Tibialis Anterior Activation Taping

Tibialis Anterior Activation Taping is a popular and effective method of physiotherapy for treating shin pain and Achilles tendonitis, as well as improving ankle mobility, strength, and stability. This taping technique applies gentle, elastic taping to the anterior tibialis muscle to increase muscular activation and improve dynamic support. It has been used effectively to increase coordianation, proprioception, and motion in the ankle and lower leg. By targeting the tibialis

Transcript

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This is Brent of the Brookbush
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Institute at the Independent Training
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Spot, bringing you our first taping video. Now I prefer to use kinesiological
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taping to reinforce the activation techniques that I've used during that
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session, that implies that I have taping techniques for muscles with a propensity
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towards under activity. Today we're bringing you tibialis anterior taping.
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Now the tibialis anterior has a propensity towards under activity as an
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inverter of the ankle. So for those of you guys using the overhead squat
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assessment, this is all those individuals who's feet flatten, feet turnout, or have an
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excessive forward lean. I tend to use this a lot with individuals who have
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ankle, knee, hip, and even low back pathologies. Anybody who has a
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restriction in dorsiflexion that may be improved by tibialis anterior activation.
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So I'm going to have my friend Melissa come out, she's going to help me demonstrate
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this technique. It is a tricky little technique I'll tell you guys that. I went
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ahead and pre-cut my tape here, but so you guys see how I measured this out,
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this tape should, with Melissa's foot dorsiflexed and inverted, go all the way
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from the top of her tibialis anterior, all the way around the bottom of her
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foot, and then all the way hook on the edge of her lateral foot over here. So
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the path is going to be down this way, of course over the tibialis anterior tendon.
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It then, and this is just because the tape tends to unstick if we were to stop
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it there, which I know is the insertion of the tibialis anterior. We
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need to go all the way across the bottom of the foot, and hook it around here. So
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it will stay for a couple days, and give us that that improvement in carryover
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that we're looking for. Now I did round the edges of my tape right, we don't want
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any sharp corners that may tend to roll off and and and shorten the lifespan of
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the taping. The next thing we need to do is create
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an anchor, so I'll add about three centimeters. I'm just going to go ahead
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and pull the paper apart and then fold the paper back here. Now this is the
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trickiest part of tibialis anterior taping, its keeping a hold of your
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anchors and getting this first anchor at the right angle, because the tape is so
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long. So what I suggest you do is go ahead and place the tape over the
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tendon there, at the insertion of the tibialis anterior. Once you know you have
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the angle right, then set down your anchor, make sure there's no stretch on
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that anchor, we don't want it pulling it off. You're then going to keep them
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dorsiflexed, and sometimes I'll go ahead and put their foot up against my chest,
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or my thigh if I'm standing. I'm going to pull off over her tibialis anterior
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tendon, come across the bottom of her foot, try not to get too distal there
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like to come right up over the cuboid. It might be wishful thinking, but I like to
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consider that the arthrokinematic dyskinesis of the cuboid is usually
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toward medial rotation, this would be a little lateral force. Alright and then
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I'm just going to go ahead and lay the tape down
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and give it a good rub here. This is heat activated adhesive, so we want to make
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sure that it's all the way flattened down, and give a little bit of friction,
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warm it up a little bit, and then once Melissa goes into plantar flexion she
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should feel a little tug that wants her to pull back up into dorsiflexion.
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Good, and so it's just that little reminder after we've done all that
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tibialis anterior activation, that hey I want your foot here, even while she's
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sleeping, I want your foot here right, hopefully
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that keeps her out of ending up here and feeling like that's comfortable, which
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isn't going to help us get her range of motion back to normal. Now I want to show
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you guys the other leg so that you have both views.
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Be very careful where you put those scissors you guys use on this, if you
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guys are using fabric scissors they do have a tendency to be extremely sharp.
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Once again I'm going to go ahead and put her in a shortened position. Now the
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reason I put her in a shortened position guys is you notice I didn't put any
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tension in the tape, and part of that is I feel like it's a little hard to be
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consistent. I see these videos with 30%, 50%, 80% tension; how about we just put
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them in the shortest range possible and use tape off tension if our goal is
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facilitation. I think it works out very well. I have very few problems with the
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tape pulling itself off because I've applied too much tension, seem to get
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very consistent outcomes this way, good. Once again I'm going to go ahead and
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measure that angle out, put my anchor down,
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every once while your paper gets stuck back on which is a drag, but not the end
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of the world. Go ahead keep that dorsiflexed tape off tension here, all
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the way over her tibialis anterior tendon, underneath her foot. Making sure I
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don't get too distal so that I end up right over the top of her cuboid. Lay the
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tape down.
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Alright you have a little bit of friction there, make sure the adhesive
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warms up a little bit.
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Make sure it's very solid over the bottom of the foot in the edge of the
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cuboid, and if Melissa goes into plantarflexion she should notice a nice
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little pull. Guys I keep it simple when it comes to taping, you know,
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do I know everything that goes on with tape, no. I know it's fairly effective
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though. I think for the most part these facility techniques work by stretching
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the skin a little bit, activating those stretch receptors in the skin, that kind
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of give us that signal of I don't really like to be stretched that way, and
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hopefully her tibialis anterior will get a little bit of an increase in signal,
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over the course of the couple of days I'm not going to see that person after
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our session to stay active. Now safety considerations guys, this is a very
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strong adhesive on this tape, some people's skin is sensitive. If you think
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somebody has sensitive skin please be careful with taping, maybe try a test
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patch first. You know if you notice psoriasis, or dry skin, or a wound or
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maybe older brittle skin, just don't do it. And then of course when you're taking
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the tape off, please don't rip it off. If this did happen to make Melissa itch, and
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she's like I don't really like it, what I'm going to do is I'm going to brace
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the skin, I'm going to roll the corner back, I'm going to, since Melissa has shaved
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her legs here, I'm going to have to imagine the direction that her hair goes,
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right, and her hair kind of goes in this direction here. So I want to go with the
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direction of her hair, peel a little segment, come back, brace the skin again,
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peel a little segment, brace the skin again, peel a little segment, brace the
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skin, and of course this barely hurts at all. And you guys should love me for this
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little cue, because this also works for band-aids.
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There's no reasons to lose hair, all right and we can peel it all the way off.
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So there you guys go, tibialis anterior activation taping.
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Once again I do tend to use taping to
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reinforce activation techniques. I can tell you quite honestly the carryover
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I've had since using taping has been far improved, for example if I kept 50% of
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the dorsiflexion I got somebody from session to session before taping, now I'm
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keeping like 70%. Those are just made-up numbers, don't quote me on those, but you
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guys get what I'm saying. Like the carryover has been really really great,
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which has led to much faster improvements from session to session. I
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have been enjoying it very much. I will talk with you guys soon, and bring you
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guys more taping techniques.