- An estimated 90% of people experience back pain
by the time they retirement age.
We are gonna go through and explain the complications
and the details of the anatomy of the back,
so you understand this clearly.
- More importantly, we're gonna show you
five different activities you can do at home
to stop your back pain.
Some of them are exercises and some of them are stretches.
- We've narrowed down these exercises
to three effective methods
and it's posture, decompression as well as motion.
(upbeat music)
Okay, the next thing I'd like to do is clear up the title
about the 53 different points in the spine.
This is really interesting.
The spine is probably the most complicated part of the body.
It holds the spinal cord, the peripheral nerves, excuse me,
the spinal nerves that come out, as well as muscles,
ligaments, discs, and facet joints.
Let's look at it a little more closely.
So here we got the spine.
We're not talking about the seven cervical spine,
from here to here, okay?
At this point there's actually 34 facet joints.
Can you point those out a little bit, Mike?
We'll go a little more detail.
- The facet joints are on the lateral aspect here
between each vertebrae, and this is a common area
where you're gonna feel your arthritic pain
if you're having any in your back.
- Right and they're on both sides, so two per segment.
Okay, the next thing is 17 discs, and you turn it around
and show the disc, between each vertebrae we've got a disc,
there we go.
Those are a very common point for pain, irritation.
And of course the spinal cord are mentioned.
Now on these, we don't have the ligaments in the muscles
but they're all there.
And I could even go into more detail as far as number
but the whole point is not the number
but how complicated the spine is.
And it's so amazing
that we don't have back pain all the time
but the body takes care of itself
and if you follow the instructions on how to maintain it,
it is amazing how it's gonna work for you.
- That being said, all the components to the spine,
it's very possible,
there are numerous different issues going on,
however, these exercises will help fix a lot of them.
- That's right.
I do wanna clear one thing up when someone says,
"Oh, I've got arthritis in my back."
I wanna look at this.
And we got a closeup here.
You see the red? That's a facet joint right there.
That red represents some irritation of arthritis.
That's where the arthritis is, is in the facet joints,
not in the muscles, not in the disc,
but it feels like it's all over everything,
but that's the source.
Alright now, what I'd like you to do is
we're gonna customize,
actually you're gonna customize the exercises
for your spine.
Everyone's spine's a little different,
has different problems
and there's five different exercises.
What you'll look for is when you're doing the exercises
as we instruct them if they create pain,
particularly any sharp pain,
you're gonna mark that exercise in the don't do list.
Just put it away.
You may be able to come back to it later,
but for now you put it away, go to the next one.
If the exercises feels good while you're doing it
and then afterwards you stop
and you'll give it a minute or two
and it continues to feel good, that's good.
Even get up and walk around.
That's a green light on that exercise
you're gonna put that exercise in your to-do list.
Do that for each one.
After you have that, you'll have your to-do exercises
and the ones that are a little painful
or they're just difficult to do
and then you'll start doing your exercises
on a daily basis as long as they continue to feel good.
So don't overdo it. Take your time with these.
It's customized to you
and this is a really good rule for success.
All right, the first exercise is when you have back pain
and you know it hurts
that maybe you've done something to irritate it
and you wanna give it a break.
This exercises emphasizes decompression
as well as posture.
Ideally, you'll do this on a carpeted floor
and a bed will work, that's okay.
The firmer the surface, the better, outside of a hard floor
'cause it's just uncomfortable.
So Mike is here, used a thin pillow
and the key for this is two fold,
one, you need to put pillows.
I've got three of them here.
So we have slight flexion of the hips
that takes some pressure off of the low back,
puts it in a neutral position,
gapping the facet joints we talked about,
as well as relaxing the muscles,
good posture in the upper body.
And also, this is one thing I personally do
or and have my patients do is take a cold pack.
Unless you prefer heat, you can put a hot pack
and you place that under that back,
allowing those muscles to relax even more,
if there's some inflammation,
the cold pack is gonna help draw that out.
Now, one step better than the pillows is one of these.
They're called a leg wedge.
You put that there and they just work better.
There's something about the angle here,
you bring it up till it makes contact
with your thighs and your hamstrings.
And it really, Mike, how does that feel to you?
- It feels good. It's a nice consistency.
Sometimes with pillows, it's a little oblong
depending upon the shape of the pillow.
- Right and we don't have any affiliation with these.
We just know they work from our experience personally
as well as in the clinic for 20 to 30 years.
Mike, do you have anything else to recommend
for these people?
- So this can help with a range of back issues,
but primarily if you have stenosis
or spondylolisthesis like Brad does,
typically a slight flex posture like this helps.
It can also help with other things, but just give it a try.
It's a nice decompression and relaxing thing.
And Brad called this an exercise
but I think it's just relaxation.
- Well, if it's an exercise
then you can say you exercise every day like Danny was.
