♪ Bob and Brad, the two most famous physical therapists ♪
♪ On the Internet ♪
- Hi folks I'm Bob Schrupp physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- And we're the most famous physical therapists
on the Internet.
- In our opinion of course Bob.
- Today we're gonna show you how science
shows inversion table decompression reduce surgery by 55%.
This is quite a claim Brad.
- Right, well that's a new study.
- I'll try to back it up.
- Yeah, we're gonna talk about how they did this
and we have, you know, this study
as well as personal and patient experience
that also supports us.
- And by the way if you're new to our channel,
please take a second to subscribe to us.
We provide videos on how to stay healthy, fit, pain-free
and we upload everyday, and in somewhat of a timely manner.
We're actually doing a cool giveaway
if you go to bobandbrad.com,
go to the giveaway section,
we're giving away a Teeter Inversion Table.
- Right.
- So these are really nice inversion tables.
- Yep, they are extremely well made and top quality.
- If you're gonna invert, I would recommend this.
- Yeah, for sure.
- Yeah, well we'll link down below.
Go to Twitter or Instagram
if you want a 60 second version of our program everyday.
You can also go to Facebook if you're a Facebook person,
and it will be pinned to the top of the page in a contest.
So you'll be able to-
- Oh, Absolutely.
- Apply through that method too.
- All right, so Bob, if you got a herniated disc,
okay, and that's-
- All gene or herniated disc.
- That's what the study was done on.
It was actually done on,
all the patients had just one herniated or bulging disc.
They had this- - One level.
- What?
- They have one level.
- One level, correct, with the symptoms down the leg.
They started the typical sciatica symptoms.
They start out with 22 patients,
actually three of them did drop out for various reasons.
That's pretty typical in studies
they don't get a hundred percent.
- Right.
- Followed through, but that's normal like I said,
but anyways, they went through this
and each group, each of them had therapy,
physical therapy exercises they did,
and the one group
had the inversion table protocol that we'll-
- In addition, in addition-
- To the exercise.
Right.
- So this was at New Castle University.
- Right.
- New Zealand, or Australia, or?
- No I think it's in UK.
- UK. Okay.
- And uh-
- United Kingdom.
- There you go.
- So, and the group that did not use the inversion table,
78% of them did have surgery.
- Wow.
- You gotta remember, all these people,
they were gonna have surgery.
- All of them were slated to have surgery.
Right, so, you know-
- And then down that path.
- Right, so, 78% of them did
that didn't use the inversion table,
and the people that did, only 23% of them had surgery.
- Wow, so that's quite a difference.
- That's 55% difference.
- That's it, 55% difference,
and I'm gonna give you the anecdotal story.
So my neighbor I saw him quite a few,
well it was probably over a year ago
and he was having sciatica,
and I had showed him some things
and I'd recommended to him to try to tough it out
if he could, not have surgery
because I said the discs often get reabsorbed.
Yeah, there's a mechanism in a way that happens.
He listened to me, the summix then and he actually went,
not on my advice he went and got a Teeter.
- Sure.
- And I was just talking to him at the Christmas party
and he goes, I got a Teeter and, you know,
my doctor had said the same thing,
the disc could get reabsorbed,
and I've been using the Teeter,
he uses it a couple of times a day.
- Sure.
- And he's got a little bit of pain here yep,
but it's almost all gone.
- Right, there you go.
And I've had patients that use 'em regularly.
I've used one when I had sciatica.
It was a big part of-
- Your pain management.
- Right, exactly, for my spine olisthesis.
So anyways, we do wanna go on to one thing.
If you're gonna use one and you haven't used one,
you really make sure you talk to your doctor about it.
There are some conditions, for example if you have glaucoma.
- You can't have an increased eye pressure.
- Right, exactly.
Blood pressure could be a variable in it.
Yep, and there may be a few other things but,
so it's not good for everyone,
so make sure that it will fit for you.
- Get it cleared with your doctor.
- Right.
The next thing is use a good product.
I really like these Teeters, and the thing that,
you know, Roger Teeter's the-
- The founder of it.
We don't know if-
- All right we gotta bring this point up,
because his name is Teeter, like teeter-totter.
- Yep,
- Which seems like the perfect name for this,
and are you telling me
that he was born with the name Teeter
and that he invented this product.
Or did he change his name?
- I have a feeling he was born with it.
He just seems like that kind of guy.
He wouldn't do that.
- He's 80 years old, still surfing.
- Water skiing.
- Water skiing, okay I thought surfing.
- I don't know maybe he's doing that too, I don't know but,
anyways, so it's a good product.
All right, so, what we do want to talk about is adjustment.
If you're gonna use it,
do not think you're going to just buy one of these,
get on it, and start doing your treatment right away.
Take some time to put it together properly,
look at the videos, the instructions,
and make sure you adjust it properly.
I'm not gonna go through it very detailed in this video.
This one's already adjusted for me,
one more click there we go.
- Now, Alex put this together.
Did you see it, it was pretty easy he said.
- (off camera man) Yeah.
- Yeah, it is, it's pre-assembled for a good part of it.
- Sure, yep.
- So, you should be able to for sure be very comfortable
in the control of where your incline is.
- So basically you just lean back,
and that started pushing you back
into the inversion position.
- Right, so just by moving your hands.
This way, I'm starting to tilt more,
if I go like this, say I'm not ready for it,
all I need to do is do this.
You should feel in complete control,
'cause if you're not relaxed doing this,
it's not gonna be near as effective.
- Yeah, you gotta have the muscles relaxed
so they can come apart.
- Right, basically.
So let's talk a little about the mechanics,
why this works for sciatica.
