Many of you will have noticed the number of athletes competing in the Beijing Olympics covered in strips of brightly coloured tape. What was it for? Is it just a new fad which will have disappeared by the time the London Olympics roll around? Could it help you or is it the preserve of the elite?

According to Lance Armstrong in his book "Every Second Counts", "...[the team chiropractor] had something that was better than any laser, wrap, or electric massager. He had The Tape. It was a special hot pink athletic tape that came from Japan and seemed to have special powers...It could seriously fix things."

Kinesio Taping was a technique developed by Dr. Kenzo Kase in the 70s. Kase claimed that it had four effects: to normalize muscular function, to increase lymphatic and vascular flow, to diminish pain and help reduce joint instability.

Research has shown that kinesiotape properly applied can help with increasing pain-free shoulder movement and also reduce knee pain. “Runners knee” or patella-femoral pain syndrome (PFPS) is something many athletes are familiar with and is often due to an imbalance of the muscles surrounding the knee. Research has found that Kinesiotape can cause the parts of the muscle to which it’s applied to fire earlier, thereby reducing the imbalance.

Kinesiotape is a cotton/acrylic blend tape which is water resistant and so last for a number of days once applied. It is not rigid like traditional tape and hence still allows the joint movement within a supportive environment and for blood to flow freely around the area – no more blue toes!

This tape forms a great complement to chiropractic care of sports men and women.

Kase et al., 1996 K. Kase, H. Tatsuyuki and O. Tomoko, Development of kinesio tape. Kinesio taping perfect manual, Kinesio Taping Association 6-10 (1996), pp. p117–118.

REFERENCES

CHEN, W., HONG, W., HUANG, TF, HSU, H., 2007. Effects of kinesio taping on the timing and ratio of vastus medialis obliquus and vastus lateralis muscle for person with patellofemoral pain. J Biomechanics, 40 (S2).

LEWIS, J.S., GREEN, A. and WRIGHT, C., 2005. Subacromial impingement syndrome: the role of posture and muscle imbalance. J Shoulder Elbow Surg, 14 (4), 385-392.

WHITTINGHAM, M., PALMER, S. and MACMILLAN, F., 2004. Effects of taping on pain and function in patellofemoral pain syndrome: a randomized controlled trial. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther, 34 (9), 504-510.