my folks I'm Bob Shrum physical
therapist
Brad Hynek physical therapy the most
famous physical therapist on the
internet in our opinion of course hey
Brad we're gonna talk about the worst
back stretch ever we want you to stop
this today don't ever do it again
this can actually cause back pain and
sciatica and if it doesn't cause it it
certainly can make it worse promote it
you better and I've seen a lot of
patients come in and I asked them what
are you doing for your back right now
and they'll show me this stretch so I'm
like we got better options much better
options by the way we also have better
options on what you can watch here watch
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it's such a sad tale I start crying
every time I talk about it we were not
like those children but we are turning
things around alright let's let's jump
right into this stretch Brad let make
people wait because this is goes way
back when you know people seven years
old and in grade school this is how they
were taught to stretch their back
everyone stretch your back tuck your
toes that's your toes or if you want to
make it even worse do a bend and a twist
yeah so you you saw the spine twisted
and so what did they people used to do
the these remember these windmill yeah
windmill oh yeah they're kind of fun
though
but you're bending and you're twisting
and you're doing what I call a weighted
stretch okay weight of the upper body is
putting stress on the low back right and
it's putting a lot of stress on your
back so and I'm not going to get into
even this is actually one of the worst
positions for your discs this is a good
way to blow a disc is to bend it and
twist right it really makes the disc
volume right so that's why with lifting
they say do this right yes my back hurts
a little bit just for doing this a
little demonstration so so if we're not
gonna do those Bob what are we gonna
give you some alternatives now if you do
like have Brad's can
which is spondylolysis you do want to
get some Bend of the spine mm-hmm it
actually is good for it if you don't
you're gonna want to maybe bend your
back the other way we'll go all will
show you all the different directions
here and the vast majority of people I'd
say 80% of the people are probably gonna
want some back bend right exactly just
stenosis is final as theses are to
people who definitely don't want that
yeah and if you have if it's mostly an
arthritic back but even our thread it
back out I'd like to try to do some
extension sure can yep gentle so let's
start off and I'm gonna give myself a
pillow break and I have comfort you're
gonna take a nap Bob I'm gonna take a
little nap see okay I'm laying on my
back for the first one and this is the
way if you want to bend your back
forward you know this is how you do it
going from the bottom up and it's
there's no weight on the back and you
can start off just by warming up a
little bit by doing a single knee chest
here sure need a chest like this and a
little pressure on pressure off pressure
on you may need to keep this knee up it
depends how flexible yeah exactly
I'm gonna go the other direction get the
other one too and then once that's
warmed up a bit now with the one up you
can go ahead and bring the other one up
and you can stretch the back this way
and again let's give one pressure on
pressure off so it's the low back right
in here that's getting the stretch here
all in the low lumbar area you're
stretching the hips a little bit too
right but the key to with all these
stretches there should not be paying
with them you know if you're feeling
pain with this it's probably not
appropriate you could feel a little bit
of pain you can bump into the pain but I
certainly don't want you making the pain
worse if it feels like things stretching
or maybe a little stretch pain and it
feels better as you repeat it you know
that's okay
now Universal stretch that we almost
have everybody do which it seems like
you're not even stretching the back and
you are moving the hips too but we're
gonna have you do what we call trunk
rotation so you're in the same position
you wake up in the morning you're going
I want to warm up my back a little bit
you could try the knees to chest but you
can also start just gently rotating your
knees back and forth like this and you
can go just to what you talked about
windshield wipers right right so the
I always say keep your knees gently
together everything's relaxed and let
them go back and forth now you can see
is his hips right here are actually
rotating in the back here is getting
some rotational stretch on it it's
subtle but it's definitely there and if
one direction hurts don't do it don't go
if it hurts to the right just go to the
left right now sure and then eventually
try it again and see if the right one
still hurts because eventually a lot of
the times you loosen up it feels better
right and if you want to get a little
more advanced on this you can go all the
way over like this and and keep this
shoulder down and even bring this foot
up a little bit like this and stretch it
a little bit and the key that this
shoulders down this hip is coming over
there it's getting quite a bit of
rotational stretch on that back I'm
actually holding on to the mat here so I
don't fall off so I can also go this way
I can't go too far I got my mic on this
side but I'm gonna go along with that so
all right number what's where we are now
number three I believe this is the one
that Brad and I talked about for the
vast majority of people this is the one
you're gonna want to do it really should
be a part of your life and that's back
extensions so yeah I'll start with those
so you're gonna lay flat on your stomach
we've showed these many times but you
know it doesn't matter if you have
sciatica or just plain old back pain you
should be trying these so you can lay
flat flat on your stomach you can lay
here just for a little bit to get your
body ecla mated sometimes people start
with up what we call a prone prop where
you just up on your elbows a little bit
but eventually what you want to try is
gonna put your hands underneath your
shoulders and you're gonna start