So what I'm doing is I'm going back.
Now the weight of my trunk and my arms and my head
are gonna slide on the smooth table of this inversion table,
which is another good benefit to this table,
and that's gonna put traction through my lumbar spine.
I don't know if, Bob, if you wanted to show on that spine.
Do we have a spine?
- Yet we have a spine, right here.
- Yeah, we've got those spine.
So, you're gonna go ahead
and, this is where the decompression part of the title
or of inversion-
- So Brad be in this position right here.
If you look at maybe these two bones right here, Mike,
if I pull, well here, you can see on this one.
Can you see how they're pulling apart a little bit?
And that's basically what's happening there
on an anatomical level.
Those are pulling apart,
and sometimes they say there's almost a centrifugal force
on the disc helping to suck it back in.
So almost like a vacuum cleaner.
- Right, well that's what I, I would refer to it
like a vacuum, bringing that disc back in where it belongs.
And the key part is, when you're actually doing this,
learn to relax your core.
Now I'm gonna go back.
I've got this locked out at 60 degrees.
I like to keep it at 60 degrees when I'm inverted.
Some people will go to a complete inversion.
I'm not a big proponent of that, but-
- And if you wanted to set it for less than that,
you can set it for less than that, and go back.
- You can just start out at 20 to 30.
If you invert the first day at like this for five minutes
like I did, I ended up
with a headache all night that night,
and then I realized, too much too soon.
- Yeah, you went full inversion for-
- Well, yeah, I didn't go full.
I was about like this even.
- 20 to 30 degrees is what he's saying,
not 20 to 30 minutes,
and you're only gonna go for a couple of minutes.
- Oh I'm sorry, did I say minutes?
- No, you said 20 to 30.
- Oh okay, I'm sorry.
- So, be clear.
One to two minutes.
- Yep.
- I'd start off with.
- So this is about 20 to 30.
I'll go back to 60,
and this adjusts that's why I'm bouncing there
but I can put that there.
So I'm gonna relax those core muscles,
and you'll feel the traction on your spine.
Now if you have sciatica, you got the numbness,
the pain going down the leg,
when you get back here,
you wanna monitor the location of your symptoms closely.
If the symptoms and the pain seem
like they're going away in your foot,
but they're a little worse maybe
in the thigh or the buttock, that's a good sign.
Okay?
We want the symptoms or the pain to come back
in a manner that it goes away from the foot
or distally we call it,
and it works its way back up towards the back,
the buttock first and then to the center of the back.
- So the pain kind of retreats but it starts
on the furthest most point first.
- Right.
- So, yeah, if you have symptoms in the toes and feet,
you want that to go away first,
this to go away next, this the way to go, you know,
finally, and eventually it would all go away.
- The other extreme is, if...
let's say the back pain gets notably better,
it's like oh wow that back pain is better
but your foot starts getting more numb
and more symptoms there, that is not a good situation.
- That's a bad sign.
- You do not wanna continue,
you're either going too much or you need to reposition
or, you know, do something different.
It's not good.
- Yeah, that's not what you wanna see.
- In my case, I went on it,
my legs started feeling better clearly,
well although I did invert too long too fast,
but I eventually got back to,
usually I went around three minutes,
and I'm comfortable here.
I don't know how many minutes I've been here so far.
- Quite a few.
- Yep, I'm gonna gently bring myself up.
And when you get done inverting,
you're not gonna wanna get up
and just bound out of this thing.
I always like to go to this position for a minute or so,
and then work yourself up.
- You want the blood pressure to equalize
and that you're not gonna get a little hypertensive episode
where your blood rushes down.
- Right, and you get dizzy, and have a problem with that.
And also, this is really critical.
How your leg and your back feels while you're inverting,
then you come back with this position,
and then see if that numbness and tingling comes back
in your leg.
If it does, well, that was doing good on its back
but it's not maintaining,
hopefully it doesn't.
And then also is, get up and then walk around
and you really know it's really setting in is when
the leg feels better when you're in it
as well as for the next half hour as you're walking around.
If it stays good for two or three hours
and it starts to come back,
you may wanna get back in that inversion table again,
and do this repeatedly until it gets better.
- Well, one thing I like is
if it gives you an hour of relief,
then use that time to go for a walk then,
because walking will help,
also help your disc heal.
- Right.
Don't walk up a hill though.
- Don't walk up a hill, keep it flat.
- Right,
- Flat surfaces.
But if you normally have trouble walking
and after you teeter, it goes away,
that's a great time to- - Right, exactly.
- And then walk then.
So, it could be used advantageously.
- Right.
I did wanna mention.
They also have an adjustable and removable lumbar support
which in the case of a disc problem,
you may wanna use it.
There we go.
And that will support the lumbar area.
And it's adjustable.
You can have it at different levels.
In my case, if I use this, it's very uncomfortable.
I will not use it.
It should allow you-
- If you have spinal olisthesis.
- Yeah, I got a difference diagnosis.
- You got it in the wrong slot sir.
- Oh, no wonder it's a little crooked.
- I'm surprised that didn't bother you Brad, that seems-
- I didn't see it.
I was kind of wondering why it was-
- There we go.
There.
- That feels so much better.
The world's ending.
- It's in sync yeah.
- Yeah that's in sync.
- But anyways, that's a nice little option
that comes along with this that, you know,
you may or may not use.
If you use it, you should feel, you know,
good comfort with it, okay?
Wow you're looking at me funny.
- Oh no, I-
- It's time to be quiet.
- Remember Brad I can fix just about anything.
- Except for.
- A broken heart.
- There you go Bob.
- Well we're working on it.
(short gentle beat)