♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous physical therapists on the internet ♪
- Hi folks, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- Together, we are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- In our opinion, of course, Bob.
- Well I got a high opinion, Brad.
Today, we're gonna talk about the painful arthritic hands,
15 things you should try right now.
This can really help.
- Oh yeah.
- I've seen it help a lot of patients.
- Right, you don't have to do all 15,
but there's gonna be some
that you're really gonna appreciate.
- And we'll talk about how do you go about it, by the way.
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please take a second to subscribe to us.
We provide videos how to stay healthy, fit, pain-free,
and we upload every day.
Also, - Whoa!
- if you get the chance, go to bobandbrad.com.
- Look at that. - There you go.
And go to the giveaway section.
We're always giving something away.
This week, we're giving away a doozy.
We're giving away a Sleepovation Mattress.
- There you go.
- If you go to Facebook,
the contest will be pinned to the top of the page.
Go to Twitter, Instagram, Tik Tok
if you want a 60 second version of our program.
- Did you say to go to Bob and Brad yet?
- Yeah, I already said that. - Oh, I missed it.
- So the mattress, we're showing you a little sample
of one here.
Yours would be a normal size, obviously.
And you can get any size you want.
This got the cover.
- It's a two layered cover, Bob.
- Yeah, I see that. - It's a bonus.
- And this cover, you can't take it off normally.
- Well, there's a zip. - No, there's no zip.
- Oh, that's- - On the new ones.
- Say no more.
- So you got 700 individual mattresses,
and this really works for comfort.
I mean, if you have pain, this is the mattress for you.
- Well, I just like to sleep on mine, Bob.
It's fun.
(Brad grunts)
- All right.
- Arthritis.
- We did a previous video on arthritic hands
where we showed exercises in heat, Brad.
So you may wanna watch that. - Very popular too.
- Yeah, very popular.
But in addition to that,
you wanna protect your hand as much as possible.
And to reduce the stress on the fingers,
you wanna try to transfer pressure from the little joints
up to the larger joints.
And a lot of times that's your palm and wrist.
So we're gonna show you how you can do that.
Also, anything when you're grabbing little things like this.
- They call it the pincer grip.
- Yeah, it puts more stress on the fingers.
So what we recommend is that you do the activity,
rate your pain with the activity one to 10,
then do the adjustment,
and rate it again.
See if it helped.
- I thought you were gonna say go after the activities
that has the highest numbers first.
- Oh, that's a good idea too.
- So that's kind of attack the most source of pain.
- Let's talk about first something
a lot of people do every day.
They drink some coffee.
So you actually should not grab the handle.
- So maybe buy coffee cup without a handle.
- Well, you could do that, (both laugh)
but also-
- Or just break it off.
- Yeah, whatever you wanna do. (Brad laughs)
- That'd force you, 'cause then you're gonna grab it.
- Right, 'cause this is putting pressure on the fingers.
So you wanna grab it with two hands or one hand
around the palm.
- And in the winter time,
anybody knows with arthritis it feels really good.
- Yeah, my wife actually warms up her cup,
or warms up a cup of water just to warm up her hands.
- Yeah, I started drinking coffee
just to keep my hands warm.
- Did you really? - Yeah, 'cause chocolate
costs way...
It's too much sugar.
Yeah, but anyway, it's true.
- Oh wow.
- Now I even kind of liked the taste of it,
but I never did at first.
- Okay, number two, build up pens.
Now we're gonna recommend
that you build up a lot of things,
and we'll show these too in a second,
but you're using kind of, what is this,
a foam tubing, Brad?
- Yeah.
This is something that you found online, right?
- Yeah, there's a bunch of them.
They're inexpensive,
and they come with different size holes.
So you can fit different tools and things in there.
But they also had a couple of ones like this for the pen
that you could slide on.
See these, Brad?
- These are very common.
Occupational therapists been using this for years.
So it's nothing new, but it is really effective.
- 'Cause a lot of people have pain
on that distal joint, that last joint there.
So that helps cushion that.
Number three.
Again, we're gonna show some of these other ones now.
You can build up the handles on your silverware.
You can do it on your tools.
Look at this, Brad.
- Yeah, look at that.
Just to show, this came like this.
So you just cut it off with a sharp scissors,
and it just slides on and off.
- Now in some cases- - So you can wash things
and put it back together.
- Like this case, you could not do that,
because it's too big on the ends.
So I slit it and then I put some duct tape on it.
- And that's a tool anyways.
You expect things to get a little dirty.
It's not like where you're eating with it.
- Right.
Here's a knife.
Be careful with that.
- Be careful with that baby.
- So I think that's all the ones I have.
Here's another one of those pen ones.
- Oh sure, that's how they come in the package.
That's very nice.
- This is very inexpensive.
You can build up all this stuff you use on a regular basis.
I forgot to mention this.
- Yeah, you can't forget the paint brush.
- So I had a patient that she was having trouble painting,
because it was hitting her right
on that distal finger again, that last joint.
And so, she just wanted to build up on this spot.
- She didn't want the whole length of it.
- No, she likes you can kind of use it like a...
She uses for cutting for trim works.
It's harder to get fine work with them.
- Yeah, so I wanted to say that
that's a nice thing.
You buy and you customize it
for your own fingers and whatnot.
'Cause you always know that the arthritic joints,
not always, but a lot of times, they will,
the joints and the fingers, actually start to deviate
to the side.
- And reason they're deviating
is you're putting stress on them,
especially prolonged stress like painting.
You can prevent some of that or slow it down anyway.
