0:04 This is Brent of the Brookbush Institute, bringing you more kinesiology taping 0:08 videos. In this video we're doing lower trap activation, or facilitation taping. 0:12 Now why would I use this taping? I would use it to number one, reinforce lower 0:17 trap activation exercises done during the session. The people who would get 0:21 that type of exercise for me include all of those individuals who maybe have arms 0:26 fall forward, or shoulders elevate on the overhead squat assessment. If we're 0:30 talking more clinically, then we're probably thinking towards scapular dyskinesis, 0:34 glenohumeral pathologies, cervical spine and thoracic spine 0:40 dysfunctions, lower trap activation taping might also come in. I'm going to 0:44 have my friend Melissa come out, she's going to help me demonstrate this taping. 0:47 And I'm glad we have a female to model for us, because although men this taping 0:52 is very easy to just have them go okay, why don't you take your shirt off and 0:56 let me lay down some tape, with women that becomes a little bit more of an 1:00 issue. Obviously we can't just have them take shirts and tops and bras off, that 1:04 that could be very uncomfortable, especially if all we're going to do is 1:07 lay down some tape. There is a technique though for just moving stuff around a 1:12 little bit, and then laying the tape underneath a garment like this. Now how 1:18 am I going to put this tape down? Well as I've explained in other videos, I like to 1:23 put the muscle in the shortest position possible, and then use tape off tension. 1:27 So as opposed to the more inconsistent and a little bit more complicated, I'm 1:32 going to do this with thirty percent tension, or fifty percent tension. I just 1:36 go ahead and put that muscle in the shortest position and then lay down with 1:40 tape off tension. How I'm going to get the lower trap in its shortest position, 1:44 took a little practice, took a little experimentation, but I think I finally 1:48 found something that I really like that really works. What I'm going to have Melissa 1:53 do here, she's going to go into scaption, as high as she possibly can. Now what 1:59 that's going to do is force upward rotation of her scapula, which is going 2:05 to shorten my lower trap a little bit. Now we have to be careful that she 2:09 doesn't do this, right we go arms up. A lot of people will do this elevation 2:14 thing, which then lengthens my lower trap again. 2:17 So I'm gonna have you start over for me Melissa. What I usually tell people to do is 2:21 go, okay arms up, and then I want you to depress, pull down as far as you can, you 2:27 can even give me a little chest up, a little bit of thoracic extension, that 2:31 will help shorten the lower traps a little bit more. Now I've already pre-cut 2:35 my pieces of tape here, and for Melissa we have just over four blocks. So I would 2:40 find that four to five blocks with the tape usually works out, and what we're 2:46 going to try to do is tape from this proximal portion of the spine of the 2:53 scapula, or the root of the spine of the scapula, all all the way down to T12, 2:58 which of course is the vertebrae that her last rib attaches to. I'm going to 3:03 pull off my anchor here. I got about an inch there, two, maybe three centimeters. 3:11 Alright the anchor gets absolutely no tension whatsoever. We want to just stick 3:18 it on nice and flat, no tension. Tension on your anchors will pull the tape off 3:29 faster than if we have no tension at our anchors, and then what I'm going to do, 3:34 you guys can see here kind of have her arm braced up, and I'm kind of keeping 3:38 her in depression while I hold this anchor down. Is I'm going to go tape off, and 3:43 once i get to her sports bra i might bunch it up a little bit, so i don't have 3:47 to go through as much. I'm going to grab that paper that is coming off the end of 3:53 the tape there, i'm going to pull the paper all the way through, and voila, that 4:03 lays down the tape. You guys catch that, it's like a little magic trick. Alright 4:09 go ahead and put your arms down, how's that feel? Yeah so Melissa can feel this 4:14 pulling her scapula into kind of like posterior tipping really, as she goes to 4:21 raise her arm though, it'll definitely help cue a little bit more lower trap activity, 4:25 get more upward rotation without that compensatory 4:29 elevation we see in upper body dysfunction. I'm going to go ahead and do 4:33 the other side. Let me have you take a step towards me just so you guys can see 4:37 this again. Alright so I'm going to have Melissa arms up and down, good, rip off my 4:45 anchor here. I'm going to palpate that proximal portion of the spine of the 4:50 scapula, that would be the insertion of the lower trap. I'm just going to lay 4:57 down my anchor, no tension. Alright then I kind of showed you guys that bracing 5:04 technique. I kind of use my shoulder to keep her arm up, and I use the weight of 5:07 this arm to keep your shoulder down in depression. Let me go ahead and tape 5:12 off tension. Bunch up her sports bra a little bit, get that little piece of 5:18 paper end underneath the sports bra there, and pull all the way through. 5:30 So you can see where the lower corners go, right down to about T12. Go 5:40 ahead and cover that back up. You guys can see how this goes right into the 5:45 insertions of lower traps, and when she puts her arms down she should feel 5:49 almost like she's getting a little reminder to stay in a really good 5:53 posture. Thank you Melissa. So there you go, lower trap activation or facilitation 6:00 taping. And once again I would use this to reinforce lower trap activation 6:04 exercises done in the session. I use taping personally to help reinforce 6:10 activity, and to improve carryover. As I was discussing here with Melissa, she 6:17 feels like she's getting that little reminder to stay in good posture. My hope 6:21 is, is that reminder to stay in good posture, that's that little stretch on 6:25 the skin is telling her to continually fire her lower traps a little bit, which 6:30 means more signal, more activity from the lower traps over time. Which hopefully 6:35 means stronger, more active lower traps, and a return to optimal 6:40 movement patterns faster, because we will have greater session to session 6:44 carryover. I hope you guys enjoyed this technique, I'll talk with you soon. 6:55
