Massage guns on the market generally come with various shapes of massage heads to target different muscle groups. Take the Bob & Brad massage gun for example. It comes with five different heads, that is, a classic round head with an elastic texture, a soft air cushioning head, a flat head with hard plastic, a bullet-shaped head with hard plastic, and a fork-shaped head with hard plastic. We all know that when the same amount of force is applied to different surface areas, the smaller a surface area is, the bigger a pressure is created. So you can create a unique massaging experience by combining different levels of intensity of a massage gun with its various massage heads. Choosing a suitable massage gun head depends on your personal preference and desired effects. When massaging a place with a large amount of muscle mass or if you are a big beefy person, it is fine to go a bit more aggressive by choosing a smaller, harder head with a higher intensity. But, if your muscle is exceptionally sore or is already injured, it's better to go easy with the massage by lowering the intensity or choosing a bigger, softer head. When you have minor muscle injuries at certain places, it is a good practice to just massage the muscles around the injury to increase blood flow and reduce local inflammation so that the injury can heal better and faster. Do not use a massage gun, not even with a big soft head, on an acute muscle injury. Or simply put, if the pain is too much, do not continue. If the pain is getting worse with a massage, stop. Besides, please be aware that it is recommended NOT to use a massage gun on your head or neck (above the neckline of your T-shirt) if you are not medically trained, since that region is too critical for life. The most famous physical therapists online, Bob and Brad, use the elastic round head and the air cushioning head very often, because they can be used almost everywhere on your body. They create a relaxing and recovery effect on muscles and the experience is not too aggressive to accept. When using the elastic soft head, you can also choose to change the angle of applying your massage gun so the force is not applied directly perpendicular to the muscle but at an angle and the massaging experience can be further customized. In this way, it can mimic the effects of a cross friction massage to deal with muscle injuries by increasing blood flow and breaking down scar tissue in the muscle. Although it is recommended not to directly apply a massage gun to bony structures, it won't become too big an issue when you accidentally hit your knee or elbow with a massage gun with the air cushioning head. So the elastic round head and the air cushioning head are good options to start with and for general daily use. When your big muscle is exceptionally tight and you'd like to boost its recovery, the flat head with hard plastic is the one to go for. It delivers a powerful massage to the target area, increasing the blood flow, flushing out acidic metabolic products, reducing local inflammation, and thus helping muscle recovery. Similarly, the bullet-shaped head with hard plastic focuses the massaging force even more, gives an even deeper massage, and can be used to break up scar tissue in muscles and help target trigger points. But because they are so focused and powerful, do use them with caution and do not force the painful sensation on yourself. Avoid applying these heads on bony places, and if your muscle has just been injured or is experiencing chronic pain/inflammation, do not use these heads and do not use a massage gun directly on the injury. Consult your physical therapist or go around the spot gently first. Bob and Brad don't use the fork-shaped head all that often, but it doesn't mean that you shouldn't use it. Its unique shape gives it unique functions. The gap between the two fork heads makes it easy to be applied to places along a bony structure. It can be applied to run down the muscles along your spine or to give a massage along your Achilles tendon. Being the smallest of the five heads, the two fork heads also delivers the most penetrating massage and is good for a deep, targeted massage. Using a massage gun with different choices of massage heads is surely a personal experience. To make it enjoyable and create the maximal benefits, listen to your body, use your imagination, and go exploring. Bob and Brad also have plenty of tutorials on YouTube on how to use massage guns for different purposes. Don't miss them!

This article is a transcribed edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in February of 2020.  For the original video go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS4PNjSmsEE&t=13s Bob: It's a real beauty here today, weight loss fast. The biggest mistake with eating healthy salads. Brad: There's no doubt about this Bob, in my mind. All right, weight loss! Bob: You’ve been trying to lose some weight, Brad? Brad: I have! You haven’t notice have you, Bob? Bob: I thought you had. Brad: No, actually I weighed myself this morning, I was 170.4 lbs. Bob: So, how much is that a loss? I know, not from the way high, but just recently. Brad: Well, January 1st I was 183. Bob: Oh, so you’ve lost that much weight already? Brad: That was a heavy 183, because you know how you fluctuate, and I was eating and drinking a lot. A few days later I was down to 180 but that was a light 180. You know how it is. Bob: Yeah, I know how it is. Brad: So, anyways, it’s been going good. Along with this weight loss, I’ve learned some interesting things, and the title of this is one of them. People automatically think we’ve got to start eating salads, like this( pictured below). This is my salad; this is what I eat. All this came out of my fridge this morning. This is what I have in the fridge on a regular day, I mean, we ate like this before, my wife and I, but now it’s more religious, more of a daily thing. Bob: Sure, a little more plant based. Brad: We’ve got some of this, spinach, organic spinach. Bob: Those are baby spinach. Brad: Blackberries, you know how nutritious blackberries are. Bob: Blackberries are awesome. That is one of those what they call “superfoods.” But all these are really good choices. Brad: Right. So, you take this, low in calories, high in nutrients, anti-inflammatory. Bob: Anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, it just has it all. Brad: Right! And then we've got to put something on it. We’ve got these low-calorie dressings, you’ve got to put that on there and then what happens? You absolutely ruin your diet. The reason why is first of all, there’s a lot of vitamins that to get absorbed into your intestines, they need to have oil, fats I should say, in your system to absorb that. The reason I know this, I was reading this book here by Dr. Mark Hyman MD and he wrote this book on, “What the Heck Should I Eat?” He goes through in detail on how you get the most out of your salads, and it’s not by putting on low calorie dressings. Bob: A light salad, right. Brad: Typically, they have fats in them, but not very much and the fats they do have in them aren’t the right kind of fats that you’re looking for. Bob: The big companies, I mean, I don’t want to be one of those guys, but they are quite deceptive. They will sell you what they want, and it says “light calories, 50% less fat and fewer calories” but that doesn’t really mean anything does it Brad? Brad: No. Bob: 50% less than what? Brad: They’ve got high emulsifiers, flavoring, high fructose corn syrup. Bob: That’s the worst thing. Brad: One of these has the second ingredient is corn syrup, I believe. Bob: Yeah. So, if you want to know one of the things that you should never eat is high-fructose corn syrup. If that’s an ingredient on the thing that you’re going to buy, pitch it. Brad: Seriously, just put it back on the shelf. Bob: Yeah, all right, don’t throw it on the floor or anything. But it’s really, there’s no healthy benefit for you at all. It’s just really bad. When I see that, I run the other way. Brad: Right. Getting on with things, before we babble too much, what should you put on there? So, according to Mark Hymen, he says right here, we’ve got some extra virgin olive oil, nice organic extra virgin olive oil and that’s what I’m going to put on this in just about a half hour when I eat this. Bob: You know, Brad, the other thing I noticed on here is the amount of sodium in these too, this has got 350 mg per serving. If you’re trying to watch your blood pressure, that’s still highly proven that sodium isn't good, you want to avoid it. Brad: It just doesn’t make any sense to put a diet like this and mix it with these low-cal dressings. It’s no good. Bob: I often find Brad that I just cut apples and put berries on it and that’s enough for me. In fact, that’s what I’m eating this afternoon. Brad: I was out to eat Saturday night in a restaurant, my favorite, you know. I always say, going out to eat is the best way to get fat. Actually, I was able to order something reasonably healthy. I went to the salad bar and I picked out all the healthy stuff I could. I didn’t get the potato salad and all these heavy things that are kind of fun to eat. All the dressings I just bypassed them. Luckily, they did have two little jars of just, I’m not sure what kind of oil but I just took it. And it was fun to eat. You could actually taste the vegetables very clearly. Bob: So, you still enjoyed going out and you didn’t pay the price the next day. You were fine and you felt good. Brad: Exactly. I watched everyone else eat their roasted chicken and potato salad and everything else. It did look pretty good though. Bob: It does get a little tough. Brad: Good luck with your weight loss and eat some healthy salads. Interested in learning about the products mentioned: Book: "FOOD What the Heck Should I Eat?" By Mark Hyman MD Link: https://amzn.to/37dwflU Visit us on our other social media platforms: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/physicaltherapyvideo Website: https://bobandbrad.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BobandBrad/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/officialbobandbrad/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ptfamous Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/mostfamousPTs For this week’s Giveaway visit: https://bobandbrad.com/giveaways Bob and Brad’s Products: Grip and Forearm Strengthener: https://store.bobandbrad.com 15% off with code BLOG15 Wall Anchor: https://store.bobandbrad.com 15% off with code BLOG15 Booyah Stik: https://store.bobandbrad.com 15% off with code BLOG15 Knee Glide: https://store.bobandbrad.com 15% off with code BLOG15 Fit Glide: https://store.bobandbrad.com 15% off with code BLOG15 Massage Gun:https://amzn.to/36pMekg Hanging Handles: https://amzn.to/2RXLVFF Bob and Brad Resistance Bands Set: https://amzn.to/36uqnbr Bob & Brad Amazon Store: https://amzn.to/2RTSLLh Check out our shirts, mugs, bags and more in our Bob and Brad merchandise shop here: https://shop.spreadshirt.com/bob-brad Check out other products Bob and Brad Love: https://www.amazon.com/shop/physicaltherapyvideo?listId=3581Z1XUVFAFY Check out The Bob & Brad Crew on YouTube by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/c/thebobbradcrew Medical Disclaimer All information, content, and material of 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. 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This article is a transcribed edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in March of 2020.  For the original video go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7e-NElA2G8&t=75s Bob: Today, we are joined by Dr. Adrian Louw. This is a great honor for us. I’m going to let him tell his background, but basically we refer to him as a pain expert. Dr. Adriaan Lowe: No problem. Happy to be here, this is amazing. This is amazing to meet you guys. Bob: You’ll find out it’s not as amazing as you think., lol. But if you could give us a brief background. Dr. Adriaan Louw: Yeah, I’m from South Africa with a funny accent. I was trained as a physical therapist, came to America, land of opportunity. I started treating patients with traditional therapy. For some reason, I started seeing more complicated people and the stuff that worked yesterday doesn’t work anymore. And then I needed to find something else, and I found this incredible thing called pain. Well, it’s called pain neuroscience to be true, and it just took me on this incredible journey. The more I learned about pain, the more intriguing it became. And challenging patients became less challenging. It doesn’t make it easy, not even close, but here I am. And then decided I like it so much, lets study it. Bob: Where did you get your PhD from? Dr. Adriaan Louw: In South Africa, I did the research here but run through a university in South Africa. Bob: Dr. Louw, he studied under some of the most famous and most intelligent physical therapists in the world. You won’t know their names but, be assured that it’s true. Brad: And look at the literature he’s published. Bob: Oh right, when you look at the books, it makes us think that we haven’t been doing enough with our life here. His books are listed below. Bob: The book that is the topic of this particular segment today is, Why Do I Hurt? This is one of your more popular books. Dr. Adriaan Louw: Yeah, it is. Bob: So, this is all about our subscribers, so we want to make sure that we are doing them benefit here. Can you give a kind of case study of an average patient that you see and how you go about treating them basically? Dr. Adriaan Louw: That’s fine. You know what, there’s a story we hear commonly in every clinic, you guys have heard it too, right. I mean no disrespect, but people in chronic pain when they come to us, you know, there’s a classic story, where do you hurt? And we hear, everywhere. What makes you better? Nothing. What makes you worse? Everything. Everything right? This is a challenge we face. That little song, as I call it, there’s not a county in the world that cannot sing that, it’s a global problem. And so when people come to us, they’ve been everywhere. They don’t know what to do. We don’t understand pain well enough, and so one of the fundamental things we ask patients often is, what do you think is going on with you? That’s my number one question, whenever I talk to students. I love that question, because it tells me what they’re thinking. And the patient can answer me from here to there. They can say, well, didn’t your read my report of a bulging disc? So they just told me what they are thinking. And I can talk about that intelligently because you and I and Brad, we all know what the current literature says. But then on the flip side, they can say I have no idea. That’s why I’m here, which is so neat, because it’s an open script, right? Bob: Sure. Dr. Adriaan Louw: And you know, after the evaluation, getting to know the patient, I’ll often ask them, has anybody explained to you why it hurts? And it still shocks me that 99% say, nobody’s ever explained it to me. So in this case, what basically works is we’ve taken the most advanced science on the planet that we know of and we put them in stories. Human beings learn through stories, metaphors. Brad: Exactly, I agree 100%. Dr. Adriaan Louw: Can you remember what you were taught about history in the third grade? Bob: Wow, if it’s in story form, probably so. Dr. Adriaan Louw: Yeah, exactly. We don’t remember facts. Bob: Right. Dr. Adriaan Louw: But do you remember the story, The Tortoise and the Hare. Brad: Oh, yes Dr. Adriaan Louw: So what we’ve done is taken the most advanced neuroscience and put it in stories. Simple easy stories. We then tell a patient the story, which I’ll tell you one in a minute, and what we have found out from some amazing research is that people’s lives are better for it. They understand what’s going on, they know what they can do. And so the most – Bob: Purely by the education itself? Dr. Adriaan Louw: By the education, but what’s important is we need to understand you aren’t going to explain pain out of people. Pain is complex. It’s very real. But, it makes them calm down, they have less fear. They’re more likely to move and what makes them better is movement. I think there’s a misconception these books and everything is, we don’t explain pain out of people. We just make them understand that pain, which makes them less fearful, which makes them move. Bob: Which relates back to the point that you made when they first come in. You ask them what is causing their pain and they don’t know. And by not knowing, they’re more stressed out. Dr. Adriaan Louw: Absolutely. Bob: It’s a part of the anxiety that goes along with it. They’re thinking, what