(Brad laughs)
- Onto number two.
- Let's go to number two, yeah.
Alright, the next exercise,
this one is going to address again, decompression
as well as motion, particularly to the low back.
We're gonna show two options,
one lying down and one seated.
Go ahead, Mike, in the supine position.
- So you can start with bringing just one knee
up to your chest and stretching this way.
However, some people like doing double knee right away
so that's definitely an option if you would like.
Now, bring both knees as far up as you can comfortably,
as long as it's not causing back pain.
And you can hold this here for 30 seconds.
You can just stay put.
You can do little rocking oscillation motions,
whatever feels good.
You're just trying to stretch out those muscles.
Open up those facet joints we talked about.
- [Brad] Right.
- And this commonly helps
with stenosis again or spondylolisthesis,
but if it helps your back pain, just give it a try.
- Right, it stretches those muscles out,
particularly that quadratus lumbar muscles
responsible for pain.
If you have a hard time reaching over your knees,
simply reach underneath.
Some people find that much easier
as opposed to reaching over the knees,
depending on your body proportions, et cetera.
- Yes and you can also use a belt underneath here if needed.
- Right, that's a nice option as well.
Okay, now you can do this in a seated position.
Well, it's always good to do in a firm chair,
not in a soft, cushiony chair in the living room.
So we're gonna start out here
and we're just gonna lean forward.
I've had people bring their knees apart
and fingertips to the floor.
Again, when you do this
you should feel relief and a very healthy stretch back here.
If you do this and you have problems breathing
or it creates pain in your back, do not do it.
And that will happen with certain people with the breathing
and whatnot, depending on your body structure.
So you can down and up, down and up.
Do that three to five times,
if you wanna stretch to one knee.
This way will stretch the left side of the back.
If you go this way,
it'll stretch the right side of the back.
Again, three to five repetitions at a slow pace.
Follow the rules of no pain
or if you have pain, you stop doing it, very good.
Anything else to add to that, Mike?
- It's the same concept as what I'm doing.
He's just bringing his upper body towards his lower body
where I'm bringing my lower body towards the upper body.
- Yep, it's the same thing. Just different. (both laughs)
All right, let's go to the next one.
Okay, this next exercise is primarily motion.
It really gets those facet joints moving,
gets the synovial flowing, good for arthritis in the back
and loosening up those muscles.
You do it in this position,
we call it quadruped or simply hands and knees like this.
You can do it on a bed,
best to do it on a firm surface like the other ones.
Now, some people call it the cat, camel,
some people call it the cow, cat, I don't know.
But in this position mark,
Mike is going to arche his back, down, so we're going this.
So the spine goes in arch like this, head comes up
and then and you don't hold it there
and push it really hard,
you just go to a comfortable end range we call that,
now, go ahead and hunch up.
Whoa, look at that.
See, to me, this is the camel, but Mike says it's the cat.
- This is the cat.
- Okay, whatever it is, hold that for a few seconds
and simply oscillate back and forth.
Now, if you get pain when you go way up,
simply avoid that range.
This is where the customizing comes important.
Let's say that it hurts only when he is up like that.
So Mike, I want you to customize this.
Do the same thing, but only go halfway up.
So there, little pain starts, then go back down
and that's okay even if you minimize it
to 50 or 25% of normal range,
give it time and loosen things up.
So after a few days of doing this
you get to your full range of motion, pain free-
- Motion? - Yeah, thats-
- New words!
- Anything else to add to that Mike?
- No, just go slow, controlled.
Make sure to breathe through it and be very relaxed.
- Oh, right, that breathing is so critical,
relaxed breathing.
- Usually inhale when I go up like this
and exhale when I push down and arch my back.
- Good, major tips, good points.
All right, that takes care of that.
We're going to the next one.
Okay, this next option is decompression or traction.
Now we're showing three different options
depending on what equipment you have.
It's very minimal.
If you have a stick, a piece of doweling or PVC pipe,
it should be about five feet long
and it's helpful to have a rubber tip
but you don't have to.
We wanna show you an option.
You can actually use a broomstick if you would like
but it needs to be relatively solid,
four to five feet long, preferably five feet or more.
Go ahead Mike.
You're gonna show a standing and a seated option.
- So in a standing position,
you're gonna have to have it on something a little taller
in order to reach up high enough with your shoulders.
Again, if you do not have a grip on the handle,
you could put it in Brad's shoe
or your own shoe 'cause Brad's shoes stink,
so, going to reach up as comfortably as you can
with your shoulders.
Now, once I'm up here, I'm gonna let my knees bend,
keeping my hands in the same place
and this is gonna put some traction
on my spine and give a nice relaxing feeling.
You wanna try to keep as straight of a back as you can.
You don't wanna, it's kinda hard to flex over and do this.
