♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ the two most famous physical therapists, on the internet ♪
- Hi folks, I'm Bob Schrupp, this is...
(Both laughs)
All right, keep it rolling.
Hi, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- Together we are the most famous physical therapist
on the internet.
- In our opinion, of course Bob.
- My mind works faster than my mouth.
Today we're gonna talk about costochondritis chest pain.
By the way, I spelt it wrong Mike I think.
I hope you spelt it right.
(Brad laughs) - Science-based
for self treatments at work
is actually a real patient and it's an updated one.
We did this before.
- Right, we've done a number of them
but this has some other information we have not had before.
It's gonna be helpful.
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- That's right.
All right Bob,
are we ready to go? - Yeah we're ready.
- Costochondritis.
So that's another name for chest pain.
And if you do have chest pain
and you're watching this video
the very first thing you must do
is turn this video off and go to the doctor
and make sure your chest pain is not a heart attack.
- Right.
- You do not ignore it
and pretend you can fix it with this treatment.
You have to assure that your heart is healthy,
which I have done.
I have costochondritis,
I've been to the ER - You're the real patient.
How many times have you been to the ER?
- I've been to the ER
three times because-- - Look at that.
- And the third time I didn't wanna go.
- Right?
- But they convinced me, my wife convinced me
and I went there and again,
for the third same time, told me your heart is healthier,
than everyone in this ER room.
(Bob laughs)
I went to the, then I went to the cardiologist
and he did a thorough thing.
And I, you know, I'm convinced my heart
is healthy - It is fine.
- And so I decided, they said,
you have musculoskeletal problems causing your chest pain.
And I'm thinking I'm a therapist,
musculoskeletal pain, that's your (indistinct).
And I didn't know what it was.
So I start doing homework and I've gotta be honest with you.
There are other sites out there, YouTube sites
that give treatment for this.
And they're not bad treatments.
They're not gonna hurt you, but they're not
as good as this.
I think I found the man who has come up
with a treatment that gets to the source.
And you understand that?
What I mean just a little bit.
Bob, did you wanna say something?
- No, I just think, can I mention the guy's name?
- Absolutely.
- So his name is Steve August,
spelled like the month, A-U-G-U-S-T.
And, he's a really knowledgeable PT.
He's retired, but he's...
- He's actually, have given talks on this--
- Right, on this subject. - To doctors.
He talks to doctors about it
in conferences and that type of thing.
He has studied this.
He has-- - He's the guy.
- He had costochondritis for seven years.
He said, he finally hasn't had it for years.
So I'm working on that myself.
- Now, you took it.
It took you a while though?
Let's be honest. - Well, I'm still
not a hundred percent cured.
I thought it was done.
And then
I quit doing my treatments-- - You get flare ups.
- Then I got a flare up again.
And then I went back to, Steve said
if you want the science information
go to Steve August costochondritis
and you'll see there's four videos up there
and the longest one is half hour,
he's talking,
he explains it in detail.
And he sources the studies.
I'm not gonna - He does it better
than we would.
He's very awesome. - He's way more
- Check him out. - Intelligent than me.
I could tell you that much for sure.
So anyways, let's talk about the source of chest pain.
You've been to the doctor.
You know, your heart is healthy
but you still have this chest pain.
And it's scary.
'Cause I still, like this summer I got it.
And I'm mowing alone,
I get this chest pain here and it radiates around here
and then I say, oh,
- That's gonna make you anxious.
- Well, it's like, is this the big one or not?
- Yeah, right, right.
I'm I going down?
(Brad laughs)
- So what I found was, let's go to take Sam here.
That's why I got him out here for a reason.
It helps to understand this.
So if you do have costochondritis
you feel more relaxed about it.
Where your ribs come around
and you could see right here, the different color
they show white here
and then it's kind of a clear color here.
And the reason that is,
is this is a cartilage.
Cartilaginous junction between the sternum and the ribs.
And that's where the source of pain is.
You can have some arthritic changes
and whatever else may be causing it.
