Spilling Over: Classic Movement Compensations Revealed

3 Planes of Movement 

     It is difficult for me to frequent establishments that house a great deal of people like Malls, Amusement Parks, and Sporting Events. The reason is I have an untreatable and debilitating disease called "movement watcher syndrome". I can't help watching people move, or not move better yet. Curiously though I am noticing trends that somewhat simplify the obscurity associated with objectifying human movement.

     Classically, we are trained to evaluate joint movement, muscle pliability, and if you are a movement geek, like myself, you may even assess one's fascial function as a whole unit. These are all suitable and accepted means of critically breaking down biomechanical faults to provide us with some clarity on the next step in correcting any faults. To be honest, I have been a proponent of all of the above, isolating when necessary, integrating when appropriate, and a combination of the both. Just recently, I analyzed my methodology with a wider lens and as a friend and colleague of mine often says, I took a 30,000 foot view of the problem. By doing so, I expanded my reach even more than even the generalists. Rather than looking at muscles/joints, or chains of muscles and joints, I started to move away from dissecting the body and began to dissect movement. Being the simple mind that I am, I just attempted to break movement down into its pieces and came up with a method to the madness, at least for me. Every movement has three distinct patterns, sometimes used in isolation, but most often a collaboration that produces efficient and fluid synergies. The patterns I am alluding to are the sagittal, frontal, and transverse planes of movement. Breakdown walking and you will be able to identify the dominant sagittal plane pattern with a contribution of the frontal and transverse systems. You can do this with any movement you are interested in from cycling to swimming, identify the most efficient pattern to be able to use as a standard and then it to effectively and efficiently evaluate dysfunctional patterns. I typically look for dysfunctional movements that spill over into secondary and tertiary planes away from the dominant pattern. For example, a squat predominantly plays in the sagittal plane with contributions from the frontal and transverse patterns. If I assess a squat that continually spills into one or both of the latter two planes, I have a plan of action to take. First, place the individual in the most appropriate environment to be successful in acquiring the balance between establishing the dominant plane of movement while controlling the other two. In respect to the squat, I may regress them to a supported squat (using a Theraband) and coach them to keep sagittal plane control while resisting the frontal and transverse plane spillage. The cool thing is when you address the planar faults, you also effect the muscle, joint, and biomechanical dysfunctions as well. How cool is that? Granted, there may be some need for other forms of treatment/correction like flossing, rolling, and mobilizing, but movement correction is the currency the brain understands so why not start there.

Planar Dysfunction Evaluation

     At Rock Tape, we also take this approach in our movement assessment component of our FMT curriculum. We look for spillage into patterns (planes) of dysfunction associated with the respective movement and tape the nervous system to communicate the fault in order to make the appropriate and immediate adjustment. Train the brain, via the skin, and good things happen. To groove the pattern, take the sensory rich (Rock Tape) athlete into the gym and make them repeat the corrective exercise of choice with the minimally effective dose (MED). Its that simple. Well, not really.

Off to the Mall. Wish me Luck.

Capo's two pennies.

CrossFit/Rock Tape Phenomenon

   

CrossFit (CF) has witnessed a significant boom in popularity in the past 4-5 years with no end in sight in my opinion. As stated by the CF family themselves "the needs of the Olympic athletes and our grandparents differ in degree, not in kind". This means that the movements required by both communities are similar (squat, step, walk, pull, push climb, lunge) but are accomplished with different intensities. We at Rock Tape resonate with this mindset and were immediately attracted to the CF philosophy. To that end, we are celebrating our 5th anniversary with CrossFit and are committed to the same goal of preparing our bodies to move more effectively and efficiently.

     Go to any CF box or competition (Open, Regionals, Games) and you will quickly recognize that these athletes LOVE Rock Tape. The question that arises is why are they wearing it? Let me answer that question by describing how Rock Tape works and why that may benefit those involved with "constantly varied, high intensity functional movements".

