Evidence of the Possibility to Contract the Lower Trapezius, Relaxing the Upper Trapezius, and Implications on Posture through the Use of an Innovative Mechanical Device for Physical Training

L. V. Messa, F. Barberis, C. Paradiso, S. Paddeu, S. Mardessich, U. Arrigucci, M. Bonifazi

2014

Abstract

Often, in the execution of movements involving the shoulder and the back, the predominant activity is carried out by the Upper Trapezius (UT) muscle, and in many cases this may be a risk factor for the integrity of the cervical-dorsal structures. Shoulder and neck pain could be caused by repeated and sustained work of posture muscle including Upper Trapezius (Buckle et al, 2002). Since, from previous literature, the physical exercises proposed for making the Lower Trapezius (LT) muscle to train, make the UT to work more than LT (Bandy, 2001), there was the need to create an apparatus that would involve synergistically the cervical-dorsal muscles, emphasizing in particular the activity of the LT and going to relaxing the UT, to reduce consequences of faulty posture. With the device “Angel’s Wings”, thanks to a simple distribution of vectors of forces, it is possible to isolate the LT activity from the UT. The device “Angel’s Wings”, designed and build by Eng. Luca Valerio Messa, is patented, and acts mainly on the axial muscles of the cervical-dorsal rachis, so it can correct posture of this tract. We used Surface Electromyography (Richard, 2003), Echography (Hashimoto, 1999) and Magnetic Resonance (Dziubai, 2010) to assess the activity carried out by Trapezius and the resulting benefits in a group of volunteers. The “Angel’s Wings” is already used in some physical therapy centres and gyms, and it is also used by international class swimmers of the Italian Swimming Federation. These findings are important because it was believed that the UT would have to contract higher than the LT in every physical performance or exercise. Since the use of this device is simple, the “Angel’s Wings” appears to be a useful method to reduce the problems resulting from an excessive activation of the UT and to improve the postural control.

References

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Paper Citation


in Harvard Style

Messa L., Barberis F., Paradiso C., Paddeu S., Mardessich S., Arrigucci U. and Bonifazi M. (2014). Evidence of the Possibility to Contract the Lower Trapezius, Relaxing the Upper Trapezius, and Implications on Posture through the Use of an Innovative Mechanical Device for Physical Training . In - icSPORTS, ISBN , pages 0-0


in Bibtex Style

@conference{icsports14,
author={L. V. Messa and F. Barberis and C. Paradiso and S. Paddeu and S. Mardessich and U. Arrigucci and M. Bonifazi},
title={Evidence of the Possibility to Contract the Lower Trapezius, Relaxing the Upper Trapezius, and Implications on Posture through the Use of an Innovative Mechanical Device for Physical Training},
booktitle={ - icSPORTS,},
year={2014},
pages={},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={},
isbn={},
}


in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - - icSPORTS,
TI - Evidence of the Possibility to Contract the Lower Trapezius, Relaxing the Upper Trapezius, and Implications on Posture through the Use of an Innovative Mechanical Device for Physical Training
SN -
AU - Messa L.
AU - Barberis F.
AU - Paradiso C.
AU - Paddeu S.
AU - Mardessich S.
AU - Arrigucci U.
AU - Bonifazi M.
PY - 2014
SP - 0
EP - 0
DO -