♪ Bob and Brad, ♪
♪ the two most famous ♪
♪ physical therapists ♪
♪ on the internet. ♪
- Hi, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- And together we are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- Well, in our opinion of course, Bob.
- Brad, today we're gonna talk about
just how to choose a knee brace for arthritis or knee pain.
This is just a general brace. A good affordable brace.
You can spend, oh, hundreds of dollars on braces.
- Oh.
- Especially for arthritis.
- Closer to a thousand in some cases.
- Yeah. And those are custom made,
and they're unloading or offloading braces.
- Right.
- But they are very expensive,
and they're also very bulky.
- Sure. Right.
- So this is just a, a good size brace,
that'll give you, you know, it'll give you some,
it'll reduce some of the stress on the knee.
It'll help with some stability,
and it'll help with some pain.
You know it's just,
- As well as hyperextension.
- Oh, right.
- Because they do have
- Braces that, I mean
- Metal hinges.
- Metal hinges, yeah.
So it helps lateral as well as hyperextension.
- Yeah, we'll have to show that on the skeleton
at some point.
- Absolutely.
- Well, why don't we do that right now?
- Well, of course, Bob.
(Bob laughs)
- When we talk about instability,
as you get arthritis in your knee,
and it kind of throws the joint off.
Are you down here, Lonnie?
You can get lateral movement like this.
- Right.
- Shaking back and forth. This way too, forward and back.
- Sure
So if that brace, if that hinge is on there,
it kind of helps stop that.
- Right.
- It helps holding in place.
- Yeah. And if you're, you know,
the slang word bow-legged or knock-kneed,
that'll kind of help support that
in the proper direction as well.
And if you hyperextend,
let's turn 'em sideways,
some people do,
and particularly, people that have a stroke,
sometimes will hyperextend.
So with this brace on, it bends
but it does not go the opposite direction.
So it'll help minimize that kind of irritation.
- Yep. And these,
these braces all come with these hinges in 'em.
You can take 'em out,
especially when, if you need to, to wash the brace.
- Right.
- Which by the way, you're supposed to hand wash 'em.
- Sure.
- Don't throw them in the washer and dryer.
And you make sure the Velcro is all locked up.
Otherwise, that could cause a problem.
- Yep.
- Alright.
We talked with the good people at braceability.com.
And I'll put that down below,
and down in the comments,
or down in the information down below.
- Sure.
- And, they sent us some braces.
They were really kind enough to do so.
- Yeah.
- We like their braces, that's why we contacted them.
- Yep.
- They got, they got some really good braces.
The other thing that they have, which I really like
is they really have a large range of sizes.
- Sure.
- They go from small all the way to six XL.
- Okay.
- So, and that's the problem,
a lot of times for people who are a little bit larger,
they can't find a brace that fits.
- Right. You get that bariatric population and
and that's what we we're looking for,
something that'll accommodate their legs, so.
- And so what happens is, they can't exercise
because they, you know, the knee hurts.
- Right.
- And so they, they gain even more weight.
- Right.
- So this is, I think, a great solution for that.
So, I think the keys to a good brace is, you know
having the right fit and comfort.
- And can you get it on and off easily?
- Right. Good point.
- So this is a wraparound brace.
As opposed to the type the sleeve,
where you pull up and over.
- Right.
- And I.
- The sleeve is fine in, in some instances.
- Right.
- I, I'm not going to go against that.
But that's not what we're advocating right here.
- Right. So here you look at the name.
So you put the letters up so you can read it.
- Yep. That's up on top. Yep.
- And goes up the hole in the back, goes behind the knee.
- Which is by the way, a nice feature.
Because otherwise it gets bunched up behind the knee.
- Yeah.
And if you ever wear a brace, you can tell, you know,
you'd know that you don't want to have anything bunching up.
- It's irritable and it gets a little hotter, you know?
- So usually you wrap the first top one first, Brad
or bottom one?
- It doesn't really matter.
- Yeah.
- I like to do the bottom one first,
but it's kind of an individual thing.
- Of course he does.
- If the taper goes up, I find that at the bottom.
Yeah. Anything that goes against Bob, I'll do.
So you put up those first two closures, look at that, right.
That kneecap.
And that's where you want the patella
or the kneecap right in the hole there.
And again, that's for comfort.
If you, if you got one of those braces that you're pulling
up over the top of it,
it's going to push right on the kneecap.
Again, those are fine for other certain instances.
But in arthritis, I think this is probably more appropriate.
- Sure.
- So then you have the other two
straps here
that you can actually cinch.
- Yeah. This is what I like about it.
I just used this exact same brace yesterday on a
a stroke patient who has hyperextension, instability
in the knee, and,
- Yeah, I bet you it stopped the hyper extension,
didn't it?
- He did very well with it.
Yeah.
And he walked farther with it.
He felt more confident with it.
And I'm not just saying that.
- I bet you aren't just saying that.
- Of course not.
- So, now you can wear this over the pants too,
wouldn't you say?
- Sure, oh yeah.
- Yep. A lot of people do and,
or you can slide the pants over it,
or you can wear sporty shorts like I do.
- Yeah. You look hot in those don't,
we are gonna have the women just commenting on you, Bob.
- Some of the elderly 80 year old women.
- Of course.
- Now the material
on this is a breathable Neo pram alternative.
I don't know what that means, but it's not Neo Preme.
Neo Preme, it does tend to be a little bit uncomfortable,
and this is supposed to be moisture wicking.
- Sure.
- So it, it, it helps with that.
I, one thing I want to make a point, Brad,
you don't need copper and you don't need magnets.
There's no.
Now, I mean, you laugh, but a lot
of people think there's something magical to those.
- Right.
- And, and
and there really isn't the studies haven't held
up on those at all.
- Right.
- They, and, and again, this has the hinges in here.
They do, they do remove.
- Yeah. If, if you don't like the hinges
and don't need that support,
take 'em out and you can it without.
- That's exactly right.
If, if you don't feel like you have,
if the knee's not unstable,
I would go ahead and take 'em out,
and you just gotta on the inside,
you'll find a slot where the hinges,
and you just pull 'em right out.
- Right. Yeah.
- So, we should talk about how to measure for this brand.
- Okay. Okay.
- So, they very simple.
They want two measurements, one they want right around,
right around the kneecap itself.
- Okay.
- You know, with a tape measure.
- Yep.
- And then you go six inches
from the top of the kneecap up
and then take another measure right here on the thigh.
- Here, let me draw on your leg, Bob.
- I bet you, there you go there.
- See how that works.
- Yeah. So those two spots you send them in,
or you, I mean, you go online and they'll
they'll tell you what size then you need.
- Sure.
- And again, small all the way to six XL.
So, they're going to have your size for you.
- Oh yeah.
- Very critical to get the right fit on this.
This brace I think they call it the obesity brace.
- Okay.
- Which I'm not thrilled about the name.
- Right.
But anyway, the price is $59.99.
So, that, that's a good price.
I think that's the same price
no matter what size you get.
- Oh, really? Okay.
- So, so they good price, you know, give 'em a visit
if you're having some knee pain,
this'll help you take that pain level down.
So you can exercise again and
- Give you that support that you need.
- Get strong like bull.
- Well, I,
- I took his line.
You want to say it, Brad?
- No. No, you didn't roll the "r",
strong like bull.
You gotta,
- Okay, there we go, here's our bull.
- There you go.
- Thanks for watching.