     There are 3 main effects of kinesiology tape on human movement. First it has the ability to mitigate pain. In plain English, it makes the uncomfortable more bearable. It is well understood that pain interferes with motor control (performance), thus it only makes sense to find a way that is safe and effective to mitigate, not mask, the symptoms in order to allow for optimal movement integrity. Secondly, Rock Tape has the ability to improve fluid dynamics to positively effect performance both during and after activity. If anybody has experienced the pump effect associated with a workout like "Fran"you will understand the importance of moving fluid, both in the vascular and lymph system, out of an area of congestion. Last but definitely not least, the benefit of taping to improve postural awareness is paramount in CrossFit (http://rocktapology.blogspot.com/2014/05/hacking-into-braincpu.html). By stimulating the vast network of mechano-receoptors in the skin we can enhance the communication of body position, from a set up position before a dead lift to a finish position of a power snatch, to the brain in order to efficiently coordinate the appropriate movement patterns necessary to accomplish the task effectively and safely. This is where the marriage of Rock Tape and CrossFit was consummated. Be sure to keep an eye out for this colorful tape at the Games this month and challenge yourself to figure out what the application role was, from pain mitigation, fluid control, or postural correction. 

Dr. Capo's 2 Pennies.


Steven Capobianco
Taping Movement, not Muscles.
www.rocktape.com

Scar Taping - Skin and Fascia

     The human skin is a fascinating organ that is the canvas we use, as Rock Tape Docs, to change human movement. Derived from the ectoderm, the skin acting as one of the largest organs in the body is constantly interacting with the outside environment, communicating changes directly to the central and peripheral nervous system.

     In respect to movement, the skin is critical in the process of maintaining postural control via exteroceptors that monitor minute changes in position in order to make appropriate and timely corrections. The information, in respect to movement, is transmitted via tension of the skin stimulating a neurological cascade of responses.
What if the skin matrix is disrupted? What if the tension is not able to be distributed evenlythus communicating aberrant information to the brain in respect to body position? Scars, from trauma and surgery can disrupt the pristine orientation of the skin and create islands of chaos that can contribute to movement dysfunction. Bordoni and Zanier (2013) communicated this scenario on how scars can amplifying symptomatology /dysfunction globally due to abnormal mobility neurological circuitry. They discussed how mechanical forces are perceived by the brain via two main skin receptors, true mechanoreceptors and motion sensitive nociceptors. Both relay information about movement and can be significantly affected by scars. The authors showed how a scar to the ankle can disrupt the communication, both mechanically and neurologically, to the rest of the kinetic chain following a fascial pattern. The scar, reducing normal motion of the ankle, will translate incorrect information to the brain thus interfering with the appropriate reaction of the Gluteus Maximus during stance phase leading to undue stress to the thoracolumbar fascia, potentially causing pain. This trickle up effect of a scar is not uncommon and conveys a message that a distant restriction in movement due to an adhesion can create a global dysfunction leading to common musculoskeletal disorders.

Fascial Chain - Ankle to Spine Connection

I took a keen interest in the authors depiction of the role of the skin in the comment "the skin and the fascia represent the skeletal framework of the nervous system". Moral of the story is that to effectively evaluate movement/pain disorders, it is imperative that we assess scar sensitivity and mobility.
    Here we insert Rock Tape. By using elastic therapeutic tape to manually and neurologically effect scar mobility and sensitivity we believe we can start the process of minimizing the negative effects of these islands of disruption on movement/pain disorders. Go to www.rocktape.com for more information on scar taping and the Fascial Movement Taping series.

Reference: Steven Middleton (Assess, Treat, and Condition)

Dr. Capo's 2 Pennies.

Hacking into the Brain/CPU

     Sometimes complex concepts need complex explanations. Not in this case. You would think that understanding things like neurology, fascial anatomy, kinesiology and movement would be over the top. Well, the art of simplifying a complex concept into useable information is an art form that we are working on with Rock Tape. The concept of "skintelligence" may in fact be a way of simplifying the effects of taping the skin to hack the human brain. Utilizing a recognizable metaphor of a computer system we can begin to obtain a better understanding of how taping works. First of all, embryologically the skin the brain are intimately connected, similar to a keyboard that is connected to its central processing unit (CPU).

     Ultimately, whatever we do to the skin (keyboard) communicates the message to the brain (CPU). Once we decide which code we are looking to send to the system (CPU/Brain), we can begin to re-write the faulty software. Most of us need to reboot and upgrade our software affected my movement glitches leading us down the path to dysfunction and disease. Via taping, we are tapping into a network of cutaneous (skin) receptors that are accessible and sensitive to manipulation (taping), transmitting fast traveling messages to the cortex for interpretation. By continually stimulating the brain (3-5 days with Rock Tape) we can begin the process of plastically rerouting the dysfunctional pathways in the brain and laying down the foundation for new, and improved, software towards movement efficiency.
Want further info about how to best apply tape to change movement dysfunction, contact us at www.rocktape.com.

