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 have a very simple effective balance exercise that you can do at home
and prevent falls, but we're going to show you a self test you can do to see how your balance is doing.
Right and the test and the balance exercise happen to be the same thing,
so that even makes it more simple, and this goes way back about 150 years ago that this originally started.
We'll get into that but before then-wow, that's a teaser Brad.
Oh yes-just like you used to tease the women didn't you. I bet you used to flirt with them.
Oh Bob. Why Bob why.-By the way, if you are new to our channel, please take a second to subscribe to us.
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Yeah and we're gonna do a massive giveaway in celebration.
So we're gonna give away a hundred thank you notes, right or what are we gonna do?
Give away our own socks. I don't know. Alright Brad take it away.
Ok so this balance test or treatment like I said started from a Dr. Moritz Heinrich-Heineck!
We always like the germans.-It's Heinrich!- Brad and I are German.-Yeah anyway-Schrupp and Heineck
His last name is Romberg. It's not Heineck, but its Romberg, anyways and he died I think in
1873 and I don't know exactly when he made his test
but it's 150 years old plus or minus and it's a very simple test,
but what it does is it tests and treats the neurological aspect of your balance.
So there's three parts, three systems that work together to keep you upright-to stop you from falling.
Yup one's your vision-it's giving you feedback where you're at, where's your head,
where's your body in space-Very good and then your ears-right, in the inner ear the vestibular ssystem
and then your nervous system
that is we call it the proprioception system
that your body, your mind knows where your body is in space or whether it's touching the ground,
just through feedback through your nervous system-without seeing it.-Right. Right, right. So your eyes are closed,
you know, your foot is over there in front of you or behind you.
So those three systems now with this test or treatment, it takes one of them out and that's your vision.
So you simply close your eyes and it can make a dramatic difference on your balance.
So what's left is all the neural based systems, and that's what we're testing basically.
And it just so happens that in the last 50 years or so
they use this test at least in the United States for a sobriety test if you're driving
and the officer suspects you've been drinking a little too much.
How is it that you know that Brad?-Well Bob, I live in Wisconsin.
Some of the friends that we have, not us
some of the friends-Minnesota is not much better Brad. Yeah we're neighbor states, we're a little higher.
I don't know if that's something to brag about.
Ok so here's the test or the treatment, the Romberg test. You simply bring your feet close together.
You stand up tall with good posture,
hands by your side and then you get a clock out or you know now we can just use our cell phone
or look at the old-fashioned analog clock on the wall with a second hand and
60 seconds if you can stand still for 60 seconds,
then you passed it. However if you stand still with your eyes open,
and you can't hold your balance, you did not pass.-Are you allowed to sway? Have we had that discussion?
Well, I've read two different things.
It said one if you sway and it's going to depend on how much you sway perhaps then you didn't pass,
but on the other hand if you sway but you're clearly maintaining balance without help,
I would say you passed. We're gonna say you pass.
I think it's gonna vary on what you read because I read a couple different sources there.
One way or another if you go like this you-yeah, you did not pass.
So if you have a balance problem, maybe you're older you had an injury or balance isn't good,
don't do this by yourself.
You don't want to tip over-bring somebody with you and maybe you have a belt on that you can hold on to.
Right, one person on each side would work really well, so they can help you out
particularly if you're a larger person.
But you were gonna show against the wall too, against the corner or that's not yet?
Well no Bob. Don't that's rush me Bob,
I'm on a roll okay, so we did that eyes closed for 60 seconds,
and if that's too easy then we do the modified Romberg. Let's go down to the floor.
So if we look at it from this angle
would that be the lateral view?-That would be the lateral view.
If this is easy the next thing you go as you move your foot forward.
Why don't you move this one forward so they can see?-Okay that much farther-about a quarter of a foot.
Yep, quarter length of the foot, do this, repeat the same thing.
If you can pass it easily that way, you go 50% of the foot each time it's amazing-it's a big difference.
It's a big difference.
It doesn't look like much but when you close your eyes Bob and I both have relatively good balance for our age.
Well, I don't really actually for my height. I'm so tall I have bigger feet.
Taller people typically are a little more challenged and then you go to actually a 90% on the one literature
I was reading 90% and then finally toe to heel and like I can stand very easily like this with my eyes,
you can see I'm working a little bit, but I'm comfortable. If I close my eyes, then I really need to focus.
Okay, so chances are you know you may do this if you're fine and healthy,
but if you got a balance problem for whatever reason and you need to practice it,
this is a good way to do it, you go into a corner,
okay, so this is assuming there's nobody to help you and you want to practice a balanced exercise at home.
Take a nice chair that's solid. This is a heavy steel chair-now are they again Brad,
the test are eyes eyes open first and then you do the test with the eyes closed?-Right open first
then you close with your feet in the same position if you pass both of them then
and then you progress along then you go a quarter and again eyes open and eyes closed for each one-exactly.
So you want to see where you're at. So like let's say you pass
this one and this one and this one,
but you don't pass this one and the next time you do pass that one, you know you're getting better.
Right it's a good way to document so you--it's a measurement.
You know, not just I think it's a little better, but you know.
You know we're therapists too. That's why we think this way-That's right.
So here I'm protected if I'm doing this at home, if I have a patient, I'm gonna say go into the corner wall,
have a chair in front of you and then they'll, wherever they were maybe they couldn't hold that 50%
if it was half way in front, so we're going to back up from there and simply practice
and get a-there's a chair in front of you so you got all sides covered,
so if you fall back you got the wall, if you fall forward you got the chair-precisely.
And if you're not comfortable with that, then you need some help out.
So nowadays, you know with a cellphone put the cell phone there,
I like to turn mine 60 seconds and it beeps at the end,
so I don't have to actually look at it. I can keep my eyes forward especially when your eyes are closed,
it's hard to see the clock.-I would say it would be, I agree.-Yeah, so then you've got an audible information,
and then you'll just practice it and to get this out of the way,
you know as you get better you may get to this point where heel is to toe and then you're going you know--
And it's nice here, you can touch here
and if you can do it and you only have four or five touches in a minute, the next time you can count maybe
only two touches, that's another way to gauge if you're making progress on your balance.
So, you know Dr. Romberg, he was you know, a mind man-man ahead of his time.
Yeah, he was and now they're used, you know, it's used all the time.
We always like the Germans-right and now Bob and I are trying to think of some kind of balance test because
We want-Yeah we want our name on something that's gonna live on forever.
Right couple hundred years from now they'll be thinking-probably be the Bob and Brad idiot test.
How do you determine whether or not you're an idiot?
Why Bob?-Alright thanks for watching.
You