The quick reply is: When you’ve got a younger athlete targeted on harm prevention, rehabilitation after an harm, or ache administration, kinesio tape could possibly assist. Nevertheless it’s not a remedy all – it must be used alongside different therapies.
To know how kinesio tape might help athletes, let’s dive into the fundamentals: what it’s, the way it works, advantages and drawbacks:
What’s Kinesio Tape?
Kinesio tape, additionally known as KT tape and kinesiology tape, is a stretchy, therapeutic health tape. It has been round because the Nineteen 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 quite than limiting it. Designed to carry the pores and skin, KT tape could enhance blood move and scale back muscle soreness and ache. On the similar time, it helps muscle mass, tendons and ligaments when positioned correctly.
That is why it’s vital to work with a doctor, athletic coach, or bodily therapist. They’ll know the best way to use various ranges of pressure and stretch alongside the tendons and joints to succeed in the specified outcomes.
How can KT tape assist my athlete?
There are 4 foremost methods we would use KT tape to assist teenagers:
1. Help for weakened muscle mass and tendons
Kinesio tape could present additional assist for weakened muscle mass and tendons. For example, many soccer gamers have a muscular imbalance of their legs, because of the pressure of working and kicking. Their posterior chain, together with hamstrings, are sometimes weaker than the remainder of their legs. Putting KT tape on their hamstrings might enhance proprioception (unconscious consciousness of 1’s physique place) and optimize muscle recruitment for higher management throughout motion.
2. Rehabilitation after an harm
Swelling and bruising are widespread unwanted effects after an harm. 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 carry and assist of KT tape could present some momentary ache reduction for sore joints.
4. Bracing
KT tape may be helpful for athletes who take part in sports activities the place the surroundings or gear limits them from carrying a brace. This might embody sports activities like swimming, diving, gymnastics, martial arts, subject hockey, and so forth.
What are the potential unwanted effects of utilizing KT tape?
Whereas KT tape is usually thought of a protected remedy, it may well probably trigger the next unwanted effects:
- Redness, swelling, irritation, and alter of pores and skin colour the place it’s utilized.
- Strain and tightness of the pores and skin.
- Problem 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?
A lot 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 will also be costly.
The Backside Line:
Kinesio tape has a spot within the athlete’s toolbox, but it surely shouldn’t be the one device, particularly when confronted with an acute harm or continual ache. A medical skilled ought to information using 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 basis reason behind acute accidents and continual joint pains, and prescribes multifaceted ache administration plans, rehabilitative measures, harm prevention instruments, and return to sport plans.