is it? Is it something very serious? Which they usually think it is. And it may not be. It doesn’t equate with injury. Brad: Or I think, you know, something I personally can relate to is I have a condition called spondylolisthesis. With a big name like that, a diagnosis like that, the average person really doesn’t know what it is. That’s very frightening. Bob: Yes, it is. Brad: They think I’m not going to be able to run again. I’m just going to have to be still. And so when I do videos on it, I let them know what I’m doing or what I’ve come from. Hopefully that helps to get that brick wall, that diagnosis out of the way. I think that happens, like just even with simple arthritis. Someone will come and say, I’ve got arthritis in my muscles. Which, you know, you can’t get arthritis in your muscles, it’s in the joint. I try to explain that so this is going to be helpful for me to hopefully better relate to those patients. Bob: Could you mention the study that they talked about the brain scan showing the before and after? Dr. Adriaan Louw: Yeah, yeah, we have done some studies. And they’re a little bit technical. But when you scan somebody’s brain during something painful, for example they move their back, the brain lights up, it uses more sugar, more oxygen, and that’s what those blobs are. And what we found is that as we teach you about the pain, the brain really dampens down. Very similar to, if not more than what we can do with medicine right now. Which is really powerful. And that then reduces that threat value, and the brain goes, I must be okay the guy with the funny accent explained it to me. Bob: Yeah, that’s true. Dr. Adrian Louw: You know Brad, you mentioned arthritis. I lived in Iowa and I asked my farmers every day, with their John Deere overalls, John Deere hat, you know, what do you think is going on with your back? I’ve got arthritis. What they basically told me is because I’m old, I must hurt. Bob: Yes, Dr. Adriaan Louw: They tie together, and we know it’s not true. Because, if arthritis and back pain were the same thing, then only old people should hurt. Then, why do 50% of school kids have back pain? It is not the same thing. Brad: Sure. Dr. Adriaan Louw: And so when we show somebody that as you get older, there’s more arthritis, or as we call it wrinkles on the inside. Right, you’ve just got more wrinkles on the inside. But back pain we know peaks at age 35, 45, 50. I show it to patients, I draw it for them. They go, wow, so just because I’m getting old doesn’t mean I have to hurt. Exactly! Let’s get on the bike. We can change movement, but we cannot change aging. But aging and pain are two different things. We have a lot of research showing that people that are older hurt because they’re not moving not because they’re old. That it is a fallacy. An example would be again, like I said, we talk to people and explain and they may turn to me and say but why do I hurt? That’s kind of what we get to right? So we use an analogy, the analogy we use is a sensitive alarm system. You two have houses right? You guys are so popular, it’s probably in a gated community. Dr. Adrian Louw: Right. You guys are the man. Bob: Haha…. A double wide trailer is what it is. Dr. Adriaan Lowe: At least doubles, lol. So we tell people your house has an alarm, right. And so we use an analogy everybody’s familiar with an alarm. So, I would simply sit and ask him if you step on a nail, do you want to know about it? So, what do you guys think if you step on a nail? Bob: Absolutely, you want to know about it. Dr. Adriaan Louw: Why? Bob: Because it could get infected – Dr. Adriaan Louw: Exactly right. Brad: What if it’s rusty? Dr. Adriaan Louw: Exactly. A rusted nail especially so guess what? I’ve never had somebody say no, why? Because our patients are smarter than we think. Now I’ll ask him why and they’ll say, I did not get an infection. So, how do you know there is a nail in your foot? Well, you don’t have eyeballs at the bottom of your foot, right? So, we have an alarm system. Our body’s nervous system works like an alarm system. That’s the metaphor. People understand an alarm system. Step on a nail, the alarm system ramps up in the foot, fires a message to the spinal cord to the brain saying ding, ding, ding, there’s a nail in the foot. All I do is I tell the patient; does it make sense? And again, most people say that makes total sense. Now you know what the real patient says? “What does this have to do with my back?” Then you sit there and go, “Yes!” Why, you ask? Because they ask the right question. “Well, Frank, guess what? You were in the backyard raking the leaves and you felt a pop in your back. What happened? The alarm went off. How do we know it? You went to the emergency room.” Nobody goes to the emergency room saying, ‘I feel great’, so something trips your alarm. I’m not making fun, but it’s kind of that, wow, okay, this makes sense. And they say what should happen is we pull the nail out. The alarm system calms down, right? You guys have stepped on a nail or thumbtack and when you pull it out, does the alarm just go away? Bob: Well, it starts to calm down. Dr Adriaan Louw: It lingers a little bit. What happens is, Frank, they pull the nail out, the alarm just calms down; we put a bandage on. We get a tetanus shot and life is good. By the way, we learned something today. Don’t walk barefoot around nails. Pain isn’t a bad thing. Without, pain, we’d be dead right? It teaches us, sharp is bad. Bob: People who cannot feel pain are in trouble. Dr Adriaan Louw: They’re in serious trouble. Look, at our diabetic patients. We have to watch their feet, so here’s the crutch of the matter: All of us have an alarm system. It ramps up and says, ding, ding, ding, you stepped on a nail. Ding, ding, ding, you hurt your back, you have spondylolysis. You hurt your leg, you just broke your leg. It tells us to go get some help. We take care of the problem. We have surgery, we have therapy, we get some help. You’ve had that happen to you, all of us have. Even Mike, the guy behind the camera has had it happen to him. It happens to all of us, what a beautiful system. Here’s the problem though, in about one in four people something trips the alarm, Ding, ding, ding, “go get some help.” Then we do something but that alarm never calms down. That’s what we call a sensitive alarm system. We have fancy medical terms for it but it doesn’t matter, it’s a sensitive alarm system. In all the years we’ve done this, in all our research, in all the thousands of patients, I’ve only had three questions. How do you know this? Doctor drives a Jaguar, what do you drive? You’re only a therapist and I understand that. By the way, this story says very simply, they really want to be validated. How do you know this? Number two, they want to know why did it stay up? My neighbor had the same thing but she’s fine. Bob: Yes, why am I different? Dr. Adriaan Louw: Yes, and the last thing is, what do I do about it? That’s number one, by the way. If they ever ask, what do we do about it, that’s the right question. How do we dampen this system down? Very simply, how do you know it? We can see it by a test. You can barely move the arm and barely touch your back. You told me ‘you used to could’, is what we call it. Before your pain, you could run five miles, now you can barely walk a half a mile. You used to be able to sit for an hour and now you can sit for five minutes. Your tolerance is off. Many patients get that “Aha” moment. We talk about all the stresses in life. If you have pain, you see three physical therapists, two doctors, two chiropractors, a podiatrist, whatever, and it’s not getting better. Will your alarm calm down? Never have I had a patient say yes, they’re smarter than that, they say no, it’ll stay up. Exactly! Bob: It might even go higher. Every time they meet someone that can’t help them, it goes in their mind like, I’ve really got something severe. Dr. Adriaan Louw: Exactly. Then you get failed treatments with this. It works for a little bit and now there’s rumors about layoffs at the office and because I’ve missed a lot of time, I go see Brad and Bob, I’m going to be the first one that is going to be laid off. Then all this runs to keep this system elevated. Then finally, what do we do to turn it down? This is the coolest part. There’s so many things. We’ve now figured there’s about 22 things you and I and Brad do every day in therapy that actually turns the brain’s own medicine on. We are talking about exercise, pilates, relaxation, mindfulness, sleep hygiene, nutrition, everything. There’s so many cool things you can do non pharmacological. I think every listener and all of us in America are aware that drugs are good but some of them do very bad things for some people. So can we get the healthy side going and that’s kind of the idea. Simple story, this is our highest rank story where patients go, wow I got it. So what you’re telling me is that the reason I’m still hurting is not because the ankle is still bad. No what we are doing is we are moving people away from their tissues, but remember, all we can do is it’s only because we’ve done due diligence and examined someone very carefully. Bob: To make sure the tissue is healed. Dr. Adriaan Louw: A lot of people have blamed us and say, oh, all you do is talk to people about pain. 90% of our patients literally cry after the examination. I’ll ask them, what’s going on. They say that’s the most thorough medical exam I’ve had in 10 years. One of my students have figured out, the thing that makes this work, is when people feel like they’ve been listened to and validated they trust you. I think for the clinicians listening even today it’s creating that; I’m here how can I make your life better? It’s a connection. Let’s teach you a little bit or what’s going on. And we’ve just found that if you teach people their lives are better for it. Bob: I think what Dr.Louw is referring to here is what happens when someone comes in with those type of symptoms quite often and the typical clinicians going to go, you know, “this is a head case.” And you know there is nothing worse. Dr. Adriaan Louw: (Groans) Oh, no… Bob: Well, you know they do. And a lot of physicians, they are just like I’m trying to get this person out of my office as fast as possible. And they don’t really have an explanation for them. They just want to send them out the door. Brad: I don’t want to interrupt here but I just had a patient here this week. A total knee replacement, you know now they want to do it in one day. So he went in, total knee replacement, overnight and they discharged him the next day. You know they gave him exercises but only two or three. He was feeling; it hurts, I don’t know what I’m doing and its swelling up. And he was very anxious. He was feeling he was pushed through the system. He didn’t know what was going on. And I did, I spent about an hour and 15 minutes with him. By the time he left I told him the exercises to do, I said this looks like a normal knee, your range of motion looks good. He was so relieved. He left and we are going to see him three times a week to get his range better then decrease as things improve. I mean just the psychological aspect of it, I didn’t do anything to his knee except move it a little bit and looked at his walk to make sure he was safe. Dr. Adriaan Louw: You did more than you think you did. Trust me, we can prove that. I have to do this. I’m sorry, you guys have a major following but, all pain is real. We have never scanned fake pain. I would highly recommend if you’re a patient listening to this and if somebody ever accuses you of that fire that healthcare provider. They do not deserve to see you. And for the healthcare providers, just because somebody tells you something that doesn’t make sense, that doesn’t mean it isn’t real. It just means we haven’t studied it yet. Not even close. Bob: That’s exactly right. Dr. Adriaan Louw: I will just tell you that the longer I’ve done this, I’m getting older and older, and I really revel when somebody walks in and says I’ve been everywhere and everything, “who are you.” Who are you as a person. How can I make your life better? And there are so many things we can do. Even just listening to our patients. The most powerful words ever studied in medicine, ‘you’re going to be okay.’ How cool is that. And again, it’s so sad; I was in a class last week for Physicians Assistants and in their practice act they are not allowed to tell the patient they are going to be okay because it gives them false hope. I hope you give me false hope. I rather be that guy. Like Brad said, I’m going to be okay. Bob said, I’m going to be okay. Bob: I want to be the optimist. Dr. Adriaan Louw: I think this is so neat. Our words matter, our patients matter, all pain is real, we’ve never scanned fake pain. You know stuff like pain that spreads in the body, we now know why it happens. The thing that drove me nuts, when patients came in here: What makes your pain worse? When it’s cold out. I had no idea what to do with them. I didn’t know what muscle that was, which joint is that. But now I know there are some really amazing receptors in the human body that tell us ‘hey it’s getting cold in Minnesota, put on a sweater.’ And if they become a little over abundant we get sensitive to cold. Wow. And we have found out that if I tell that to Grandma, she’s going to go “I’m going to be okay.” How cool is that. You know one of the reasons I wanted to be here is, I need people in pain to understand that we are here and we’re here to help. And if someone isn’t helping you, fire them. They don’t deserve you. This is your pain. As my mentor David Butler told me years ago; tell patients you own your pain not someone else, you make the best decisions. And so I hope the healthcare providers today, if there is one thing you can do, it’s cheap, it’s free by the way, listen. Just listen, be there. I have no problem telling a patient I don’t know what to do with this today but let me think about it, but tell me your story. Get to know them. There’s so much about reassurance. Reassurance is analgesic. We’ve studied this. Bob: Sure. I’m getting tingling up and down my spine. I want to give you a standing ovation, seriously. That is just awesome. But I think we will end this conversion here. We will have two more conversations with Dr. Louw coming up so be sure to look for those. Brad: As for the information we’ve covered here, it can be found primarily in Dr. Louw’s book, Why Do I Hurt. Bob: For therapist and clinicians, you might consider the book Integrating Manuel Therapy and Pain Neuroscience, but in addition there are classes that are given. Dr. Adriaan Louw: Yes, so one of our jobs is, we want to train the next generation. We want to train the most compassionate, empathetic, well trained people on the planet. So, we teach seminars all over, teaching Evidence in Motion. Bob: If you google Evidence in Motion, Dr. Louw’s name will come up. Thank you very much Adriaan. For More on Adriaan Louw: https://www.bobandbrad.com/adriaan-louw Adriaan Louw's Website: https://evidenceinmotion.com/ Interested in learning about the products mentioned above, they can be found at: 1) Adriaan Louw's books: https://www.optp.com/Bob-and-Brad-Sale-LOUW 2) Amazon Book Links: https://amzn.to/3cz6sZk Visit us on our other social media platforms: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/physicaltherapyvideo Website: https://bobandbrad.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BobandBrad/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/officialbobandbrad/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ptfamous Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/mostfamousPTs For this week’s Giveaway visit: https://bobandbrad.com/giveaways Bob and Brad’s Products: Grip and Forearm Strengthener: https://store.bobandbrad.com 15% off with code BLOG15 Wall Anchor: https://store.bobandbrad.com 15% off with code BLOG15 Booyah Stik: https://store.bobandbrad.com 15% off with code BLOG15 Knee Glide: https://store.bobandbrad.com 15% off with code BLOG15 Fit Glide: https://store.bobandbrad.com 15% off with code BLOG15 Massage Gun:https://amzn.to/36pMekg Hanging Handles: https://amzn.to/2RXLVFF Bob and Brad Resistance Bands Set: https://amzn.to/36uqnbr Bob & Brad Amazon Store: https://amzn.to/2RTSLLh Check out other products Bob and Brad Love: https://www.amazon.com/shop/physicaltherapyvideo?listId=3581Z1XUVFAFY Check out The Bob & Brad Crew on YouTube by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/c/thebobbradcrew Medical Disclaimer All information, content, and material of 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 in order to help you make the best choice for you.

