Therapeutic Taping: Kinesiology Tape

This information is taken out of one of my newsletters that I send out to Medical Doctors to inform them on how my services can benefit their patient base.  If you don’t know about Kinesiology Taping this should answer a lot of questions for you.  If you still have questions don’t hesitate in contacting me.  I am a Certified Kinesio Taping Practitioner, and also a Certified SpiderTech Practitioner.  Kinesiology Taping is an important technique to the patients and athletes I treat

What is kinesiology tape?

Kinesiology tape is a therapeutic tape that is thin and stretchy and is designed to promote movement as opposed to immobilizing an injured region of the body. Kinesiology tape is used to help relieve a patient’s pain, reduce swelling and inflammation, provide structural support to joints and muscles, and enhance athletic performance. While it is most often used as a sports tape for injured athletes, it can also be used in the healthcare settings to address a wide variety of inflammatory conditions or to speed recovery after surgery.

How does kinesiology tape differ from conventional sports tape?

Unlike most athletic tape or medical tape that is non-elastic and restrictive, kinesiology tape is light, thin and flexible.   Designed to mimic the same thickness and elasticity as human skin, it is comfortable and easy to wear. Most applications can be worn from 3-5 days, even through showering, swimming or intense exercise. Kinesiology tape comes in rolls, precut strips and precut applications for specific parts of the body, making application by the physician and the patient very simple.

How long does kinesiology taping take to work?

Every patient is different so naturally the response from patient to patient will be variable.  From a clinical standpoint, there are two critical healing components of recovery that kinesiology taping can help maintain.  These are, increasing blood flow and preserving or restoring proper range of motion.  Kinesiology tape is designed to offer support and stabilize an injured region of the body without limiting blood flow or range of motion.

How is a kinesiology tape applied?

Kinesiology tape is applied over and around muscles, ligaments, tendons and other fibrous tissue.  Depending on the method or direction of application, kinesiology tape benefits by providing proprioception that signals muscles for facilitation or inhibition.  Kinesiology tape mechanically supports joints such as the shoulder or wrist by approximating connective tissues to relieve stress and/or can activate the cell layer-thick lymph system to move fluid.  In addition to direction while taping and region specificity, the main difference in application involves the amount of stretch applied to the tape by the physician.  Very simply, the stretching of the tape, whether it is the amount or direction, significantly impacts the desired taping effect.

What conditions can be treated effectively with Kinesiology tape?

The following areas are addressed through various taping procedures:

• Mechanical Correction
• Fascia (Fascial) Correction
• Space Correction
• Ligament/Tendon Correction
• Functional Correction
• Circulatory/Lymphatic Correction

Kinesiology tape can assist in the treatment goals for many conditions that patients suffer from including the following:

What are the contraindications for using kinesiology tape?

While most kinesiology tape brands are very safe for the majority of patients, careful monitoring of any treatment is important to ensure positive clinical outcomes.  Kinesiology taping is deferred when the patient’s skin is fragile or in the early stages of healing, when the skin has been treated with radiation therapy or if there has been an allergic reaction experienced in the past to the adhesive of the tape.  As well, kinesiology tape should not be applied over an open wound or in the area of cellulitis, infection or near known cancer regions.  Kinesiology tape should also not be applied in an area where there may be a blood clot.