♪ 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.
- Today, we're gonna show you
how to use a TENS unit for shoulder pain.
Basically, we're gonna show you correct pad placement.
Because, and by the way,
this would work with impingement, rotator cuff injury,
arthritis, - Right.
- Some of the basic shoulder problems.
First, we're going to talk about the unit.
We have, Brad and I, have tried dozens of TENS units.
Most of them are pretty good.
- Yup. - Most of them are powerful,
most of them are compact.
Some of them don't have very good instructions.
So we decided after a while,
that we're gonna endorse one brand.
Because we like the brand, we like the instructions,
and we like everything about it.
- Sure.
- So if you're using any one of their brands,
we're talking about the iReliev,
if you're using any of their products
like the 1313, 8080, or 5050,
we have videos on how to use those.
- Specifically.
- Specific videos.
Go to bobandbrad.com, go to the program section,
and then under, look for the TENS series.
- Sure.
- And under the TENS series, look for the videos
on 1313, 8080, or whichever ones you have.
- And then we have PDF printouts for those.
- Yes.
- So that you can save some time, get it printed out,
and have it right in front of you.
- We have a printout of this specific video
on our website that will show you where the
pad placements are - Sure.
- So if you forget.
So let's start.
Well, where do you place pads for pain, Brad?
- Well, typically the location where you feel the pain
is where you have to determine.
Typically on a shoulder,
oftentimes it's below the shoulder, right around this area.
It's very common. - Sure.
- Not always but it's pretty common.
- But what we're gonna do is, it's gonna be an experiment.
There's really not a specific right or wrong.
- Right.
- So, we're gonna show you some general rules
for the shoulder while we try.
Let's start off with,
let's say it's kind of a small area of pain.
- Mm right there. - Yeah.
We're gonna just use one channel and two pads.
- Okay.
- Let's start with that.
- We've colored coded ours. - Yeah.
- We have two channels here so you can easily see it.
You won't have that.
- Yeah, they'll be black.
- Yeah, this is what we did custom here.
- Yeah, they might be white, but depending on--
So what he's doing is he's putting one pad right on the pain
and now the second pad is either gonna go below it,
or above it. - Yup.
- [Bob] Now the spacing is important.
Generally, we recommend
that you have at least a pad's width apart.
- I got a little more than that.
- [Bob] Yeah and that's fine.
- I usually say three or four fingers.
- [Bob] Sure.
- To my patients just so they can remember
and actually measure it very quickly.
We could go
- Here or here.
- [Bob] You could go side to side.
And you can go one above or one below.
- Yup.
Usually the pain travels this direction,
so that's kind of the way to have most of the luck.
But, you know, it's individual.
You can experiment.
- [Bob] So we've got three options there:
One on, one above, one below, one side by side,
and then also both one above and one below.
- Yeah.
- [Bob] Again, we'll have pictures on the PDF.
Now, if you want to use four, or let's say
it's kind of a global pain, you have almost like
the entire shoulder hurts and aches,
what you're going to do is he's got one above and
one below, and then he's gonna put one on one side,
and one on the other side,
and what that does is it forms a cross.
- Right.
- [Bob] A "T", I guess we should say.
- Let's say it's global, but it's still more here.
Because we could move all four of these up a little bit.
- [Bob] Sure.
- There's nothing wrong with that,
we're just gonna save a little time because I think
you understand the concept.
From green to green there, yellow to yellow, and
that forms the cross.
- [Bob] Now you can also do an "X".
So Brad's gonna make an "X".
- And it's just a real modest movement.
- [Bob] Yup, so now you've got more of an "X", the way
it's working at that point. - Right.
- [Bob] So very simple to do,
figure out which one works for you, and
give it a try.
- And just remember, maybe we should've mentioned this
earlier, to make sure your pads last longer,
- [Bob] Oh, right. - Make sure that you wash
your skin, you know, soap and water,
and get it really nice and dry.
If you happen to have a hairy area that you're putting over,
and you're gonna use these, it really helps to
shave the hair off, it's really gonna make the
pads last longer and they conduct better.
- Yeah.
And we promise with each of these videos,
towards the end of the video we're gonna show you
at least one exercise to do - Yup.
- That you could do, possibly even with the
TENS unit on. - Sure.
- So I'm gonna show you what you're gonna need is
probably like a broom handle or something.
We have a Booyah Stik here.
But you're gonna need something like a five foot long
stick that has a little bit of a grip to it.
- Yup. - And it helps, I had one lady
that actually took tape and put tape on the bottom of
her broomstick. - Sure.
Be creative.
- So what you do is you're gonna go ahead and
put it on the chair like this.
You're gonna reach up as high as you can,
and you're gonna lean forward like this.
And it's gonna put a little bit of traction on the shoulder.
- Right here.
- Now over time, you're gonna try to reach up higher
and higher, you're gonna work your way up.
And you're gonna put a stretch on like this.
And this is amazing how much this can help,
especially if you can do this several times a day,
and you can also do it for probably only like
thirty seconds to a minute.
- Right. - Right, it doesn't
take that long.
- Make sure you have a good grip on it, and
your hand doesn't slide down. - Right.
You don't want to be doing this.
- Yeah, I had one patient, he thought,
I didn't explain myself well and he came back and
I said, 'Oh, you gotta.'
- He was going like this. - He says it wasn't working
and I realized that he wasn't doing it properly,
so we corrected that.
- Yeah.
- If your shoulder is so painful that you do this and
it just creates sharp pain, it's not ready for it yet.
You have to wait, give it some time.
- Yeah, we want this to be pain-free when you're doing it.
Actually, a lot of times it feels fairly good.
- Yeah.
- I've had people with arthritis, they've loved this, Brad.
They started like this, and they love it to see
how they can improve.
- So does it happen in one day or over a period of days
before they move up? - Oh, a period of days.
And some people, I've had some younger people that
kind of happen fairly rapidly.
- Sure.
Well they're younger, they heal quicker.
- That's right.
So, all right, check out the rest of our videos
on TENS at Bob and Brad.
- Take care!
- Thanks.