♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists on the internet. ♪
- Hi folks I'm Bob Schrupp physical therapists.
- Brad Heineck physical therapist.
- And we are the most famous
physical therapist on the internet.
- In our opinion of course Bob
- Today we're talking about solutions
for shoulder pain with overhead worker activities
especially repetitive tasks.
Like you'd see with a painter,
mechanic,
hairdresser,
welder even a teacher working on those smart boards now.
- Sure.
- Especially if they have poor posture.
- Right.
- You know if they have poor posture
that's making their more stress on the shoulder
than there would be if you have good posture.
- We hammer that home on every video.
- Electrician,
pruner,
sheet rocker what'd they call a sheet rocker?
- A rocker.
They call themselves a rocker.
I believe so.
Anyways overhead work that's really a tough one.
Although they've got some nice tools to
make that beat better.
- Yeah we'll go over some things
and if you're just stuck
or you have to do it
we'll show you an option there too.
- Right there some exercises to help alleviate the stress.
- So the first thing you want to do if possible
you want to either raise your body.
So you're the worker
and or lower the surface.
Let's say Brad's working on my hair.
- Ah yes I'm a very good hairdresser.
I'm not gonna touch your hair.
- No you don't have to touch my hair.
- If I'm working look at my shoulder position
and this is a common problem with people
who do work with hair.
- Absolutely.
- That really puts a lot of stress on the shoulder
- All day long imagine that.
- Right we wanna get the shoulder arms down here
to what we call a neutral position.
So either one or two things have to happen,
either lower the person that you're working on
or you have to raise yourself up to achieve that.
- Let's do both.
- Okay well go ahead and lower the chair once Bob.
- I was going to do this while you stood up
I was gonna lower it down at the same time.
All right, I'll go down.
- Now look at this.
It's still too high Bob's a tall drink of water.
- Yeah, yeah
- You know he's six and a half foot or
so I'm gonna have to get on a stool
to get there you know, probably right here.
Now I know what you're saying is I cannot cut hair
from a stool because I'm going to fall off.
And that's a possibility.
There's one thing that this does cost a little bit of money
but I do know what happens when they have these
elevated they call like a horseshoe
that goes around the work area that elevates you.
Especially if you're a shorter if you're 5'1" 5'2"
or whatever and you got tall people
that eliminates that problem.
You can walk around with the whole floor being elevated.
So I know it's not an easy option
but it is an option.
And if it's gonna be your life's work
and you're a shorter person it's gonna take care of all.
There's a lot of problems in your shoulders.
If it can be the difference between having
shoulder surgery after 10 years of work or not or continue
- And not even be able to work.
- Right exactly
- And like if you're gonna prune a hedge
that's a good time to use a ladder or stepstool,
- Right.
- Don't be going like this if you can avoid.
Drilling into a wall,
a lot of people they drill into a wall like this
if you're on this wall right here
- We actually did that on here.
- Yeah that's right.
- And Bob is taller but if I can get up
and using a stool like this is okay
but I like the stools that have the handle that come up
and you can actually lean into that handle.
They're very sturdy.
They cost more, but very much worth it
and get in a if you're using the Torx bits
they work a lot better than a Phillips bit.
Really can save your shoulder.
You gotta get used to a little bit
but they're superior to Phillips.
- And that's the important part about
getting the right equipment.
- Exactly.
- Like if you're doing it manually
like you're trying to use a rancher or a screwdriver
it's gonna be so much harder than you using a drill
- You might as well throwing it.
I mean that's so old fashioned
It makes me wanna cringe thinking about it.
- I was doing it until two years ago
until I saw Brad's kit
I'm like Oh my God it's so easy.
So the other thing is if you're stuck
where you just have to do it.
- It happens.
- It happens quite often.
What do you wanna do is
you wanna take like a 30 second break every two minutes
- Right
- Like I was the other day I was working
and this was outdoors and I was trying to
hang something up on a pole and I just was lazy.
I wasn't gonna get something to stand on.
And I had to screw and the drill didn't work on this one
and I would screw it and I just slept my relax
shake it out and rest every couple of minutes.
The other thing that works really well is
if you're going up there and you're kind of pinching.
- Yep.
