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