The quick reply is: You probably have a younger athlete centered on damage prevention, rehabilitation after an damage, or ache administration, kinesio tape might be able to assist. Nevertheless it’s not a remedy all – it must be used alongside different therapies.
To grasp how kinesio tape may also help athletes, let’s dive into the fundamentals: what it’s, the way it works, advantages and disadvantages:
What’s Kinesio Tape?
Kinesio tape, additionally referred to as KT tape and kinesiology tape, is a stretchy, therapeutic health tape. It has been round for the reason that Seventies and may stretch between 100-180% its size.
How does it work?
Completely different from athletic tape, kinesio tape is versatile and light-weight, transferring with the physique relatively than proscribing it. Designed to elevate the pores and skin, KT tape could enhance blood move and scale back muscle soreness and ache. On the similar time, it helps muscle tissue, tendons and ligaments when positioned correctly.
This is the reason it’s necessary to work with a doctor, athletic coach, or bodily therapist. They may know the right way to use various ranges of rigidity and stretch alongside the tendons and joints to achieve the specified outcomes.
How can KT tape assist my athlete?
There are 4 primary methods we’d use KT tape to assist teenagers:
1. Assist for weakened muscle tissue and tendons
Kinesio tape could present further assist for weakened muscle tissue and tendons. As an example, many soccer gamers have a muscular imbalance of their legs, as a result of pressure of operating and kicking. Their posterior chain, together with hamstrings, are sometimes weaker than the remainder of their legs. Putting KT tape on their hamstrings may enhance proprioception (unconscious consciousness of 1’s physique place) and optimize muscle recruitment for higher management throughout motion.
2. Rehabilitation after an damage
Swelling and bruising are widespread unintended effects after an damage. KT tape could also be positioned strategically to scale back swelling by lifting the pores and skin, draining lymphatic fluid and bettering blood move.
3. Ache administration
The elevate and assist of KT tape could present some momentary ache aid for sore joints.
4. Bracing
KT tape may be helpful for athletes who take part in sports activities the place the atmosphere or gear limits them from sporting a brace. This might embody sports activities like swimming, diving, gymnastics, martial arts, discipline hockey, and so forth.
What are the potential unintended effects of utilizing KT tape?
Whereas KT tape is mostly thought-about a secure remedy, it could actually probably trigger the next unintended effects:
Redness, swelling, irritation, and alter of pores and skin coloration the place it’s utilized.
Stress and tightness of the pores and skin.
Issue eradicating from the pores and skin.
Harm or an infection to pores and skin if utilized over a wound.
Are there any downsides to utilizing KT tape?
Many of the advantages we now have seen in sufferers have been anecdotal. There haven’t been scientific research on the long-term effectiveness of kinesio tape. Additional, we now have not seen important enhancements in athletic efficiency, nor has it considerably sped up restoration time. It may also be costly.
The Backside Line:
Kinesio tape has a spot within the athlete’s toolbox, nevertheless it shouldn’t be the one software, particularly when confronted with an acute damage or continual ache. A medical skilled ought to information the usage of KT tape, together with a complete remedy or restoration plan.
Able to schedule an appointment?
The Sport Medication Division at Cincinnati Kids’s focuses on the foundation explanation for acute accidents and continual joint pains, and prescribes multifaceted ache administration plans, rehabilitative measures, damage prevention instruments, and return to sport plans.
