- Hi, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- Together, we are the most famous physical therapist
on the internet.
- In our opinion, of course, Bob.
- Brad, today, you were gonna talk about
how to adjust a chair.
- Well, a wheelchair specifically, Bob.
And I wanna just talk about a few things that a lot
of people may not have seen or observed
and they may have a chair that they can adjust
and they don't even aware of it.
- Okay.
- Let's start with this chair, 'cause this is one
of those chairs that looks like your standard chair
but there's a few things on it that you may not be aware of.
But first of all...
- Are you gonna talk about why you might want to adjust it?
Yeah. If you have someone in a chair, actually this chair
- Fits you pretty well doesn't it?
- Yeah. My feet are flat on the ground.
I have a 90 degree bend here.
I can put a few fingers under here, okay.
- So he is not getting the cutoff
underneath the thigh there.
- Right. For example, if I say, geez, I'm gonna put some
cushions in here to raise this up or to get a little
higher maybe, but then look at my,
my feet don't touch anymore.
And my feet, my legs are hanging over
and it's putting the pressure point right here on the back
of my knees, which happens that cut off or slows down.
- Circulation.
- Yeah, the circulation, Bob.
- Yeah. It cuts off the circulation.
- Compromises the circulation.
That was the big word I was looking for.
Anyways, and you don't wanna do that.
Particularly people in a wheelchair,
oftentimes they may be diabetic
and you want to have maximum circulation to their feet.
- A lot of people like to have their feet
on the ground so they can propel themselves.
- There you go.
That's the other reason this could be very difficult
if your chair's too high.
- Yeah. A lot of chairs are too high.
Especially once you put the cushions in.
- Right. Now I can get some good grip on there.
- Wow.
- All right, Brad, you're gonna show how
to adjust the chair?
- Yeah. Well to get more height
you can just use cushions, but sometimes
when you get more cushions, you don't want more cushions
'cause you have the proper cushion in there already.
So what you'll want to do is look
at the wheelchair and if you're lucky
you're gonna have, look at the front wheel here.
Can you zoom down on this, Lonny?
And you're gonna see some holes,
extra holes in the caster wheel in the front.
You're gonna have to get some wrenches on.
I'm not gonna do this 'cause it's pretty self explanatory.
I just take this axle off. Just loosen this nut,
pull it out.
And you're gonna drop this down either
to the first hole or the hole down here.
And that's gonna raise the chair accordingly.
- I grab another chair here
and see that this one also has the same thing.
- Yep, sure enough.
- So this one also you could, you could raise the caster up.
- Now if you do that, that's gonna raise the chair up
and it's gonna put the chair at an angle like this.
So that's not good.
So you need to look at the back.
If they have that, they almost certainly have this
where there's gonna be two or three holes
for the back axle to go into the chair.
- This one has the same thing.
- Yeah. Now this one, there isn't a lot of chairs that have
the nice pull away where you don't need a wrench.
A lot of them you're gonna have to tip the chair over
get the wrenches out and unbolt it
and then move it that way.
- I think this one's that tight.
- Yeah. That one is. This is really a nice one.
It's got some nice bearings in there.
- Sometimes people actually do want to tip
back a little bit too.
- Sure.
- For positioning in the chair.
If someone has the tendency to want to slide forward
in the chair, you know when it's like this,
and it's in the slide like this.
- Yeah.
- Then you might wanna raise it up a little bit
like this and that puts 'em back a little bit
and gives 'em a better angle for their back.
- You bet.
Particularly if they're pulling with their feet
to propel themselves forward.
And then usually these chairs will have this type
of thing where you can get the arm rest
out of the way, which can be handy.
- So Brad, you're saying about 50% of the chairs
you see probably have that feature where they can adjust?
- Yeah. It's kind of hard to say if it's 50% or not.
- I'm guessing a lot of the newer chairs probably have.
- Yeah. And they're usually, the basic plain Jane one
probably doesn't but if you have to spend a little bit more
they have that option.
- So you may wanna keep that in mind when you're buying
a chair or purchasing a chair or getting
a chair from somebody.
- Now the next thing is they have footrest on these chairs
and if it's an adjustable one like this, and this is
my biggest pet peeve, but I'll see someone be wheeling
around and their knee is way up like this
and they're uncomfortable.
- Puts a lot of pressure on your bottom.
- Yeah, it does.
- You're not spreading the forces out into the
the meaty thigh area.
- You better believe it.
So like on this chair, this is really nice.
'cause it's all push button.
You don't have to get the wrenches out
and you can adjust it.
Now that's a little bit better.
I need to go longer yet for my leg.
- You can go longer.
Or if you tend to have a little lower,
Watch it lower, Brad.
See now he's actually getting close
to where he's getting some.
You know, it depends on the height of the leg rest.
What kind of forces you're taking there.
If you need to have the foot up because
you're having swelling in the foot,
then you are gonna have to have a longer leg rest.
- Right. Or in that case, what I do with total knees
I'll just fold that in and then put it like that
so the elevation.
- Or we put a pillow underneath it too,
'cause this can be a little hard on the calf.
- So that's just a few features that people aren't aware
of on some wheelchairs that you may have
in your facility or at home that you're working
with your family members.
So I would say Bob, if people are really smart
they're gonna subscribe to us.
Why Bob?
- 'Cause we are gonna help you stay healthy, fit,
pain free. Is there something else?
- Vibrant, Bob.
Vibrant and strong like bull.
- All right, peace.