You may notice people in the gym, our running or at sporting events wearing a strange looking coloured tape over their muscles and joints. While you may have thought “What’s that?” you probably quickly lost interest in the tape and enjoyed watching the event. Well, that tape is useful stuff, with several different uses which help everyone, not just athletes!
What does it do? Kinesiology taping is a method of using flexible fabric tape to help to give mild support to muscles and joints of the body and to help delay fatigue, thereby helping to enhance performance.
How does it work? Kinesiotaping can be used in a variety of ways to achieve different benefits:
It can work on fluid dynamics within the body. Best seen on bruises and swellings, by applying the tape with minimal stretch, the tape decompresses the underlying tissues and allows fluid to move out of the area. Taping over a recent bruise shows this effect very well by leaving a discolouration to the skin where no tape has been, and a reduced discolouration under the taped area.
The tape is thought to help encourage more slide and glide between the layers of tissue under the application, helping to restore movement.
It's best known property is to reduce pain at the site of an injury or strain. By stimulating certain nerve endings the use of tape can help alter movement patterns to avoid painful movement and support the underlying tissues whilst they heal.
Scientific research is currently undecided for the benefits of tape, but some studies show positive effects from its use. We find lots of people benefit from being taped up and find it easy to recreate the benefits themselves at home with a little guidance of where to stick the tape!
Taping helps the lymphatic system drain away waste products, excess fluids, and cellular products from the blood stream. The decompressive effect of the tape allows waste substances to move more fluidly through the lymph system. Taping over a recent bruise shows this effect very well by leaving a discolouration to the skin where no tape has been, and a reduced discolouration under the taped area.
The tape is thought to help encourage more slide and glide between the layers of tissue under the application, helping to restore movement by creating a lifting motion on the skin. This helps to reduce pressure on pain receptors.
Its best-known property is to reduce pain at the site of an injury or strain. By stimulating certain nerve endings, the use of tape can help alter movement patterns to avoid painful movement and support the underlying tissues whilst they heal. The tape itself provides the painful area it’s applied to a sensory bombardment (lots of stimulus all at once) so the brain is tricked into thinking about those sensations more than the pain underlying it.
Tape helps to stimulate proprioception, a sense which tells our brain where our body is in space without it looking directly at it. By providing a previously injured or painful area with a new sensory input (taping), we can help guide the body to better movement through stimulating the nerves that control motion.
We find many people benefit from being kinesiotaped and it is easy to recreate the benefits themselves at home with a little guidance of where to stick the tape! We regularly use taping to make sure you get the best out of your treatments with us. We can also offer taping as a stand-alone therapy where appropriate.