Hi, I'm Bob schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- And together we are the famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- Well, in our opinion, of course, Bob.
(night splint clatters)
- Okay, Brad, today we're gonna talk
about that thing you just threw on the ground,
which is a night splint.
And actually this could be a very helpful device
for a couple of problems that you may be having.
One is plantar fasciitis.
- Oh, you want me to say, plantar fasciitis.
- Another one would be maybe if you're having trouble
with your heel cord.
- Yep. Heel cord or the calf muscle.
- Achilles tendon or the calf muscle, tendo calcaneus.
- Sure, Bob.
(Brad Laughs)
- Gonna say some professional verbiage.
Okay, what have we got going here, Brad?
How does this work?
- Okay. You're gonna want to use this if,
here is the symptoms.
You have pain in your foot, around your ankle, in your calf,
when you get out of bed, and the first thing you do
when you put weight on there is go,
"ouch" and "that hurts".
And after you walk around for a while, it becomes
less and less painful and you can start to walk normal.
But it is very specific, when you first put weight
on that foot, it is very uncomfortable.
- It can be shockingly bad.
- Right, Okay. If that's your symptoms,
then you're gonna be helped with one of these devices, okay.
Now, why don't you lay down Bob, here?
Put your foot up.
- I was gonna put my foot up.
- Okay, just the foot.
So what happens is when you sleep-
- I don't normally wear a white sock.
I wore a white sock just for you today, Brad.
- No, Bob.
He's a geek, really. (Bob laughs)
He wears them all the time.
Okay, When you sleep, the foot plantar flexors
are pointed down like this, typically, okay?
The tissues from here, let's rotate this way, Bob.
Just imagine the tissues from here are all connected
to the heel and all the way up to the bottom of the knee.
And they really are just that, you know there's-
- Okay.
- So we've got the calf muscle, to the Achilles tendon,
to the heel, the heel to the plantar fasciitis,
to the toes, and all the way up.
So what happens is over the nighttime,
If these are injured in such a way,
they will tighten up - They're starting to heal
during the nighttime.
- Right, so in the morning they've tightened up,
and your foot wants to stay,
plantar flexors are pointed down.
And when you stand on it, all of this goes up quickly,
and all those sore muscles and tender tissues get stretched
in a big hurry, which causes a lot of pain.
- Well, I, I think it can maybe even re-tear.
If you're getting some healing going on,
it may even re-tear.
And also you have to start the healing process
all over again.
- Right, so it creates a chronic problem,
which, you know, goes on forever.
So what you want to do is when you sleep is hold your foot
up in a neutral position
and that's gonna be pretty hard to do.
If you think about that,
when you're sleeping, you're really good.
So what you need is a night splint
to actually hold it. - A neutral position is
basically a right angle.
This and this forms a right angle, 90 degree angle.
- normal position is here. Normal position like that,
this will hold it up like that.
- Right, okay. This is no kid,
If you don't have a night split,
and you don't wanna spend the money, have the money,
I had a doctor that I worked with and he did this,
he took a pair of high top tennis shoes.
And he wore them to bed at night,
because it kept his feet in that 90 degree position.
And it works.
These work a little bit better.
They're a little more comfortable.
- I used to do that, actually,
with some of our stroke patients, even.
- Oh, really?
- Wear the high top tennis shoes.
- Sure.
Now, I'm not gonna tighten this up on Bob,
just because I don't wanna take the time for the video,
but the straps go across, getting the heel down in.
Okay, and then you can adjust a lot of these.
On the better ones, you can adjust the amount
dorsiflexion, or where you put the foot, okay.
(Velcro rips)
And that's what these Velcro straps are here for.
- And obviously I would probably put it as tight
as it's still comfortable.
I mean, I could sleep with it,
but I wanna put as much stretch
on it as I could tolerate, wouldn't you say, Brad?
- Sure, but yeah, again, it's gotta be comfortable.
- It's gotta be comfortable cause you can't sleep otherwise.
- Exactly, you should be able to sleep at night.
- Cause I actually feel a little bit of stretch
on my calf right here.
Just with this being on.
I think I could sleep with this, but I feel it.
- And if it is, you can loosen it up a little bit.
- Right, cause I mean, you might find out it's like,
oh, I just can't sleep, it's stretching too much.
And go ahead,
you can do this over the period of several nights.
Where you try to incrementally bring it up
further and further, so.
- And you will find a difference
when you get out of bed without this,
And then the next night with it.
It's gonna be much less pain when you stand on it.
- And optimally, hopefully what's gonna happen, eventually,
is that it'll help it heal quicker.
You're not going in that cycle of breaking open
the scar tissue
and then having to restart the healing process again.
- Now, there is one thing as a therapist,
I know I cause problems between spouses.
And you know, if you put one of these on
and they kick the person next to you in bed.
It can cause arguments.
- Little bit of a weapon.
- We do not want to have none of that
going on as a result of our suggestions.
But even though you really should subscribe to us,
cause we're continuing to give you wonderful advice
like this to help your body pain free, keep you mobile,
active, happy, run more, have more fun.
Did I miss anything, Bob?
- We're like mechanics for the body.
We're gonna help you body back in top, running order.
- So we're gonna write down here, or is it up there, Bob?
- Somewhere.
- Somewhere, subscribe, click on it.
- Slap it baby. (hands clap)
Okay, thanks.