hey everybody it's doctor Jo, and today I'm going to show you how to use a Walking Cane properly. so let's get started. Before we get started, if you haven't already, make sure and click the subscribe button, and if you want notifications every time a video comes out make sure you ring that Bell. so let's start off with how to adjust your cane. a lot of people have that question. I see patients come in a lot and it's not the right height for them. this is really important because if you don't have the right height, it can end up making you either lean over a lot or have your shoulder come up a lot and that's going to cause pain in other places. so this is really important. the biggest thing is it's not an exact number, but you should really have about a twenty to thirty degree bend in your elbow. so when I'm standing, it should be slightly bent. that reason is you don't want it straight out because a lot of times if you're leaning into it and you don't want that bend so high where your shoulders coming up to your ear.

so again you don't have to pull out a goniometer in which is what we have what you would check in the clinic, but you just want it to be comfortable with a slight bend and that head the handle here should be about where your greater trochanter is. and you're like what is that, and that's basically that hip bone that sticks out, that's about where you want it. so this is about the right height for me. I'm going to turn and you can see there's that little bend in the elbow there. so if it was straight I probably have to be lean into it a little bit. so that's why you want that little bend. Most Walking Cane for Womens have this little knob here. sometimes it's down at the bottom so wherever it is what you want to do is it has usually a little twist spot right here, and this is just to tighten it up. so it's really tight I've gone the wrong way. so you want to loosen that up first because it goes up and down. and then you just click on the button and you can go up as much as you need to, or you can pull it back down, but make sure once you get it in the right position you tighten this back up because a lot of times especially if it's down on the bottom, this part will slide down if it's not tight enough, and then every time you walk it goes clink clink.

so if that doesn't bother you, I guess that's fine it does okay if it's not tight, but if it's tightened up it keeps that solid and so it's nice in the solid spot and that little piece doesn't roll around. you also want to have the cane on the opposite side of the injured leg or the hurt leg. I've had a lot of comments from people saying, but I want to lean into it so why don't I put it on the same side and walk like this, and and I need that extra weight because if I do the other side it still hurts. canes are meant just for balance. if you're having to shift all your weight onto the cane, you need something more than a cane. then you probably need a walker or maybe some crutches or a double cane kind of situation because if you're not just using this for balance, then you're gonna throw your whole body posture off and then you're gonna cause yourself other problems because if I walk like this. see how I'm kind of leaning into it and I'm putting extra stress on my shoulder? my shoulders gonna start hurting. I'm not walking properly because my arm is not swinging how it's supposed to.The reason it goes on the opposite side is because that's how we walk. When we walk normally, if my left leg goes forward my right leg my right hand goes forward.