Previously, we had a nerdy talk about the technical parameters to consider when looking for a suitable massage gun, including: stall force, speed, amplitude, noise level, size, and battery. Still troubled by all the tech terms and looking forward to some clear examples? Here comes the help: Scott Behrends from the YouTube channel "Beforeyoubuy" reviewed over 30 different massage guns and made a few recommendations in his latest video. In this video, you can clearly see the differences in performance of various massage guns. No time for an 18-minute talk? Then continue reading. The essence is all here. First thing first, who is Scott? He is a super fit and athletic IT professional who had excellent performances in the sport show "American Ninja Warrior 2019" and made it to stage 1 in the Las Vegas National Finals. He also runs a local gym called "Ninja U" and trains his own kids and nephew, along with others to be Ninja kids and teens. Reviewing massage guns is a common topic on his channel "Beforeyoubuy" and he actively uses massage guns, not only for muscle relaxation and recovery but also for warming up before his training. He is objective and independent when reviewing massage guns and sometimes his videos talk about which massage guns not to buy. So we can trust his credibility on reviewing massage guns. After reviewing over 30 various massage guns, he compared the following parameters of the Bob & Brad massage gun, Hypervolt, Medcursor Mini, NoCry, Softerspot S2, Sportneer D9, and Theragun Prime, and recommended the Bob & Brad Massage Gun, Sportneer Elite D9, Medcursor Mini, and Theragun Prime. The links to the products and the discount codes to the Bob & Brad Massage Gun and Sportneer Elite D9 are included in the video description. ⦁ Speed All his recommended massage guns have a low speed between 1000 and 2000 RPM and a high speed above 3000 RPM, except Theragun Prime which has a very narrow speed range. Different massage guns have different speed levels, but usually 3 to 5 levels should be sufficient. ⦁ Amplitude Amplitude is how far the massage head travels. Theragun has an amplitude of 16 cm, the biggest among the recommended massage guns. The others usually have an amplitude of around 10 to 12 cm, although the Bob & Brad has an amplitude of 8 cm due to its small size. When it comes to amplitude, it is really not "the bigger, the better", because a very big amplitude means it hits you really hard. When you have very sore muscles or don't have much experience using a massage gun, you wouldn't like to start being "hammered" and feel just the pain. Taking both the speed and amplitude into account, if you are big and beefy and have a hell load of hard muscle to massage, or training is a major part of your day, or you are the kind who likes it hard, choose a powerful one. But for average people's daily use, the power versus size of a massage gun is more important to consider than just the power. Like the Bob & Brad, though having a small amplitude, can dig deep into your muscle to give a proper massage. ⦁ Stall force The stall force of a massage gun is the force needed to stop it. He literally has to push hard against the Bod & Brad massage gun to stop it, while he hardly needs to push against the Sportneer, which is somewhat bigger than Bod & Brad, at a low speed. Too small a stall force limits the performance and effectiveness of a massage gun when you try to get a deeper massage. ⦁ Noise levels measured in decibel (dB) When noise levels measured in dB increase by 10 dB, it means the noise is twice as loud as before. A noise level of 30 dB is like whispering. Sportneer, the quietest of them all, at a high speed sounds significantly quieter than the Theragun Prime, which is said to be quieter than other Theraguns, at a low speed. It actually sounds like my big handhold kitchen mixer on the highest speed. The Bob & Brad sounds slightly louder than the Sportneer with a higher pitch due to its higher RPM. The quieter a massage gun is, the more scenarios you can use it in: watching a movie, talking to friends, in the airport, riding in a car... wherever and whenever you want! And you can multitask and save time. ⦁ Usability: including ergonomic features, button placement, accessories. The usability of the recommended massage guns is rarely an issue. The only thing to consider is to choose the right size and shape and the preferred massage head. Their power buttons are all easy to reach but not in the way. Their batteries have comparable life spans of around 5 days, depending on the use. They all come with cases and enough heads for different usages. Theregun has a soft squishy head that gives you some cushioning for its powerful hits. The Bob and Brad massage gun has an even more squishy head that offers more buffering. Sportneer has a metal head for people who don't like plastic texture or who prefer to use massage oil or lotions with their massage. And Medcursor even has a head with its own integrated rechargeable battery that can deliver heat while giving massage. ⦁ Price for quality value The price of massage guns varies greatly, so before looking at the price tag, consider how strong and quiet and how many features you need for your massage gun. Don't naively believe the specs provided by the manufacturer. Check out trustworthy reviews on YouTube to see the performances for yourself. In short, given all the factors, the Bob & Brad massage gun, together with Sportneer, Medicursor, and NoCry, has a high value for quality and is a good choice for daily use. Why not give it a try? Interested in the Bob anad Brad Massage Gun: https://amzn.to/36pMekg

This article is a transcribed edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in September of 2020. For the original video go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gLtDn5FL2E&t=14s Bob: Alright, the question of the day: Should you nap? Is it good? Bad? How long? How often? Brad: Ah, good questions. There’s a lot of questions there, Bob. Bob: By the way, I come from a long line of nappers. Yeah, my dad took a nap, my mom. My mom just said she always used to not take a nap during that period when the kids would lay down, she would get work done. After a while she was like “what was I doing?” They’d wake up and she’d be exhausted. Brad: She could join in. Bob: Actually Brad, there’s a fair amount of research on napping. But before I’m going to say that, there are a lot of notable people that were nappers: Winston Churchill, JFK, Ronald Reagan, he’d do it even during meetings, Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison. When I went to Mayo Clinic for my studies, they made you read the biography of the two Mayo brothers that started it. Yeah, and William Mayo, I worked at his house for a while as a waiter. Brad: Did you get to meet him? Bob: No, he was dead a long time ago. But, he was a napper, and apparently even when he had famous people over he’d say, “I’m sorry, I have to leave,” and he’d go nap. I think the Queen of England was over one time and he got up and said “I gotta go and take my nap.” Brad: I hope it didn’t upset her. Bob: Yeah. Apparently not. So, anyway. There are a lot of studies on it and there’s actually three types of naps. Did you know that Brad? Planned napping, which means you’re preparing in case you know you’re going to lose sleep that night so you actually plan and take a nap ahead of time. Habitual napping, which is a daily nap. That’s me. And then there’s emergency napping. So, like if you’re driving along and all of a sudden you get real tired. Brad: I’ve done that alright. Bob: What are the benefits? Let’s go over that first. So, again there are a lot of studies. It restores alertness. No surprise there. I saw one that recently talks about how it improves your cognitive ability, your ability to remember. I know that I would always try to study right before I went to bed. And apparently that did help to absorb it. It’ll enhance your performance. It will reduce mistakes and accidents. They did a NASA study of astronauts and pilots, it improved their performance 34 percent. Brad: Well, it really makes sense if you sit down and think about it. It’s like relaxing your body, you know, because you’re fatigued physically, you take a little nap, get some fresh blood in your system. Recharging your battery. And go back to work. So yeah, mentally it makes sense. Bob: It decreased risk of drowsy driving, of course. I was reading that one book on sleep and they talked about even a slight decrease in alertness was equal to being drunk. It didn’t take much. Brad: I’m never going to read that book. It exaggerates clearly, because I would be dead so many times by now driving. Bob: It’ll scare the hell out of you. I’ve found it though, when I’m driving tired like,” oh boy, that was close.” Brad: Yeah. When you cross that center line that’s when I stop to take a nap or get some Pepsi. Bob: The other thing the studies have found, you’re less impulsive, and this is really true with me, you have a greater tolerance for frustration. I mean, I get in the worst moods when I’m tired. I’m like, yeah you need to go take a nap. Brad: Well, kids are like that all the time. Liz are your kids cranky when their tired? Alex too, your husband? Bob: I’m like a kid. When they get overtired, you get to that point of not coming back. Napping is really good for shift workers. It’s funny, Linda’s dad was a shift worker and so was her brother. I just don’t think shift work is good for you. I mean it really isn’t. It’s so bad. Brad: Well, if you stay on the same shift, but rotating shifts are the worst. I think I’ve got a whole theory on that but I’m not going to get into it now. Bob: Well, they showed that naps obviously helped this, but also they found out naps and caffeine are the best combination for that. No surprise. So, then there’s the psychological benefit. It’s like a pleasant mini vacation. And that’s how I look at it too. It’s like, ah I love taking a nap. You know? Brad: Yeah. Bob: So what are the negative parts of it? Well, there really aren’t that many to be honest with you. One, if you take a nap too close to bedtime it can affect your night time sleep. We see that a lot in the elderly when we work with them. Sometimes they can’t sleep at night and we go, “did you sleep during the day?” And they are like” No.” Then you come in their room and they’re zonked out. They don’t even know they slept during the day. Brad: Well, if you sleep too long in naps or too much in the day, you get your nights and your days flipped around. Bob: Right, right. So, the other one is sleep inertia. And this has happened to me, and we’re going to talk about when it’s too long. What’s the right time to take a nap, the amount of time? If you sleep too long, you get into that grogginess. Did you ever get to that? Where you took a nap, you woke up and were wiped. It takes you a half hour to wake up. You just can’t get going. Brad: You have to jump in the shower just to get going. Bob: Yeah, right. So you have to watch the amount of time to prevent sleep inertia. And number three, this probably isn’t a big one for me, it doesn’t bother me, is the stigma. Like, you’re considered lazy if you take a nap. Lack of ambition. Brad: Absolutely. Bob: Absolutely. LOL. Because you’re not a napper are ya? Once in a while you take one, right? Brad: Yeah. But no, historically you didn’t nap when you’re working. I mean, you couldn’t. I mean, you have work to get done. You can’t say, oh I’m going to take a nap. Bob: Well, I wouldn’t take a nap here. Although, you know it’s funny when I worked construction, at lunch, I’d tip over a wheelbarrow, and lay in the wheelbarrow and take a nap for 15 minutes. Brad: Yeah. Actually it’s a good idea. I know, when I’m working, I’m thinking about work. I’m not thinking about a nap. My mind is focused. Bob: Let’s talk about the length of time, Brad. So, you have cycles in sleep. You have REM sleep, non-REM sleep. And, to go through a full cycle of sleep is an hour and a half. So, if you sleep a full hour and a half, you’re fine. But, if you sleep like 45 minutes, you’re not. If you sleep less than 30 minutes you’re fine, too because you never get into REM sleep. You never get into a cycle. So either sleep less than 30 minutes, or sleep an hour and a half. Don’t sleep like 45 minutes, don’t sleep for an hour because that’s when you get into that groggy state. Or, if you sleep like two hours you can be in that groggy state. Does that make sense? Brad: Well, it does. Except for I have a feeling these numbers may vary from person to person. Bob: You would be surprised how consistent it is among people, animals, and plants. It’s just amazing. That’s what I thought too. But they say no, it’s not as much variance as you’d think. And that whole thing about a lot of people get by on six hours of sleep, that too was a myth, it was like one out of a thousand people. Brad: Well, I could believe that, for sure. Bob: But there’s a lot of people that do it. And there’re running subpar. Brad: It would be interesting to see what their lifespan is. I don’t know how you would. That’s be a tough one to study. Bob: Well you’d have to do it after the fact, obviously. So, I guess my final saying is going to be yes you can go ahead and nap. They’re good for you, there’s all these benefits. Pick a time, at probably 30 minutes or less. That’s what I do, 20 minutes. Or, an hour and a half. Go the full hour and a half. Yeah that’s a long time. Brad: Yeah, you think that then I would be staying up later, probably. I don’t know. Bob: Right, you probably would be unless you’re at a deficit. Alright, happy naps out there. Brad: Yes, nap well and be careful. Bob: Be careful, haha. Brad: Well, you got dreams, you know. They get in the way. I had a bad one last night. I drempt of a bear. Luckily I had my deer rifle. Well, I won. Everything was okay. Bob: Is this like The Revenant? Brad: Well, I don’t know about that, but I have had dreams where a bear has gotten me. I had to wake up screaming. Bob: What is that? What does that mean? Brad: The bear. A Black bear. Bob: What does that symbolize? Who is the bear in your life? Brad: I don’t know. Bob I’m not a psychologist. Bob: We have to get into this. Brad: I just know what I see. Bob: Alright. Brad: Carry on. Visit us on our other social media platforms: Website: https://bobandbrad.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BobandBrad/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/officialbob... Twitter: https://twitter.com/ptfamous YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/physicaltherapyvideo Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/mostfamousPTs For this week’s Giveaway visit: https://bobandbrad.com/giveaways Bob and Brad’s Products: Grip and Forearm Strengthener: https://store.bobandbrad.com 15% off with code BLOG15 Wall Anchor: https://store.bobandbrad.com 15% off with code BLOG15 Booyah Stik: https://store.bobandbrad.com 15% off with code BLOG15 Knee Glide: https://store.bobandbrad.com 15% off with code BLOG15 Fit Glide: https://store.bobandbrad.com 15% off with code BLOG15 Massage Gun:https://amzn.to/36pMekg Hanging Handles: https://amzn.to/2RXLVFF Bob and Brad Resistance Bands Set: https://amzn.to/36uqnbr Bob & Brad Amazon Store: https://amzn.to/2RTSLLh Check out our shirts, mugs, bags and more in our Bob and Brad merchandise shop here: https://shop.spreadshirt.com/bob-brad Check out other products Bob and Brad Love:  https://www.amazon.com/shop/physicaltherapyvideo?listId=3581Z1XUVFAFY Check out The Bob & Brad Crew on YouTube by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/c/thebobbradcrew Medical Disclaimer All information, content, and material of 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 in order to help you make the best choice for you.

