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, and I'm here today to talk to you a little bit about Activities of Daily Living. This is our number three of a three-part series of activities of daily living or what we call ADLs and just trying to help people out that may be suffering and having some day-to-day aggravating factors that are going on with them because of habits they've practiced over the years and have developed, from getting in & out of the dishwasher like we talked about two weeks ago, to last week talking about getting into lower cabinets, or making the bed, whatever it is. And you can apply these techniques and things to a lot of different chores that you do at home, but today we're going to talk about vacuuming, but if we can decrease some daily irritating factors for you, it can definitely significantly make your day go a lot better, less pain complaints, and you can enjoy the day a whole lot more.

So we're going to talk a little bit about vacuuming today. We have had a lot of clients over the years and you ask them what bothers them? Oh every week when I have to vacuum Joe and then you talk to them about how they're vacuuming and they'll say, this is how I vacuum. So just going to release it here, and they'll stand and they push and they're bending over and then reaching and the pushing and you're going all over it and then just vacuuming that way. All is well and good if you have a young healthy back ,with even at some point in time that healthy back is not going to like that. So what we need to do is we need to move with the vacuum. So you release it, you're going to take steps with it and so use your lower legs and then you turn and you go with it instead of twisting and bending over as I showed you in the beginning of being just here and then bending over, and reaching across your body, and rotating, and bending over the same time. Now I can actually turn and step, and I turn and go, and I can move my feet and I don't reach out too far--I don't go past the point of what I can do, so I step with it. If I want to go a little farther, I can step with it and I can bring it back, and bring it back instead of going outside of the zone that's more comfortable for me. So there's a lot of stress on the back.

Hopefully, that helps. Like I said, you can apply these tips and pointers that you've learned the last three weeks to a lot of different chores that you're doing at home. Hopefully, you've learned a lot hopefully, they've been beneficial for you. You've got some instant relief with it. If you have any questions regarding any of these that we talked about the last three weeks or any other chores you're doing at home, activities of daily living and you're having questions because you're still having complaints with and you want to talk to one of us at the clinic, please don't hesitate to give us a call at (630) 892-8003. And if you have any PT-related questions at all, same thing, just give us a call. We'd love to chat with you, set up a conversation, have you come in for a screen, whatever it may be. And we look forward to talking to you next week on your Weekly Cup of Joe! See you! Bye