This article is a transcribed edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in March of 2024. For the original video go to https://youtu.be/P8aZt2KavA4
Mike: One of the best gifts you can give your friend is a way to take away their pain.
Brad: That's right. One of the best ways to help them with their pain is to give them an option so they can take care of their pain, get rid of it, and do it on their own. The best way that we have found to do this is to actually give them the information, and the education in this book, "Top 3 Fix." It actually gives the best three exercises for pain in all parts of the body, from the ankles all the way up to the neck.
Mike: So this book covers the entire body, like Brad said, but today we're specifically going to focus on neck pain.
Brad: That's right. There's some interesting exercises that will work for you, and it's just a matter of learning how to do them.
Mike: So Bob was actually experiencing some neck pain. Now, it wasn't horrific, but it was bad enough that he had to do exercises each day.
Brad: That's right. And we're going to go over two exercises and one habit change that actually made a big difference for Bob, and he's actually pain-free. He says not even a lick of pain.
Mike: That's a funny phrase.
Brad: So to be specific, Bob was having low neck pain right in this area.
Brad: What he was doing to help manage the pain was using a hot pack daily on this area, which gave him relief, but it was only temporary. It was not solving the problem. And what happened, we found out, or what Bob found out after the information from the "Top 3 Fix," is he had problems with his shoulder mechanics and one of his shoulder blades was actually a little low, pulling, putting tension from the shoulder blade to the neck, causing that neck pain. That's why the exercise we're going to show you is a little unusual, but it specifically addresses this and gets that shoulder blade where it needs to be, taking the stress off the neck, therefore the pain gone.
Mike: Okay, this first exercise in the book is called All Fours Rocking. It looks similar to a prayer stretch or child's pose in yoga. So I'm going to be on all fours. Brad will show a seated version later if you can't get on your knees. What I'm going to simply do is sit my buttocks towards my heels like this. Notice my feet are touching. This makes it easier for me to sit back like this. As I'm going down and keeping my shoulders up above my head, what this does is teach my shoulder to properly get in place, help stretch out those muscles, and elevate that shoulder blade again, which can help decrease some of the neck pain you may be experiencing.
Brad: Right, so here the shoulder blade is coming up, stretching the muscles that are actually pointed down, causing that pain. Now, if you want to emphasize one side, say the left side is where you're having pain, you want to emphasize it, you can simply take the painful side, use that hand, and bring it over to the other hand like Mike is demonstrating now. This puts a little more stretch on that, which helps it out a little bit more. Do that as you feel comfortable. How many repetitions, Mike?
Mike: You're going to do three to five repetitions of this. When you're sitting down here, just breathe. Try to sit for three to five breaths roughly and then come back up. I am keeping my palms pushing down into the mat the whole time I'm doing this to help teach that scapula to glide up as it should.
Brad: There you go. Now, if this is uncomfortable for you, you can't get down on all fours, I'm gonna show you, like Mike mentioned, how to do this using just a chair. So for this option, seated position, you'll have a table or countertop in front of you. If you happen to have a chair that has wheels on it, it works really well. I'm going to show you that option. If you don't have that, there's another way to do it very simply. So here we are. I'm going to do the same thing that Mike was in with the hand position. Okay, a little pressure down into the countertop, and then we're just going to roll the chair away from the counter. I can already feel that stretch, and I can feel my shoulder blades moving upwards, getting the stretch below where we need it. Relax, it is very important. Do your three to five breaths, and come back up. And, again, do that three to five times.
Brad: If you do not have a chair that has wheels, simply sit on your kitchen chair, whatever it may be, put a towel on the countertop, and we're going to use that just so we can instead of moving the chair back, move our hands forward. And our body experiences the same stretch, the shoulder blades are experiencing that stretch. And then we come back up to here. Same thing, three to five breaths, three repetitions. You can cross over if you wanna get that one painful side a little more aggressively. The other big benefit of this is you clean the old countertop up a little bit. It's a bonus. All right, let's go to the next one.
Mike: Okay, the second exercise we're going to do is called Arm Slides on the Wall. So I'm going to work my left shoulder, say, this is the painful side of my neck here. I'm going to put my elbow flat against the wall up to my pinky side. Notice I'm just below 90 degrees with my shoulder angle right here. To begin, I'm going to push or slide my arm up the wall. As I go up, I'm going to slightly try to shrug or elevate the shoulder. Go up as high as you comfortably can. It may not be this high, whatever is pain-free. Hold for a few seconds, and then slide back down, keeping contact with the wall the whole time. The important thing is to emphasize feeling your shoulder blades actually elevating and lifting, turning out as you go up. And then come back down. You're going to try to do five to 10 repetitions. Now, with neck pain, if it's centralized, it's important to work both sides, and see if one side you notice is struggling more than the other.