This article is a transcribed edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in July of 2017. For the original video go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6fcMML8-6Q&t=659s Bob: We’ve got a guest here today. Craig: Yep, hi Craig again and I’m here today to talk about calorie density. Bob: So, we’re going to talk about how this is a good way to diet basically and lose weight. I think we are going to have some great visual demonstrations here of how to eat and why to eat certain foods. Brad: And doing it in a healthy way. Bob: Alright, let’s talk about Craig, Craig why don’t you give us your introduction. Let us know who you are. Craig: My name is Craig Martin. I’m currently a graduate student at UW La Crosse, mastering in community health education with an emphasis on diet, nutrition, and disease reversal through a whole foods plant-based diet. Bob: And Craig, can you tell us just a little bit about your personal story because you’ve said you had some weight loss and the asthma story, I think is interesting too. Craig: Yeah, so it’s interesting, I live in Wisconsin. I was lactose intolerant and I worked at a cheese factory. Bob: It’s a requirement when you live in Wisconsin. Craig: Haha, yeah actually that’s what got me interested in diet. I was already interested in diet when I became lactose intolerant. But what I found more interesting is when I started working in the cheese industry, we would shut down the cheese production for lunch, and we would start up again and then we’d shut down at the end of the day. This goes along with heart disease too, what I found was inside the pipes were coated with cheese. When we would take those pipes apart at the end of the day, we would have to scrape out hard cheese. Sometimes these cheese pipes would be so occluded you could barely get anything through there. That made me realize what I was eating had an impact, not only on my weight but also on my health. I stopped eating cheese after I started working at a cheese factory because I just thought, “Oh my gosh, what was it doing.” Well not only that but cheese is very calorically dense. A one-ounce cube of cheese, which is about the size of two dice has 100 calories in it. When you think about that, that’s a small amount of cheese, that’s about the size of that one apple there probably has 100 calories. But if that was cheese that would probably be about 600 calories. So, when you look at food that way and you start to realize where your calories are coming from, it really can help to visualize how much food you can eat and still lose weight. Bob: Craig, how much weight have you lost? Craig: Well, I started following a whole foods plant-based diet after I saw the devastating effects of cheese and I lost about 40 pounds. So, at my heaviest I was about 166, now I’m about 128-130. Bob: When I look at you, you look like a naturally thin person, I mean, you do, you don’t look like someone that was ever overweight. Interestingly enough, I thought you were one of those lucky people. Brad: Eat anything you want and never gain weight. Craig: Well, now I eat everything I want, and I never gain weight. But before I used to eat everything I wanted, and I gained weight. Bob: Tell them your age too because I think that you look younger than you are. Craig: I’m 36 years old. I get a lot of people telling me that I look like I’m in my early 20’s. Bob: Right, and you do. Brad: Yeah. Bob: So, you are a walking testimony to plant-based diet. Craig: Correct. Brad: Didn’t you say your asthma had a change with this diet. Craig: Yes, when I cut the dairy out of my diet. I had asthma for 30 years and as soon as I cut the dairy out, it was funny. I would run a half-marathon in Green Bay because I always wanted to run a half-marathon. I’d done that and my parents were like, “Craig, where’s your inhaler? Where are your asthma symptoms, like what’s going on here?” I was like, oh yeah, I don’t have asthma anymore. It had been a gradual transition, the longer I went without the animal products in my diet, the greater the benefits were and from that point on I ran the half marathon, and I said I can run a marathon. And then I did, and I was 14 minutes’ shy of qualifying for Boston, my first marathon ever. I had never run before because I couldn’t. Bob: So, we have some visualization. Brad: So, what’s all this about? Craig: So, what I have here, this is very interesting. This right here is five pounds of lettuce. This is also 500 calories. If you feel this, this is pretty heavy. I don’t want to knock you out of your chair. And here, this is 500 calories of cauliflower, broccoli and carrots look like. Bob: So, still quite large, not as big as the lettuce. Craig: We eat about 2000 calories a day so you could eat four bowls of lettuce or salad and you get 2000 calories. So there you go, you’d probably fill up before you’d ever finish this. If you had to eat that all day, you’d lose weight because you wouldn’t be able to eat enough calories in a given day. So that there in itself is a testament as to what 500 calories looks like. How it will fill your stomach because honestly this small bowl right here, is about the size of our stomachs. Brad: And what do we have here? Craig: There’s a bunch of little W’s on these, ha-ha, peanut M&M’s. Yeah and this is 500 calories of peanut M&M’s. When you compare that to the lettuce's 500 caleries, you want to lift that up? Bob: This is my weakness right here, peanut M&M’s. Craig: I mean; this is amazing. Which one do you think would fill your stomach, which one would fill you up? That’s why we snack on M&M's all day and we never get full. If we were to eat the lettuce, we would get full. Now, granted I would never just eat this alone. I would probably use a balsamic vinegar on that, something to replace the olive oil because this olive oil if that were used to coat this, that would make the lettuce, 1000 calories. Bob: So, the olive oil is 500 calories on its own. Craig: Yeah, this is 500 calories in this little jar. When you look at it, that’s what 500 calories looks like next to each other. Brad: And I’m thinking, it’s okay because olive oil is healthy and that’s all like good calories. Craig: Right, well, it’s all extra calories. You can use balsamic vinegar; you could use other types of vinegars they have some very good flavored vinegars. You could go online to the olivetap.com and you can look at some of the flavored vinegars that they have and you can use that in place because that’s a very low calorie option that still gets your lettuce moist because that’s what you’re looking for, and it has really good flavors. Or you could use this, (olive oil) and dump 500 calories on your salad. Bob: 500 calories out of a 2000 calorie diet which is a lot, to just get flavor on your salad. Craig: Exactly, yeah. So, other examples here: this is 500 calories of sweet potato. I had to cut the sweet potato so there’s some air in here, but if you boil sweet potatoes or any potato, studies have shown that potatoes are one of the most filling foods that people can eat. It’s what we put on that potato that becomes problematic. So, if you’re putting butter on your potato, you are increasing the calorie density of the food. Kind of like olive oil, because butter is 100% fat, just like olive oil. Bob: What would you recommend putting on potatoes? Craig: For potatoes, I either put salsa or some stew or something else because when you eat a baked potato, it’s dry, so really all you’re trying to do is moisten it up to get it to a flavor that you can like. Otherwise you can mash the potato, pour in some vegetable broth, some low sodium vegetable broth. Bob: Well that’s usually high in sodium though. Craig: Yes, so you’d want low sodium vegetable broth, no salt added, or you can make your own if you’re feeling adventurous. Brad: What do we have in front of that? Craig: In front of that, we have some oatmeal. Now this is dried oatmeal and actually dried oatmeal is calorically dense. However, when you add water to it and you rehydrate it, this would swell in your stomach so I mean it would probably fill about half of this bowl. The nice thing about calorie density is whether this be oatmeal or rice, when you mix these foods with it, you’re going to fill up your stomach more. So, every morning when I have oatmeal, I add berries to it. Bob: The berries are not as calorie dense. Craig: Calorie density is based on a few things; the amount of water in a product, the amount of fiber, the amount of fat in that product and the amount of sugar, or carbohydrates or however you want to use for the term sugar. Calorically dense items contain usually more fat, or they are lacking water or fiber. That’s why this is pure fat, this 1 gram of fat is 9 calories per gram, 1 gram of sugar is 4 calories per gram, so it doubles the density already based on how we view fats and sugars. Bob: So, with fruit and stuff, you’re saying there’s more water obviously in fruit? Craig: Yes Bob: So, I get into trouble with dehydration sometimes and I’ve been eating less carbs. Is that possible that I’m eating less carbs, I’m getting less water from food and I need to drink more? Craig: That could be. If you were to have a steamed sweet potato, there would be a lot of water in there, if you were to have steamed potatoes, you would have a lot more water. Where, if you’re having something like M&M’s, these are pretty dry. Bob: I always thought when I ate peanuts which I eat roasted peanuts now, before I’d get dehydrated because of the salt, but now it seems like I am still getting dehydrated because I’m not taking any water in through the food itself. Craig: Exactly, yes, it’s one interesting thing. When you’re eating more fruits and vegetables, you’re actually getting more water which means you don’t have to drink as much water because you’re getting it through another source. Brad: So, if I understand you, you can eat peanut M&M’s if we drink water with it. Craig & Bob: HAHAHA Craig: Well, that’s one way of understanding it. Brad: I like you. This is fun now. Craig: I would say, drink a lot of water so they float on top otherwise that water will filter through and you’ll just be left with this left in your stomach and that’s not going to fill you. Bob: What’s the one on the end, we didn’t talk about that yet? Craig: Oh, yes, this is 500 calories of nuts. I would never tell anyone not to eat them. But the thing is, when you’re eating food you have to realize that this is still 500 calories. So, whether or not you think it’s fine, it is fine, it is healthy. But not a lot goes a very far way. Brad: So, I don’t know if we mentioned it, but the small bowl is approximately the size of a stomach. Craig: Yes, a human stomach. Stomachs do stretch. My stomach stretches a lot. I eat a lot of food because I eat more of the vegetables and salad. My stomach has to be adaptable because otherwise I would starve. I mean, not starve, I just mean I just eat a lot more. Bob: So, what about the saturation factor? I mean, I eat nuts and I seem to fill up on them quicker. Do you know what I mean? Like a lot of times I can eat some of the other foods and obviously I could have eaten a lot more, I didn’t realize but you know I was still hungry after. Where I eat the almonds and it seems like I’m held over longer. Craig: Yeah, so some things to remember, there is fiber in nuts, so the fiber is what fills you up. There’s no fiber in say olive oil. You could drink this; I wouldn’t recommend it but there’s no fiber in there to keep you fuller longer. Bob: Fiber is the secret on saturation quite often? Craig: Yeah, actually it’s the amount of fiber and the amount of water in a product of food that actually keeps you feeling fuller longer. So you’re more satisfied and that’s the one thing they found with potatoes is when you boil potatoes, there’s so much water in there that they just keep you full so much longer. Then not to mention all the fiber that’s in there as well. Bob: What about, I know we are over time but one more thing I want to go over, what about spaghetti itself, what are your thoughts on spaghetti? Craig: I eat spaghetti almost daily. Bob: You do? Craig: I do. Brad: What do you eat with it? Craig: I usually will have some toast with it. Bob: What do you put on it? Do you put anything on it? Craig: On my spaghetti? I have spaghetti sauce. I have a fat-free spaghetti sauce that I purchased, I sprinkle on parsley, Italian seasoning. I like nutritional yeast; I don’t know if you’ve ever had nutritional yeast. It kind of has a cheesy flavor. I didn’t like it at first but I kind of adapted my taste buds and then just a little bit of cracked pepper on it. That’s what I use. Bob: Sounds good. I miss spaghetti. Craig: Yeah! I was going to say one more thing, this is 500 calories of fruit, the only thing is this is blackberries and raspberries I couldn’t get blueberries in here, so this is about 2.5 pounds of food, so these should be in here too. Bob: So, they’re pretty good too. Craig: Oh yeah, they’re very good. Remember, all these foods here: the vegetables, fruits, potatoes all contain carbohydrates. Now, the olive oil has no carbohydrate but it’s 500 calories. The lettuce or salad is 5 pounds of carbohydrate essentially so carbohydrates aren’t necessarily the villain, it’s the medium or the food that brings in the carbohydrates that contain fat and everything else because like the M&M's are carbohydrates as well, but there’s also a lot of fat in here. That’s what drives up the caloric density of this food. Brad: So, I’m assuming there’s sugar. Craig: There is sugar in there as well. But when you’re looking at everyone says carbohydrates are the villain, well, it’s really these high-fat foods that we eat that are more villainous than the carbohydrates because the vegetables all contain carbohydrates too, but look at how much you can eat and look at how little you can eat of the fats, and M&M's and such. Bob: And then there’s those dyes in there. Craig: We have all of those other things we want to avoid and stay away from too. Brad: Well one way or another, yes. Bob: We want to thank Craig very much for taking the time. Very interesting, kind of screwed up my whole diet, but that’s alright. I’ll make some changes, but we’ll look and see what we’re going to do here. Brad: I’m going to be drinking water with my M&M’s now. Craig: Haha, that’s good, at least you’re drinking some water. Bob: Thanks again Craig. Craig: Your welcome. Thank you, guys. Bob: Thanks for joining us. Links supplied by Craig: How Not to Die from Heart Disease https://www.youtube.com/watch? Making Heart Attacks History: Caldwell Esselstyn at TEDxCambridge 2011 v=LXigm...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqKNf... Dr. Esselstyn's Prevent & Reverse Heart Disease Program www.dresselstyn.com Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease. The Revolutionary, Scientifically Proven, Nutrition-Based Cure by Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr., MD www.dresselstyn.com Dr. McDougall's Health & Medical Center www.drmcdougall.com https://www.drmcdougall.com/ Why Do Plant-Based Diets Help Rheumatoid Arthritis? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bvDPtL0fns Why Do Plant-Based Diets Help Rheumatoid Arthritis? Subscribe to Dr. Greger’s free nutrition newsletter at http://www.nutritionfacts.org/subscribe and get a free excerpt from his latest NYT Bestseller HOW NOT TO DIE ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldsME... Visit us on our other social media platforms: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/physicaltherapyvideo Website: https://bobandbrad.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BobandBrad/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/officialbobandbrad/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ptfamous Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/mostfamousPTs For this week’s Giveaway visit: https://bobandbrad.com/giveaways Bob and Brad’s Products: Grip and Forearm Strengthener: https://store.bobandbrad.com 15% off with code BLOG15 Wall Anchor: https://store.bobandbrad.com 15% off with code BLOG15 Booyah Stik: https://store.bobandbrad.com 15% off with code BLOG15 Knee Glide: https://store.bobandbrad.com 15% off with code BLOG15 Fit Glide: https://store.bobandbrad.com 15% off with code BLOG15 Massage Gun:https://amzn.to/36pMekg Hanging Handles: https://amzn.to/2RXLVFF Bob and Brad Resistance Bands Set: https://amzn.to/36uqnbr Bob & Brad Amazon Store: https://amzn.to/2RTSLLh Check out our shirts, mugs, bags and more in our Bob and Brad merchandise shop here:  https://shop.spreadshirt.com/bob-brad Check out other products Bob and Brad Love:  https://www.amazon.com/shop/physicaltherapyvideo?listId=3581Z1XUVFAFY Check out The Bob & Brad Crew on YouTube by clicking here:  https://www.youtube.com/c/thebobbradcrew Medical Disclaimer All information, content, and material of 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 in order to help you make the best choice for you.

