- [Bob] Hi, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- [Brad] Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- [Bob] and together we are the most famous
physical therapists on the internet.
- [Brad] In our opinion of course Bob.
- [Bob] Brad today we are going to go about
uh talk about how to choose a wheelchair
and different things you want to take
keep in mind.
- [Brad] Mhm.
- [Bob] Okay let's start off with the first thing
you want to look at.
You wanna look at the width of the chair.
You wanna make sure you can fit in the chair
right? - [Brad] Right, exactly.
- [Bob] So how are you fitting this one?
- [Brad] I am fitting actually pretty good Bob.
I can put a few fingers here
and a few fingers here
and that's pretty much my rule of thumb
so that you don't get stuck.
I've had people where the chair is too narrow
and they squeeze into it and it cause
circulation problems, skin breakdown
uncomfortable, so you know.
- [Bob] And and really you want it as narrow
as possible with it still fitting
because the wider chair is
the the tougher it is to get through doors.
- [Brad] Sure.
- [Bob] And the other thing, it's hard to wheel
the chair if the - [Brad] Yeah
- [Bob] your arms are way out like this.
The third thing if the chair is too wide,
the person may start doing this.
- [Brad] Yeah. - [Bob] Start leaning over.
- [Brad] Right. - [Bob] So you wanna make sure the chair
is really just wide enough.
- [Brad] Right.
- [Bob] And standard widths are
like 18,
20,
22.
There's not an infinite amount of width
- [Brad] Right.
with most chairs.
Most chairs, like I said, 18 20, 22.
- [Brad] Right. - [Bob] So keep that in mind.
All right, height of the chair.
Uh again on a standard chair
and we'll talk about the different
types of chairs next but on a standard chair
usually the height is like 19 inches.
- [Brad] right?
- [Bob] Brad's got tape measure.
- [Brad] So we're looking at
I'm gonna take these cushions out.
You're gonna measure from the floor, right To the seat.
- [Bob] You see that Lonnie?
- You get your leg outta the way Brad.
- [Brad] Oh, sorry.
We do not want anything
There's 19 inches from the floor to the sling.
- [Bob] So uh 19 inch is a standard chair
uh 17 inch would be a little bit of a lower chair
- [Brad] Right.
- [Bob] Now for a lot of people
you're gonna want to get
the lower chair for this reason.
Brad, do you wanna put those two things back?
- [Brad] Sure.
- [Bob] Now, Brad, how tall are You?
- [Brad] Five, 10 ish. Little under that.
- [Bob] So Brad's not short.
He's about average height.
So with a lot of people, we're gonna put this in.
This is a little uh corrective device,
cause as you notice
a lot of chairs have this sling here
and this sling starts to wear out after a while
and really starts to sling
and what happens is people don't sit straight.
That they start to - [Brad] Yep.
- [Bob] Get curved.
- [Brad] Right.
- [Bob] So the pelvis can't sit level
- [Brad] Right. - [Bob] So this flattens it out
- [Brad] Here, let's show them
a little closer, can you.
You see it's thicker here
and it tapers here and tapers here.
So it's kind of a
- [Bob] Takes the sling, takes the sling
out of it
- [Brad] These are nice. I like it
- [Bob] They're really nice
- [Brad] and they're not expensive either.
- [Bob] So on, in addition to that
because you're sitting all day
a lot of people are gonna need
some type of cushion.
So Brad, you wanna throw the cushion on there
- [Brad] Now this is a nice cushion here.
- [Bob] Yeah. That's another nice cushion.
So now that you've added all that, go ahead and sit
down once Brad.
Now look, his feet don't touch
the ground anymore
and for a lot of people, you're gonna want to
be able to touch the ground. - [Brad] Right?
- [Bob] Some people use it to propel their chair
just for getting out of the chair
it's easier. I mean, if, if ideally
you're gonna want the feet to
be able to touch the ground with the cushioning in there.
- [Brad] Right? - [Bob] So
- [Brad] Another thing, if their feet
aren't touching, they're cutting
off the circulation cause there's
- [Bob] Yes absolutely
there's a pressure point right there
and then of course, if you've got
circulation problems from diabetes or whatever
then you're compounding the problem.
- [Bob] Yeah. So you're gonna wanna probably
have a lower chair in most instances.
Now there are four types of chairs Brad.
