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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
1
, F. Barberis
2
, C. Paradiso
3
, S. Paddeu
4
, S. Mardessich
5
, U. Arrigucci
6
and M. Bonifazi
7,8
1
Biomedical Engineer, Siena, Italy
2
Assistant Professor, DICCA, Faculty of Engineering, Genova, Italy
3
Neurophysiologist MD, Grosseto, Italy
4
R&D Programs - ESAOTE S.p.A., Genova, Italy
5
US Product Planning - ESAOTE S.p.A., Genova, Italy
6
U.O.C. - NINT, AOUS, Siena, Italy
7
Associate Professor of Physiology, Department of Medicine, Surgery and Neuroscience, University of Siena, Siena, Italy
8
Technical Coordinator of the Scientific Studies and Research, Centre of the Italian Swimming Federation, Siena, Italy
1 OBJECTIVES
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.
2 METHODS
The aim of the Angel’s Wings device (Fig.1) is the
distension of the cervical-dorsal spine, with
contemporary rehabilitation of the shoulder joint
position in its natural seat, rather than rotated
forward.
Figure 1: Angel’s Wings; Fig.2: Schematic front view of
the apparatus with the representation of the motory task
respectively to the starting position (2a) and distension
(2b).
The execution of the task is outlined in Figures
2a and 2b: starting from a seated position (2a) each
of the participants were required to extend the arms
(2b), keeping elbows at shoulder height, to lift a
weight through the cables of the equipment. The
weight lifted was in a range between 6 and 8 kg.
Thus, in the dynamic phase, were examined with
sEMG of Trapezius muscle 9 healthy volunteers (6
M, 3 F, 22-64 y) using electromyography Medelec
Sapphyre 1P. Subsequently, 6 healthy volunteers
Messa L., Barberis F., Paradiso C., Paddeu S., Mardessich S., Arrigucci U. and Bonifazi M..
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.
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c
2014 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)