August 23, 2011
Have you ever watched your favourite sport to see an athlete with a black strip of tape on their leg, or somewhere on their body? Well I can tell you what it is…it’s Kinesiology Tape.
Kinesio Taping began in 1979 by Dr. Kenzo Kase and it has gone on to become a worldwide treatment by medical and sports professionals. But what does it do exactly?
The official Kinesio Taping website tells us it is used to “facilitate the body’s natural healing process while allowing support and stability to muscles and joints without restricting the body’s range of motion.”
The elastic tape is meant to be close in texture to human skin. This makes the tape much easier to apply, rather than the rigid sports tape used by others. To stabilize joints, the tape is used around the muscles, whereas other sports tapes immobilize the joints due to their rigid nature. So Dr. Kase’s aim was to create a tape that made the tape as elastic as human muscles. The tape is used to re-educate the neuromuscular system, reduce pain, enhance performance, prevent injury and promote improved circulation and healing.
I have had this tape used on me by physios in the past, and I never really knew what it was, and how it was different to other tape. I do remember that the physio would ask me to stretch where I was injured while the tape was applied. This now makes sense to me as the tape would give me that extra bit of flexibility while I recuperated from injury.
It is safe to say gone are the days of the magic sponge!
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Great post Stephen! The more exposure kinesio tape can get the better. It really is brilliant. Much like yourself we were so impressed by kinesiology tape that we started a business (www.sporttape.co.uk) retailing online and offering training courses.
We’d happily offer your readers a discount to try our k-active range of kinesiology tape. Please just send me an email if you are interested. Keep up the great work