Lower Trapezius Activation Taping

Lower Trapezius Activation Taping is a technique used to target and activate the lower trapezius muscle, located in the posterior upper back, near the spine. The muscle is used to extend and rotate the shoulder, as well as provide support during postural activities. During the taping process a structured tape is placed along the spine and lower trap area to provide the best stabilization and support. The result is increased musculoskeletal support, improved postural alignment, decreased pain

Trapezius Activation

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This is Brent of the Brookbush Institute,

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bringing you more kinesiology taping

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videos. In this video we're doing lower trap activation, or facilitation taping.

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Now why would I use this taping? I would use it to number one, reinforce lower

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trap activation exercises done during the session. The people who would get

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that type of exercise for me include all of those individuals who maybe have arms

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fall forward, or shoulders elevate on the overhead squat assessment. If we're

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talking more clinically, then we're probably thinking towards scapular dyskinesis,

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glenohumeral pathologies, cervical spine and thoracic spine

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dysfunctions, lower trap activation taping might also come in. I'm going to

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have my friend Melissa come out, she's going to help me demonstrate this taping.

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And I'm glad we have a female to model for us, because although men this taping

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is very easy to just have them go okay, why don't you take your shirt off and

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let me lay down some tape, with women that becomes a little bit more of an

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issue. Obviously we can't just have them take shirts and tops and bras off, that

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that could be very uncomfortable, especially if all we're going to do is

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lay down some tape. There is a technique though for just moving stuff around a

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little bit, and then laying the tape underneath a garment like this. Now how

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am I going to put this tape down? Well as I've explained in other videos, I like to

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put the muscle in the shortest position possible, and then use tape off tension.

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So as opposed to the more inconsistent and a little bit more complicated, I'm

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going to do this with thirty percent tension, or fifty percent tension. I just

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go ahead and put that muscle in the shortest position and then lay down with

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tape off tension. How I'm going to get the lower trap in its shortest position,

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took a little practice, took a little experimentation, but I think I finally

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found something that I really like that really works. What I'm going to have Melissa

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do here, she's going to go into scaption, as high as she possibly can. Now what

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that's going to do is force upward rotation of her scapula, which is going

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to shorten my lower trap a little bit. Now we have to be careful that she

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doesn't do this, right we go arms up. A lot of people will do this elevation

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thing, which then lengthens my lower trap again.

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So I'm gonna have you start over for me Melissa. What I usually tell people to do is

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go, okay arms up, and then I want you to depress, pull down as far as you can, you

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can even give me a little chest up, a little bit of thoracic extension, that

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will help shorten the lower traps a little bit more. Now I've already pre-cut

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my pieces of tape here, and for Melissa we have just over four blocks. So I would

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find that four to five blocks with the tape usually works out, and what we're

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going to try to do is tape from this proximal portion of the spine of the

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scapula, or the root of the spine of the scapula, all all the way down to T12,

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which of course is the vertebrae that her last rib attaches to. I'm going to

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pull off my anchor here. I got about an inch there, two, maybe three centimeters.

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Alright the anchor gets absolutely no tension whatsoever. We want to just stick

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it on nice and flat, no tension. Tension on your anchors will pull the tape off

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faster than if we have no tension at our anchors, and then what I'm going to do,

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you guys can see here kind of have her arm braced up, and I'm kind of keeping

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her in depression while I hold this anchor down. Is I'm going to go tape off, and

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once i get to her sports bra i might bunch it up a little bit, so i don't have

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to go through as much. I'm going to grab that paper that is coming off the end of

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the tape there, i'm going to pull the paper all the way through, and voila, that

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lays down the tape. You guys catch that, it's like a little magic trick. Alright

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go ahead and put your arms down, how's that feel? Yeah so Melissa can feel this

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pulling her scapula into kind of like posterior tipping really, as she goes to

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raise her arm though, it'll definitely help cue a little bit more lower trap activity,

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get more upward rotation without that compensatory

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elevation we see in upper body dysfunction. I'm going to go ahead and do

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the other side. Let me have you take a step towards me just so you guys can see

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this again. Alright so I'm going to have Melissa arms up and down, good, rip off my

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anchor here. I'm going to palpate that proximal portion of the spine of the

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scapula, that would be the insertion of the lower trap. I'm just going to lay

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down my anchor, no tension. Alright then I kind of showed you guys that bracing

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technique. I kind of use my shoulder to keep her arm up, and I use the weight of

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this arm to keep your shoulder down in depression. Let me go ahead and tape

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off tension. Bunch up her sports bra a little bit, get that little piece of

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paper end underneath the sports bra there, and pull all the way through.

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So you can see where the lower corners go, right down to about T12. Go

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ahead and cover that back up. You guys can see how this goes right into the

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insertions of lower traps, and when she puts her arms down she should feel

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almost like she's getting a little reminder to stay in a really good

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posture. Thank you Melissa. So there you go, lower trap activation or facilitation

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taping. And once again I would use this to reinforce lower trap activation

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exercises done in the session. I use taping personally to help reinforce

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activity, and to improve carryover. As I was discussing here with Melissa, she

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feels like she's getting that little reminder to stay in good posture. My hope

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is, is that reminder to stay in good posture, that's that little stretch on

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the skin is telling her to continually fire her lower traps a little bit, which

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means more signal, more activity from the lower traps over time. Which hopefully

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means stronger, more active lower traps, and a return to optimal

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movement patterns faster, because we will have greater session to session

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carryover. I hope you guys enjoyed this technique, I'll talk with you soon.

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Lower Trapezius Activation Taping

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Lower Trapezius Activation Taping

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