This is a standard chair
and I'm in a standard chair.
There's a lightweight chair.
And these tend to be the more uh trendy chairs
- [Brad] Right. - [Bob] too I would say a lot of like
younger people have these
- [Brad] And they're more expensive.
- [Bob] And they're a lot more expensive.
- [Brad] They're made out of aluminum
uh uh you know alloy aluminum
versus just a standard steel chair.
- [Bob] They're easier to uh put in your car.
- [Brad] Sure. - [Bob] I mean, if that's an issue with you
or if your spouse has to put it in a car for you
- [Brad] Right.
- [Bob] Then you know, or your friend, you know
it's a lot easier to lift.
So anyway, that's a lighter chair.
There's a transport chair.
Now the big difference with the transport chair
is you can see on the back it's got small wheels.
Can you pick that up Lonnie?
- [Brad] Like they're two, six inch wheels
and they're really nice in a, in a house
or a facility that has hard floors but
over carpet they're significantly harder
and to get over thresholds is
quite a bit harder too
- [Bob] Right, or if you take it outdoors
you're gonna struggle.
- [Brad] Yeah. - [Bob] On any uh sidewalk or, or driveway
or it's gonna or gravel.
- [Brad] Yeah.
- [Bob] It's gonna really run hard.
The advantage to transport chair is
if you can't use your arms anyway
to propel the chair very
well and you're using your legs.
- [Brad] Yep.
- [Bob] The chair's a lot narrower.
So within your house, you're gonna be able to get
through doors - [Brad] Mhm
- [Bob] and tight spots that you maybe
normally can't and believe me, they're always
that's nice.
- [Brad] Isn't that cool.
- [Bob] There's always uh believe me spots where you're
gonna have trouble getting through like between the toilet
and the bathtub tub or something like that.
- [Brad] Right.
- [Bob] So there, there is that advantage.
It is uh one to consider
The last chair type of chair is a bariatric.
Bariatric, meaning for maybe a heavier person
or individual.
They're wider, they're well built,
they're very solid.
Uh I saw one that could hold up to 700 pounds.
- [Brad] Sure.
- [Bob] So that's the four type of chairs.
All right, the other thing you want
next thing you're gonna look at is back height.
All right.
Flip that around Brad.
Alright on it now it's gonna depend on what
what you do spend a lot of time in your chair.
If you spend a lot of time,
you're sitting in the chair
I'd like to see a higher back height
that actually goes over the shoulder blades
and gives you lots of support.
- [Brad] I take these out.
- [Bob] You're getting closer aren't you Brad.
- [Brad] Yeah.
- [Bob] Now you're getting some support on the
on the shoulder blades.
If you do a lot of wheeling
or let's say you have a chair for sports
- [Brad] Mhm.
- [Bob] you then that's when you see
the lower backs because they want to be able
to move their arms.
- [Brad] Yeah.
- [Bob] Yeah and this kind of, you know
gets in the way of that.
So that's, that's the difference that for
the vast majority of people I'd say
want a little more height
- [Brad] Yeah - [Bob] to be honest with you.
All right uh there are attachments
with some chairs too that you can actually
go all the way up and actually
support the head too.
- [Brad] Right, so those are typically
for people who are involved in need support
cause they cannot lean forward independently.
- [Bob] Brad I want to show, show the brakes
real quick here. - [Brad] Yeah
- [Bob] Let's talk about uh the brake extensions.
- [Brad] Well we'll look at the
standard one first.
Can you see this? Got this Lonnie?
- [Bob] This one right here.
- [Brad] So here the, the brake, the wheels spinning
and you lock it and this is a typical break
on a standard chair.
Now the really nice thing to get is an extension.
Particularly people who don't have
a lot of arm strength or finger dexterity
and I'll show you this chair right here.
- [Bob] Even those who do
I'll tell you these break extensions are nice.
- [Brad] Right? Here we go.
Let's pull this chair out
and this is, looks like a four or five
inch extension.
They come longer than this too
and much easier, more control
to get that brake on it.
It doesn't
- [Bob] You can use this on any
on any wheelchair you just pull it off and
- [Brad] Yeah
- These are on pretty tight.
I can't get them off.
I think someone tapped them on a little too hard
but the other nice thing about this
is for uh stroke people or someone who only have
one arm that's functioning
you can reach over
- [Bob] Exactly
- [Brad] and work it with just one arm.