Brad: So you might ask, "Why do this exercise? "Why does it make the pain go away?" Remember that the shoulder blade is depressed or down, and it needs to be moved up so the muscles connected from here to here actually shorten up, taking the stress off of that low neck. So one thing when I do this one, go ahead. Now, once you get to 90 degrees, your humerus or your arm is horizontal, even with the floor, that's when you're going to think about bringing this shoulder blade and scrunch that shoulder up towards your ear. And you'll feel these muscles in here fatigue a little bit because they're working. So this exercise actually complements the exercise on all fours or if you're doing it in a chair. That exercise stretches the muscles at the bottom of the shoulder blade that is pulling the shoulder blade down. This exercise strengthens and shortens the muscles at the top of the shoulder blade. And the end result is to get that shoulder blade up where it needs to be, releasing the neck pain, and actually there are good benefits for the shoulder mechanics as well. So it's a nice exercise for more than just the neck.
Mike: And the last thing we are going to talk about is actually a habit change. This isn't so much of an exercise. It's called 'Lifting The Ribcage.'
Brad: So in this situation, seated in a firm chair works best. What we're going to do is take one hand, place it on the chest, right on the sternum here, and the other hand below on the abdomen. And then what we're going to do is relax the arms. You're going to think about bringing the ribcage up and in this direction, and we're going to do that, feel that go up. And at the same time, you'll feel the muscles here in the abdomen contract slightly. Now, it's really important you relax and allow the shoulders to be relaxed and the arms to be relaxed. We're not tensing up the shoulders, relaxing it there, and just simply bringing the shoulder, or the ribcage up, thinking about bringing this hand up. These muscles will contract, and you get a nice posture. Perfect posture like this is important for the shoulder blade to be in the proper position as well as the spine taking stress off the neck and back that way as well.
Mike: When you have good posture like this, what it's going to do is alleviate the pressure on the shoulders, like Brad talked about. But commonly, most people, when they think about correcting their posture, just immediately bring their shoulders back, and squeeze their shoulder blades together. I'm going to get tired of doing this after a minute, and I'm going to go back to my bad posture. So it's more about just imagining lifting that ribcage up, just that slight tilt, and staying in this relaxed position.
Brad: That's right. So in regards to how often you do that exercise, monitor your posture, or in my case, like at home, my wife will say, while I'm at the computer, "You're slouching!" That's a good time to test it, and get yourself back into position. So you may do it three to five times a day or more, but as you do it more and more, you'll start to have that memory, and your posture will improve without you thinking about it. It's a repetition thing, and it's going to help you out. It's also great for breathing. It's just, when you have posture improvement, everything gets better. You look better, and that's important.
Mike: So the "Top 3 Fix" book is written by our very own Bob Schrupp, as well as Rick Olderman, who is a physical therapist with years of practice in these methods.
Brad: And, again, this book has everything from neck pain, neck hump, knee pain, ankle pain, low back pain, all the way across the board, as well as it offers videos showing, and Mike and I are in most of them, showing you how to do the exercises as prescribed per body part. Actually, the exercises we just went through on neck pain are covered here. We went right out of the book. So you're a step ahead there.
Mike: The book has a good detailed explanation of everything with pictures as well. So you may not have to watch the videos, but they're there for good reference.
Brad: And I'm actually in one of the pictures. They were kind of hard up for a model.
Visit us on our other social media platforms:
YouTube, Website, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, TikTok, Wimkin, Mewe, Minds, Vero, SteemIt, Peakd, Rumble, Snapchat, Clapper, Threads
Bob and Brad also have a Podcast where we share your favorite episodes as well as interviews with health-related experts.
For this week’s Giveaway visit: https://bobandbrad.com/giveaways
Bob and Brad’s Products
Pain Management:
C2 Massage Gun (US)
Q2 Mini Massage Gun (US)
Fitness:
Stretching:
Check out our shirts, mugs, bags, and more in our Bob and Brad merchandise shop
Medical Disclaimer All information, content, and material on this website is for informational purposes only and are not intended to serve as a substitute for the consultation, diagnosis, and/or medical treatment of a qualified physician or healthcare provider.
Affiliate Disclaimer: Keep in mind that we may receive commissions when you click our links and make purchases. However, this does not impact our reviews and comparisons. We are highly selective in our products and try our best to keep things fair and balanced to help you make the best choice for you.
Hozzászólások