This article is a transcribed edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in September of 2020.  For the original video go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oh50jR-jnzI&t=602s Bob: Today we are going to talk about massage gun heads. Heal muscles faster by using the correct head. This is kind of a tutorial today. Brad: Sure, well we know these guns are becoming more and more popular. Everyone’s making them, these things are very useful. We like them. But, there are some things we need to know. This one comes with five different attachments, or head attachments that actually come in contact with your skin. And there are different heads for different reasons. Bob: We’ll give our opinion because we’re not the end all be all here. We just have our opinion on what heads work well for what. Brad: Yeah, but we’ve used them a lot on ourselves as well as patients and I think our opinion is worthy. Bob: First off, I want to say Brad, just really quickly, my nephew just bought a massage gun, he spent $40. JUNK. He said, “I should have talked to you first. It’s just junk, it was just terrible.” I mean they used to be $400. Brad: Yeah, and that would be a good one. Bob: Now they’ve come down significantly, and it’s to the point where we actually have our own, too. Brad: Right, we think it is a good price because it’s a good gun. And, we even put our name on it, Bob and Brad. But yeah, the price has come down. You can still get a good massage gun, but probably not for $40. Bob: No not for $40. All right, let’s get to work, Brad. Brad: Alright, so there’s three variables that help decide which head to use. Number one is, what size muscle mass are you using it on? For example, if you’re doing your hamstrings versus you elbow, you’re going to use two different heads. Also, the proximity of the massage to a bone. Even if you’re doing your quadriceps, which is a big muscle mass and you get close to your patella (knee cap) where the tendon is, that might change your choice on which head to use. Even though you have a big muscle mass here, you’re not going to use the pointy one when you get close to the bone unless you’re very careful. Bob: Let me say this about muscle mass too, Brad, now my nephew is a large guy, I mean bulky. So even when he does his bicep or something like that, it’s not like doing my bicep which is hardly any, you know, I’m hitting bone here. He needs different heads probably for his body than I would use. Brad: Yeah. So it varies from person to person on these. And then, the severity of the injury. If you just injured a muscle and you had a muscle strain or minor tear, you’re not going to get real aggressive on it the first day or two; you’ve got to let it settle down. Bob: Often what we suggest is like let’s say you torn your muscle at the elbow, we’d have you maybe massage above and below the area soon after and eventually work your way into the injury itself. Brad: Exactly, and then the tolerance of the user. For example, like if your nephew is using it, he’s probably going to tolerate a lot more than if my grandmother, well my grandmother’s passed, but you know, than an elderly person. Bob: A slight person or a thin person. Brad: So keep that in mind too. There is no black and white answers to these, so we’re going to give you some examples. We’ll go through the heads first here, Bob. These are common, each manufacturer may have some variations. But, they’re pretty close. We have a round one (ball), and this is kind of soft, it’s not like a hard plastic, there is some give to it. The air cushioned one, which Bob and I probably think is our favorite, it’s air cushioned and it’s spread out. Bob: It's very nice, very universal. Brad: Now, this one is hard plastic (flat), and it’s a flat surface as you can see about that size. I do use this one, not all the time, we’ll get into that. Now, this one is a hard plastic (bullet) and it comes not to a point, but more to a point, that’s going to get in deep to some large muscles. Bob: Or let’s say you have some scar tissue, you want to get in there and break that up. Brad: And, this one we call the field goal (fork). This one, neither Bob nor I have really used. I thought about using it once. We’ll maybe talk about it a little bit. Bob: I mean, we thought that you could go along the spine on each side of the spine. Brad: Right, you don’t want to hit the bone, the spinous processes, but you’re going to have to have two people. The second person is going to have to do it and do it very carefully. Bob: Yeah, because otherwise you still could bump up against the spine. Brad: Right, so anyways, I’m sure when it was made, it had a specific use; we haven’t come up to it yet. To be honest with you these other ones I’ve had, they’ve covered everything very well. Okay, let’s go to the neck. This is, to me, it’s a red flag. You want to turn around once, Bob? If you’re going like the low neck maybe, actually where the shirt line is. Bob: Well, if you’re going from where the upper trapezius is, absolutely you can use it. Brad: Right, I’m going to use this borderline of the shirt collar. At the black or down you could use the massage gun. If you’re going up above the shirt collar, DO NOT use a massage gun. They’re too aggressive, you could actually get in and sublux the vertebrae possibly. Bob: I don’t know. It’s very uncomfortable. It’s like a jackhammer. And the same thing on your head, Brad. You really can’t go up into your head. Brad: Anything on the neck or higher, you are not going to use it. Not a gun, maybe one of the other ones that are very light, it’s a different story. So number two, let’s go over to the wrist and the elbow. For a lot of people, they don’t have a lot of muscle mass there. If you have tennis elbow, oftentimes the point that you need to get after is close to the bone. So, in this situation, the round ball might be a good option. We’re going to put that in there, turn it on, there’s a three second delay there. Bob: I want to make sure people are aware of the because the first time I tried to turn this on, I’m like, it doesn’t work. You have to push and hold it. Brad: Right, it’s not an on/off switch, it’s press and hold. On this gun, it’s very common with the other guns too, this one has five different levels of intensity. It just turned off, now I have to push and hold it for one thousand one, one thousand two. All right, I’m going to go at level four. Now, if I went up by the point of the elbow and it was pretty sore close to the bone, I might want to go down on the muscle and I can work here. Now, the neat thing about this round head is you can change the intensity by the angle. I can go crosswise, and you still can get a cross friction massage, which you can do with your hands manually. And then the more you go in head on, the deeper it gets. Brad: Now, this is probably too aggressive for me; I’m going to go back to the muscle and actually I’m thinking I’m going to go to the air filled (air cushion). Let’s get this going now. There, that feels much better. Bob: And the thing about this with the air filled, let’s say you mistakenly hit the bone, it can tolerate that. Brad: Yeah, I’m right over the bone right now, and it does not hurt. If you had tennis elbow, it would probably hurt, you wouldn’t do this over the bone. Bob: It’s be too much. So, yeah, whenever you’re flirting around those bones, especially if it’s a smaller area like this, you’re going to probably use the air filled I think. But, the ball does serve a nice purpose of intense, less intense. Brad: Yep, you know, when in doubt, I would start with the air filled. That’s always the go-to one for me, and then if I’m not happy with it, then I go on to something else. Bob: You see these heads just pop in and pop out by the way. Brad: Yep, it’s just the resistance interference fit. Let’s go to the thigh. You know, the quadriceps or the hamstrings, most people have much more muscle mass there. Right now I’ve got a hamstring issue, I’m actually almost recovered from it, but I’ve been using the flat one that’s hard. I was considering going to the more aggressive one (the bullet) with the point to get into that muscle, but I found this was working well, so I didn’t want to get more aggressive. Bob: I would have guessed the bullet. Brad: Yeah, I was thinking about it. Now, I just want to show you, what I find with these is I like to do it over a little clothing when you have the smooth hard one (flat head) because it slides so well. Bob: Now, are you going to be able to see this against dark pants? Brad: I usually do it on my hamstring but because of the color, the black on black, I’ll just do it down here, and it just slides over the material, that really makes a difference as far as the ease of doing this. It feels great, Bob, and I don’t have any problem in this area, but I’m telling you I’d do this for a while just to enjoy it. Bob: So I guess the pointer (bullet), that would probably slide over also. Brad: Oh yeah, because that is the hard plastic as well. But you know, that one, we can switch over to that one. You know, I don’t have a pair of white pants for modeling here. Bob: You can just pull up the pant leg and do it on your calf. Brad: Oh sure, good idea. And I have done this on my calf. Bob: I had torn part of my calf muscle last winter, and I spent a lot of time with a massage gun. I mean, I would do it before I worked out, and I would also do it later in the day. Brad: That’s a good point, Bob. Actually I do the massage gun on my hamstrings and then I stretch and then I run. Now, this is a good point right here. I was going over the calf muscle here and I get into this spot. I don’t know if I’ve got an injury there, or if it’s just sensitive, but that is painful. I’m not going to go there too deep. Over to one side more, I can push in deep and I can get into that muscle really good with this pointy one. And you can work angles with this. You’ll find out after you work with this for a while, what you can do and how to work it. Bob: I would like to say really there’s no wrong answer to these things. You know, you’re going to experiment and find out which one works for you. My nephew that’s going to be getting one of these guns, he’s a big guy, like I said, and he wants to use it prior to softball, he’s a big softball player. And he wants to get his muscles loose before he does that. Let me take, can I have that round one? So I had quadriceps tendonitis. Brad: Oh yes, I remember this. That was early on when we first started using guns. Bob: Yeah, and what’s interesting about this, it was not getting better. I was doing everything, I was doing eccentric strengthening, all the things they tell you to do. I started doing the massage, and what’s interesting, it didn’t start getting better until I started working right onto the bone a little bit. Brad: So right where that tendon connects. Bob: You’re right, it works better on the side with that. Brad: Yeah, when you get to the bone. Bob: Yeah, so I actually went over the bone and it seemed like that’s where the injury was, the damage. Brad: The scar tissue was there and we needed to break that up finally. Bob: And it got better rapidly 90% better. And then over time, it got 100% better. Brad: And we’ve had that experience with other people, patients, people commenting, cross friction or the massage gun, it’s like it just got better really quickly. Bob: Yeah it did. Once you break that scar tissue up. You know these massage guns can be used, like we said, before and after if you have an injury to warm it up. Brad: Well, one more tool in the bucket, isn’t it? Bob: Yeah, one last thing I was going to say, at first we were a little reluctant to use mechanical devices when we were seeing people. We used to all so it by hand, and what we found is a lot of people prefer these. And a lot of people end up getting them themselves then. Brad: And us as therapists, your fingers don’t get so worn out. You know, a few minutes working aggressively can really take a toll. Especially as you get a little older, Bob. Not that we are, but if you were an older therapist. Bob: We’re elders. That means we are wise. Brad: Take care, enjoy. If you are interested in the products mentioned above, they can be found at: Massage Gun By Bob & Brad: https://amzn.to/36pMekg Visit us on our other social media platforms: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/physicaltherapyvideo Website: https://bobandbrad.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BobandBrad/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/officialbobandbrad/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ptfamous Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/mostfamousPTs For this week’s Giveaway visit: https://bobandbrad.com/giveaways Bob and Brad’s Products: Grip and Forearm Strengthener: https://store.bobandbrad.com 15% off with code BLOG15 Wall Anchor: https://store.bobandbrad.com 15% off with code BLOG15 Booyah Stik: https://store.bobandbrad.com 15% off with code BLOG15 Knee Glide: https://store.bobandbrad.com 15% off with code BLOG15 Fit Glide: https://store.bobandbrad.com 15% off with code BLOG15 Massage Gun: https://amzn.to/36pMekg Hanging Handles: https://amzn.to/2RXLVFF Bob and Brad Resistance Bands Set: https://amzn.to/36uqnbr Bob & Brad Amazon Store: https://amzn.to/2RTSLLh Check out our shirts, mugs, bags and more in our Bob and Brad merchandise shop here:  https://shop.spreadshirt.com/bob-brad Check out other products Bob and Brad Love: https://www.amazon.com/shop/physicaltherapyvideo?listId=3581Z1XUVFAFY Check out The Bob & Brad Crew on YouTube by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/c/thebobbradcrew Medical Disclaimer All information, content, and material of 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 in order to help you make the best choice for you.

