- Hi, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- And together we are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
I was trying to add a little flare, Brad.
- I know, your flare is flaring, Bob.
In our opinion, of course, let's go, Bob.
- Yeah, today, we're talking the top three exercises
for an arthritic back.
We get this all the time, don't we?
People with arthritis in their back.
One thing is, though, you probably should make sure the pain
that you're having is from arthritis.
Generally, with arthritis, it's gonna hurt more
with standing and weight bearing type
of activities. - Sure.
- It's often gonna feel a little bit better with sitting,
isn't it, Brad, quite often?
- Yeah, it flex open up your facet joints.
- Yeah.
So, anyway, you try these and see if they give you any help.
- Right. - All right.
- If they help, they help.
If they hurt, you don't do 'em.
- Good time to do 'em is right away in the morning
when you wake up 'cause the back is often very stiff
in the morning and this is a good way to wake it up, so.
- Okay.
- Oh, can you throw me a pillow, Brad?
Do we have a pillow?
- Not for you, Bob.
- Here we go, maybe I'll just use the Packer ball.
- Yeah. (Brad chuckles)
There you go, all right.
- Let's start with this.
We're gonna start, this is just a general one.
This is a great one for anybody with back pain.
I can't hardly think of anybody that can't do this one.
You start laying down flat, you bring your knees up
and you're just gonna gently start rocking.
I said racking. - Yeah.
- Rocking. - Where is your head, Bob?
- And what this is doing is it's opening all the joints
of the back and closing them at the same time,
bringing nutrition in, Brad, bringing in blood flow.
And after a while, you could actually go a little further,
can't you, Brad. - All right,
now let's go through our little details with this.
You're gonna have your knees together
but real tight, gently together.
And then when you go, look at his hip is coming over
but his shoulder over here is stayed down.
So, that puts a little rotation throughout the spine,
a gentle stretch, gentle rotation.
- By the way, this is actually not bad
for arthritic hip, either.
- Sure.
- 'Cause it gets that moving too.
So, you're getting two with one here.
- We're looking for a gentle range of motion.
- You can even let it stretch all the way at the end.
- You bet. - All right.
That's number one, number two.
- How many of those, Bob, 10, 20?
- You can do 20, 30.
I mean you can do it for five minutes
to really loosen things up.
I wouldn't start off with five minutes
but I'd start off with maybe a minute or two.
- Right and this should be pain free?
- Yeah.
The second one is you're gonna start off with just,
you're gonna go one knee to chest like this
and that's, again, starting to open the facets on this side,
the joints on this side.
I would go ahead and just give a little rocking motion,
like this, Brad. - Sure.
If you've had a hip replacement, avoid doing it.
- Yeah, exactly.
- Unless the doctor says you're clear to flexing.
- You get a gonna double benefit from this.
This is a good stretch for the arthritic hip
at the same time.
You're gonna do both sides,
again, stretching the back a little bit, stretching the hip.
And then when you're able, you're gonna go
and actually bring both of 'em up
and do a little pumping like this
and it's gonna help open the back and the the joints
and get a little nutrition in there.
- Right.
- That's it Brad, three simple ones.
- So, rotation, single knee, double knee,
20 repetitions, maybe more.
Should be pain free and tell this to your parents,
if you're 40 or 50, 'cause they're probably
in their seventies and eighties
and have them subscribe to us
because they're not too old to get on YouTube
and do some self help.
- It's a great one to do in the morning, again,
or right before you go to bed, too.
- Here, let me have that ball, Bob.
All right.
- [Both] Take care.
(upbeat piano music)