Kinesio Tape was first developed in the 1970’s as a way to provide stability and support to an injury and facilitate the natural healing process. Many athletes use Kinesio Tape before a workout or competition to provide relief to an injury or trouble area.
Kinesio Tape is placed on muscles as well as joints in specific patterns to provide the most support possible. The tape itself is a latex-free, cotton material that breathes and flexes like regular skin. If properly applied, Kinesio Tape will stay on the body (even after showering or swimming) for three or more days and still be effective.
Benefits of Kinesio Tape
Injury prevention and rehabilitation are the main uses for Kinesio Tape, and listed below are some of the ways the tape helps heal and prevent injuries:
- Blood flow and healing increases. One of the main purposes of Kinesio Tape is to increase blood flow to an injured area, which helps the damaged tissue heal naturally.
- Kinesio Tape massages the affected area. Kinesio Tape is like a second layer of skin and is designed to expand and contract along with your skin. The extra expansion and contraction provided by the tape massages the area, helping to improve blood flow and reduce pain and inflammation.
- Muscle contraction improves. The motion of the tape also helps improve muscle contraction, making damaged or pulled muscles respond like normal, depending on the extent of the damage.
- Kinesio Tape helps reduce inflammation. Kinesio Tape slightly pulls the skin away from the infected area. This helps reduce pain from inflammation and allows better blood flow to heal the area and reduce overall inflammation.
- The tape helps stabilize joints. Kinesio Tape can also be placed on injured joints to help stabilize them, reduce inflammation and improve healing.
When To Use Kinesio Tape
As mentioned before, Kinesio Tape can be used to rehabilitate or prevent an injury, if you feel one coming on, and can supplement other rehab techniques. An evaluation can determine if Kinesio Tape will help your injury. With the skin preparation and taping patterns required for effectiveness, a trained professional, like the doctors at Accelerate Health, must apply Kinesio Tape.