This article is a transcribed edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in August of 2020. For the original video go to https://youtu.be/J2s-GSUTLiA?t=112 Bob: The topic today, “How to Fall Asleep Fast.” We’re going to show you a three-step approach that works for me, Bob, every time. Alright, Brad, I rarely have trouble sleeping. It’s probably one of my superpowers, that I sleep pretty well. My wife is just like, “you’ve got to be kidding me,” sometimes. We’ll lay down in bed and like 20 seconds later she can hear me breathing like I am sleeping already. Brad: You don’t snore? Bob: I snore sometimes especially if I’ve been drinking. Brad: That’s another video. Bob: But if I do have trouble sleeping, it’s one of thress things usually. One, I’m worried about something, that’s probably the most common reason I can’t get to sleep. Brad: You ruminate perhaps? Bob: I ruminate, we all do. Two, something we all do, the bed environment is off. Like if we go to a hotel and it’s too hot, it’s too noisy. Even when we go to our cabin, there’s a different mattress, a different pillow. I’m trying to get things all the same if I can. Brad: Are you going to paint the walls the same and everything? Bob: No, that doesn’t bother me, but you know the things that typically bother you. Number three, something hurts, like I remember my hip was bothering me for a while. Just that little ache, you know, just kind of keeps you awake. So, you know after I’ve been on this planet for 60 years, you learn a few things. Brad: 60 plus years, Bob. You’re older than 60. Bob: I’m not really older than 60; 60 rounded off! You don’t say I’m 60 year and 2 months! Brad: I do. Carry on Bob. Bob: All right. Number one, I realized I have to clear my mind. I know if there’s a problem, I will not go to sleep until I have to come up with some type of solution. Or at least the next step of what I’m going to do. Brad: Right, if you’re worried about something. Bob: Yes, I’ll go over it and over it. A lot of times I solve it, when I’m sleeping or trying to sleep, but that doesn’t help sleep. So, I’m amazed this works for me because I always thought once I get up, I’m going to wake up and I’m going to stay awake. So, I get up and I put the problem on paper. I put down every possible solution that I can think of. I just write and I write, and I write, and I write. When I get to the end, I’m like okay, I put down everything, then I say to myself, I’ll address this in the morning. I’ve got all the ideas down. I’m just shocked how well it works. Brad: How long does that take you to write your list? Bob: Maybe five, ten minutes. You know, you do wake up but when I put my head back on the pillow, I just slept like a baby again. You could say like a baby, crying every few minutes. LOL. The second thing I’ll do then, when I lay back down, I just try to think of something pleasant. We’ve talked about this before. I like to go, if I’m golfing well, I like to think about golf. Which isn’t very often. But you can think about yourself being on like, one person talked about using a black velvet hammock in a dark room. It just envelopes them. You used to do a beach one didn’t you? Brad: Yeah, but I have my new thing now. The couch. I keep going back to the womb. That works for me. Bob: Oh yeah that’s right. He lies on the couch, with his back against the couch. You’re enveloped with your hoodie. Brad: Yep, my hoodie and a nice soft blanket and it’s very soothing. Bob: You look to me when you’re on the couch like that, you look like a serial killer. Brad: Why Bob, Why! Why ruin my image! Bob: So, my office manager, who's heavily into cats, and that’s to say the least, she actually has a place for cats, like runaway cats, a place for them to go to be safe. They are trying to get them all adopted. They have 40 of them at least. Photo by Abdullah Arif on Unsplash Brad: So, what does this have to do with sleeping? Bob: Well, she thinks about cats when she can’t sleep. Brad: Oh, that relaxes her. Bob: Yeah, and cats are kind of a relaxing thing when you look at them, you know, I mean they just lay around. They don’t do anything. All right, so, clear my mind. Next thing, I always check my breathing because I can guarantee you, my breathing is rapid when I’m not sleeping well. It’s more shallow, it’s rapid. This is something you can use throughout the day. There’s different types of breathing you can do. I like the 4-7-8. Brad: One way or another, they’re all slowing your breathing down and bringing in more air, exhaling it, like you said, the 4-7-8, the 4-4-4. Bob: Yeah, so let’s talk about the 4-7-8 Brad. You breathe in through your nose for four seconds, hold for seven seconds and then breathe out the mouth, kind of in a pursed lip, like you’re blowing out candles for 8 seconds. So, in for four, hold for 7, out for 8. Brad: If that’s too long, just count a little faster. You still use that ratio though. Bob: Right. I don’t know how they came up with that; I don’t know that I’m exact on it. This one is the one that, I heard that it was mentioned by people who are about to go on a mission for special forces or something like that. Brad: In the military. Bob: They call it the four square. So, it’s four, four, four, four. Breathe in for four, hold for four, out for four and hold again for four. Brad: So that’s how they get the square. Bob: And now you can do that for five seconds, six seconds, whatever works for you. That one works for me too. I think that one is really great. The thing is, I think if along with the breathing, you do a little bit of visualization, I think I’ve mentioned this before, where like, when I breathe in, I visualize I’m breathing in bubbles. Then the bubbles all go into my mouth. Then I hold them, and they get bigger and bigger. All of a sudden, they blow out and I’m just visualizing that. It clears your mind. That’s always what you want to do is focus on something else. I heard some people say you count back from a hundred. That one doesn’t work for me. You know, counting sheep, it’s all a matter of trying to clear your brain. Brad: Everyone has their own little things that their mind responds to better. Bob: The third thing I do, is change the environment. I definitely did it this weekend. We had a lot of people at our cabin, a lot of family members, and I used my ear plugs. I normally don’t, I don’t wear earplugs during the week. Brad: I suppose you go to bed at seven and everyone else is up playing cards or something? Bob: Well I went to bed at 12, and she’s got a brother that can stay up till 2. He’s just a late nighter. Brad: Is he carrying on and having a good time? Bob: No, no, well they had a good time but not bad. Or if it’s hot, I’ll put an overhead fan on, try to lower the temperature. I’ve done that at hotels, I get up and it’s like, it’s hot in here isn’t it? And I’ll lower it down. It’s amazing, all that makes a difference. Or I’ll try to use pillows for positioning, if something’s hurting. That’s basically it, Brad. That’s the three steps. I clear the mind; I checked my breathing and I change the environment. Usually one of those three things will do the job and I’m sleeping once again like you do in the womb. Do you have anything else? Brad: Why Bob Why!?! Bob: That’s all clear for you? Brad: Yeah, just look at my video on sleeping on a couch, and you’ll, it’s very clear. You can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7wZDWVTo-I&t=249s Bob: It’s disturbing. Brad: Many people liked it. "If You Can’t Sleep, Try This," was the name of it. There’s a picture of a brown leather couch on there. You’re going to have wonderful success if this doesn’t work. Bob: Remember Brad and I can fix just about anything, Brad: Except for, Bob: A broken heart. Brad: There you go Bob. Bob: But if we fix your sleep, you won’t care about a broken heart. Brad: Well, it’s a step in the right direction, there’s no doubt about it. Bob: Alright, Adios fans. Visit us on our other social media platforms: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/physicaltherapyvideo Website: https://bobandbrad.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BobandBrad/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/officialbobandbrad/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ptfamous Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/mostfamousPTs For this week’s Giveaway visit: https://bobandbrad.com/giveaways Bob and Brad’s Products: Grip and Forearm Strengthener: https://store.bobandbrad.com 15% off with code BLOG15 Wall Anchor: https://store.bobandbrad.com 15% off with code BLOG15 Booyah Stik: https://store.bobandbrad.com 15% off with code BLOG15 Knee Glide: https://store.bobandbrad.com 15% off with code BLOG15 Fit Glide: https://store.bobandbrad.com 15% off with code BLOG15 Massage Gun:https://amzn.to/36pMekg Hanging Handles: https://amzn.to/2RXLVFF Bob and Brad Resistance Bands Set: https://amzn.to/36uqnbr Bob & Brad Amazon Store: https://amzn.to/2RTSLLh Check out our shirts, mugs, bags and more in our Bob and Brad merchandise shop here:  https://shop.spreadshirt.com/bob-brad Check out other products Bob and Brad Love:  https://www.amazon.com/shop/physicaltherapyvideo?listId=3581Z1XUVFAFY Check out The Bob & Brad Crew on YouTube by clicking here:  https://www.youtube.com/c/thebobbradcrew Medical Disclaimer All information, content, and material of 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 in order to help you make the best choice for you.

Are you curious what to look for when choosing a massage gun or have you been wondering how to use the massage gun C2 from Bob and Brad (refered to as the C2 for short)? Read on for examples and details on what to look for. Stall Force The first parameter we are going to discuss is "stall force". The stall force of a motor means the amount of force that can be applied to the motor before it stops working, and the higher a stall force a massage gun has, the more aggressive you can use it on your body. So, if you intend to use your massage gun mainly on the larger muscle groups like quads or hip flexors, choose one with a higher stall force.  Many popular brands of massage guns have stall forces of 40 to 60 lbs, suitable for general home use, and the massage gun C2 is tested to have a high stall force, making it unstoppable, despite its light weight and small size. The Speed Or The RPM Let's look into the speed and attachments of massage guns. Most popular brands offer four to six speed levels and five or six changeable massage heads, although one brand provides up to 20 speed levels - takes a bit of patience when choosing the right speed level there. The massage gun C2 follows the majority, offering five speed levels with the highest level of 3200 RPM and five different massage heads - cushion(Bob and Brad's favorite) , flat, bullet, foam ball, and fork. We will talk about how to choose a suitable massage head to target specific muscle groups to boost recovery in a future blog. Stroke length/Amplitude Another important parameter to consider is the stroke length/ amplitude of a massage gun. The greater the stroke length is, the further the head travels and the deeper the massage gun hits. Due to its small size, the massage gun C2 has a stroke length of 8 mm, slightly shorter than the 10 to 16 mm of many popular brands, but it provides decent percussion instead of vibration. Another trade off of its small size is that the angle of the head cannot be adjusted and, for those whose arms have a limited range of motion, it may be a bit difficult to reach the back of your body. The Size Size does matter! Being just 1.5 lbs in weight, the massage gun C2 is the smallest on the market, but you can't stall it just by pushing it against your chest. By comparison, Theragun Mini is also of 1.5 lbs, but it only has a stall force of 20 lbs. A 20-lb stall force means the motor will stop when the massage gun is pressed gently againt the palm (see 1:50 in the video here for the effect Other popular brands generally weight two to three lbs, so the massage gun C2 is basically half of the weight and comes in a fashionable, compact, high-quality case, so you can take it everywhere and use it wherever you need: in the gym after a good workout, on a business trip, or in the office during your coffee break. The Noise Level Then, let's talk about noise levels. No one likes loud noises. Generally speaking, most popular brands of massage guns have a noise level between 50 and 70 dB, although they all sound differently, some harder and higher-pitched than others. The best way to experience the noise level of a specific massage gun is to check out their review videos on YouTube. Want to hear what the massage gun C2 from Bob and Brad sounds like? Check this out: It sounds more like a humming noise with a noise level of 41 dB at the lowest speed and 53 dB at the highest. The Battery Life Some massage guns have removable batteries, while some others' batteries cannot be taken out. Some massage guns have a battery life of one hour or less, while some others' batteries can go up to eight hours without being recharged. So think about how important charging batteries is to your life.  The Bob and Brad C2 massage gun is powered by an integrated battery (same battery they used at Tesla) of 2500 mAh, which is fully charged in 3.5 hours and can last four to eight hours depending on the usage. Its battery is charged via a Type C cable, and since nowadays charging by Type C cables are becoming the main stream, you don't have to worry about forgetting your charging cable somewhere else. Besides, the battery level is clearly indicated by the four LED lights on the back bottom, so no need to worry about being caught off guard that your massage gun is running out of juice. The Budget Are you ready to throw in $599 for a TheraGun Pro when you have never tried a massage gun? Similarly, you don't want to get a knock-off for a cheap price, only to be disappointed with its performance. Usually, the prices of many popular brands range between 200 and 400 dollars, but the Bob and Brad C2 massage gun costs just half that ($119.98 on Amazon, discount possible) and gives you a comparable performance. Interested in the Bob and Brad C2 Massage Gun: visit Amazon at https://amzn.to/36pMekg

This article is a transcribed edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in March of 2020.  For the original video go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pxenGYuCgs Bob: And once again, it is our extreme pleasure to have with us today Dr Adrian Louw. Dr Adrian Louw is a pain expert, and I’m going to let you talk as to what your qualifications are, what makes you that. Brad? Brad: This is a real treat for us. I mean this is like going to one of the world’s leading experts. Bob: Right! Just listen, you’ll find out. Brad: You’ll be on the edge of your seat. Bob: So, Dr Louw if you could maybe just give a little bit on your background. Dr Adrian Louw: Yeah, like I said, I’m a physical therapist, trained as a physical therapist, and I got very interested with the pain and decided to study it. And then I was very fortunate to be surrounded by some of the smartest pain people on the planet, and they were very kind to me. I just started studying, doing PhD work, and now we’re doing an enormous amount, we’ve got about 23 studies right now ongoing. Bob: Oh, fantastic, wow. Dr Adrian Louw: Big research team and just trying to get the world a better place. Bob: That is so awesome! Brad: So you got your PhD and he’s from South Africa. Brad: He’s written all these books; we have 13 or 14 books that he authored. Bob: Books on pain, and what you going to want to do is check these books out.  