So just keep a nice straight back, decompress,
hang out as long as you can comfortably and then relax.
And you can go on and off a few times
and do this throughout the day.
Maybe you're walking and you have to have walking stick.
You can do this on a park bench to get some pain relief.
- Yeah, if you're one of those people
that don't mind people watching and staring at you,
but make sure you take your time with this.
Do not get into it.
And again, if it does not feel good
or you don't feel steady doing this, do not do it.
We do not wanna cause an a mishap
by slipping on the stick or whatever it may be.
The chair is probably the easier way to do it.
Let's go to that Mike.
- Okay, to perform the traction in a seated position,
you can put the pole on the ground like this,
but for me I can't reach high enough.
This pole is too short.
If you're gonna do that, make sure
to put it in a shoe so it doesn't slide around.
Decompress this way.
However, for me, I can reach a little higher.
So I'm just gonna put this on the chair itself.
Again, reach up as high as you can comfortably.
And then I have to kinda lean forward and pull
with my arms while trying to leave my buttocks relax
and stay on the seat.
This is giving a nice distracting feeling as well.
- Notice the good posture he has here.
So it's working posture with that decompression again.
Now, if you have shoulder problems with this
and it's uncomfortable to bring your arms up that high,
you simply cannot do the traction with any of these methods.
So that's important to understand.
Don't try to wreck your shoulders to fix your back.
We don't wanna have a lose-win situation.
So keep that in mind.
And now the next option, if you have a pull-up bar at home,
I'm using hanging handles like we have here.
Anything that you can grab that's safe
and has plenty of strength and you can grab onto it
and it works well if you go against the wall,
you don't have to go against the wall like I am,
it works better.
But if you have a pull-up bar
and you're free hanging, it's okay,
if you have to jump up to get to the bar, it's too high.
You need to get up on a step, on a stool
or something of that nature.
I would just not do it
'cause we don't want unsteady things going on.
So if you have a setup like this
and you slowly let your body weight
go through your shoulders
and into your spine, you'll feel your back decompress.
Now, if this starts to hurt, you stop.
If it feels good, like right now my shoulders feel good.
I actually do this consistently three to four times a week
and oftentimes more, feels great on my shoulders.
And when you first start
you probably won't go full weight
or you won't lift your feet up.
You'll just feel it out.
See how it goes, 5 or 10 seconds is all, get up,
see how it feels, if it feels good while you're doing it
and after you get up and move around
that's the green light.
And go ahead, do it more.
After a week of doing this, only three days a week,
don't do it every day right away.
After each day, it should feel good the next day.
Then after you start on Monday,
then Wednesday, go ahead and do it again.
You can hang a little longer if everything feels good
as a result of the Monday session and you may go feel good.
And sometimes some people will actually do a little bit
of gentle movement with their hips or their knees.
Again, it has to feel like good motion.
Never hang longer than 30 seconds is my personal rule.
And typically when you start out,
5 to 10 seconds is good.
Progress it to that 30 seconds over a matter of a few weeks.
So very cautious with the hanging.
It is a little more aggressive
but it can be have really good results.
Okay, now we're gonna move on to the last one.
This was pretty much strictly posture
but posture and the spine go hand in hand
if you want a healthy spine, pain free,
we're gonna do that simple exercise in the seated position,
we call it the Ws, or I do anyways
because I'm from Wisconsin and this is the W.
So in the chair, like Mike has it, do a firm chair.
It's not gonna be on a nice soft cushy chair
in the living room, probably a kitchen firm chair.
And you can see Mike actually doing this.
Now he's gonna breathe as he does it, the W comes up,
he's breathing in through the nose, exhale out to mouth.
And as he does this,
he's gonna think about bringing his chest out, arms back
and back here, his scapulas or shoulder blades
are actually squeezing together.
That really stretches the muscles out here
which are typical for getting tight
and getting this posture.
We want this posture.
So that's the W for win.
- Yes, this is really gonna work the upper part of the spine
your thoracic region compared to your low spine.
But it's great posture exercise to do.
And one more tip about posture.
If you're sitting in a chair that's more worn out
or the seat pan is too deep
and you feel yourself constantly sitting like this,
what you can do is simply put a pillow behind you
in a vertical fashion
and then just put that there and it'll help with this.
- Right, you know, that's one of those things
I've just kind of ran into in the last month
with Bob and Rick, another therapist.
But yeah, it's comfortable,
it feels good and it promotes good posture.
- And you can do your Ws with the pillow now.
- There you go.
All right, there you go.
Pick your exercises accordingly.
Mike, do you have anything to finish up with?
- Just do what feels good for you.
Skip the one that don't, like, Brad mentioned earlier
and hopefully your back will start to feel better.
- That's right.
Good luck with everything and good posture.
(upbeat music)