That's the chondral part of the world, right?
Costal is the rib, right?
- Yeah, costal, chondral...
- Cartilage?
(Bob laughs) - Thank you.
And itis inflammation, is inflammation there.
Because when you breathe and you move around
your ribs have to expand.
They're always moving in and out like this.
- He said it like a bucket handle going out.
- Now, I've seen some sites
where they show stretches and say put cold packs
on your ribs, which are fine.
- Nothing hurts.
- It may make it feel better.
But the source of the problem, according to Steve August
and I'm a firm believer in this after my experience.
- It's actually back there.
- It's back here where the ribs connect up to the vertebrae.
They're becoming in trapped and not scar.
You could call it scar down,
but that is mobile as it need to be.
And we'll have to mobilize them.
And that's the key.
- And if it's,
if the mobility doesn't come from here,
it's gotta come from here.
So it gets overused here
and here we're getting into the science a little bit.
But that's where you start getting in pain,
'cause it's just absolutely being overused.
- So one of the things, if you have costochondritis
and I've had doctors, they'll palpate,
or they'll kinda of push on your ribs,
right along the sternum,
outside of one side and down the other.
And it wasn't until the third doctor
and he couldn't find it either.
He's just feeling there, asking does that hurt?
And I just said no.
And then he kind of walked away.
I was in the emergency room.
So I start pushing on there myself,
and finally I found a spot right down in here,
as well as the size of a dime when I put pressure on there.
Wow, did that send me through, - Does it hurt right now?
- It's a little more tender than normal.
It's right there, but it's not like it is when it's...
when I have chest pain and I hit there,
it really irritates. - Sure.
- And then I found it and the doctor said,
oh, that makes, it made him feel better too.
'Cause if you push there
and it makes your chest pain a lot worse
it's not cause of your heart.
I mean, he's already, you know,
so it's kind of a double check.
- Double rule out. - Exactly.
So anyways, you can do that
and see if you can find that specific point, you know
you could put cold pack on there if you wanted to.
One thing that was good through Steve's treatment,
and the one that the primary treatment for getting there
that back junction where the rib connects
to the spine taken care of is,
is this... - the back pod.
- The back pod.
Now, to be honest with you,
I thought they're kind of expensive $80
and I didn't have one.
So I use a softball.
- Sure. - And it actually works.
Not as good as this,
but if you don't have this,
you don't wanna spend the money.
I think you can literally try and get a soft ball.
Bob, before we go any further, - It's probably gonna
be a little aggressive.
- Well, I'm gonna show him
how to get around on that a little bit.
Take that. - Okay, yup.
I'm gonna show it to you.
You work in different areas, right?
- I had same points that you've talked about.
- Usually there're like six areas.
So here is the spine,
we're actually to the left of the spine.
Then we can go to the right of the spine,
left to the spine, right to the spine.
Left to the spine, right to the spine.
- So we go all the way down
in between the shoulder blades to the bottom.
And that's the area you wanna hit.
- Okay.
- And it goes pretty fast.
I use one every day because of...
For me, it actually took away my knots that were up in here.
- Yeah, it's one of those things
that does a lot more than just treats costochondritis.
Helps posture, helps muscle knots.
We're gonna go down here on the floor here, Mike.
I should go through,
let's see, - Your routine, right?
- Well, I do use a six inch roller just to get started
and that does not get specific enough
for the costochondritis
but it just... - Sums it up a little bit.
- Yup, it loosens it up, feels good,
and it's good for my posture.
So that's optional,
if you don't want to.
Now, if you don't have the back pod,
you can use this soft ball, hard ball's too small
the bigger and affirm one,
is gonna be really aggressive,
it's gonna hurt for most people.
I can't imagine it.
So I took a towel and I went put a towel over this
and it's still pretty aggressive.
But if you don't have anything else, it's gonna help now.
If I put all my weight on it,
lift my butt up, that's way too aggressive.
So I'm just going to adjust my weight and roll on it.
And you could-- - I know yes.
