Do you remember "duh duh duh duh duh - duh duh"?
Oh yeah! Hi folks I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist. Brad Heineck physical therapist.
Got me off my rhythm, and together we are the most famous physical therapists on the internet --well in our opinion of course Bob.
Today Brad we're gonna talk about how to use a cane or crutch we could put too, to relieve hip and knee pain fast.
Bob I can't tell you how many times I've had people come in with knee or hip pain and
Some kind of resistance but I have them use a cane, typically sometimes a crutch, and their knee pain
When they walk will go from say an 8 over 10 down to a 3 over 10 --absolutely--and they say wow
Does that work good. Yeah I would say for me
Especially if someone, well not even if they're older sometimes even if they're younger
This is the number one thing that's gonna knock their pain down.
Right--I mean seriously I mean it takes, cuz knee pain and hip pain they tend to flare up.
And then they calm down or if you damaged it or injured it
That injury needs to calm down and heal, so you want to take some of the stress off. take the irritant away and everything
Take the irritant away and everything gets better
But there are three things, three things Bob!
Yeah--don't be pointing at me like that
Three things that you need to do in order for these so they work properly and it's a
You're gonna have success. By the way if you're new to our channel please take a second to subscribe to us.
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Cuz Brad and I if you like us we're gonna give out some positive vibes
I don't know when is this one going up, do we know?
In the future so we're probably not giving away anything right now
Oh just vibes--just positive vibes. Nothing wrong with that though. That's right so, sometimes free is good.
All right Brad so, what's going on? Okay, so the first thing you're gonna do
If you're going to use a cane or a crutch, you need to adjust the height properly so
And it's nice to have you know if have a wooden cane you might be limited, you can cut it off make it shorter but
It's hard to make them long. That's right cut once, or measure, what is it? Measure twice, cut once.
So if you stand this is exactly what I say to my patients
You stand up with good tall posture and let your arms hang down and then I put the cane there, every time
They grab for the cane! --Yeah-- and I say don't grab for the cane just relax and I'll put the cane there
And what I want the grip to do is line up with the crease
So that's obviously way too tall so you know you very simply just,
These are nice canes they make them so easy to adjust, these aluminum ones. And look at this, psychedelic colors,
You can get all decorations if you want or plain ones now that's proper right there, there we go.
And it would be the same thing with the crutch--I mean the wrist would be the same thing for the crutch
And you can see this one's actually already set for me --yes
So in this part you usually want to have a couple inches I mean a couple fingertips
Right below so you're not going up into the axilla. --Right you don't want this--pressing the nerves. Right you want a gap in there.
This, we're not going to go through exactly how to adjust it but you do, there's always adjustments on these as well.
Oftentimes the newer ones you just push the buttons in and raise it lower. Yeah and you don't want to lean on this.
That's compressing the nerve you want to take the pressure on the palm of the hand.
Right --and squeezing a little bit too.
So make your adjustments as we just talked about, now this is where people sometimes have an issue or think--
Understanding is if it's your left knee or hip you're going to use the cane or the crutch in the opposite hand, yep so,
And then there's that, what was that show that the doctor he's a doctor and he uses it--House
Doctor House, used it, cuz he would use it this he would use it in the same one
And not only does it take pressure if you use it properly like we're going to show you it takes pressure off the knee or the hip but
You have better balance and stability
And for some older people
They're gonna have a much less risk for falling. --A better walking pattern too, sure. You know it's not gonna be like
The House maneuver, it's gonna be a normal walking pattern--precisely.
Draw a little less attention to you. Yeah this is the House walk and if you do it properly, the cane
And the opposite leg, the involved leg, they sequence together.
And typically what I do with my patients is
I say just take the cane and I have them in the right hand I say just walk with that without thinking--That's what I tell them too.
Cuz as soon as I give them
Sequencing tips, it messes them up. --Yeah you start thinking about it because when your left leg goes forward naturally
Your right hand goes forward and the natural walking gait, so if they're not thinking about it, just allow the same--yup--
Almost always do it right is what I've found.
You know my wife went through this by the way and
She was like there's no way I'm gonna use a cane. She started having knee pain and
Eventually it got to the point where she used the cane but we
Eventually decided on a crutch because she thought it looked more sporty.
Like athletic maybe--more acceptable for her age--or for her yeah and we actually, I wanted to show this
We actually had to get, these are the pads we used,
We had to actually get extra pads on there because it's amazing how sore you get underneath your armpits and your palm
Even if you keep the pressure on the hand, just the rubbing in there--yeah the rubbing in there.
So I would recommend if you get a crutch and you're gonna be with it for a while you may wanna get some extra padding with it.
But it calmed down, her knee calmed down and she ended up not having to have any procedures or anything like that so
But it was an issue of we had to keep the weight off that knee for a while or some of the pressure
You want to avoid hills too and steps, you know as much as you can.
Oh sure yeah right --that's putting extra pressure on --yeah and if you're doing steps, one step at a time
Going up with your strong or the non painful leg first is really gonna help.
You know you go a little slower but it really helps. --Up with the good you said that right?
Up with the good, down with the bad.
So those are some nice little helpful and they really do it takes the pain out quickly--yeah give this a shot
Because you may not even have to do anything else if you if you do this thing this might take your pain down enough
That you don't even have to use meds or have any procedures.
Yeah if you're taking four ibuprofen three times today you can decrease that and save your stomach and your liver.
The idea eventually is you're gonna get rid of it, away from the pain. --Right--that's the idea, all right thanks everybody for watching.