Because if you have a specific problem, it probably is in one of these books. So if you’re having trouble with back pain or if you have pelvic pain or fibromyalgia, check out the book links at the end and we’ll get into those specifically. If you’re a therapist, you may want to check out this book, “Integrating Manual Therapy and Pain Neuroscience.” There are also classes they put on, and it’s going to be in https://evidenceinmotion.com/ if you check that out. Brad: Sure. Bob: So I guess, again, we’re talking here, we’re going to kind of talk about examples of some of the education you give. Why don’t you talk about why the education is important? Dr Adrian Louw: We have just found out several years ago when we interviewed people with pain and asked, what do you want from us? And the clear message is they want more information. The current, even though people get internet and all, the information currently isn’t, it’s not clear. It doesn’t explain things really well. Bob: I think it’s even scarier on the net. Dr Adrian Louw: It is actually scary, there’s recent studies that showed 90% of the information on the internet about back pain isn’t bad, it is disastrously bad. Because it drives fear and all those things. And so we went to study pain, what is pain, how pain really works, and we found out people are better for it when they learn about pain from a neuroscience perspective. What I mean is if they understand the underlying biology. Now, the problem is, I cannot just sit with you like a textbook and say, “this is how pain works.” It doesn’t make sense. So we’ve taken this and put theem in stories. We learn through stories. Everybody listening right now probably cannot remember what they were taught about history in the fifth grade. We could lie, right, we could lie and say Lincoln, Hitler, we could say anything of those. But we remember stories like “The Tortoise and the Hare”, right, stories. Through the history of mankind, we transferred knowledge through stories. And so we took this information, put them in stories, and it works, it makes peoples lives better. To be honest, one of the coolest things we’re working on, we built a middle school pain neuroscience program that’s now in middle schools in nine states. Bob: No kidding!? Dr Adrian Louw: In the United States, so we’re teaching kids about pain and we’re tracking them now through school. They experience less pain, they take less medicine when they hurt, all the things we want them to do. Bob: Which I imagine decreases stress too. Dr Adrian Louw: Absolutely, they have less fear too. So we’re tracking them, and bottom line is if people know more about their pain and know how it works, our lives are better for it. And for us as therapists, it means they’ll move, and movement is the biggest pain killer on the planet. Bar none. Brad: Absolutely. Motion is lotion. Bob: You had mentioned in the other video some of the other things that can help decrease pain too, in addition to education. Dr Adrian Louw: Yes, there is a bunch of stuff we have now looked at. I mean if you look at things like sleep hygiene. Sleep calms the nervous system down. There’s different types of nutrition, mindfulness, relaxation, goal setting. Different forms of exercise. I may call it manual therapy, some people call it yoga, Pilates, etc. Movement, all those different movement styles. There’s so many different things that can calm the nervous system non-pharmacologically, because that’s a safer alternative for what we’re doing right now. Brad: You’ll see people that are on pain medications with a primary goal of reducing that. Is that something you deal with on a regular basis? Dr Adrian Louw: Absolutely. And as we always say, you cannot take the pain medicine away. If I was a patient listening right now, I would say, don’t take my medicine, I don’t know what else to do. We should think about it as a scale, if we build this side so powerful and my physician can take the medicine down, they don’t freak out. And what we have now built, especially in the VA, what I’m showing you right now, there’s 22 things we’re doing as part of, in many VA’s right now, as part of their anti-opioid initiative. If you build this side up, the brain turns on it’s own chemistry. Your brain right now has the most powerful medicine known on the planet, between your ears. When you hurt yourself, our brain has this incredible capacity to shut that down. We are sitting here right now, a farmer in Nowhere, MN, today is putting up a fence. Auger pulls his arm and cuts his arm off in the middle of the field, the brain turns open the faucet, the tap, and produces these fancy chemicals: endorphins, enkephlanins, serotonin, where the guy feels nothing. Puts a tourniquet on him, he drives 20 miles to the emergency room, he probably stops for a coffee. We’ve heard these stories right? Bob: LOL Dr Adrian Louw: And then he shows up at the emergency room, Bob: Or like with a nail in his head. Dr Adrian Louw: Then we ask him, what’s your pain rating? I’m good, I’ll wait. How cool is that? When we hear our soldiers coming back and they’ve been shot, they’re not aware of it, our brain has incredible chemistry. When you’re in pain, the brain dries that up to make you more sensitive. So we almost have to ask today, how do we take a dry brain, less chemical, and make it wet again? All the happy chemicals, and that’s that stuff you guys do and I do, all that 22 things. Let’s turn the brain on so we can take that medicine, over time, away. Brad: So you’re saying the brain physically can produce pain medicine? Dr Adrian Louw: Yes, yes, medicine. Are you guys runners? Bob: Yes. Dr Adrian Louw: We talked about running and dogs, and we talk about it in a great way. A six mile run produces 10 milligrams of morphine in the human brain. Photo by Jenny Hill on Unsplash Bob: No wonder I’m so high after. Dr Adrian Louw: So think about it, if you break your arm today and you go to the emergency room, they’re going to give you two or three milligrams of morphine to set your arm. You get two to three times more then that by just going on a run. That’s why this is that “runner’s high”. And this is so much our brain produces to dampen the system, but It dries up when we’re in pain because the brain is worried about us. So we have to enhance that again. Bob: So, would you say of the 22 things, the first thing and the cornerstone of it, is education? Dr Adrian Louw: There’s four. We’ve tested it. And trust me, we didn’t sit up one night with my buddies with a couple of beers going, yep, yep, no, yep, yep, no. This is statistical modeling. There are four things you gotta get right. 1) You have to know why you hurt. The most dangerous brain we have is one that doesn’t know what’s going on because we all make up our own reality. And I mean no disrespect here today, but all of us have been there, all of us have found something on our body and like, ooh, what’s that bump? And two minutes later you’re thinking worst case scenario. So the brain must know what’s going on. Bob: It’s taking those leaps. Dr Adrian Louw: Yes, number one, check. Number 2) you have to move. Motion is lotion, as you guys always preach. Like, motion is lotion. When we pump blood and oxygen through the human body, the nervous system calms down. And I know our patients right now are watching this going, “I know he’s going to go there. We gotta run marathons, climb Mt Kilimanjaro,” no, no, no. A nice brisk walk and very simply is you gotta get your heart rate up a little bit, pump some blood through your body. How cool is that? Buy a leash, take your dog for a walk. How cool is that? And then 3) is sleep. It’s one of the biggest cornerstones we have. The minute somebody can get meaningful sleep, but it isn’t as simple as just, saying go to sleep. We have to change your biology, we gotta get your system to dampen down. We gotta get healthy sleep habits. And then number 4) you’ve got to have a reason to get out of bed, that’s goals. There’s got to be a reason to get out of bed. And unfortunately, our system right now does not incentivize people to go back to work or to go back to activity and we have to find that thing. And that’s where we talk to our patients about deep beliefs and thoughts and goals. If those four things are right, we tested it, people had meaningful shift in their life. Bob: It’s funny, I just read the book, “Why We Sleep.” Dr Adrian Louw: Yes, yes, yes, absolutely, Bradley Walker. Bob: I was telling Brad; it’s a fantastic book. Dr Adrian Louw: Oh, it’s mind blowing. Bob: But it scares the heck out of you if you don’t get enough sleep. I mean I’ve changed my life now making sure that I’m going to get enough sleep. I mean we go to bed earlier… Dr Adrian Louw: I would tell you, if you can get a person of chronic pain to sleep, you’re halfway there. But it isn’t that simple. Bob: It’s not simple. Dr Adrian Louw: Your system has to dampen a little bit. But mind-blowing, it’s amazing. Bob: So we thought we’d start the education process, maybe, with a story. You use a lion because you’re from South Africa. We might use a barking dog, or a Cujo. You probably don’t know the movie Cujo? Dr Adrian Louw: No, no I don’t. He made it up, didn’t he? Bob: A Stephen King movie, Cujo is this huge dog that starts attacking a family and its kind of like the one example of a bad dog. Dr Adrian Louw: I think he made it up. Brad: We’ll go with the lion. Bob: Look it up. Okay, we’re going to use lion. Dr Adrian Louw: So one of the ways we often, as I said, we tell stories to patients, it resonates with them. And so what we find with people in chronic pain, for example, they have problems, they’re fatigued. I have so many patients come and see me, “I don’t know what’s going on. Since I developed pain I’m so tired. 2:00 in the afternoons”, they say “I’m wiped out.” Or they say things like, “I cannot sleep at night.” Either they cannot fall asleep or they’re so exhausted, even though they sleep. So we understand the underlying biology, there are stress chemicals running through our body. But sitting with them and just saying, let me tell you how stress works, is a little too academic. So we tell a story, and you guys are going to be my fifth graders. There’s a TV show, “Are You Smarter then a Fifth Grader?” so don’t let me down, don’t let me down. Bob: We’re gonna be perfect. All right. Dr Adrian Louw: If a lion jumped in this room right now, right, a big roaring African lion, what would you do? Photo by Francesco De Tommaso on Unsplash Brad: Run! Bob: I’m going to try to maybe, I don’t know, run or fight or flight. Dr Adrian Louw: Yeah, and most people are familiar with fight and flight, right? So we would run and so, you’d probably shove me in front of him. This is a classic. Bob: That’s right, we don’t have to run fast, we just have to run faster than you. Dr Adrian Louw: Faster than the last guy, that’s me, yeah. So we would say to the patients, if a lion jumps in the room, what would you do? They’d say, I’d scream, I’d run, whatever, fair enough. But then we run through scenarios. If the lion jumps in the room, are you going to take a nap? I’ve never had a patient say yes, they say, “No, I’d be awake.” Exactly. The lion jumps in the room, are you gonna mobilize all your energy, or are you going to store some for the winter? “No, I’m going to mobilize.” They’re smart, right. If the lion jumps in the room, which muscles do we need? The big ones or the small ones? It’s the big ones… Bob: The big ones. Dr Adrian Louw: So I can punch the lion, shove Adrian in front of the lion, right? They understand this. If a lion jumps in the room are you worried about the food in your stomach? No, we shunt blood away from it. Everybody understands the system. The local zookeeper at Winona, MN, I don’t know if you have a zoo here? He comes and takes the lion out of the room and you sit back in your seat and go, “whew, that’s the third lion attack in Winona this week, this better stop,” right? We have this fight or flight. The system ramps, calms, ramps, calms. What does this have to do with someone in pain? Pain is a stressor. Pain is a normal thing. All of us experience pain, but living in pain is not normal. I think we need to understand if you wake up in the morning and from the moment you wake up you experience pain, that assumes you slept, and that lion is in your life not for a day, not for a week, not for a month, not for a year, but for 20 years, your system shunts but never comes back. That’s why when you wake up in the morning, guess what? You burn through fuel by 2:00 and you’re wiped out. And again, it seems simple, but patients go, “Wow, that makes sense.” Bob: And that’s why you might have an irritable stomach for 20 years because it’s not adjusting like it should. Dr Adrian Louw: Exactly, so the bowel and bladder is a little bit suspect, we don’t sleep at night because the lion could be in the room, all these things change. They understand, that’s why I fun out of fuel. When you lay in that room at night in bed, you can’t go to sleep because where’s the lion? You don’t fall asleep. By the way, since you’re in sleep you don’t go do the deeper restorative phases you need – Bob: Exactly, which is REM. Dr Adrian Louw: So you never really rest. And so these things, I’m sure people are looking at this going, “This is silly, but it makes sense.” Brad: I wanna know how to get rid of the lion. Dr Adrian Louw: Well there’s ways of getting rid of the lion, right? But the point is simple, we, then the question comes and this is actually coming back to you Brad, is then we ask somebody, now what would you do if a beautiful small little baby lion cub walked into this room? And the classic answer is “Aaaww”, right? So we need to take this lion and let’s identify the lion. What is the lion, we have different explanations for our pain? Treatments aren’t working. I’m not sleeping. And what about my job, my kids, my family? You make this monster list. And we just start attacking each one of these. Okay let’s start with sleep? Now we’re going to go to the sleep program. And we work through a sleep hygiene. Good, check. Let’s talk about this. And we slowly start making this lion smaller and smaller and smaller so when we do wake up with that lion you go “Aaaww”. Notice what we’re doing here. It’s not everything nothing, but we can slowly shift it. Or as we often say, and I mean no disrespect, but we gotta turn the Titanic around. It’s a big turn. We’re not gonna overturn it, it’s not like a quick little boat, but we’re gonna turn this turn. And the minute we start turning with better movement, better sleep, better nutrition, all these things, the boat can turn. Takes a little time, but it can do it. Bob: It’s funny, I just used this example last night. I was talking to a family member; I won’t mention who it was. But, she has been under a fair amount of stress and the stress has been calming down, and she thought she had irritable bowel syndrome. And I said, “How’s your stomach doing?” And she’s like, “Well, it’s been doing better.” And I go, “You know, I think it may be stress related.” I gave the example of the lion, how your digestive system slows down when the lion’s in the room, and she goes, that just is so calming to me, because she kept thinking it was something serious, something really bad. That alone can be so helpful. And I said, that is true and that’s what they have found. Dr Adrian Louw: And we need to understand, obviously we do due diligence by screening, right? I have a practice like you guys, patients walk off the street, we go through a very thorough medical screening before we jump into this. I don’t want people to think all we do is sit and tell stories. Bob: Excellent point, because something could come in and it could be something serious. Dr Adrian Louw: Absolutely, so we do screen carefully, but once we’ve covered all the bases, we will go this route. And again, if things don’t change, we examine again. So we do due diligence, but again, the more people understand, the better off they are, like, “oh that makes sense.” And we can see the changes. Bob: And if you have the example of the person coming in that has seen 20 clinicians, they probably have been screened already for serious things. Dr Adrian Louw: Fair enough, fair enough. Bob: They have not found anything that could be a problem, so the screening has almost already been done. To a large extent. You know, I think a great starting point, again, if you have a specific pain issue, check out the books below. These books are great, they’re terrific, I mean, you’ve touched on just a small part of. With the stories there’s a lot of other examples in there, a lot of other stories. I think this is a great way to start getting to a life without pain. Or at least manage pain. Brad: Yeah, I agree. I want to hear more about getting rid of this lion. LOL. But with the books, you know, I know we talked about diet a year ago, and I’m like, diet, blah, blah, I don’t wanna deal with it. I’ll just quit eating so much. And then I start reading some books on my own. Once I start reading and seeing that my mind can decipher things better. Bob: And the sleep book that we mentioned, too, I think it’s just fascinating. Brad: And it’s so much better to educate yourself. Become better as opposed to going to the doctor and coming out with some pain meds and not really feeling any better then you were before and not understanding it. I just think education is so powerful. Bob: Now, we had a video the night before on another one from Dr Louw, and we’ll have one in the future, too, on fibromyalgia, so stay tuned to our channel. Check us out. Brad: All right, thank you. Dr Adrian Louw: Thank you! For More on Adriaan Louw: https://www.bobandbrad.com/adriaan-louw Interested in learning about the products mentioned in today's video: Adriaan Louw's books on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3cz6sZk Visit us on our other social media platforms: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/physicaltherapyvideo Website: https://bobandbrad.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BobandBrad/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/officialbobandbrad/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ptfamous Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/mostfamousPTs For this week’s Giveaway visit: https://bobandbrad.com/giveaways Bob and Brad’s Products: Grip and Forearm Strengthener: https://store.bobandbrad.com 15% off with code BLOG15 Wall Anchor: https://store.bobandbrad.com 15% off with code BLOG15 Booyah Stik: https://store.bobandbrad.com 15% off with code BLOG15 Knee Glide: https://store.bobandbrad.com 15% off with code BLOG15 Fit Glide: https://store.bobandbrad.com 15% off with code BLOG15 Massage Gun:https://amzn.to/36pMekg Hanging Handles: https://amzn.to/2RXLVFF Bob and Brad Resistance Bands Set: https://amzn.to/36uqnbr Bob & Brad Amazon Store: https://amzn.to/2RTSLLh Check out our shirts, mugs, bags and more in our Bob and Brad merchandise shop here:  https://shop.spreadshirt.com/bob-brad Check out other products Bob and Brad Love:  https://www.amazon.com/shop/physicaltherapyvideo?listId=3581Z1XUVFAFY Check out The Bob & Brad Crew on YouTube by clicking here:  https://www.youtube.com/c/thebobbradcrew Medical Disclaimer All information, content, and material of 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 in order to help you make the best choice for you.

