(ethereal music)
- Hi, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- And I'm Brad Heineck physical therapist.
- And together we are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- In our opinion, of course.
- In our opinion.
- And that's important.
Bob, should we get right in to it?
- Yeah. Let's talk about the four-wheeled walker.
- Right. These walkers have, you know,
10 years ago you didn't see hardly any.
And then they start going more and more
in the last three or four years, they are extremely popular.
And there's a good reason for it because they're useful
and very handy for people who need some assistance
with walking, with their balance, but not a lot.
And they're gonna be outside a lot.
What are you thinking, Bob?
- Well, no, I just say you said "poople," people
(Bob laughs)
- But did I say "poople"?
- I thought you did.
- Let's carry on.
- I'm sorry, I've gotta get that outta my head.
Anyway, a lot of people call this kind of
the Cadillac of, of-
- Yeah.
- I think one of the mistakes, though,
people make though quite often is
that they think because it is a nicer walker,
and a higher-end walker,
that they're always gonna get it
for their parents or for themselves, when some-
this walker is not appropriate
for some type of people.
- Right.
- And we'll go over that today.
- Absolutely.
- We're making the assumption today
that you need to choose and use a walker.
And quite often, this may not even be for yourself.
It may be for your parents.
We're of the age now, Brad and I,
that our parents are elderly.
- Both of our mothers are using four-wheel walkers.
- Both of our walkers are,
both of our mothers are using four-wheel walkers.
And my mother-in-law and father-in-law
are also both using gait aids now.
So, we've had to make that decision about which one to use.
- Okay. So a four-wheel walker,
someone that's not steady on their feet,
but they're fairly steady.
Usually in the house, they can walk around
with holding on to things or a cane,
because these are a little bigger
not real good for most houses
especially if you got a smaller house
and a lot of older people have smaller, older houses.
But for outside and you want to go for a walk
like my mother does not use hers in the house,
but when she goes outside
for walking exercise, this is ideal.
She can walk around the block.
If she's tired, you can sit down on the chair.
- My mom does the same thing.
She can use it for long distances.
- I betcha my mom could beat your mom.
- Probably so, probably so.
(Brad laughs)
I won't even take you take her on on that one.
But one of the problems is it does not have,
you know, it goes in every direction.
- Yeah. They're not real stable.
- They're like a shopping cart.
- Yep, exactly.
- So, whereas some of the other walkers, you know,
like a front-wheel walker
with just wheels on the front,
that'll just go forward, basically.
It won't go side to side.
So you do have to have a little more stability
than you do for some walkers.
- Right. They can get away from you.
You also need to have
the person using it has to be aware enough
and be alert enough to be able to use the brakes.
Because nothing's gonna stop this once you get going
except for you and the brakes.
And if you get confused or excited,
and we have a lot of people, of our patients,
I go through this in detail
to make sure they're appropriate with the braking.
You know the brakes.
So you can squeeze them this way, a temporary brake,
or you can go a static brake,
and you push down and it clicks.
And that braking mechanism is specifically
for if you don't want it to move
particularly when you want to sit in it and take your break.
If the brakes are not locked,
and you get up, then you're gotta fall.
(Bob laughs)
- Nice.
- Bob always likes it when I fall.
- Nice proud fall.
Let's put that in slow motion.
- So the brakes are a real critical part.
The person needs to be comfortable and practical
and really use them properly.
- Since this walker's closer to your, height, Brad,
you wanna show what normally what the height adjustment is.
- Good point, good point.
So if the person fits those specifications,
they're able to use the brakes,
you decide this is a proper walker.
The height is the next thing.
If you stand the person, stand tall
let their arms relax down to their side.
This grip should go right at the crease.
Now with these walkers,
you can get away with an inch higher, inch lower.
It's really not gonna matter.
- It doesn't have to be perfect.
- Right. So that's the general rule.
Just so it's not up here or making them lean over.
- I believe the adjustment on this one is right here.
- Yep. You just loosen this thumb screw,
and you go up and down.
There's holes right here.
You know, someone that's a little mechanically-inclined
will have no problem doing this.
And obviously got the same height on both of them.
- But there are shorter walkers and taller walkers.
Even though this adjusts
it will not always adjust to fit you.
