♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
- Howdy folks I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- And we are the most famous physical therapist
on the internet.
- In our opinion, of course, Bob.
- Boy do we have a treat for you today.
Today we're gonna show you how to get rid
of muscle knots in the traps, trapezius,
shoulders, and back in 90 seconds.
- Exactly.
- We're not hyping it, this is an actual technique
and Brad's gonna talk about how it worked
on a different part of your body, right?
- Oh yeah I'm excited about this.
This is, it's nothing new, it's been
scientifically proven by many studies, clinically proven.
It started back in the 50s by Dr. Lawrence Jones.
And originally it was called Strain/Counterstain.
- That's what I remember from my earlier days.
- Right and now it's more often just positional release.
Typically a therapist does it but we can teach you
the basic parts of this so that you can do it at home.
- Yeah, we're basic gonna show you how to get
this area right here, the knot out of it, right?
- Right, that shoulder, the upper back,
very common place for knots.
- It's a few steps but, you know, just follow along with us
and you'll be able to catch on.
- Exactly right.
So, Bob, are we gonna, oh yeah.
- By the way if you're new to this channel,
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When's this one going up, Mike?
- [Mike] Saturday!
- Saturday, okay so we're in between right now.
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Yeah, knee glide.
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- Oh sure, yep, yep.
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- All right so, Bob, we've already started
with the introduction
- Sure.
- of this, we might as well get right to work.
So that, why don't you turn around, Bob.
- Sure.
- That typical spot, there is a trigger point
in this muscle often times in the levator scapula
or the upper trap, that tightness it gets from poor posture,
tension, all those things that adds up with life.
And it seems to end up commonly, right here.
- Yeah I feel a little bit there.
- Yep and every patient I have that I work
on their shoulder, I usually find that spot and I say,
"You see that?" And I say, "Don't worry,
everyone has it on both sides".
But when you're tight and it's painful,
it's worse, much worse.
So what you wanna do, when you feel
that tightness, is take your opposite hand
and reach over and find that knot.
You'll find the muscles a little knottier there.
- Yeah it's right there, it's a area of hyper irritability.
- There you go.
- It's a nodule basically.
- Yep.
- A marble.
- I had a, in school I had a teacher say,
"It's like a tootsie roll."
And it kinda is, it's about that size
and you'll feel it and it's tender.
And when it's really knotted up, it's really tender.
So just palpate that and get a benchmark
for how painful it is.
- Yeah.
- Now you can do this in a couple different positions,
but I'm gonna show you how to do it side lying.
So if it's the right shoulder that has the knot,
then we're gonna lie on your left side.
- You said it right, Brad.
- Well, Bob, I've been practicing at home.
- Can I have, two pillows probably.
- Yeah we're probably gonna need two pillows.
- All right and I can still palpate
that area too in this position.
- 'kay can you see that, Mike, in the camera?
Or are we getting off.
- Should I move back a little bit further like this maybe?
- That might help.
Now, the thing about this is it's a positional release
and the position of your head and shoulder is very critical.
The whole idea, the muscle basically starts here
and goes up to the head and we wanna shorten
that muscle as much as possible.
And the whole theory is neurologically that's going to allow
the muscle to relax, which is gonna increase
circulation, blood flow, and oxygen which
is gonna allow that knot to release.
And you'll feel that when that get that circulation going,
everything feels much better and it carries on.
So now we got the theory, we're gonna
go back to the practice.
So, Bob is going to take his head, if this is
a painful side, he's gonna side bend
right ear towards right shoulder, okay?
And then he's gonna look away from that shoulder, rotate-
- No, I'm gonna stand first aren't I?
- Well we can extend, not really far.
- A little bit, little bit.
- Yep.
- So I'm bringing my head back a little bit.
- Yep, exactly.
Sorry, good job, Bob, thanks for correcting me.
And then look away.
So this is kind of an awkward position
and then we need enough pillows so that you can relax
and maintain that position.
Now you can palpate again if you feel that
painful spot dramatically decreases when you touch it,
this is all the farther you have to go.
Then you have a timer and you hit the timer
or you look at the watch on a clock on the wall,
you know, has second hand or whatever.
And you go for 90 seconds in that position, it's critical
you go at least 90 seconds in order for things to release.
Now, if you palpate and still feel sore,
then we're gonna add shoulder or scapular elevation
so the shoulder goes up towards the ear.
You may want another pillow for this arm to relax.
- Or you could even go up like this.
- Yep or you can reach over the top like this.
And you can adjust yourself however it takes
so that muscle relax and the painful spot.
- It feels better down here.
- That feels better there?
- Yeah.
- Yep there, I can see Bob,
his eyes are relaxing, things are-
- Oh, I can feel the knot is just disappearing now,
the one that was there.
