♪ Bob and Brad, the two most famous physical therapists ♪
♪ on the internet. ♪
- Howdy folks, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist,
- Brad Heineck physical therapist.
- We are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- In our opinion, of course, Bob.
- Today, we're gonna talk
about the best costochondritis self-treatment.
No meds.
We're going to have you stop that alarming chest pain.
- Right, yeah, and Bob, and this is something
I can attest to because I have costochondritis,
didn't know about it for a while.
And it is alarming when you have chest pain
and you have to go to--
- Very scary.
- the emergency room.
- As I said before, Brad, as we start to develop things,
which will be pretty much every week now, as we get old,
(laughing)
we're going to go do videos on it.
So that's all going to benefit for you.
- Yeah.
- And you're going to figure out how
to treat these things and then we'll pass it on to you.
- That's right.
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- All right, good job, Bob.
Shall we carry on?
- Let's carry on.
- All right, costochondritis, it's a big word.
It just means chest pain,
but I'll tell you a little bit about it.
So once you understand things a little bit
with this type of chest pain,
it makes it a little more easier and comfortable to treat
- And not as scary.
- Right, exactly.
- So "costo" refers to the ribs.
The first part of the name. - Right
- Chondritis, -itis means inflammation.
And if we look at Sam,
that's why he is here today to assist us.
We got the sternum here.
We've got the white ribs here.
We're going to look at this side
'cause they get the colors out,
so we're not confused.
And then this clear part
right in here between the ribs and the sternum,
there's actually a joint, typically made more of cartilage.
But as we age that can change a little bit
and we can actually develop some inflammation,
some arthritic changes in there.
And when things start moving and irritating that,
and get it more inflamed,
it creates chest pain and it can radiate out
not just in this area, but in my case,
I feel it radiating on the right side,
typically over this way.
And it changes your breathing because if it's bad,
you get short of breath because it hurts
when you take a deep breath,
so your body automatically makes shortness
of breath a symptom.
So you've got all the classic symptoms of a heart attack.
So the first thing you're going to do,
if you have symptoms is you're going go see a doctor.
- Yes. - Absolutely.
- Do not think that you're going
to diagnose costochondritis by yourself.
- Exactly. - You only go ahead.
- You have to go to the ER, typically the emergency room.
You don't have time to go to the doctor
and set up an appointment.
- Right, right.
This is not something to take lightly.
- I know cause I tried that.
(laughing)
- Yeah, sure.
- Actually the first time was happened to me at midnight,
I woke up with chest pain, immediate, not immediately,
but after some conversation with my wife,
it wasn't too long, and we were going to the ER.
- She was grabbing you by the ear and dragging you.
- Right, I spent the whole night there.
They had me on monitors, blah, blah, blah.
The doctor says your heart's very healthy.
You have musculoskeletal symptoms.
And I said, well, I'm a physical therapist.
Can you fill me in a little more on me?
- Lay it on me.
- He said, we don't really know for sure.
But it's not your heart.
It's musculoskeletal symptoms.
You're healthy.
You're done with us.
Go on.
(laughing)
So anyways, his job was to keep me alive
to make sure my heart was healthy,
not to go through in more detail.
So, I naturally went into this,
looked into a much more thoroughly,
but in the meantime,
I did go to the doctor three times
with chest pain to the ER.
Each time, diagnosed, because I wanted to make sure,
even though I thought I had costochondritis
I don't want to (laughing)
- You hear, I mean, Brad, I'm glad you give this
as an example here,
because I've heard it many times where people go in
and they go, no, your heart's fine.
Then they all had a heart attack next time.
- Yeah, right.
- So I think it was very wise for you to check it out first,
at least three times.
- And then along with that, I went to my regular doctor,
then set me up with a cardiologist.
- Sure, to make sure.
- I had a very thorough assessment of my heart.
Every time I went,
they continued to say your heart's healthy,
we can't find anything wrong with it.
It's muscular mechanical.
- I wish we could say that about your brain.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
- Well, you know, my wife says that too, but anyways.
- I'm thinking about the rib cage, Brad.
You know, it's moving up and down.