- [Brad] Right. Just the basic frame size.
- [Bob] The other thing is these seat heights
are different from walker to walker.
And if you have some
if you have someone that has trouble getting up
from the chair,
because they need a little bit higher height,
you probably want to have them try that first
to make sure they can get up.
- Exactly. Someone who's four foot nine is not.
- Again, if I'm real tall here,
and I have to sit way down here
and then I have to get up,
it's gonna be a lot harder for me
than if the chair, you know, the seat was this high.
- So we have one person actually right now
that I've been working with
we put a cushion that's about four inches thick
so that she can get off of there,
and we strap it on so it's safe.
So there are some things you can do like that
but the seat height is important.
- How about wheel size, Brad?
- Yeah, the wheel size.
Can you get down here and ask about the wheels?
Typically, there are four inch wheels.
These are four inch wheels here,
and these wheels are nice.
You want four inches.
I think that's probably the smallest they come
because outside, when you're going on sidewalks
and you got the bumps to go over
these will go over the bumps.
This walker here will go on grass.
However, if you're gonna plan on going grass a lot,
you want to get bigger, up to the six inch wheels,
and they're a little thicker,
and you can see it clearly that they're bigger wheels.
They're more adapt for going over rougher surfaces.
So depending on where the person's gonna,
if they're gonna garden with this,
because I have some people that wanna do gardening.
And the nice thing about these,
you can lift the seat up,
and you can get a cage for in here
for putting your garden tools.
And take it for a gardening device.
- [Bob] I think where the big difference
in the wheels too, if you want to compare this, like,
to a regular walker that has the smaller wheels.
- Oh yeah.
- I mean, and you take that out on a sidewalk
or on an asphalt surface.
I mean, you're just bumping along,
and it's very difficult to use on those type of surfaces.
So these big wheels do make a difference.
- Absolutely.
- The other thing that, sorry, I'm cutting you off.
- But some people also need to haul their oxygen
if they're on supplementary oxygen,
and these work well for that.
And there are baskets that you can put on the front.
- Oh yeah. There's all kinds of attachments.
- Alternatives.
- Like this one here, you can take this off.
If there's a basket there.
And most of them have that option there.
The brakes have adjustments on them
here and down here.
That's something that someone who's mechanically-inclined
with the proper tools can adjust the brakes
because they will, the cables will stretch after time.
But that can be adjusted as well.
- You want to show them, Brad, how it folds?
- Oh good.
- Yeah, because you're gonna wanna put it in your car
and take it to the fair or wherever you're gonna go.
- I can just pull up here,
and just pull up on that little string there.
- Yep.
- So seat goes up.
There's a little string right here.
You just pull on it.
It folds up.
- Now, these are a little heavier,
and that's a disadvantage of it.
You try to get this into your car,
you know, if you don't have a good back
or you're not a real strong person.
- Heavier and larger.
I mean, it's gonna take up more space
than the other, the walkers that fold up pretty compact.
- Yeah.
- So this, you know, you can see
that it still stays about that wide.
So I think the other thing
we were gonna talk about was cost.
- Right.
I think you just said you saw them.
- I think they were at Walmart for like $160 some,
and that was probably the lower end.
- And I'm not a big Walmart shopper,
so I would go somewhere else.
And I priced them off for about $235
at a different location, but you've got to shop around.
And the best thing, I always tell my patients
there's two places in Lacrosse, Wisconsin,
where I live.
They have about 20 of these
of different colors, different sizes.
- Wow.
- Different options.
And go in there, do a little shopping,
get the one you want.
Color is really important for some people.
And, you know, the other options that we talked about
the functional options are really important.
So try it out.
It's kinda like car shopping, Bob.
- That's right.
- Not near as expensive.
- Yep. And you can personalize it a way that I've seen.
Unfortunately, some sports memorabilia on these things.
- Yeah.
(Guys laugh)
- All right. Anything else, Brad?
- I think we've covered it up.
So if you're looking for a four-wheel walker, this is it.
And again, Bob,
you know, our videos that we put out
for people 40 and over, 50 and over,
I really think we can do just about anything,
help people fix anything in their body,
except for maybe a broken heart.
- That's right.
- We can't fix those broken heart.
Sorry. No advice there.
- Thank you.