- Do you need crutches?
Do you know how to adjust them or how to use them correctly?
We're gonna show you everything you need to know.
- Right now. - That's right.
♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
- All right, Bob, if you need crutches,
you know someone that needs 'em,
the first thing you need to do
is to adjust them for the proper height
for under the armpits as well as for the hands.
- Yeah, they can really causes a lot of damage.
if they're wrong. - Right. It can-
- And discomfort.
- Right. You can fall.
You can irritate your brachial plexus.
- Right. - We'll talk about that.
And cause hand problems. - Yep.
- Soreness and whatnot.
So what you do is you'll take your crutches,
and typically most people
have these nice aluminum ones. - Right.
- Hopefully you don't have the old wood ones.
The same concept, they're just harder to work with.
So I've got this,
and you put the crutch about six inches away from your toe,
about a 45 degree angle out and do that with both of 'em.
I've got this one not adjusted properly
just for demonstration purposes.
So what you need to do is while the crutch is there
and you got your feet shoulder width a part.
Put that the rest for the armpit right there
and see-
- [Bob] You should be able to get two fingers in there.
- Yep. - Comfortably.
- Yep.
And I actually go two or three,
depending on the person kind of,
but there should be a gap in there.
Now this crutch actually, it's a little tight for me.
- [Bob] Right.
- And I cannot adjust it any lower.
- Sure. - So I could use these.
It'd be kind of a borderline.
Like, you know this one's obviously way too tall.
- [Bob] Right.
- And these are so nice to adjust.
Typically, the you can just
drop 'em down,
and they're little buttons that click in and they lock,
and there we go.
Yeah.
- [Bob] How about the hands, Brad?
- Good. Good. Good.
So I'm gonna go back to here,
put the armpits or the rest right here in my armpits.
Now, if I let my arms hang loose,
this handle should go right about
at the wrist.
- At the wrist. - Yep. So that's way too high.
You can see on this one, this one's too low.
And they all adjust.
Not all, but some adjust a little differently,
but they're usually pretty handy nowadays to adjust.
There. - Just pulls it out
- Yep. - and it slides along.
- Yep. There we go.
And make sure that typically they have the same-
- [Bob] Again, this one doesn't fit your right, Brad, right?
- Oops. There we go.
- [Bob] This one's too high for you, Brad?
- Well, it's all right right now.
- I'll give it a try. - Sure.
- Yep. - Now we shall mention
that if you're gonna use your crutches a lot,
- Yep.
- You probably need to pad 'em.
- Yeah. So we got a nice example.
Yeah, if you're using these
for a week or two in a row all the time,
you wanna avoid...
See, what happens if these push into your armpits too hard,
it can hurt your brachial plexus.
- Right. - A nerve complex.
But even if they're not touching,
'cause you're supposed to bear all your weight
through your arms and your hands,
but it's still kind of irritates.
- Rubs on skin. - Yep.
So here we have just a nice duct tape.
I like that.
Yeah, this is Chris's daughter or son.
I'm not sure who used it.
They just put a towel on there and duct taped it.
- And they also put some paper on the hand.
- Yep. - To cushion a little bit.
- You can either buy extra cushions.
- Right. - Or you can make shift
and do what you need to do.
- My wife, she used crutches last, we found them online.
- Yeah. Oh, the pads?
- Yeah. She liked them. I really loved those.
- And they plopped on really nice and easy?
- Yep, easy. Yep. - Yep.
Very good. - That's the way to go.
- Okay, next, we're gonna show you
how to walk with these safely.
All right.
How to do the gait or the sequencing property with a crutch.
Very important.
Make sure your rubber tips are good and healthy,
because if they happen to be wore out or wore down
to the metal, that is a definitely a recipe for falling.
So make sure you got good tips.
- Yeah. Take a look at them.
If they're smooth, that's a bad sign.
- Yeah. They're actually like little cup in there.
- Right. - Suction cup.
I'd say, you got little grippies in there.
They're nice.
So here, I'm not showing off my leg, Bob.
- Right.
- This is supposed- - Obviously.
- This pretty ugly thing,
but this represents the injured leg.
So you'll take the crutches. They go forward.
This is the injured leg.
I can't put any weight through it, and...
- Your showing non-weight bearing.
- Non-weight bearing.
Now I always teach people,
just take this leg and hop up to the crutches.
