- ♪ 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.
So as you can see, I'm not only the better looking one,
I'm also the taller one over the two.
- Say no more Bob, say no more.
All right, today Brad
today gonna talk about the six minute walk test.
The purpose of this test,
is to test somebody's exercise tolerance.
Really good for people who have chronic respiratory disease
or heart failure, but they've actually expanded it out.
They use it on just elderly adults.
People who've had total hips or total knees,
fibromyalgia, scleroderma, lots of things.
- So a six minute walk test.
They're gonna walk for six minutes..,
- Right. - ..and they're gonna time it?
- And we're gonna time it.
And we're gonna see how far they walk.
And usually what they suggest,
is you wanna set up two cones,
and you're gonna put them 30 meters apart.
This is not 30 meters Brad. - Right.
- But just for demonstrated purposes,...
- Sure.
- We thought we'd just show.
So, and then you're gonna count how many laps they make.
- Okay.
- So obviously getting back would be 60 meters.
- Right, so you're gonna get a timer
and click and have them start walking.
- Yep, - Okay.
So, very simple to do but there are some contraindications,
if they've had unstable angina, in other words, chest pain..
- All right. - ..and it's not stable.
- If they've had a a heart attack in the previous month.
- Right.
If they have high blood pressure
of 180 over 100 or above.
- Right.
- They're not gonna wanna do it.
If they're resting heart rate is over 120.
- Okay.
- You're not gonna wanna do it.
- Oh yeah.
So, if there's any unusual concerns healthwise,
maybe you should see a doctor or don't do this
if there's concerns.
- Yeah, and the test is gonna be stopped
if the person starts to have chest pain
or if they really become shorter breath
that it's just intolerable.
Leg cramps, if they're staggering, they become sweaty.
- Sure.
- Or ash and pale looking.
- They should feel just normal, maybe a little fatigued.
- And the problem is that some of the standards
here are a little bit off on the way that people do this,
but you always wanna have them walk
usually at a comfortable pace.
Not as fast, don't say, walk as fast as you can,
just say walk at a usual pace or a comfortable pace.
- Sure.
- They should wear comfortable shoes.
As far as encouragement, if you're doing the test,
you wanna make sure you give the same amount
of encouragement each time you test.
Because encouragement does help people go further.
- The motivation, yeah?
- Yeah, you might wanna say nothing at all.
- Right.
- I mean, yeah, that might be the best of all.
Sometimes people even do a practice trial for this.
- Sure.
So if you're gonna do it from one time to another,
doing it in the same location, same atmosphere,...
- Right.
- ...same shoes.
- So Brad, as you start doing it,...
- Okay.
- ...you're gonna go ahead and start.
And you're walking down.
If he should get tired, he can do one of two things.
He can either lean against the wall,
which we don't have any wall here,
or he can actually sit down if he gets tired.
- So I could lean against something of this.
So then the clock keeps going.
- Yep, the clock keeps going.
So this is working against you
as you're obviously not gonna get as much time down
if you're...
- You get rested up and then get up and go again.
- when you're ready to go again.
- Okay.
- So it's a very simple test to apply.
It's very helpful.
There are some standards, there are some results
but they all vary a little bit
and they have them for people who have C O P D,
what normal results are.
- Sure.
- They have them for people who are regular,
just healthy adults.
- Sure.
- But the only thing that they all seem to agree upon,
is that for improvement, what you wanna see
is at least 50 meters.
So if you test the first time,
and then you test a month later,
you'd like to see that they've improved at least 50 meters.
That's a significant improvement.
- Okay.
All right.
- I'm not gonna give any of the other numbers.
- You can look them up on online.
- Right.
- And there's just a lot of them.
- Basically, you're looking for either a change,
better or worse.
They're gonna do something, maybe four weeks later
they're gonna exercise,..
- Right.
- ...change your diet, change medication,
whatever and then test it again.
- And then you're gonna see it's a motivator too.
Then you can see that you're going actually further
each time, is what you'd like to see.
- Exactly.
- And these testing has been even used to determine
whether or not they think someone
is maybe gonna be hospitalized.
Like I know in one case, people with C O P D
if they went less than 200 meters,
there's a good chance they're gonna be hospitalized soon.
- Sure.
- So the test can be used for a lot of things
like that and so on.
- Okay.
- All right.
- Can it test for a broken heart, Bob?
- Yep, that's right.
We can fix just about anything but we can't fix..
- A broken heart.
And I don't think this test is gonna help us.
- No I don't.
- We are getting closer. - We're gonna break one.
- We're zooming in on it.
- Yeah, it is, yeah.
- All right.
We're we're gonna do it.
- Thanks for watching.