There's a lot of movement in that area in the rib cage.
- There is. - So.
- And one way you can test
and you know, I had two or three doctors do this to me.
They would start palpating right here,
right over that area where the costosternal joints are.
And it would never really set me off
until the third time I went in,
the doctor was doing that and he left
and he really didn't find anything,
so I'm pushing and all of a sudden right here
about the size of a dime, I hit a foul.
Whoa.
- You found the spot.
- I found it.
It's like, it's very specific,
but you know the idea is if you push here
and it really makes it worse,
that's an indication
that it could be costochondritis.
- Not for sure.
- Not for sure, but it's an indication.
- Yeah.
- So anyways, since that point I can remember
I had chest pain out mowing the lawn.
- Sure.
- And I'm riding and I've harried,
gone through all the doctor visits,
ER visits, and everything.
It's like, ah, man, this is gotta be costochondritis.
I'm not going in again.
I did.
It went away.
It was fine.
It happened to me at night once.
And then I started doing some research on my own
and I'm looking at some YouTubes
and there's some other YouTube therapists--
- Right.
- that are showing these stretches
and stretches like this, breathing, probably good exercise,
but they never helped me.
- Sure.
- As a matter of fact, the stretching,
I think kind of irritated it.
- It could irritate it.
- Finally I found a therapist from New Zealand.
- New Zealand.
- Steve August.
And he has a very thorough video on it.
15 minutes long.
- Right.
- If you had a therapist that gets a little boring
cause he goes through details
about how the problem is
back here. - Back here, yeah.
- And it's like, I didn't buy it at first.
That doesn't make any sense.
- [Bob] I thought it made sense to me right away.
- Well, of course, but I'm not that bright.
And it kinda did, but I thought I'm always skeptical.
You know me, Bob.
- [Bob] Right.
- I never take anything at face value
until I prove.
- Makes you a good therapist.
- Yep, I guess so.
I don't know.
But anyways, so I started his treatment.
- So, basically what he's saying,
it's tight back here.
It's almost at here down.
- Right.
- And if it's tight back here,
the movement of the rib cage has got to come from somewhere.
- Right.
- So it gets hyper mobile here.
- Right.
- So by loosening this,
you don't put as much stress on the front basically.
- Right.
- You know, he talks about the rib being like a handle
on a bucket. - Right.
Going up like this. - They move up and down,
up and down
and there should be a hinge on each side.
If the hinge gets a little rusty, you know,
analogy, on one side,
you need to break it up and get those ribs loose again.
- Yeah.
- So I'm a believer now.
I started out, he had.
Excuse me, Sam, you're no longer needed.
Here's the whole treatment.
This is what you've been waiting for,
you've been putting up for this babble for seven minutes.
- I think it's good to understand.
- It is, Bob, it is and you know, it's our show,
so we can take a little longer.
I thought I'll use one of these because
what Steve he invented a device called a backpod for it,
but it's like I have to order it.
That's work.
I gotta pay for it.
They're kind of expensive.
I thought I'm gonna see if I can get something else to work.
And I kinda did.
I do use a six inch roller like this,
but it doesn't get specific enough to those back joints.
But you know, you can try this if you have one at home
and it will do some work
and it's going to be good for your posture anyway.
- [Bob] Right? It's not a bad thing for ya.
- It's gonna help you one way or another.
Then to get more specific to those rib joints,
I tried a softball.
And that helps.
That was a little more--
- [Bob] That's really aggressive though.
- Yeah, it is.
You have to be careful.
- [Bob] Yeah, I would say the average person
is not going to be able to tolerate that.
- Well, I'm supporting weight
through my butt and through my elbow.
And if I go all the way on it, it's very aggressive.
So, but you can still, if you don't want to get a backpod,
I think you can successfully treat with this,
but you're going to have to work at it and get what you.
Why don't you stand up, Bob?
- Sure, he's gonna show the area where he's placing it.
- Yeah.
So we're working between the scapula
and the spine right there.
It's that muscle area.
And that's where those ribs connect to the vertebra
and so I'm going to start 'round your shoulders.
I know you don't.
There we go.
It just makes it easier to show.
