Read the transcript for this video:
Good morning and welcome to your Weekly Cup of Joe. My name is Joe King. I'm the owner of Physical Therapy Advantage in North Aurora. Here today, we're going to talk with a three-part series on some activities of daily living, ADLs, and just some mechanics and how to maybe address those and attack those and maybe decrease some irritations. When you do those and you may have some hip issues, knee issues, back issues and things that you may be doing; habits that you've developed over the years that might be aggravating those on a daily basis. So I'm going to try to show you some better mechanics and better ways to attack them and see if it helps and decreases some of those complaints.
Today we're going to talk about dishwashers. So getting in and out of the dishwasher and what may cause plain, like I said, wreaking some havoc on your back, your hips, your knees, and everything else. So we're going to take a look at that real quick. A big part of it is, most of us at the sink, we just twist and bend over, and that's one of the biggest issues that we have. People will do, they'll just twist, bend over, and then in a really awkward combined position, and that puts a lot of strain on the back. And I'll show you what I'm talking about…
In the kitchen, washing dishes, and then all of a sudden now I need to rinse the dishes off and I’ve put it in the dishwasher. I just reach to the side, I'm bending over to the side, push it down. I pull it out, and then I just put my dish in, just put the dish in. Keep doing that repeatedly until I'm done. But being side bent, rotated, and bending over again more, that will put a lot of strain on your hip and back. So what we'd like you to do, is have you turn, and then now you can bend your knees and bend over a little bit. And now I can be here, and I can be here and I can get my dishes out or put my dishes in, whatever I need to do. So you actually step, bend the knees and then bend over to what you need to do. Or if you need to even put one foot in for the other, hold on and put that dish in so you're in a good position and supporting yourself. If you need to use two hands to take put dish in, you'll be able to bend down a little bit better instead of being in a more compromised position. So whether you're getting the dishes out or whether you're putting dishes in, the key to it is to actually turn your body completely, it's definitely maybe a little more time-consuming, but it's a lot less stress on your body for sure. So at the sink rinsing off, turn, face the dishwasher, bend down, do whatever you need to work, get what you need to do. If you have to go back to the sink, turn, do it that sink, come back down, and go. You can always hold on, bend the knees.
Hopefully, that helps. Hopefully, you start to notice some instant relief with that. And if you have any questions about this or other things PT-related or household chore-related, ADLs--Activities of Daily Living related, don't hesitate to give us a call at (630) 892-8003 and we'd be more than happy to talk to you about having a conversation about how we can help out have you come in, talk about what you're may be dealing with. Look forward to seeing you next week for your Weekly Cup of Joe! Bye.