- So what pain level were you at when you pushed initially?
- Well it wasn't much.
- Right 'cause you're not.
(inaudible)
But it was maybe at a two or a three?
- One of two I'd say.
- Yeah that's pretty typical for the average.
- And now it's gone.
- It's gone, so you're there.
- Yeah.
- So, okay you ready?
Click, the timer goes and the person
completely relaxed in a quiet area.
Again, 90 seconds.
- Can you do this in a seated position, Brad?
- Yes, you can.
- Okay.
- You probably wanna do it in a recliner
or something where you can get pillows.
- Maybe we'll show it real quick seated.
- We could try, yeah.
Well I wasn't going to but we're gonna give them a bonus.
- Yeah that's right.
- We might as well.
So I gonna pretend 90 seconds went by.
- It's pretty close to 90 seconds.
- Yeah it probably is.
People are probably complaining,
we're talking too much again.
Now it's really critical when you come
out of this position you come out of it slowly.
- Okay.
- And you just relax, you're breathing.
So, Bob, can you get up in a nice relaxed, slow manner?
- I'm breathing.
- Yep breathing, relaxed.
And when you're done, now you can do some gentle
and slow range of motion with your neck.
We're not gonna after this and stretch hard on it
or anything like that, we're just
gonna do some gentle motion.
Remember that muscle's relaxed, now we want circulation
to continue to flow, just allow it to continue to relax.
Also, you can, you know, do a little massage on it as well.
- Sure.
- If you want, not hard, you know, you don't have to,
it's already, the notch is gone
we just need to get the circulation.
And then you're done.
You can repeat that three or four times a day
'cause it may come back particularly if you're tense,
if you have poor posture, you're not aware of it,
which is often times why that
particular knot starts and is originated.
- Yeah a lot of times you're not moving
and you're concentrating and you're focused on your work
and that's how it develops,
but let's try it in a seated position.
- Sure.
- So basically I'm gonna do lateral side bending.
- Yep.
- This'll help you even when you're lying
down to know what you're doing.
- Right, the mechanics.
- So I'm going to the right and I'm bringing
it back a little bit, now I'm turning away.
- There you go.
- And now I'm lifting this side up like this.
- Now, again, Bob does not have a
chair to lean into and relax so this-
- And that would be a lot better if I was into a recliner.
- And then you would have a pillow.
- Right.
- At least on pillow there to rest your arm on.
- Yeah.
- You'd have a pillow here.
A recliner so you can adjust the angle
would probably be ideal for someone on this.
- I actually gotta be honest, Brad,
I think I almost would rather do it sitting.
- Yeah it may be a good option.
(inaudible)
It's one of those things, in the clinic it's
easier side lying 'cause you've got a patient
laying there and it's easier to work with.
- That really zaps it away.
- Bob this has been proven.
- I guess I'm a little shocked that it's working that well.
- Yeah.
- 'cause it was, it was there and now it's gone.
- This is gonna be big, Bob.
- All right well if you wanna do it on the other side,
I'm gonna show that real quick too Brad.
- Oh okay, go ahead.
- 'cause they might wanna try on the other side
and they won't remember the steps.
- Well say no more, Bob.
- So left side, left side problem
we're gonna angle, laterally side bend.
You're gonna extend it a little bit.
You're gonna turn away and then you're
gonna elevate the shoulder.
- If you don't have something to rest the arm on
if you do it seated, it's not gonna work because
- Sure.
- Your muscle is gonna contract the whole
left shoulder up so you have to.
- Yeah everything's gonna work, so you can't
do it like this, you gotta be leaning in a chair.
- Yep and support the elbow and the arm.
You know, actually, before we finish up,
I did this, we're gonna do another video on this.
- Oh yeah that's right you were gonna give tennis-
- Tennis elbow which I've been working on this
for awhile now with my cross friction massages been helping.
I did the other mobilization that was helping
and then I did this technique.
- And it really helped.
- Yeah I mean the next day I forgot all about it.
It's like "Oh, my tennis elbow is gone,"
it's like, "We gotta make videos!".
- Yeah he's gonna do a video on this.
- We gotta show people.
- I know there's nothing like when
it works on you really well.
- It's doubling, I mean we get excited for our patients
but when you feel it in your own body, you gotta admit it.
- It does.
- It does motivate you a little bit more.
- It could be a life changer to some extent.
You know, I mean, I just remember when my shoulder was
bothering me and we did the Booyah Stik and it took it away.
- Oh yeah.
- Like my God, that was.
- We must share, share to the world.
- All right.
- People are getting bored of us now.
- Yeah, thanks for watching everybody, appreciate it.