Physical Therapist Tools

Video Transcript

"In physical therapy we use a lot of different tools. These tools range from exercise equipment to machines that help with modalities, which means heat and ice, and ultrasound. For example, we have the electrical stimulation machine right here, and also ultrasound. Those are some tools that we use. We use different tools for measuring joints. They come in different sizes. And these are called goniometers. There's--I have three different types here. We also have a different tool to use to measure the joints in the back and the neck, and they're called inclinometers. This is a specific goniometer for hand and fingers. Makes it a little easier to do the measurement. We have reflex hammers if we need to check reflexes. Those are some of the measuring devices that we have. We use tape measures to measure the girth of a joint that might have swelling, or that might have atrophy, which is the wasting away of the muscles, and that happens a lot with surgical patients. Different exercise equipment--we use Thera-band tubing. It comes in different resistances and colors. Blue, in this case, is harder than the green. Harder to do, because of more resistance. We use dumb bells of various sizes. These are just five pound dumb bells, but we range anywhere from two pounds up to a hundred pounds. We use ankle weights, and these can be put on the wrists or the ankles for various exercises that we do. Something different that I've found is that we have marbles, and we have people kick them up with their toes if they've had a foot or an ankle problem and they've been in a cast for awhile, we want their toes to work correctly. And so that's something different that we've done here. This is a power web. It's used for hand problems--different exercise equipment. We use sports logs. It works on some strengthening exercise for wrists. We also use this plexi-glass with a towel and it is used for the ankle and the foot, where you pull the towel from side to side and do various things there. We use Swiss balls, or therapy balls, or physio balls. They have a lot of different names for them. And that's for core strengthening for the lumbar spine, usually, but we use it for many different activities of the shoulder and the legs, and also the trunk. Down here in front of me, we use a wobble board. And I just made this one, but it's used for balance for ankles and knee problems. We also use a BAPS board. And I made this one too. And it has a round bottom, and so it decreases the stability, so it works on the balance. We have other chords that we use for knee exercises or leg exercises that we've hooked in different places, and we also have a gym that has treadmills, recumbent bicycles, elliptical machines, and a plethora of other exercise machines that we can use with various exercises."