My 2 pennies,

Dr. Capo

Human Antennae - How we sense the world around us

Anthropod Antennae 

Historically, anthropods (invertebrate animals) have antennae to help sense the world around them. They typically project forward from the head to be able to act as chemo, thermo, and mechanoreceptors, providing information of their local environment.

Recent research is suggesting that we too, as humans, have antennae that interact with our environment. The only difference is that our antennae are masked within our largest organ of the body, the skin. More specifically, within the skin of our feet and hands. They can be considered our feelers.

Hennig & Sterzing reported in a 2009 study that the mechanoreceptors in the skin provide the brain with sensory input of foot placement and loading. In essence acting as an antenna to communicate with the brain to aid in the balancing act of human locomotion.

Homunculus

If we look at the Homunculus, a depiction of how the brain maps different parts of our body, you can't help to notice that certain regions have larger representations within our cortex. The sense of touch really stands apart from other senses in our opinion. Its not localized in specialized organs like the eyes but spans the entire surface of the body.

Rock Tape for Short Foot Posture

At Rock Tape, we believe that we can tap into this sensory rich organ and optimize the information provided to the brain. By adding another stimulus, via taping of foot baroreceptors, the brain is bathed with added sensory information that can augment our postural response to any environment challenge. A suggested application is taping the foot to reinforce the short foot position, popularized by Dr. V. Janda. This can enhance our foots potential to perceive the ground we walk on. We think of it as providing the human body with superhuman antennae that will serve us well in the journey of bettering ourselves in the dance of human movement.

Dr. Capo's 2 Pennies

References:

Hennig, EM & Sterzing, TS. Sensitivity Mapping of the Human Foot: Threshold at 30 Skin Locations. Foot and Ankle International, Oct 2009, Vol 30, No 10, 986-98.

Taping to Correct Mismatch Syndrome

Some of the more exciting information we are learning about chronic pain is revolving around how we communicate with the brain. The "mismatch theory" states that those with chronic pain have a discrepancy between what the brain's image of the body part is interpreted as versus the physical body part itself. More importantly, this mismatch has been shown to perpetuate pain in this population.

A new course of treatment is showing some success by training the brain vs treating the physical body part. By reconnecting our brain maps to the affected region of the body via tactile stimuli (touch) it has been shown to improve the brains interpretation of the area and reduce overall pain.
Some of the targeted communities with this mismatch syndrome are those affected by Phantom Limb Pain, Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) and Chronic Lower Back Pain.
Some preliminary data (Moseley, Flor, Wand) indicate that using sensory discrimination stimuli to the above population can be effective in reducing pain and promotes less therapist-patient interaction.

Within our education model, Rock Tape has introduced the idea of brain training (peripheral neuroplasticity) as a theoretical construct on how kinesiology taping has an effect on pain, posture, and athletic performance.
By reconnecting the brain to the body via cutaneous (skin) stimulation, we can effectively address common mismatch syndromes and enhance human performance. In addition, the application of Rock Tape has a continuous tactile stimulating effect for 3-5 days without therapist involvement. What a great, cost effective, modality to employ in practice.

For more information go to www.rocktape.com

Dr. Capo's 2 pennies.

Reference:

BodyinMind.org

http://www.bodyinmind.org/tactile-acuity-training-and-back-pain/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+com%2FiUuh+%28Body+in+Mind%29&utm_content=FeedBurner

Rocktapology

What does it feel like to practice with a big  bulls eye on your back. Exhilarating!

www.rocktape.com

I'll tell you why. For the past 5 years I've embarked on a journey with Rock Tape, a small and ever growing kinesiology taping company from Los Gatos, CA. The experience has exceeded my expectations in so many ways. It has challenged me to stand behind my beliefs regardless of the backlash from my colleagues that discredit its effectiveness. More importantly, it has motivated me to expand my knowledge of the human body and movement.

We have developed a product that stands alone in the market in quality and service. I have been blessed to work along Greg van den Dries and Dr. Justin Brink to develop the Fascial Movement Taping model based on enhancing movement via skin stimulation. The model has grown with an army of input from our world wide network of Rock Tape Docs. A true example of open source education.

We strive to continually expand the understanding of what a product like this can provide and will not rest until we gain the confidence and trust of all those that service people with movement impairment.

At the end of the day, Rock Tape and its community driven mantra of move better and move often is going to take hold as a mainstream philosophy. In the meantime, I'm enjoying the ride.

FYI - MY FIRST BLOG.....