Sometimes yes,
people put a pillow underneath their head too.
- Yeah, we'll show that one to get the back pod on.
So you can do that.
And you know, you'll probably get to do the job.
I've got to admit this works a lot better
and it's designed for it.
Now actually, I even started with this.
- Yeah.
I was gonna say it took her awhile to...
- Grab a pillow 'cause I...
Steve suggests using a pillow under your head,
one or two, you'd probably get put two out there.
- [Bob] I was gonna say yeah.
- And this whole treatment,
I know on the one time I did a show
on one of my earlier videos.
Steve email me back and he said,
he gave me options on what I was doing.
Not necessarily wrong, but what I need to add.
So I'm gonna start on the left side
and I'm gonna roll back and forth
and what Steve says is make sure you go up and back
with your arms and you could tell it changes the weight
and you need to get aggressive on there
to get those ribs moving in those junctions,
those joints back there.
I'm gonna go to the next one down.
I'm just gonna go one side.
And if, I don't use pillows anymore.
- Right, 'cause you've,
and I don't have the towel on here.
- Acclimated to it, you--
- I personally just do one arm
and I use this one for balance.
I can do it this way, but I found that works well for me.
Oh boy.
I just got some nice cracking in there Bob.
- Yeah, I do it while I'm doing my hamstring stretch.
So I put my foot up on a railing
and I put this on my back
and I stretch both of my hamstrings,
I stretch my hips a little bit,
all while I'm lying on that.
I don't roll on it at all, really.
You know, I stay stationary six different spots.
- Or you don't go back and forth like that.
- No, no.
But I do do this.
I do put my arms up over the arm.
- Arm flection.
All right, so I did that on my left side.
You wanna do it on both sides.
My pain is usually, on the right side.
Not always.
I do spend more time on my right side
to get that more treated better.
So it's a great thing to do.
I do wanna say what I did leave out.
And actually this actually in the last, I took a week off
from doing this and a vacation.
- And it showed up again. - I paid the price
to start coming back.
That's when I was on the lawnmower.
So I went back to Steve's costochondritis videos
and sure enough, I didn't.
- You weren't doing this part of it either.
- Well, I wasn't complete enough.
I turned it off, I was in a hurry
and I thought the back part was going
to do the whole thing.
So these are easy.
You can do them anytime throughout the day
in a seated position, going up like this
and just stretching those ribs out
and reaching over and...
- Again, trying to get those ribs moving.
- Exactly, right.
And you know,
doing both sides. - You wanna be breathing
while you're doing this, yup?
- Good job, Bob,
Thank you.
- Every time you breathe, the ribs go out.
And when you breathe in, they go in.
So you're getting some movement there.
- Yup, there's muscles between the ribs
or stretching those out as well.
Just that mobility in the ribs is what we're getting.
And then there's one up good posture.
Bring your hands like this, - That's posture,
you can achieve. - and work rotation.
I'm just going to go to the left
from the center to the left.
And he suggests, once you get loosened up, you know
you can actually push them some hard ones.
And they're a little over pressure with some dirt.
- Certainly don't do that if it's painful.
- Right, yup.
- Always pain-free these should be
if it hurts one direction
you may not even work on that one.
Originally you may start off on just the one side.
- I've got to admit I had the sock costochondritis
in the middle of the night.
And I had been in there, you know
after I'd done all my diet
and felt my heart was healthy and I got up, went downstairs.
I got on my back pod, rolled it out
and the pain didn't go away
but it definitely brought it down.
It's like, oh, that feels better.
And I can go back to sleep.
So it's a wonderful device.
So, and these extra stretches at the end
are something that you can easily add
and do throughout the day.
- Right, right.
You don't have to necessarily choose a time
to do your exercise.
- Exactly.
- You can do it while you're at the office or wherever.
- So if you've got this.
There is definitely light at the end of the tunnel
and gets you into a pain-free chest pain, free life.
- Yup, check it out.
- All right.
Enjoy - Good luck.
(upbeat guitar music)