else instead of this I mean
We'll stick to our promise but sorry Thermatex,
Your product's too good, that's the problem all right let's keep going
All right let's talk about far infrared heat Brad
Why do we like that better than regular heat, with regular heat the penetration is only 2-3 mm
Right it gets through the skin and that's about it
Very superficial, yeah if you're gonna go through some fat
And some Muscles and you want to get in there, through the tissues, it's not gonna make it, it's not gonna
Especially when we're talking about back and neck pain that may be arthritis
It's not heating up the joints, it's not getting down
Into the joint itself, and your back is filled with joints and so is your neck
So this instead of Going 2-3 Millimeters Goes up to 60 Millimeters
Which is 6 cm Which is 2.36 inches
So that's a good deal of penetration and they do have other products
We're gonna be talking mostly about the Platinum today because the reason I like the Platinum is
Because you can use it on any joint, the most versatile yeah it's the most versatile but
They do have one for the feet, like we said we're gonna be giving one away
What's nice about this since it goes on all sides of the feet
It's going all the way through the foot, I mean that's how it's gonna work
It's got one for the wrist and again because it goes 2.36 inches
He's modeling there
It's gonna go all the way through the wrists and the same they have one for the knee right here
Because it goes all the way around the knee it's gonna penetrate all the way through the knees, so it's hard to beat that type of penetration
So we're gonna use the Platinum one today and again
We're using it with the spine basically, neck, mid-back, low-back, and what you should try with it, let's start off with the neck Brad
The way I like to do the neck is
By the way there's three panels on the Platinum here and
You have the hard panel always goes to the body, that's what directs the far infrared heat and that's very clear
The three panels are the three heat sources of the Infrared, like you said the wording is on this side isn't it
So I usually slip a little towel under here, a roll towel and now I can lay on it
See how it gets into the crook of my neck, now the thing about this is
This one's already heating up, you don't have to have it
Conform completely because the way the infrared works, it'll penetrate even if there's a little gap here
It'll still penetrate into the neck, that's what I like about it
Precisely you know and if you want a little pillow yep you can get that for some support
And then you should feel relaxed there, if you have a tight next
You're here, you might be able to rotate your head right to left, you might start working on the rotations
And figuring out does one of them feel better than the other, in other words to the right or to the left
Yeah if you find out it feels good to the right, keep doing to the right, if it feels good to the left keep doing the left
If they both feel fine, do them both, back and forth, yep
Now each Thermatex comes with an 8 foot cord which is you said an industrial cord, these are nice cords
And it's got just a little switch that you turn on and
Are we on already? Yeah we're on
And there's no rheostat or anything like that it just it's a 1 heat setting
So it's the same comfort every time, I know that some of the People at Thermatex talked about that they were using this just as
A source of heating up in the winter, they put it in their chair
So it's not necessarily therapeutic but it felt good, right
And they recommend, for treatment sessions they talked about
having it on for almost 45 minutes because it takes About 10 Minutes to heat up and
then the benefits are going on for 30 to 35 Minutes and twice a day
Now it seems like a lot but this is very easy to use
I just use it laying in my chair, so you can get up into the neck
And you can watch TV
While you're doing it so it's just real convenient, incorporate it with your other activities
Right so let's say you get done heating up the neck a little bit,
You were doing the rotations now you can also do
Brad I like to put this roll towel right here and even just do a little bit of chin tucks
So you're going like this and now you're tucking your chin in like this and this stretches out the upper part of your neck and
It's a good one to do before you do
You can do some of the other stretches on the neck, it just helps get that neck into the correct position and once again
We might move this up a little bit there you go and you might lay here for 15 Minutes
Enjoy the warmth, let that heat penetrate in
Get the circulation, the muscles relaxed and then start doing the chin tuck, yeah this actually feels really good right now, we got this baby rolling now
You want to stay there and I'll finish the video? Yeah
No I'm gonna earn my pay here Brad okay all right the next one
Brad that we do quite often is cervical extensions
This is the one that we like to use with a lot of people is working on
Going back like this and especially after you heat things up with the Thermatex it works out really well
That it feels nice and loose, if it doesn't work out well, I know what Brad's grabbing already
A lot of times you can take a towel and that might help because if this hurts yet
