- All right, Bob.
Crutches and steps,
they could be a real dangerous situation.
- It's a recipe for disaster.
- That's right.
We're gonna show you how you can go up and down steps
without problems.
Do it safely.
- Safely!
- That's right, but just wait nine more seconds.
- [Singer] Bob and Brad,
the two most famous
physical therapists
on the internet.
(lighthearted synth music)
- Here are the two options for going up and down steps.
As a matter of fact, they're not real hard,
you just have to take it step by step.
- All right.
- No pun intended.
- What are we gonna start?
Non weight bearing or weight bearing?
Well, let's start non-weight bearing.
- Okay.
- It's by far the most difficult.
- Right.
- And we're gonna use either one or two crutches.
- Right.
- And it..
- And the railing.
- And one railing, yeah.
We're gonna use definitely one railing.
Now this leg?
- Is the injured leg.
- Right. No weight bearing.
- Gotcha.
- So here I'll be coming along and here's my obstacle.
- See, no weight on the leg.
- No weight on the leg.
I need to get up there without putting weight on that leg.
- Safely.
- And without falling.
- Right.
- Now if you have one crutch
it's the same as if you have two crutches.
- Right.
- If you have two, you put them together
so they line up,
and then you grab around.
Helps if you have a bigger hand.
- Right.
- All right.
One hand on the rail, one hand here on the floor,
and you're going to hop up
to here supporting all your weight
through the crutch and the rail.
There!
Up here,
and then this crutch goes to..
- The lower surface.
- Right.
And then we hop up with the good leg.
Crutch to the step with the good leg, rail and hop.
I'm getting pretty high up. You just got my head in there.
- [Bob] Now as an option, Brad. Right?
- [Brad] You can't see my head.
- [Bob] Brad?
- What?
- As an option you could hang on to two rails, right?
- Yes.
- Not use their crutches.
- Right. But then how do you get your crutches up?
- Somebody has to bring them up for you.
(Bob and Brad chuckle)
- Okay. Going down.
It's really important you lead with the crutch.
- Again, the crutch is eyes on the lower surface.
- Yep. Exactly.
- Going up or going down.
- Yep.
Now this hand goes down.
Make sure you bring this hand down a little bit.
So when you get to the next step, everything is lined up
and I'm nice and tall.
I always have my patience.
Crutch. Bring your hand down on the rail.
Boom.
Sometimes the bottom one is a little tricky
because the rails don't always go down far enough
- Right. Go down far enough.
- So you may have to go a little bit sideways.
- Very good, Brad.
- Yeah.
- Bravo.
- Just wait, let me leave. I'm gonna exit.
- Okay.
- There we go.
- Okay. See ya.
(Bob & Brad chuckle)
Now if you just have one crutch, no weight bearing,
and I'm assuming, you know, you're doing fine
like this, no problem.
Then we got stairway. Let's assume..
- No railing.
- No rails but you gotta get up there anyways.
There's two options.
There's one that's dangerous and we don't recommend it.
And that would be this one where you just jump
up and you work out at the best you can,
and you may fall, you know,
if you're an athlete and pretty..
- Right.
- You know, like a gymnast, it may be easy.
- Right.
- So the other way, the safe way to do it
is you're going to turn around,
reach back here.
- Yeah.
- Sit down.
- And work your way up.
- And you go up the stairs backwards.
- It's gonna take a while, but.
- And it's not too bad.
- Yeah.
- If the steps are wet or dirty, then there's an issue
'cause you're gonna, you know,
if you have white pants, it's gonna be a problem.
- Or a dress.
You know, I guess the other option is hopefully
you have someone that's able-body and strong,
and they could be next to you and hold you,
you know, and support you.
If you have a belt on, they can grab the belt.
- Or hopefully an elevator.
- An elevator is the next best thing, right.
- Come on in Brad.
- All right. So we're going again.
No weight bearing, two crutches,
a stairway comes along without any handrail.
So we're gonna assume
that this handrail is not there.
And this isn't so bad.
But even with this..
- It's a bit dangerous.
- It is, you know, if you're elderly
or if you have some deficits
where you don't feel confident doing this,
don't do it.
- You could break the other leg even.
(Brad laughs)
- Or hit your head even worse.
So you're gonna start at a position like this,
crutches solid.
Get a little closer and you simply hop.
And then, oops, there we go.
There, this is a little tricky, so.
- Yeah.
- You're gonna be careful.
- I'll probably go with the sit on the butt version, Brad.
- Yep.
Okay.
And then down, always lead with the crutches and then down.
- Do you know where, Brad, where this comes in handy,
is if you gotta go up a curve.
- Yeah.
- A curb, because you're not gonna have handles.
- Right? Yeah.
One curb, they're tipping, you know, they're shorter.
These are usually seven, eight inches.
A curb is five or four.
But again, once again, you can always resort to the
sitting down and going up.
Fortunately most stairs have a..
- Right, a railing.
- A rail, and makes it much easier and safe
to go up and down, so.
- There you go.
- All right, there we go.
The ins and the outs,
ups and downs of using crutches on the steps.
- Well done.
- What'd you think of that, Bob?
Ins and out, up..
- Good. I like that.
- I thought I wrapped that in my head.
- Very creative.
- Yeah. Once in a while somehow.
- I'd trap it.
(Bob & Brad laughing)