Trapezius Reactive Activation

Trapezius Reactive Activation is a type of rehabilitation exercise designed to target and activate the muscle fibers of the trapezius muscle. This exercise involves actively engaging the trapezius by performing specific isometric holds, resisted movement patterns, and/or loaded movements that allow for full range of motion providing both a strength and stabilization benefit. This exercise can be used to improve musculoskeletal stability, posture and muscular coordination for healthy individuals or for those recovering from injury.

Transcript

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This is Brent, President of B2C Fitness, and
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we're doing reactive integration
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exercises, these are those exercises designed to increase the firing rate at
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which our under active muscles fire. So, in this video, we're specifically talking
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about the traps, as upward rotators of the scapula, as well as our external
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rotators, being our infraspinatus and teres minor. This is a tricky exercise,
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this is not an exercise you're just going to throw at anyone. In
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fact, I would consider this reactive integration exercise, probably, the last
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of our upper body reactive integration exercises, within a progression of
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exercises. I'd probably start with that serratus anterior activation from the
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serratus anterior reactive activation video we did before, as well as the
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external rotator reactive integration with the body blade, before I went on to
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this exercise. I'm going to have my buddy, Mike, come out and help me demonstrate this
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exercise, and show you where the complications come in. It works great
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for our athletes. Go ahead and get down, knees on Airex pads. Now, the Airex pads
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are just there to have a nice soft surface for his knees to contact with, so
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we don't rub his knees into a hardwood floor. I'm going to make sure he's drawn
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in, glutes are tight. What Mike is going to do, is a PNF carry away pattern. Of
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course, he's going to have to catch this medicine ball while he does it, but first,
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I'm going to have to demonstrate what that PNF pattern is going to look like. He's
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going to start in the fully extended position here, so abduction of the
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shoulder, horizontal abduction of the shoulder, external rotation. I'm going to
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make sure his scapula is in a good position, the way I'm going to do that is
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have him go down, and back, with the scapular depression and retraction. His
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arm, in this position, with his shoulder blades down and back, will force upward
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rotation. This is important for the exercise that we're about to do, because
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now I know his traps are active here. I'm then going to have him catch a ball
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overhand, I'm going to throw it this way, he's going to catch, decelerate that ball down
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toward his opposite hip, so now that's adduction and
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internal rotation, as well as keep his nice, scapular position, which more than
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anything means, I don't want to see him go here. I don't want to see elevation. I
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want to keep his head mechanics good, so he's going to try to keep his head up
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as much as he can, allowing him enough head movement so he can watch the ball.
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He's then going to go back into our PNF carry away, so external rotation and
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abduction, throwing the ball back to me. What that's going to look like, is
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kind of like an exaggerated finger roll layup, so he's going to lay the ball up
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to me, and then I'm going to throw back. He's going to catch, decelerate, keeping good
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mechanics, and then just throw back. As you can see, just being able to catch a
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medicine ball, this is going to be fairly challenging, and that's where the
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progression of this exercise comes in, it being one of your final progressions.
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Now, the medicine ball we're using, is a small sand-filled medicine ball. Mike is
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a fairly large guy, a very good athlete, so this is 4 pounds and softball sized, this
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is going to work for Mike. I'd probably start with a two-pound baseball sized
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ball, if I was doing this for the first time with somebody. So, I'm going to have Mike
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start in this PNF carry away position, I'm then going to stand here, at his side, so
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he can still see the ball, and I'm going to throw it across his body. He's going to
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catch it overhand, decelerate and throw it right back in that layup that we
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were talking about. Notice he kept very good posture here. So, decelerate, and
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lay up. Watch that you don't elevate at the last minute, alright. Glutes tight,
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abs tight, good. Shoulders down, great. You guys are going to do 10 to 20 repetitions,
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one to three sets, and once again, this comes after our release and stretching,
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our isolated activation, we're then going to do our
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reactive activation, and some sort of whole body, or subsystem integration exercise. I
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hope you enjoy this exercise, it's a tough one. How does your rotator cuff