This article is a transcribed edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in August of 2020.  For the original video go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2g7sRbtn2M&t=492s Bob: Today we are going to talk about three tips for knee cartilage problems, how to fix without surgery. Let’s get down to business here Brad. According to guidelines, and this was I believe out of Australia that a bunch of surgeons got together, and surgery is not recommended on cartilage problems even tears, unless you have locking of the knee. Brad: In other words, it locks up, typically painful, and you can work it and it loosens up. You know, oftentimes it’s a meniscus issue but it’s definitely the cartilage. Bob: Well, you’ve always heard before and years ago, someone would tear their meniscus, tear their cartilage and they would go “Well I need to have surgery.” But what they’re finding now is those that have had the surgery compared to those that don’t, the outcome ends up being the same in a few months anyway. Brad: So, if it doesn’t lock. Bob: Yes, if it doesn’t lock. If it does lock, that means that the cartilage probably folded up on itself and it’s just going to get worse. They probably need to go in and have it done. Brad: It’s really not a major surgery. Bob: Right but it is surgery nonetheless. If you’re not going to get much benefit from it, why do it? So, don’t listen to us on this, get a second opinion. If someone is saying, you know, you tore your cartilage and they’re telling you that you should do surgery and it’s not locking, I’d always get that second opinion. Brad: Right! Bob: Alright, so we’re going to give you three tips if you have a knee cartilage problem. The first thing is if able, you want to get it to calm down. Knee pain, knee cartilage, it tends to flare up and then it tends to calm down. A lot of times people will go, “oh god it’s bad and it’s going to get worse.” Not necessarily, it can calm down. You can take an anti-inflammatory, but you’ll want to check with your doctor on that. You can also decrease weight on it for a while. Bob: Right, in other words you might want to use a cane. Now a lot of people are like “oh, I don’t want to use a cane.”  But, it’s not a long term thing, it’s just until it calms down again. The pressure of your body can irritate it and continue to irritate it. So, if my left knee is the problem knee, you’re going to use the cane in the opposite hand. That’s going to take pressure off, and so when that left foot goes forward the cane goes with it. Now I’m putting pressure on my body, weight through my body is going through the cane and much less is going through that knee. You’ll find that it does. I’ve had patients, I’d say try the cane once and see how it goes. Then I’d show them how to use it and they’ll take a few steps and they say “oh wow that does help.” Bob: I’ve found a lot of patients, Brad, that I think that alone has helped calm it down. If you can just get past that, “I’m not going to use a cane because I’m going to look old.” So instead, what they do is they just limp along and believe me you look old already when that’s happening. So you can use, you know if you’re a younger person, use a walking stick. That’s what my wife did. She had a flare of her cartilage. Brad: I thought she used a crutch? Bob: She used a crutch too, but when we went on vacation she used a walking stick. That she could fold way up. Brad: Yeah, more convenience to travel with that. Bob: But you are right, she used a crutch or crutches. If you are older, you can use a walker. Brad: Now, her knee actually improved to the point where she went back to running. Bob: She is back to running. So, it shows you these are not irreversible. The other thing is you want to avoid stairs and hills right now. Not to say forever. Brad: And if you do go upstairs you go one step at a time to protect the one knee. You’ll know which leg that goes up first because it feels better. Bob: Don’t stand with your knees locked. Don’t stand putting all your weight on one side. A lot of people for example holding a baby will do that, they put them on their hip right. Brad: Some people will do that just out of habit. Maybe from having a baby years ago and it just became a habit. They might have no idea until we show them and then they’re like, “oh yeah I do that.” Bob: It’s funny those habits, after a while they become like chains of burden. They start off as a minor thing but over time when you repeat it hour after hour, day after day… Brad: Then, you throw in the aging process unfortunately it can exacerbate things. Bob: Another simple one, but this can make a big difference, don’t sit with your knees bent more than 90 degrees. I had my sister do this one because she sits a lot working at the computer. You are really jamming that knee together the entire time. So we have her sit with her legs out a bit or all the way extended at times. Brad: I’ve had, usually the younger people, that sit with one leg bent under them. That really puts a lot of stress on the knee, not only the end range, but it’s rotated and twisted. Bob: If you want to hurt your knee, there you go. The next thing is you want to get some movement without resistance. We’re just trying to get the synovial fluid moving a little bit, little more blood flow to it. So, you can find a high bench or table and just swing your legs back and forth. Just keep getting some movement. There’s no resistance. There’s a little bit of traction. Brad: I actually had a PTA, you remember Bev, she would do this with knee patients. She would put a little ankle weight around one of their ankles just for a little distraction, and that would help pull the knee apart and it would just be a relaxing pendulum. Bob: Am I remembering right? You had a patient that did this on the end of his truck? Brad: Yes, after a knee replacement. He had a pickup truck, he would fold it down and he said that it works really well. He would sit down on the end of his pickup to get range of motion of the knee and he was very happy with the results. Bob: Now we are going to show you a little more of a commercial way to do this. It’s called the Fit Glide. This is going to be very helpful after knee replacement, because what’s nice about this, not only are you going to work the knee that you had replaced, you’re going to work the other knee. And most people, when they have one bad knee, they often have two bad knees. This is a way to stay fit after the surgery even. Brad: I highly recommend doing it prior to the surgery as ‘prehab’ to get things maximally moving. And, its simply goes back and forth, you sit and very little resistance. You do this for two to five minutes. I guess I’d say two initially because you’ll feel it after a couple minutes. But, it’s not aggressive. There’s not much weight going through the knees, it’s ideal for this. That’s why we made it this way. Brad: One of the advantages is you can put it up so you have it inclined. Bob: To me that’s a lot more comfortable on the ankles when you put it up. Brad: That can be. Right now we’re working a little more quadriceps. It can change the ankle range, like Bob said, so it can be more comfortable. Brad: We also can, usually you know, I’ll turn it around. I’ll do this when they’re getting a little bit stronger. This works the hamstrings. And it’s much harder than it looks, even for me. Bob: Now I’m going to warn you, the one negative about this is it’s not completely silent. You can hear a swish, swish. Brad: Yeah but it’s not bad. Bob: No it’s not bad. I’m just saying there are some of those devices that are very expensive and heavy that are silent. This one is very light. Brad: Yeah, I mean, I can lift it with one finger, and it’s built very well. You could drop this thing and it’s not even going to affect it. Bob: Alright, I want to show you that you can use this in bed too. It’s more comfortable if you put towels on it, especially if you don’t have shoes on. So, you put your heels on it and you can slide your legs up and down. You can work this baby, I can run. If you have a patient that you have to go see in their room, and they need to work out, you need to start getting some strengthening, here we go. Brad: Yeah, so obviously he’s referring to the therapist or any aide, health aide, a home health aide maybe. Bob: Alright, I just put in a quarter mile, Brad. So, the final thing we are going to show you is, if your knee is lacking range of motion; it’s not completely straightening or it’s not completely bending, what we’ve found is that by stretching it to the full range of motion, it actually often decreases your pain levels. It also gives the knee joint full motion to move so it spreads out the forces, I think so it’s not so hard on the cartilage. You can do it with the Fit Glide. You can do some stretches straightening. Brad: What we are going to do instead of just pushing on it, we’re going to actually do repetitions or pressure on/pressure off, pressure on/pressure off. Bob: And this is something you don’t want to do just once a day you want to do it throughout the day. We find out that if you don’t have a Fit Glide you can actually just take a stool and sit in a regular chair. Then do pressure on/pressure off, pressure on/pressure off while pressing down. I’m not pushing on the knee itself I’m pushing right above the knee, pressure on/pressure off. Brad: It works nice if you have a stool with wheels on it because it just rolls it, it’s more fluid that way. Bob: Now a little variation of this; you can sometimes turn it out like this and do pressure on/pressure off. This is the one that worked for my wife. Turn the toe out. Or you can turn the toe in. You want to see which one feels better after you’ve done it or even while you’re doing it. Bob: And then, you can also work on flexion. Brad: This is what you’re going to do after a knee surgery. This is exactly what we are going to do. And this works really well. You can also use your hands to give it a little stretch if you need to. If you don’t have any hip issues or haven’t had a hip replacement you can bring your knee up toward your chest as well. Bob: Pressure on/pressure off, pressure on/ pressure off with this too. So, I think we have covered everything. Brad: I think you’re right. Bob: Remember, Brad and I can fix just about anything. Brad: Except for… Bob: A broken heart, but we will work on it. Brad: That’s right Bob. We’ve been working on that for a while. Bob: Yeah, years. Interested in the products mentioned above, they can be found at: Fit Glide: https://store.bobandbrad.com 15% off with code BLOG15 Visit us on our other social media platforms: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/physicaltherapyvideo Website: https://bobandbrad.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BobandBrad/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/officialbobandbrad/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ptfamous Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/mostfamousPTs For this week’s Giveaway visit: https://bobandbrad.com/giveaways Bob and Brad’s Products: Grip and Forearm Strengthener: https://store.bobandbrad.com 15% off with code BLOG15 Wall Anchor: https://store.bobandbrad.com 15% off with code BLOG15 Booyah Stik: https://store.bobandbrad.com 15% off with code BLOG15 Knee Glide: https://store.bobandbrad.com 15% off with code BLOG15 Fit Glide: https://store.bobandbrad.com 15% off with code BLOG15 Massage Gun: https://amzn.to/36pMekg Hanging Handles: https://amzn.to/2RXLVFF Bob and Brad Resistance Bands Set: https://amzn.to/36uqnbr Check out our shirts, mugs, bags and more in our Bob and Brad merchandise shop here:  https://shop.spreadshirt.com/bob-brad Check out other products Bob and Brad Love:  https://www.amazon.com/shop/physicaltherapyvideo?listId=3581Z1XUVFAFY Check out The Bob & Brad Crew on YouTube by clicking here:  https://www.youtube.com/c/thebobbradcrew Medical Disclaimer All information, content, and material of 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. 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Fancy a good massage after a heavy workout but your appointment with a massage salon or your physical therapist is still days away? Or the massage salon that you always go to has to be closed due to this unprecedented global pandemic? Or you only get tired fingers but no relief in the muscle soreness when you try to give yourself or your beloved one a massage? It is time to invest in a high-quality massage gun. What is a massage gun? As the name suggests, a massage gun is a "gun" that massages you. Instead of shooting bullets, this hand-hold device delivers continuous percussion at different strengths and/or frequencies, aiming to sooth muscle soreness caused by heavy exercises and other strains on muscle tissues. The chiropractor, Jason Wersland, is believed to have invented the massage gun in 2008 to handle his own back pain and later branded it as "TheraGun" after his invention got very well received by his own patients. Since then, massage guns have been warmly embraced by both elite athletes and general workout enthusiasts and has become the most trendy word in sports recovery. Various companies launch their own massage guns giving consumers a wide range of options. Who should use a massage gun? Massage guns aren't just for elite athletes or people who work out. Sore muscle? Stiff neck? Back pain? Go for it. Massage guns often come with several different shapes of heads to target various anatomical locations. It's like having a personal massage therapist with you 24/7. They are good for everyone who feels muscle tightness in their body and needs some relaxation in life. They provide various benefits to your muscle tissue and don't take as much space as a massage chair or pillow. The benefits of using a massage gun include: Help speed up muscle recovery Improve blood flow Ease pain associated with soft tissue damage Enhance muscle responsiveness Prevent injuries Break up scare tissue in muscle Help fight against muscle spasms Enhance the range of motion Decrease the occurrence of Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness(DOMS) And don't forget, even if you are a professional massage therapist, you can also opt for a massage gun, saving your fingers from getting sore and reducing some occupational hazards. How do they work? At first sight, a massage gun almost looks like a power drill and may provoke certain suspicion on whether getting "beaten up" by a rubber hand would really help with your muscle pain. Fear not. You can simply see a massage gun as an upgrade from your good old foam roller and it has been suggested to be one of the best massage machines that restore and even improve muscular functionality. The idea behind massage guns is the so-called "percussive therapy". Percussive therapy provides rapid bursts of pressure into users' body tissue and delivers mechanically high-intensity massage, thus increasing blood flow, reducing inflammation, and improving muscle pliability. It can be compared to the consistent, rapid-thumping movements used by massage therapists to stimulate muscles. Besides, the oscillating movements of a massage gun also generates heat, helping muscle relaxation. How to use a massage gun? The use of a massage gun is relatively a no-brainer. Just turn it on and put it on where it hurts or needs to be relaxed. As to how to use it effectively to reduce pain and accelerate muscle recovery and how to choose a suitable head for a certain anatomical area, it is helpful to watch some tutorials, like the detailed and highly-informative ones from Bob and Brad, the two most famous physical therapist on the Internet (https://www.youtube.com/user/physicaltherapyvideo). How to choose a massage gun? Let's be frank, it does cost some money to get a proper massage gun, although the price range varies greatly. A high-end massage gun from brands like TheraGun or Hyperice Hypervolt can go up to five- or six-hundred bucks. But neither do you want to buy a cheap one, only to end up in disappointment and put it away after using it once or twice. So it is important to consider carefully the technical parameters of the available massage guns, your own special needs, and your budget. For example, a smaller, thinner person probably won't need a massage gun as powerful as the one for a beefy giant. If you live a busy life and are constantly on the go, it won't help to carry a big, heavy massage gun. For a one-gun-massaging-it-all experience, consider choosing one with multiple different heads. And if you don't want to be heard as if you were demolishing your house, it is a better idea to choose a quieter one. Given these factors, the C2 massage guns from Bob and Brad are good choices for people living in this busy modern world. They are small but powerful, quiet, and come with several heads for targeting different trouble areas. Beside, Bob and Brad, as well as the crew, are always online to help you with proper uses of the products. If you are interested in the products mentioned above, they can be found at: Massage Gun By Bob & Brad: https://amzn.to/36pMekg