- This is Bob and his wife Linda. And within this past year, Linda has developed some bad back pain. - Let me tell you, as
a physical therapist, it is embarrassing and it just hard on you when you cannot help a family member. And this is where Bob was. - Bob's first intuition
was to give his wife the prone press-up exercise
made popular by Robin McKinsey. But after doing this exercise for a while, she was seeing no success. - So he went to plan B, he
went to Dr. Stewart McGill, who has done extensive
research on back pain. And then he gave her the exercise that he often recommends, the cat camel. - Again, she saw no success. - And a third thing, Bob, that he gave the typical
exercise by Dr. Stewart McGill is walking as long as it's tolerated. So she did that as well. - And after consistently
doing these exercises for two weeks, she actually got. - Worse. Now with Linda's situation, things were getting worse and
it really affects her person. It was getting so bad
that she was considering giving up bowling and
activities she really loves. - So Bob was dumbfounded
and didn't know what to do. So he turned to a friend, physical therapist named Rick Olderman. (soft music) - Now Rick Olderman is
just not any therapist. He's actually a specialist. He's written a number of books
and he has some key options for situations just like Linda's. - In Bob's world or his mind, he believes that most
back posture is caused by too much flexion throughout the day whether you're standing or
sitting and slumping in a chair. And in some cases, this is correct. - So with Rick Olderman, he
actually believes the opposite can be the case where people are actually arched too much the other
direction causing the back pain. - So what did Rick do? He gave her three
exercises to help decrease this lordotic arch in the low back. - Okay, the first component
is stretching the hip flexors. We're gonna sit on the edge of the bed just like Mike is here. Feet off of the edge. Go ahead, take it over Mike. - So to perform this stretch,
simply lie on your back and you're gonna bring both
knees up to your chest. You're then gonna bring one leg down and stretch the hip flexor
on my left side here. Notice I'm keeping my right leg up towards my chest and I'm trying
to bend my left knee back. If I'm like here and hitting the table, I can just scoot more towards the edge and
perform the same stretch. You're gonna wanna hold
this for 30 seconds and keeping in this position
should make your back feel good and not have any pain. Then you're gonna reset in a neutral position and
stretch the opposite way. Another important thing to look at is make sure your leg that
is down is in a straight line, not going too far in or too far out. - Nice work, Mike. Good explanation. So with this stretch, Linda was doing it two
to three times per day. Things were going well
and she continued with it. All right. The second exercise that Rick had Linda do
was the all fours rocking. Show it, Mike. - To perform this
exercise, you're gonna get in a quadruple position on
my hands and knees like this. I'm going to keep weight
through my palms as I am getting into a sit position, bringing
my buttock to my heels. Once I get down here, I'm gonna hold this for three to five breaths
and be in a relaxed state. Then I'm gonna come out of it and come back to the starting position. You're gonna perform
three to five repetitions of this spread. Do you wanna talk about how it helps with
your low back curve? - Right. So you can see his
back is actually flexed. That's the opposite of that
arched or lordotic position we're technically talking about. So also this can be done on a bed. If it's too soft, it's
gonna make it difficult. Probably on a carpeted
floor would be preferred in that situation. All right. The next exercise that
Rick had Linda to do is something called glute pumps. It's gonna help strengthen
the proper muscle to get the goal of no pain. Go ahead. - So to begin, you're gonna
be on your elbows and knees. You're then gonna lift one leg and kick up towards the ceiling like this. Notice that my heel is
pointing towards the ceiling. You're not gonna go through the full range of motion all the way to
the mat all the way up. You're just gonna go part ways up and do little oscillation movements for 30 seconds or 30 repetitions. Make sure to stop and then switch. While you're doing this, you should feel your butt
muscles firing and engaging, not your hamstrings. - There you go. - So in addition to the exercise, Rick wanted Linda to fix a
few habits she may be doing that are causing her back pain. - So in the seated position, we don't wanna overarch the back and actually allow it some comfort. We're gonna use simple pillow
from the bedroom, take that, put it lengthwise in the chair,
and then you lean into that. Offers support. It's comfortable and allows the back to flex actually in a
good, healthy position. The last habit that Rick had
Linda do was something known as soft knee walking. Go ahead Mike. Explain it. - So when you typically
walk and heel strike, what you're doing is
actually increasing the arch on your low back. If you are gonna land on your
forefoot with a bent knee, it's pretty hard to
actually extend my back. I would have to be walking
like this, kind of awkward. So in order to prevent
the low back arching, you just simply land on your
four foot more like this and then you can bring your heels down. In order to do this, you're gonna have to take shorter steps. And you're also probably gonna
have to look at your footwear because if you have a
large heel on your shoe, which most shoes have, it's
gonna be kind of hard to do. So in your house, you can
either try going barefoot or using sandals. - So the big question
is, what are the results? Did Linda get better? - Within two days, Linda's
back pain was better and within a week, she was back
to bowling, 100% pain free. - But the question is, what
were her bowling scores? - Oh. (Mike laughing) - That's the real question here. - Actually, she is feeling much better. We don't worry about the scores. Bob said it was a whole
change in her life. She was grateful. - And he said a happy
wife is a happy life. - There you go. Nice work Bob. Good work, Rick. - So if you wanna learn
more about back pain and try some stretches in bed down below, we'll link five stretches
you can do in bed to help with your low back pain. It'll be pinned to the top comment. - That's right. Good
luck with this, please. (upbeat music)