So that's really handy.
- [Bob] Very nice feature.
I'd recommend that for everybody really
to be honest. - [Brad] And they're cheap.
- [Bob] Yeah and while you're in this position
Brad let's show this is a desk arm okay.
- [Brad] Sure.
- [Bob] There's two types of arms.
There's the full, oh, I got a desk arm too.
- [Brad] Here's the full length arm.
- [Bob] That's a full length arm.
Now what's nice about the desk arm is
the desk arm can fit
underneath the table very easy.
Look at mine.
I can I can push up underneath the table.
- [Brad] Let's look at this Bob.
We can show them right here on the clamp.
- [Bob] Oh yeah look at that.
Boom it hits
- [Brad] Can you see that Lonnie?
I think you might be in the way Bob.
- [Bob] Oh, am I still in the way?
- [Brad] Is that okay? - Yeah.
- [Brad] So if you see right now
it is the table, when we're eating
you cannot get very close
because bang they hit.
However, when you have this
you can get in closer people.
- All that worked out for us.
- [Brad] Hey, all right cool
- [Bob] All right the positive thing
about a full length though
is that if you have are person that
have trouble getting out of your chair
a lot of times you're gonna wanna be able to
get your hands way at the end of the the support
- [Brad] Right.
As opposed to here where
you, you don't, you can't.
So when you get out you go
all the way to the end
- [Brad] Right?
- [Bob] And now I can really get
some good leverage to get up out of the chair.
- [Brad] Right and on the desk chair it's too low.
Your arms are, you don't have a leverage.
- [Bob] And we've had people
I've had patients that could get up
with this and could not get up with that.
- [Brad] Yeah.
- [Bob] Yeah so it's, it's not an unusual thing.
Handles on the chair uh for most people
they're gonna want the handles on the chair.
I I've heard of some that these are higher end
ones that actually fold down.
- [Brad] Yeah. - [Bob] And you say
why wouldn't you want those on there?
If you're in your chair all the time
there's people that don't want you to push them.
- [Brad] Right.
- [Bob] And the other thing, one uh lady
that I saw on the internet
she was talking she goes
people when they come up and talk to her
they do this.
And she goes, it drives her crazy.
They come up and they put their
hands on there and they they they're shaking
her chair while she's talking.
It's like uh my wife she complains when I
put my hand on the grocery cart.
She just hates that, so
- [Brad] Mhm
Getting into that personal region there.
- [Bob] All right uh just one thing
about propelling a chair.
Uh Brad normally you're grabbing on the rims.
Uh we used to even put some rubber on here.
- [Brad] Yep. - [Bob] Do you remember that?
- [Brad] Some used to come coded too I believe
I've, I've done it with people with bad port grip
from a stroke or whatever it may be
and then you wrap it around in the spiral.
- [Bob] Yeah you wrap a spiral rubber on
on the rim.
Some people uh at least I've
I've done wheelchair sports you know
played wheelchair basketball
and a lot of times you'll grab onto the wheel
and the rim and what happens
you gotta watch this as you go down here.
You hit the brake and you actually can
cut your your thumb.
That's why you've seen on some people
the brakes are actually in the back
- [Brad] Right.
- [Bob] Or, or out of the way. - [Brad] Right.
- [Bob] So, all right, going to the type of wheel.
You can actually get a hard rubber type of wheel
which these are versus an inflatable tire
- [Brad] Right.
- [Bob] and the inflatable tire is gonna feel a
lot better over rocky surfaces or uneven surfaces
- [Brad] Outside
- [Bob] Outside um these are gonna wheel better
on hard surfaces.
- [Brad] Right.
- [Bob] and obviously they're not gonna
go flat on you.
- [Brad] Right.
- [Bob] So I had one friend that uh he was
in a wheelchair and he came in one day
and he had filled up his air at a pump outside
and the air was cold
and then he came inside and
it expanded both tires popped at the same time.
Sound like shotguns going off
Pop Pop!
- [Brad] (laughs) - [Bob] So, all right.
So now we go, also we got the anti tip bars.
Are those on yours brand?
- [Brad] Yeah. This one has one.
I don't know.
- [Bob] Yeah.
- [Brad] We got the anti tip so that when
it goes back you don't tip over.
Now this should have one
on both sides, but it doesn't
but it gives you the idea of what
we're looking at.