- Is you actually stretch the opposite direction.
So yeah If you can clasp your fingers together
and pull your arm back
or you grab your wrist and pull back.
If you have a pole that works great
- It can just be a stick a yard stick
or anything where you can
'cause for me my shoulders are too tight
this actually is too much.
So I need something to spread them out a little bit.
The other thing Bob I did want to mention is
I've had it where I've had shoulder problems
working on something and I'll just stop
and I'll do the old Codman's
I just let my tired sore shoulder relax
you know, for 20, 30 seconds
and that can make a big difference doing
that every 10 to 20 minutes.
- We gotta mentioned this to Brad
we did a whole video on hanging
and the benefits of hanging.
- And hanging is actual treatment that we'll show you
- An actual treatment for your shoulder.
And it's a great one to also use for taking breaks.
When your shoulder's under stress.
- Right. - So I'm just gonna show
Brad no you're going to show it right?
- Oh you bet.
No I actually I have a friend who's a contractor
he's gonna be working on my house actually
and in his portable
workshop in his trailer cover trailer he has these.
He doesn't have these hangers, but he uses a pole.
- Sure
- It's like a pull up bar basically
and he'll go in and hang.
- So yeah you can use a branch or a pull up bar.
We sell the hanging handles
'cause you can put them in your house
or your work space and whenever you need a break
not only are you stretching the shoulders
you're stretching the back too
you're working on your posture there.
- And I'm adjusting the amount of weight I have on it
and you can do that.
And you're only going to do this for 15 to 30 seconds.
And you might do that a couple of times
maybe four or five times a day
depends on your activity level.
- And It's amazing some of the testimonials
that we've got but also Dr. Hirsch Scott
who came up with this.
Yeah there's his book.
- Here's his book it's a wonderful shoulder book
highly recommend it if you've got shoulder problems
and you want to start hanging.
It's cheap I mean like 10 or 12 bucks I believe.
- I mean we couldn't recommend it more
We were disbelievers at first but now we believe.
- It is written for the lay person
you don't have to be a therapist
to understand everything.
- All right when you're not working
with your arms up like this give your arms a rest.
Don't be having your arms out like this
You know, if you can.
So I have to tell people to keep your elbows into your side
as much as possible when you're doing stuff.
- I mean I know that's not always practical
but that visual seems to help a lot of my patients
like keep your arms into your side whenever you can
don't be having it out like this.
- Right.
I use the things that I imagine there's a box,
we call it the work box.
It's a box about like this and it's right in front of you
and you try to keep all your work effort in the work box.
- Right.
- Not over here, not up here
but right in front of your belt line or just above.
- That's a great visual because if you're working on a bench
or something like that again
you don't wanna be forward like this.
You wanna be up to the bench
and keeping your arms like that.
Also the big thing here is try not to be the
is it the weekend athlete
but the weekend worker?
- Yeah.
- You try to get some tasks done
let's say you're gonna paint something and it's all overhead
and you're gonna go I'ma to do it this weekend.
- You're going to get it done one way or another that's me.
- Yeah that is you.
And what's gonna happen
you're gonna put in like five, six hours
your shoulders are gonna be maybe permanently damaged.
- It's possible.
- Yeah and your neck could be sore and
- Pinned head tendon are tough you know almost phrase it.
- Yeah.
So we want you to break it up, you know
break up the time periods
do it incrementally it's just gonna be a lot more
put it in manageable chunks.
- If you have to take ibuprofen every four hours
to get to your project, you're taking it out on your body
and it's just gonna give you long-term problems.
- We already mentioned this don't use ineffective
or inappropriate tools.
And the final thing you know really given the choice
especially if you're having shoulder problems
avoid working in these cramps space
- Oh yeah
- I mean you just there's times you have to say no
you can look at it maybe further down the road
and I know what a lot of you are saying
you're screaming at me and said,
"well who's gonna do it if I don't do it"
- Right.
- Well who's going to do it when you have shoulder surgery?
That's the same person that should do it.
- It's really tough when it's a person's profession
and they do it for a a while.
Those are the people that I really
- They're kind of stuck.
- I feel bad for them but again
keep watching our videos we have options.
Some things that can help you out.
- All right thanks for watching.