- Hi, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- I'm Brad Heineck physical therapist.
- And together we are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- In our opinion, of course.
- Brad, I imagine we're gonna talk about the cane.
- Absolutely, ah one of the biggest misconceptions
of cane use or crutches, if you're using one crutch
which side to use it on?
- Right?
- If you got a broken left ankle
or a sprained left ankle to use it
in the left hand or the right hand, I just went
through this with someone yesterday
with her sprained ankle, and she
- Actually, Brad, just.
- You interrupted me.
- Well, I interrupt you,
but let's pretend it's the right side.
- Oh yeah.
- I'll tell you later on why
but let's why don't you roll that leg
up even so that we know which one is the bad one
or bad involved one.
- I got good socks on today.
So I feel alright about this.
- So you could be doing
you could have an injured ankle, an injured knee
or an injured hip, maybe even an injured back.
- We'll just call it the involved side.
- This is the involved side.
Yep, so generally let's say your involved side
is the hip right now.
I mean hip problem.
Which side would you use the cane on, Brad?
- All right.
A lot of people would think, including Dr. House
on that silly show, he puts it in the wrong side.
The same side that the involved leg is on the injury.
- And why don't you walk that way once?
- Absolutely, You go like this.
- And you really gotta limp don't you?
- Yeah, it's true.
It does take weight off of that right leg.
However, you're not as stable and it's not near as good.
So I'll back up so you can enjoy the view better.
So you can see Bob instead of me now
the other thing we're gonna go through this quickly.
If you got a cane, you make sure adjust it right?
So stand up tall.
Let your arm hang down the handle.
- Stand up tall, straight posture.
- Why you hold that then.
- And then you move the arm just slightly forward.
- Yep
- And it should hit you on the wrist.
- Yep, right?
- There's a little variation in that based on comfort.
But that one actually hits you, right?
- Yeah, that's fair.
- If I,
- Oh, it's a little bit low.
now, if you ask me.
- It's close enough, though.
It feels good to me, Bob.
- All right.
- But yeah, some people have it way up here
and their arm is here, but anyways, get that right.
And then put it in the proper hand.
In this case, while leg is gonna go over here and I went
to a four hour inservice and I went through every muscle
and all the biomechanics and physics of why you do that.
And I don't think we need to go into that.
- No, we don't need detail.
There is a reason why bio mechanically
it is so much less stress on your hip to put in this side
but we're not gonna go into it.
- The only thing I can say is
- Leave it
- Is when you walk forward with the right leg,
the cane follows it.
- Right?
- When you swing through,
you've got a wide base stance of
your balance is better.
If you're over here
I'm near not near as steady as over here.
And I'm still unloading this leg.
- Bring that up again, Brad.
So we start off.
- Okay
- The cane and the involved leg
are gonna be together.
- Correct
yep, they swing through mirror ends.
- They come together,
then you put the weight on the cane.
- Yep
- So, which is taking weight
off the leg and then you can bring the other legs through.
- Right.
- So it's a very natural walk too.
Do you see it's it's, it's, he's going foot after foot.
Very natural.
It's not that limp that you get when you
when you're
- Go on the same side, I tell you what, Bob
I don't know what you do with people, but you know
with patients, normally I just give 'em the cane.
I say, put it.
And I give, I say, put it in the opposite side.
And I say, go for a walk.
No instructions.
- That's exactly what I do too.
- And 90% of the time they, they do it right.
The sequence turns out right.
But if I, if I instruct them just
like I did here, cane with the opposite leg in
then they start thinking about it.
Yeah, so
- Now if you get down to the knee and ankle
you can use the cane on the same side.
It, it, it, and only reason I would say
that a lot of people are right-handed
they're right hand, right arm dominant and
it's, and it's just very uncoordinated
for some that use the right in the left hand sometimes.
So sometimes people do prefer to use the right hand
and kind of get that little Dr. House.
- Do that again.
This is a good example of a cane too short
even though Bob is tall
- I have to lean forward, yep.
- But yeah, there are
there are exceptions, but for the most part
- The general rule of thumb is
to put it on the opposite side.
- Yeah
- Anything else you wanna say about canes, Brad?
- No, but I like the adjustable aluminum ones
for sure.
- I like these handles too.
- And they got some nice, pretty ones.
- The flat handles
and sometimes they have the ones that are wider
and you can get, you can really rest your palm on it.
It's they've got some nice designs on
they got colored ones now.
- Yeah, yep
They're very pretty
- Multi-colored flowery designs.
So
- So yeah, if you're looking for, you know
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- That's right.
- Have a good day and be careful.