00:00:0400:00:08
This is Brent of the Brookbush Institute,
00:00:0400:00:08
bringing you more kinesiology taping
00:00:0800:00:12
videos. In this video we're doing lower trap activation, or facilitation taping.
00:00:1200:00:17
Now why would I use this taping? I would use it to number one, reinforce lower
00:00:1700:00:21
trap activation exercises done during the session. The people who would get
00:00:2100:00:26
that type of exercise for me include all of those individuals who maybe have arms
00:00:2600:00:30
fall forward, or shoulders elevate on the overhead squat assessment. If we're
00:00:3000:00:34
talking more clinically, then we're probably thinking towards scapular dyskinesis,
00:00:3400:00:40
glenohumeral pathologies, cervical spine and thoracic spine
00:00:4000:00:44
dysfunctions, lower trap activation taping might also come in. I'm going to
00:00:4400:00:47
have my friend Melissa come out, she's going to help me demonstrate this taping.
00:00:4700:00:52
And I'm glad we have a female to model for us, because although men this taping
00:00:5200:00:56
is very easy to just have them go okay, why don't you take your shirt off and
00:00:5600:01:00
let me lay down some tape, with women that becomes a little bit more of an
00:01:0000:01:04
issue. Obviously we can't just have them take shirts and tops and bras off, that
00:01:0400:01:07
that could be very uncomfortable, especially if all we're going to do is
00:01:0700:01:12
lay down some tape. There is a technique though for just moving stuff around a
00:01:1200:01:18
little bit, and then laying the tape underneath a garment like this. Now how
00:01:1800:01:23
am I going to put this tape down? Well as I've explained in other videos, I like to
00:01:2300:01:27
put the muscle in the shortest position possible, and then use tape off tension.
00:01:2700:01:32
So as opposed to the more inconsistent and a little bit more complicated, I'm
00:01:3200:01:36
going to do this with thirty percent tension, or fifty percent tension. I just
00:01:3600:01:40
go ahead and put that muscle in the shortest position and then lay down with
00:01:4000:01:44
tape off tension. How I'm going to get the lower trap in its shortest position,
00:01:4400:01:48
took a little practice, took a little experimentation, but I think I finally
00:01:4800:01:53
found something that I really like that really works. What I'm going to have Melissa
00:01:5300:01:59
do here, she's going to go into scaption, as high as she possibly can. Now what
00:01:5900:02:05
that's going to do is force upward rotation of her scapula, which is going
00:02:0500:02:09
to shorten my lower trap a little bit. Now we have to be careful that she
00:02:0900:02:14
doesn't do this, right we go arms up. A lot of people will do this elevation
00:02:1400:02:17
thing, which then lengthens my lower trap again.
00:02:1700:02:21
So I'm gonna have you start over for me Melissa. What I usually tell people to do is
00:02:2100:02:27
go, okay arms up, and then I want you to depress, pull down as far as you can, you
00:02:2700:02:31
can even give me a little chest up, a little bit of thoracic extension, that
00:02:3100:02:35
will help shorten the lower traps a little bit more. Now I've already pre-cut
00:02:3500:02:40
my pieces of tape here, and for Melissa we have just over four blocks. So I would
00:02:4000:02:46
find that four to five blocks with the tape usually works out, and what we're
00:02:4600:02:53
going to try to do is tape from this proximal portion of the spine of the
00:02:5300:02:58
scapula, or the root of the spine of the scapula, all all the way down to T12,
00:02:5800:03:03
which of course is the vertebrae that her last rib attaches to. I'm going to
00:03:0300:03:11
pull off my anchor here. I got about an inch there, two, maybe three centimeters.
00:03:1100:03:18
Alright the anchor gets absolutely no tension whatsoever. We want to just stick
00:03:1800:03:29
it on nice and flat, no tension. Tension on your anchors will pull the tape off
00:03:2900:03:34
faster than if we have no tension at our anchors, and then what I'm going to do,
00:03:3400:03:38
you guys can see here kind of have her arm braced up, and I'm kind of keeping
00:03:3800:03:43
her in depression while I hold this anchor down. Is I'm going to go tape off, and
00:03:4300:03:47
once i get to her sports bra i might bunch it up a little bit, so i don't have
00:03:4700:03:53
to go through as much. I'm going to grab that paper that is coming off the end of
00:03:5300:04:03
the tape there, i'm going to pull the paper all the way through, and voila, that
00:04:0300:04:09
lays down the tape. You guys catch that, it's like a little magic trick. Alright
00:04:0900:04:14
go ahead and put your arms down, how's that feel? Yeah so Melissa can feel this
00:04:1400:04:21
pulling her scapula into kind of like posterior tipping really, as she goes to
00:04:2100:04:25
raise her arm though, it'll definitely help cue a little bit more lower trap activity,
00:04:2500:04:29
get more upward rotation without that compensatory
00:04:2900:04:33
elevation we see in upper body dysfunction. I'm going to go ahead and do
00:04:3300:04:37
the other side. Let me have you take a step towards me just so you guys can see
00:04:3700:04:45
this again. Alright so I'm going to have Melissa arms up and down, good, rip off my
00:04:4500:04:50
anchor here. I'm going to palpate that proximal portion of the spine of the
00:04:5000:04:57
scapula, that would be the insertion of the lower trap. I'm just going to lay
00:04:5700:05:04
down my anchor, no tension. Alright then I kind of showed you guys that bracing
00:05:0400:05:07
technique. I kind of use my shoulder to keep her arm up, and I use the weight of
00:05:0700:05:12
this arm to keep your shoulder down in depression. Let me go ahead and tape
00:05:1200:05:18
off tension. Bunch up her sports bra a little bit, get that little piece of
00:05:1800:05:27
paper end underneath the sports bra there, and pull all the way through.
00:05:3000:05:40
So you can see where the lower corners go, right down to about T12. Go
00:05:4000:05:45
ahead and cover that back up. You guys can see how this goes right into the
00:05:4500:05:49
insertions of lower traps, and when she puts her arms down she should feel
00:05:4900:05:53
almost like she's getting a little reminder to stay in a really good
00:05:5300:06:00
posture. Thank you Melissa. So there you go, lower trap activation or facilitation
00:06:0000:06:04
taping. And once again I would use this to reinforce lower trap activation
00:06:0400:06:10
exercises done in the session. I use taping personally to help reinforce
00:06:1000:06:17
activity, and to improve carryover. As I was discussing here with Melissa, she
00:06:1700:06:21
feels like she's getting that little reminder to stay in good posture. My hope
00:06:2100:06:25
is, is that reminder to stay in good posture, that's that little stretch on
00:06:2500:06:30
the skin is telling her to continually fire her lower traps a little bit, which
00:06:3000:06:35
means more signal, more activity from the lower traps over time. Which hopefully
00:06:3500:06:40
means stronger, more active lower traps, and a return to optimal
00:06:4000:06:44
movement patterns faster, because we will have greater session to session
00:06:4400:06:49
carryover. I hope you guys enjoyed this technique, I'll talk with you soon.