You don't want to do it, you want to go just into the range that it feels fine and then you can go like this even
Take the towel, pull down and go back like this, and sometimes we even go like this
Along with it, add a little traction so to speak
All right let's go to the next one Brad
Let's go to the mid-back, some suggestions on that, what's nice about this is it comes With two straps
The Platinum Model and
You were gonna help me Brad? Yes you can do this by yourself,
I just didn't want to do it under pressure by myself
Let's go all the way up in the mid-back Brad
You always want the cord going away from your body
I remember the term these are hospital grade cords
So now I'm getting Into the mid-back and plus I can be a little mobile
Because of the large strap, going from the lumbar halfway up the thoracic here, yeah so we're getting that mid-back thoracic area here
And what you can do with this is of course you can work
While you're doing this you can sit in your chair
You can talk on the phone, you can do all these things and then what I like about this Brad is this is
the common movement With
Thoracic problems is you can just lean back like this
This is a really great combination Brad, so you're getting some movements with this stretch and you have direct contact with this deep infrared heat
It's wonderful, yeah this is the one-two punch Brad, this is gonna knock that pain right out
All right let's go to the low back Brad
So obviously you can just lower this down a little bit, now we're getting into the lumbar area here and
One you can do Is
Again with it all in place like this Brad you can actually
One of the standard motions
that we have people do is
Hook line rotations, right so, we bring your legs up like this and you're gonna rotate back and forth like this
So what we're doing here is the pelvis Is rotating and then the shoulders stay still, that way the lumbar spine
That L 1-4 or 5 I mean they're getting a little rotation
Getting those muscles to relax and loosen up yeah this is one almost anybody can do
Especially with this combination, well that's heating up really nicely Brad
There's a reason why I stole it
So what he's gonna do, a lot of times you can go one way and it feels fine and then you go back the other way
Ow ow ow
So you're not gonna push through it, it's not a no pain no gain, work with it, go here
and stay within the pain free range
And after 5 or 10 repetitions you're gonna go back and test the painful way and you might be able to gain some more
Now if you have spondylolisthesis,
And spinal stenosis or even just have regular arthritis, a lot of times this one's
Gonna feel fine too, maybe do a single knee to chest and then you can
Also bring the other one up and
Do a double knee to chest again all while the Thermatex is in place, works out really nice
Gaping those facet joints, gonna open up so the nerves are not being as pinched it's just a wonderful reliever
So you're gonna find out yourself which one works for you
I mean if none of those work then here's another one you can try, so we're gonna show you the extension
No two backs are alike Bob, that's right, no two spines, alright this is one again
Oh I gotta go this way now right? Unless you're spineless but that's not us
Alright you got someone to laugh, again what's been nice about this I've been able to do all these with it in place so
You can actually do it during that treatment time period of the 25 minutes or you know after it heats up
But you can start in this position, this is for about 80% of the backs out there is gonna feel good
And you're gonna maybe eventually get up to like this for a little while
But then finally what you're gonna work on is keeping the pelvis down
Hands underneath your shoulders you're gonna do what we call press ups, like this and this is where this
Elastic strap comes in handy With the velcro Because if you
did this with just a hot pack
Or if it just didn't have that, it'd fall off and it's very irritating
So this is going to really heat up and really make it
Maximal for you to stretch out the back while the Thermatex is in place and
by the way Brad
We should mention Thermatex is offering generously a discount
For people but it's only till September 30th, I thought you were gonna Say midnight tonight yeah
We got a little bit late
in making this video and so we've had some other videos for them but look in the link below
You can take advantage of this before
Midnight on September 30th I hope
we don't get in trouble, Yeah I hope we don't either
This is a great one to do, same thing again Brad, if it hurts go up to this point, and then eventually work up
A little bit farther and
It's gonna provide the support you do
That gives you some things to try, it gives you some things to work on, and my back's in great shape right now Brad
I believe it you're probably ready to go up there and run a marathon
If you had a little generator you could drag it
When you're running and have that next to you, Thermatex, that's the next thing you need to come up with, make a portable one
Maybe you could put that around in front we could help fix it, that's right Brad and I can fix just about anything
Except for a broken heart, they're probably not gonna recommend this over the chest cavity
So all right thanks for watching
you