♪- 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.
- In our opinion, of course, Bob.
- Brad, today, we're gonna talk about three tips
and plus a bonus, we always add a bonus, to help someone
with Parkinson's, when they have those freezing episodes.
- Right. So that, one foot sticking to the floor that--
- That's like, exactly right, like their feet
are stuck to the floor.
- Right.
- They can't move 'em, I, I've seen it in a lot of patients.
I, I think you have one right now.
- Yeah, I do. Yep, and they come to a doorway
or they stop or there's
- Yeah, it's often a decision point,
isn't it, Brad? They, they come to a doorway
or even a change of surface from tile to carpet.
- Right.
- Or if they have to take a turn.
- Yep.
- That's, that's when all of a sudden they, they stop.
- And if you have Parkinson's, you know somebody, you know
what we're talking about, that, that foot will just be,
it's like it's glued to the floor.
- Yep.
- And then you gotta break that, once you break it loose,
then things roll.
- Then, they get rolling again. So,
these are some of the hints you can try.
The first one is rhythmic music or beat.
- Okay.
- Like they have a, a Parkinson's walker now that actually
has a, you know, click, click, click, click,
kind of a rhythmic--
- You could on your phone, or if you're in, into music,
you could use a metronome.
- Yeah. Very good.
- And get a proper, you know, you could vary the
rate to whatever you want to get that beat.
- Right. Or if you're a caregiver and you're along
with somebody, you could just go
one, two, one, two, one, two.
- Yep, mm hm. Get that audio stimulation.
- Getting that, that, that rhythmic going on.
One of the neurologists talked
about how one of his patients would carry a,
a phone that had a certain music that would
would get him going, moving.
- So, so they're gonna walk to the beat of the music
or to the beat of the, whatever you have for that.
- Yeah, exactly.
The second one is to try to help break it is,
is that instead of thinking about taking a step,
you actually think about marching.
So, they actually think about bringing the foot way up.
- Right, right.
- As opposed to just taking the step.
- Right.
- One of the neurologists said too, that he had luck
with one patient when he actually tried moving the foot
out to the side first and then forward.
- Yep. That would break it loose
and then they could get there.
- Yeah. The one that I've had luck with Brad is, is,
is actually having them kind of just work
on shifting their weight back
and forth like this first, before they try to step.
- Sure, Yep, Okay.
- So just, and if you're a caregiver,
even you can even bring their shoulders back
and forth a little bit.
- Right.
- Yeah. And then they can try to take the step.
- Right.
- So again, it's kind of a rhythmic thing,
but also shifting the weight and,
and maybe exaggerate in doing the marching.
So, the third thing is basically to have 'em step
over a line or step on something.
- Sure.
- So, so it's like the, well, let's you stand up, Bob?
- Yeah.
- One simple thing. If you're walking with someone,
just put your foot out and ask 'em,
can you step over that foot?
Over the top, big step over.
- Yeah.
- You might put the foot right in front of theirs.
So they have to try to step over it
and gives them something.
They can try to step over an imaginary line.
- Right.
- You could use like a laser here.
- Yep. He's got a laser pointer.
I don't know if you can see that Lonnie.
There's the dot, that works out really nice,
cause the idea is, you can actually tell him to step
on it, Brad, so you can keep it stationary.
Try to step on that pointer.
- [Brad] And there's no trip hazard.
- [Bob] Yeah.
- [Brad] It's not like stepping on your foot
or putting a cane down or something of that nature.
- [Bob] They were talking about one patient who used to
keep little wads of tissue paper in his pocket
and he'd throw it down when he got stuck,
he'd throw it down and he'd step on that.
It worked for him to get things rolling, so.
- [Brad] Sure, and they do have the walkers.
- Yep.
- Parkinson's walkers. They do have a laser--
- Laser line. Yep.
- They have, like you said, the, the noise, the, the canes--
- The rhythmic. Yeah.
- Right.
- So all those things are built into one, to, to help you.
- Right.
- That's a very expensive Walker though.
- Right. It is. It is.
- Yeah. As a bonus, you know, the,
the third thing you can try, especially with turns Brad,
cause a lot of people with Parkinson's have trouble
when you try to do what we call a pivot turn.
- Right.
- They'll lock up on that--
- Right on the spot.
- Yep.
- So better for them is to, instead of doing a pivot turn
is to get used to working rounded, work doing a round turn.
- Big circles--
- A big circle.
- Yep.
- Instead of doing the pivot.
- Right.
- Okay.
- As long as you have the room, big enough to to do that,
and that can become not necessarily a habit, but more common
for them when they don't have to think about it.
- Exactly.
- Right.
- I'm almost as tall as you're sitting down.
(they laugh)
- Wow.
- By the way, if you have any hints,
please put 'em down in the comments below.
- Right.
- We're always trying to learn, we're always trying to,
you know, provide additional information for our patients
and for us.
- Right. As a matter of fact, just yesterday,
someone chimed in with a, a real nice
helpful hint from their experience on the topic. So yeah.
- Yeah. We're all here to help each other.
- Right.
- So that's, you know, it's a small planet, right?
- I don't, I don't know if he's gonna help me but.
- There's too much to be helped.
Alright. Thanks for watching.