♪ Bob and Brad. ♪ ♪ The two most famous
physical therapists, ♪ ♪ On the Internet. ♪ - Hi folks, I'm Bob
Schrupp, physical therapist. - And I'm Brad Heineck,
physical therapist. - We are the most famous
physical therapists on the Internet. - In our opinion, of course, Bob. - We're gonna show you today how to test for spinal stenosis. We have a 30 second test. We actually have three questions
you can ask yourself too. - Sure. - Or have someone ask you if you think that's a little strange,
talking to yourself. And this can narrow down fairly close whether or not you have it. Spinal stenosis is also known
as basically lumbar or back arthritis, - Mmm hmm and it's also called
degenerative disc disease, that can often lead to it. - Sure. - Um, if you're new to our
channel, by the way, please take a second to subscribe to us. We provide videos on stay
healthy, fit, pain-free, and we upload every day. We're always giving away something. We're going to be giving
away something tomorrow, starting on Sunday. - Oh. - I think it's the Thermotex, I believe. Uh, the infrared system. - Infrared heat pad. - Which is really great
for spinal stenosis, let me tell ya. - Sure. - So, uh you can go to Facebook, and you'll find it on there -- Bob and Brad. You can also go to our website, BobandBrad.com and go
to our giveaway section. - Sure. - So, join us there. Alright, I want to show just real quickly, Brad, what spinal stenosis is. So basically, stenosis means a narrowing. Correct? - So, what's narrowing? - Okay. - That's what we're gonna look at. - So we got the spine here. The head would be right
here, this is the pelvis, you can see part of the legs right here. Got the entire back here. These nerves, you can see,
actually come out of little holes right here. We call them pheromone. And those holes, with
time, uh, with arthritis, and with degeneration, as you
get older, can get smaller, so there's less room for
the nerves to come out. - So if that nerve gets
pinched, we've got a problem. - Right. And that'll send the pain down your leg like you normally get
with spinal stenosis. Now, what a lot of people
don't realize though is -- and we're gonna use this
nerve here, the blue one, just as a demonstration. That you can actually
change the size of that hole depending what body position you're in. - Yep, so, right there I've
got the pen in that pheromone, that, you know, there's
plenty of room for the nerve and then pen. - Now, if I bend forward, look
how that hole gets bigger. Now there's more room for
that nerve to, to work. - Right. - To come out. Now, if I come back,
that hole gets smaller. - Right, now I can hardly
get the pen in there, the tip of the pen. Uh, just the mechanics
of how the back work with the facet joints and the pheromone. - Now, if you have a normal, healthy back, that doesn't matter. There's plenty of room no
matter which direction you go. - Right. - But if you have spinal
stenosis, that may pinch. The other thing is that if I
turn toward the painful side it actually opens that hole up. If I turn away from the painful side, it actually closes that hole up. - This probably not as significant as forward and backwards, but it still has an influence on it. - Right. So, let's look at that in real life, Brad. So, if I have spinal stenosis,
what things generally are gonna bother me? If I bend backward like this. - Yep. _ And if I bend forward or sit - Right. - That often gives me relief of pain. - Sure. - So, let's talk about
the three questions first. - Okay. - If you're -- Are you over 55? - Yes. - Okay, so you're over 55. Do you have back pain? - Yes. Does it increase with
standing and walking? - Yes. - Does it get better when you sit? - Yes. - Okay. - And those answers are true for me. - Yeah, and he does have spinal exostosis and spinal stenosis. Right? - Right, they kind of often time overlap. - Work together. There's other thing too, not
only is it better with sitting sometimes, it's also better when you lean on a shopping cart. Do you want me to call it
Shopping Cart Syndrome? And you're pushing a shopping cart - Right. - 'Cause you're bending
forward a little bit. Opening that hole again. - Right. It doesn't have to be a
shopping cart, does it? - No. - (laughs) - It could be a walker. It could be anything, but they call it Shopping Cart Syndrome, so. - Right. Yeah, any flexion forward
opens it up a little bit. - So, if you answer those
questions, um, "yes", all three. There's a
really good chance you have spinal stenosis. - But on the other hand,
it's nothing that's going to dilibate, you know - debilitate you. - Debilitate you. You know it's kinda like getting gray hair - Right - I tell some my patients. - Right, it's part of life. - Right. - So, um now we're gonna
go ahead and show you the 30 second test you can do. - Sure. - So what you're gonna do is you just have the person stand -- do you wanna do it, Brad? - Sure, yeah. - Why don't you face the other direction. So, I'm gonna have you
put your hands overhead, like that, and I want you to
sort of lean back like that. (groans) Now, if that increases
your pain, and maybe even sends pain down your leg,
there's a good chance you have spinal stenosis. I mean that's, that's one sign. - How long do you need to stay extended? - You, you just, I mean, I'm
sure you'd start to feel it after a while. Well do you feel it on yours? - No, not right now. - Mm kay. - But usually 30 seconds, - Right. - Is that the test? Yeah. - If that does bother you, I want you to try one other thing. Let's say you do that,
and that causes pain down the left leg, this is
something I'm going to show you how the hip flexors or
the muscles on the hips, pull on the pelvis and can
actually make things worse. - Sure. - So a lot of times
what we have people do, we do the test, "Yeah, that hurts. That hurts my left leg." Now you move the left
leg forward, which puts the, the hip flexor on, on slack -- that's the word I was looking for. And now you do it again. You go, "Well, that time it didn't hurt." - Or maybe not as much. - Or maybe not as much. So that, you know now that
the hip flexor probably plays a little bit of role,
and needs to be stretched out. - Sure. - And we'll show that in another video. - Okay. - But the other test you
can do then is actually put the hip flexor, you know,
the leg back like this. Now you're stretching the hip flexor more, - Okay. - And now do it. It's like, "Oh, yeah, that's worse." - Sure. - So, just these little
simple tests, I hope that's easy enough to follow. You know, but either way you can just do the three questions,
and just go back like this. - Right. - And, and that'll give
you a pretty good indicator whether or not you have spinal stenosis. - Right. - And then you're gonna
want to watch our videos on how to treat them, because we're gonna show you some great stretches to do that can
make a big difference. - Oh right, there's definitely
some things you can do to improve the symptoms and,
you know, get back to more of a normal life. - And remember, Brad and I
can fix just about anything. - Except? - a broken heart. - There you go. - We can fix spinal stenosis. To some extent. - Well, yeah. - We can help you manage it. - There you, and you know, you never know, but one thing for sure,
I don't think it relates to the broken heart. - That's right. - The spinal sten -- - No, no. - It's not gonna help. - Thanks for watching. (jazz beats)