pressing up like this the key to this is
that you don't be lifting up just like
this I just had a patient yesterday yes
I worked on the New Year's Day oh wow
yeah terrible is a dedication yeah
anyway he was a friend so I wanted to
see him and he he would get up this far
and then things would start going like
this he was just very very stiff but you
know it did take him long and he was
starting to get up into this range okay
know ideally eventually you want to get
all the way up you want to be able to go
ahead and keep the pelvis down and get
all the way up to this point here
okay I had a woman she is 90 years old
last week as a patient and she could do
that I don't get it yeah it was
incredible she losing this I just wanted
to know what she was eat for the last 90
years to the keepers so I was just at a
wedding this weekend it was a 92 year
old I've known her for a long time she
actually used to help us volunteer and
she looked fantastic and she's out on
the dance floor at midnight yet I'm like
man I hope that's me
so you want to show back at your hand on
the chair Brad yeah so this is more of a
mid back stretch so if you're having
more problems in the you know what we'd
call the thoracic area more up in this
area here this is definitely a stretch
you want to do so get yourself a ball
that's not a hard ball it's got a little
squish to it this one's actually a
little flat and that's okay it's kind of
preferable in some ways put that ball
and you can vary where you put it you'll
know and I'm just gonna lean back you
can put your hands like this or you can
move it down a little bit I'm gonna go
down there this is such a good stretch
it really is a good stretch this is a
stretch that really it's good for almost
everybody because everybody starts to
tighten up as they're working out at a
chair and well you can get your head
then done this way before you get a nice
stretch inner you almost get a little
traction yeah do a wheelie with the
chair be careful though all right all
right next one is one that Brad does and
we're not sure this is helping the back
or your your said the SI right so you
want to show her Brad you're the one
that does this one this one definitely
gives me relief I'm gonna go here I'm
going to keep my back straight and I'm
just gonna stretch into it here and if I
do it this way we can talk about a
little bit easier so it's doing a little
posterior tilt on the pelvis and
stretching the low back and you're
stretching the hip I thought you know if
you go like this and you round out a
little bit you you're taking the weight
off your back sure it's not a way I
thought this might work well force
people people who do have like spinal
stenosis but I don't think I want you to
do that no no we're gonna go to there
you're taking weight
your back leaning on the knee right and
it's you know these are things you
experiment you try and see which one
were you if it doesn't toss it out it's
always we do this all the time I try
what things working what we don't as a
matter of fact Bob I don't want to get
carried away here but 10 years ago there
are stretches from my back that I could
do then that now I cannot do because my
body's changed you have to adjust right
exactly the aging process is not always
friendly but you can keep up with it
that's right it can be your friend or it
could be your enemy but all right next
one is just what we're not done no plain
old hamstring strawberry a lot of
different ways you can do this I like to
stretch out strap personally because
it's just it's a relaxing way to do it
and it also is is an easy way to do it
it's also an effective way to do it so
what I do is I just go ahead and put it
around my foot in the morning when I I'm
just kind of trying to wake up you do a
barefoot nope I got a slipper on oh you
got a slipper yeah Wow yeah they got a
little bunny ears no they don't have any
bunny ears or little faces on them so I
lay back like this and I'm tired so I
just go ahead and pull it up like this
it's it's effortless because I'm I'm
just actually let my arms hang like this
and then I do in order to stretch it a
little more I push down and then I relax
pushing this direction pushed down and
then I relax and it makes it go even
further Bob know if you got some
arthritis in your hands and you can't
grip like this oh yeah you can go
through like that it's a really big
advantage of having that strap it's just
and again I'm not I know I mean I'm not
I'm just letting weight you know my arms
are just kind of pulling down without
you know working that height so what's
so good and you know if you wonder why
are we stretching the hamstrings when
we're trying to talk about back pain
sure hamstrings go up into the pelvis
and they can actually cause your pelvis
to kind of rotate this way you can have
a posterior tilt all right that's a real
common stretch as a hamstring stretch as
part of the back routine and the final
stretch is the same thing again to is
we're stretching a muscle in the hip but
it actually helped affects the back if
it's not stretched out so we're doing
the hipping
hip flexors iliopsoas iliopsoas yep
rectus femoris she's just trying to
impress people to break yeah I got this
terminology down pat back you know it's
also Sartorius so is the IT band
I forgot Oreos I know this because we're
gonna be doing a video on this so good
there's there's actually six muscles
that actually helped hip flexion Oh
so go ahead pillow works all really good
you just go ahead and put your knee down
and you're gonna go ahead and lean
forward like this again these muscles go
up into the spine so you're actually
stretching out the back too so you can
see as femurs at this angle his spine is
here so we're getting that muscle that
goes around the corner there and
stretches it out and I only want to
stretch it a little more you can
actually lean over this way and that
stretches the hip flexor even a little
bit more maybe getting the QL a little
bit to the quadratus lumborum of the QL
so there we go Brad we got to lecture
everybody on what the worst stretch is
then we also got to tell you what the
good ones good options for - alright
thanks take care
you