I'm going to start here.
I'm going to work up and down here
and then we're going to go here.
And usually I do three places, high, middle, low,
not necessarily in that order,
but we get those three places.
And then I'm going to show you what you do with your arms
and how you do it.
But I am going to use the backpod because it really,
I mean, it's,
that's why it's made specifically this shape.
It works better.
- Yeah, and again, it's really expensive,
but if you look at, there's two molds there.
Show the inside, Brad.
I mean, this thing, you could run a truck over it.
It's not going to break down.
- [Brad] It's solid.
It's built the way it's supposed to be built.
Bob says it's expensive, but I spent, you know,
each emergency room visit was over a thousand dollars.
You know, this is $80.
- Yeah, we make nothing.
I want to make sure everybody knows.
We make nothing off this.
I just, I've become a big fan.
I use it for posture all the time.
- Yeah. You could use it for other things.
Yes, side joints.
- I'm to the point now, like I bring it to my cabin.
Like if I miss a day,
I start feeling that pain between the shoulder blades
and this takes it away.
So I mean,
it's one of the few things that I would be loathe
to give up in my life.
- So here's how we both, Bob and I actually use it
the same way.
I'm doing it for my costochondritis.
Bob likes it for his posture,
as well as his muscles in his back.
It's a good way to get 'em loose.
So I'm going to put it here.
This is my right side.
This is where I always develop the chest pain.
And I work this side a little more
and I go on there like this, and this is what Steve,
the therapist that invented this,
you know, I did this on a video once
and he emailed me the next day or a few days later,
he said, you forgot to do your arms up and back
like this. - [Bob] Right, yes, exactly.
- And I start to do that.
A warning, if you're never used this before,
or if you're using the softball,
take a towel like this
and unfold it, whatever, layer it up,
and then put that over.
- [Bob] And also you may have a pillow under your head.
- Yep, and a pillow, exactly.
- [Bob] You may really have to blunt it first
to start off with.
- Because especially if you're a thinner person,
it'll be a, it'll feel a little aggressive.
You know, I've been using it for quite awhile.
And I'd say after a couple of weeks of using this,
I welcome it without anything.
- [Bob] Right.
But you did start with something.
- Oh yeah, I used a towel.
- [Bob] I remember you telling me that.
It was hard on you.
- I just had a cavitation there.
It'll make your joints pop a little bit and crack.
- [Bob] This is the first thing I do in the morning.
I do it actually, while I'm doing hamstring stretches.
- You mean like right out of bed?
You get on?
- [Bob] I got out of bed.
I'm serious and I go to the bathroom.
- Oh, Bob, first thing?
- First thing.
I get up, I go to the bathroom, I start stretching,
and I put this thing behind my back and I hit the six spots.
- Yep.
- And I used to have to like right before I did the run,
I'd have to stretch my back out some more.
- Sure.
- But this, this does it for me.
This is, and I, like I said,
this has taken away the pain between my shoulder blades.
So, you know the thing I like about this, Brad too,
is that it comes with a booklet.
- Oh yes.
- We did what?
It was a 30 pages?
- 31.
- 31 pages.
And it's really well written.
- Yeah.
- I mean, it goes over the posture things.
It goes over a lot of things.
You can use this for the costochondritis.
That book almost is worth $10 to me, Brad.
You know, he gives a good explanation.
Are you having fun?
- I'm done.
I just wanted to show how fast it is.
I also treat my SI with it.
It feels good.
And he has a pot of pasta on that.
What is with my speech today, Bob.
- A video on it?
- Yeah, yeah.
No, he has a page in there.
- [Bob] Oh, he has a page in there.
- Describing that.
- [Bob] I have not seen that for,
I think you mentioned it one time before
on one of our videos first thing.
- Bob, our viewers are starting to get bored.
- [Bob] All right.
- The thing is done.
We showed how to use the backpod.
- You've got the alternatives.
You could try other things
if you don't wanna spend the money,
but remember Brad and I can fix just about anything.
- Except for.
- A broken heart.
- There we go.
- We'll get that fixed too someday.
Thanks for watching.
- Boom boom, boom boom.
(upbeat music)