All right, number four, if you use a regular can opener,
you can see how that really is putting a lot of stress
on these. - Yeah, a lot of stress.
- You should get an electric can opener, very easy.
If you're opening jars,
there's also devices for opening jars,
but you're supposed to not try to use your fingers.
You're supposed to use your palms.
Now that's only gonna work if the jar is not way too tight.
- That's one of those things
they got those anti slip things,
the little rubbery things.
There's one right there.
You put it on there.
'Cause I had done it with healthy hands.
It's like, boy, it's just too tight and I'm slipping.
And you put that on, and that would work really good
in that case too.
We got some peanut butter here.
Would you like some? - Is it like shelf liner?
- Wasn't that kind of the same thing?
- We got some there, but people know what it is.
- All right, when you stir with a spoon, Brad,
this is just a mind thing,
but probably wanna build it up.
You're not supposed to go like this.
You're supposed to go like this.
- And just something probably bigger,
so that you have more control.
- Right.
Now when using a pan like this,
and this is a big, heavy pan,
so this is a lot of stress on the fingers,
you really should try to have a two handled pan.
- Yeah, that is a big...
- It's just gonna make a big difference.
- A lot of this stuff is common sense once you do it,
but you may not think of it.
- You may not think of it is right.
This is a minor one, Brad.
If you're a person that likes to rest their hands
on their knuckles like this.
- I don't know what you're talking about, Bob.
- You're supposed to go like this instead on the palm.
- And that's one those habitual things.
You probably are not even aware
that you may have that posture.
- Yeah, and if you do it,
you're probably doing it on a regular basis.
- All right, Brad, do you wanna drive the bus?
- Oh yes.
- So we're just gonna show
when you're using a steering wheel,
you wanna use a padded one if possible.
And Brad, you should talk about your heated steering wheel.
- Oh yeah.
Well, a lot of the newer cars
have nice heated steering wheels.
And, boy, it's a game changer.
I'm definitely gonna get that at my next vehicle.
- Sure, 'cause you wife's vehicle still has it.
- Yeah, so I don't get it,
(Bob laughs) but anyways, you get out there
and it makes driving fun in the winter time.
You just wanna hold on
to that steering wheel. - It's kind of a treatment
for your hand while driving. - And not only that,
it's that the diameter's a little bit bigger.
- That's what I meant.
You wanna have a bigger...
- Because they need that for the electrical-
- Cords or whatever, the coils.
- The coils, yeah, there you go, to heat up.
Well, you can also buy.
- Yep, you can buy some build up for the-
- Matter of fact, the last vehicle I sold,
it was so wore out, I bought a big cushiony thing
just to cover up the ugly steering wheel. (laughs)
And so it worked out for that too.
- So yeah, give that a try.
All right, if you're using the phone a lot,
and then you're gonna grab it like that,
I should have brought my phone,
you should actually start using a headset,
especially if you're gonna...
You can be one of those guys.
- Yeah, one of those sticking out of your ear.
- You think they're talking to you when they walk by you
and they're actually talking on there.
All right, don't use your fingers to carry objects,
so like this.
That's where you should use the palms again.
- Palm palm.
- Again, less stress, especially a heavy object,
maybe a little harder, but you should get it under the palm.
- It's one of those things
where getting a good pair of gloves
if you're doing some chores where you can grip things.
It has that little rubbery.
It can make a big difference.
- I got a good point gloves for it's kind of a weed trimmer,
but it's a pushing weed trimmer,
and it was real thin.
And I got some padded gloves,
and it makes such a difference.
My wife made fun of me, but it really makes a difference.
- Yeah, it's not gonna be the loose gloves.
They fit a little bit tighter,
so you can feel through them or not
- All right.
I got Mike's purse here.
(both laugh)
So, you don't wanna carry the purse like this.
You do wanna put it on the shoulder.
- That's the way I always carry mine.
- Yep, me too.
(both laugh)
- Yeah, there you go.
- So, obviously you're gonna take stress off the fingers.
The same as with, I know this goes without saying,
but if you have a suitcase,
you don't wanna have one that you're carrying.
You wanna have that with the wheel.
- I was thinking about that going to the airport.
It's like 30, 40 years ago,
they never had the little wheelie ones.
Everyone was carrying those a great big things.
(Brad grunts)
That's tough on those people.
- You know what's funny is my wife bought me
a really nice suitcase like 25 years ago,
and it doesn't have wheels on it.
So I just kept using that.
Finally I'm like, "Gosh, she just pushes that thing around."
So I finally got one of those.
- I think I could make something up,
put wheels on there, Bob.
Lawnmower wheels. - Oh gosh.
- Get some old lawn mower,
and I make a little.
- I don't wanna see that, Brad.
- (laughs) It would be kinda fun.
- All right.
Don't use your fingers to push out of a chair.
Again, use your palms.
Start thinking about things.
- And that's one of those things when you buy new furniture,
think about the arm rests, so that they're more spread out.
They may not be in style,
but when you're pushing off,
or you have your hands on there, and there's more cushion,
a wide more surface area is gonna make a big difference.
- And like even if you're wiping it off the counter,
which I know Brad does a lot,
don't use your fingers like this.
Use your palm.
Again, whenever you think of it,
try not to use the fingers themselves.
You can do strengthening to them,
but you want it under control.
So I think that's about it, Brad.
I think I covered them all.
- Yeah, I would think so.
It looks like you have 15.
Did we do 15?
- Yeah, we did 15.
- So I think, yeah, there's a lot of good ideas there.
- We're running out of time, Brad.
- Oh yeah.
- Thank you, everybody for watching.
(cheerful tone)