It's safe. - Right.
- It's easy to negotiate that way,
and always happens when I have younger people.
- Right. - Then they get good at it,
and then it's time to do this and really have a ball.
- You've gotta have good strengths and good balance.
- Yeah. So it's really-
- 'Cause you can fall backwards.
- Yes.
Make sure you've got shoes that's got a rubber on
'cause if you have socks and you slip on a smooth floor,
especially doing the swing through.
It's a problem.
- You'll break the other leg.
- Yeah.
All right. All right.
The other scenario is the doctor says,
"Oh, you can put a little weight on there,
but not full weight,"
and they call it weight bearing that is tolerated.
If there's no pain, you can put a little more weight on.
So I'm gonna be toe touching.
The sequence is really the same.
We're still gonna go forward and swing through.
Whoop, go forward.
If you wanna touch there, you can do this.
And you can see,
I'm just touching with my toe
25% weight bearing for example.
But there is not that much difference.
- Now occasionally, they'll give a weight limit,
say, 20 pounds or 40 pounds.
- Right.
- And we actually got to get a scale out
- Yep. - and put your foot on.
- Yeah, just a regular bathroom scale.
That's all we ever use. - Right.
- Just put it on there and have the patient push down
and tell you if they say 50-pound weight bearing
until you get 50 pounds.
Usually, it's 10 or 20, something lighter.
Just so you get an idea.
- Yeah. By 50, it's shows you weight bearing is tolerated.
- Yeah. - Yeah, so.
- All right. - All right.
- Let's go to the next one.
Okay. Some people will only need one crutch.
Now, if you are no weight bearing on your injured leg,
we do not recommend one with run crutch.
You can do it,
but it's one of those things that's pretty high risk.
So if you've got...
Here's my injured leg,
the doctor says, "Oh, you could put some weight on it,
and actually you can put most of your weight,
but it's not stable."
So then you're gonna take the crutch in the opposite hand,
you're gonna come forward with the crutch
and this leg is gonna go forward
and then the weight is distributed
between the crutch and your injured leg,
and you step through.
- So when the crutch goes forward,
the leg goes forward. - Yep.
- And this worked out really well
when my wife was having trouble with osteoarthritis.
- Yes. With her knee. - Yep. Flareup.
So really calmed it down.
- Yep. And how long did she use it?
- Probably three or four weeks.
- Good. Yeah, so.
- She at first said, "No way,"
and then it got so bad she started using the-
- She gave in. - Yeah. She gave in.
And now she's running. - Yeah. I can see her going.
So wonderful. - Made a difference.
- All right.
And the final aspect of using crutches,
and this can be a challenging thing,
is getting on and off the chair
when you have no weight bearing on one leg.
I'm going to demonstrate how to do it.
Line yourself up with the chair.
Make sure you pick a steady chair
and one with armrest preferably.
That's the way to go.
Now I'm gonna stop here.
I'm gonna go until I feel this leg touch the chair
so I know I'm close enough.
Okay.
Put both crutches on the side with the injured leg.
I'm gonna grab them right here
and reach back for the armrest.
Get this leg out and down we go.
Yeah. - Now I would say, Brad,
you probably wanna avoid sitting on a soft couch.
- Exactly.
- You're gonna sink way too far in.
- Yeah.
- And in fact, in a chair, a regular chair,
you may wanna put a pad.
- Yep. I'll talk about going up, and then we'll do the pad.
- Sure. Sounds good. - Yeah.
Now, if you're getting out of a chair,
you do the same thing.
Put both crutches there
so that when you get up they're available to you.
Grab here one, hand on the armrest,
protect the leg up in the air.
- Push up. - And push up.
Now what'll happen, and that does happen with people,
if their chair or their leg is not strong enough...
Oh boy. (chuckles) - I already helped you.
- Yeah.
Now Bob, just put about an inch and a half cushion in there.
- Right.
- And now I can get up with one hand.
- What a difference it makes. - Yeah. You may use a pillow.
You can use whatever it takes that's comfortable
to elevate the chair even one inch can be a big difference
between struggling and getting up comfortably.
Is it catapult? - Yeah.
(both imitates whooshing)
- Off you go. - Yes.
So yeah, crutches can be a nice thing.
Learn how to use 'em properly and be careful.
- Yeah. You'll get tired of them.
- Yeah. You'll get over them.
(upbeat tone)