Then, you know those usually come off.
- [Bob] What's bad about those is if you
if you have to tip your chair back
to get up a curb you won't be able to do it.
And a lot of people learn
that they have to pop a chair
in order to get up on a curb.
The good thing about it's
if you're playing sports at all
and you're playing basketball.
I've seen this already happen
cause it's happened to me.
You catch a ball and you grab
like this and you actually end up
flipping over backwards.
- [Brad] Yeah yeah.
- [Bob] Another feature that you might
look for is a chair is whether or not it folds.
The vast majority of them do
but there are solid chairs that don't.
- [Brad] Right.
- [Bob] They actually kind of come apart
a little different way.
Brad, do you wanna show how we fold a chair?
- [Brad] Yeah, If it's a sling chair
in other words this is a sling bottom like that.
Typically you just grab in the middle
pull up and it'll come right together.
And this I'm not, I'm doing it just fingers here.
- [Bob] Yeah. It works very slick.
Show people what how they normally do it Brad
when they don't know how to do it.
- [Brad] Yeah then like kind of here
let me get it down.
You just push on the outside to put it back down.
It'll pop right in.
But people will be coming in here
and trying push it in.
And it's a back breaker and you get
your fingers pinched in there.
So this is real the way to do it.
- [Bob] And really with one hand you can
almost push it down too can't you?
Cause you just, once you get the
- [Brad] Yeah, well I usually
get one on each side.
- [Bob] Okay.
- [Brad] But the neat thing
and we have a video on this too
but if you take the brakes off
then you can just go like this and you can wheel
it around.
- [Bob] Wheel it right into your car.
- [Brad] Yeah. - [Bob] It works really good so
those are the things uh you want.
Do we wanna mention self locking brakes?
Are we gonna?
- [Brad] Well, we might as well seeing
how we're added now.
Just right here, this is one style
and I like this style of self locking break
and if you can look right here, take this off.
When you put weight on the seat pan
you can see how these elevate and they take
the resistance off the rubber of the wheel
and when you get off the chair
they come back down and then the chair cannot go
backwards, particularly
- [Bob] This is for the person
that maybe forgets to lock their brakes
before they get up out of a chair.
- [Brad] Right. Right.
- [Bob] And so which we have a lot of people
that are like that
and, and so, you know, I've seen
when they try to get out of a chair
they go
(thumps)
and then it might fall. - [Brad] Right.
- [Bob] So it automatically, as soon
as they take their butt off the seat pan
it locks
- [Brad] Yep.
- [Bob] and it, and it works really well.
- [Brad] It's a nice safety feature for people
who are forgetful or confused, whatever.
A lot of times it's in the nursing home
that they have these.
- [Bob] It's quite an involved piece here.
I mean, it's not a, not a
- [Brad] Yeah it's an attachment you can get
for most of these chairs.
I, I don't, I don't know if it's
like a couple hundred dollars, whatever.
You gotta have someone somewhat skilled
to put it on and adjust it.
- [Bob] And plus then when you try to push
a chair around you gotta put some weight in there
- [Brad] Right - [Bob] it locks up on you.
- [Brad] Or I usually just
- [Bob] Go like that. - [Brad] go like that right
- [Bob] All right those are a lot of the features
you can consider when buying the wheelchair
- [Brad] Sure. - [Bob] and we're gonna do another video on
- [Brad] Height.
- [Bob] Height how adjust height
- [Brad] How high should you be?
Where should your foot rests be?
- [Bob] Oh we didn't talk about
footrest on this one
- [Brad] Oh my gosh.
- [Bob] How do you miss that?
- [Brad] Why?
- [Bob] This is an elevating footrest.
- [Brad] Oh yeah that's right
- [Bob] Okay and this is just
a regular foot plate.
So, and they both are what we call swing away
where you can push and they just swing
right out of the way.
This one swings right out the way
and to take it off you just
go ahead and swing it out to the side like this
and pop it up like that.
- [Brad] Yeah - [Bob] So
- [Brad] And these are the types of things
I've been doing this for 20 years and I still
have to fight with these sometimes
they are finger pinchers.
- [Bob] Yeah.
- [Brad] There's probably 10 different varieties
of how they do it they're a little bit different
but they all work basically and
- [Bob] They adjust.
So. Alright, thanks.