- Oh.
- Hi, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- Together we are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- Oh, in our opinion, of course.
- Today, we're gonna talk about top three exercises
to help stop that pain between your shoulder blades.
- Right back there.
- Have you ever had it?
- Oh yeah, mm hmm, I've had it Bob
and I do much better with it now being a therapist
than prior to that.
- Right, 'cause you can actually stop it before it starts.
I had my first episode when I was in PT school,
that's physical therapy school.
And what happened?
I mean, it really caught me off guard.
I was studying like this a lot.
And I remember getting this sharp pain
between the shoulders.
- Yeah. - What the heck is that?
- It was really sharp, I'm sorry,
sharp stabbing is what I was trying to say.
Sharp stabbing pain.
- Yeah, we should get that speech therapist.
- That's right.
So, you have to watch that.
You're gonna wanna watch your posture
and this first exercise really is actually
to try to help correct that forward head
or leaning down posture.
- Yeah, so we're talking about that pain.
- Right here, between the shoulder blades.
- Oh yeah, usually it feels
like you gotta crack something
and it would kind of go away.
- Right. - That's what I...
- And one of these exercises we show you
is somewhat kind of cracking it.
- Crack, yeah?
We gotta get that speech therapist going.
- Go ahead, show the first one, Brad.
- All right.
- Chin tucks and neck extension.
- Right, so with this it's important you start out
with good posture,
so scoot your bottom back in the chair,
sit up nice, and tall shoulders back.
- I'll do it this way.
- Okay, we'll just face each other.
Chin tucked, so chin tuck goes in like this.
Not in down, but in back like someone put a pie
into your face.
- Yep. - And you kind
of feel a little stretch back here, you may.
- Now this is one, I would do a bunch of times a day
but you can do this one kind of
as a self corrector as you're working on something.
- Sure. - Unless you're
at the computer and you're going like this and like,
oh yeah, Bob and Brad said to do some of these.
- And if you can listen to us, it'll work.
- Right.
So then if you wanna take it a little further,
because a lot of times you're bending down like this,
what's the next step, Brad?
- Well then you're gonna go into the full extension,
go back in here, lean back into your chair,
and go back like this.
- Yeah. - And then come back.
Don't hang out back there real long,
just a second or two is usually all you need
and it should feel good.
If you get any sharp pain with that, don't force it.
- Right, don't force it or don't go all the way back
if it does hurt.
Just go as far as it'll let you go.
Now, this is kind of the opposite of what you've been doing,
isn't it?
And what we have found is generally
by doing the opposite, it actually takes the pain away.
- Right, exactly.
- And believe it or not,
even though we're working on the neck,
a lot of times the pain is coming from the neck,
going down in the shoulder blades.
- You bet. - Between the shoulder blades.
Okay, that's number one.
Number two. - Ah.
- Brad, we might as well just keep doing
this facing each other.
- Sure. - You got both of us, Matt?
- [Matt] Yeah.
- My son's filming today.
- Yeah, good job Matt.
- Okay, all right.
The second one we're gonna do is
what we call the hallelujah stretch.
And you need to find a chair, Brad,
that's kind of like this one,
kind of a hard back, solid back.
It's gonna hit you a little bit below the shoulder blade.
- Sure. - Okay?
Little bit below.
What else do they call it?
- Scapula. - Scapulas.
- Yeah, the big thing is you don't want a tall chair
that comes up here, that will not work.
- So, get your butt all the way back again.
And what you're gonna do is,
and this is the one where you might get a little cracking
of the back.
You're gonna actually bring your arms up
and you're gonna go back and hallelujah.
And you stretch it.
(Brad groans)
Now you can also go and put your hands like this
and stretch back like this.
Now this is the one where again, quite often,
you're gonna feel crack, crack, crack.
And it's getting right up into the vertebrae
of what is going between the shoulder blades.
- You bet. - So..
Again, the first one, the chin tucks, I'd say a good 10.
Of these, you can probably get by
with doing maybe five of 'em.
- Sure. - Wouldn't you say, Brad?
- Yep. - Probably a good five.
- Yep. - And it's one you can do
throughout the day also.
- Great, yep. - Good stretch.
All right the last one is what we're gonna do.
You can do this two ways.
You can do cat and camel.
You can do it kneeling on a floor or kneeling on a bed.
Do you wanna do that part?
- Yeah, I'll do the cat and camel.
All right.
So here like this and the first thing is gonna,
you can round up that's that's the camel, right, Bob?
- I think so, I don't know. (laughs)
- And actually the cat, the part where you're gonna arch,
is really the bread and butter of it.
- I think they're both working this area,
getting mobility in here.
And when you come down,
really squeeze the shoulder blades together.
- I'm squeezing Bob, I'm squeezing.
- Okay, good.
Now come back up again,
now squeeze the shoulder blades together.
- Oh yeah.
- Now if you don't have,
if this is one you don't wanna do at work
and you probably don't,
maybe one that's a little less invasive.
Can you follow me over here, Matt?
A little less problematic to do is just put your hands
against the wall and you're gonna go ahead
and now I'm squeezing my shoulder blades together.
- Yeah.
- And now I'm going to round it out.
Squeeze. - Squeeze it in,
arch the back a little bit.
- I actually just felt it crack there.
- Oh yeah, mm hm.
- And you know what?
As kind of a bonus, Brad,
if the other one that you can do
throughout the day is just do what we call
the shoulder shrugs where you bring the shoulders up
and squeeze 'em back like that.
- Yeah, sure.
- Up, squeeze back.
We always give a bonus, don't we Brad?
- Oh yeah, we're full of bonuses.
- Up, squeeze back.
- Yeah, this is all the stuff,
if you're working at a computer,
you're studying, working over a desk...
- The key is posture, isn't it, Brad?
These things are all helping you improve your posture.
So if you haven't already subscribed to us,
make sure you do.
We're gonna help you stay healthy and fit
and we're gonna get a speech pathologist.
It's gonna help me speak today. (laughs)
- Alright well be careful and teach your kids good posture
when you're three years old or younger.
- All right, thanks.