MENUMENU
  • Start Here
    • Welcome to NESTA
    • Our Story
    • Member Success Stories
    • Accreditation
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Student Login
  • Personal Fitness Trainer Certification
    • Personal Fitness Trainer Certification
    • Personal Fitness Trainer Practice Exam
    • Recertify
    • Certification Board Details
  • All Courses
    • Personal & Group Training
    • Nutrition & Behavior Training
    • Biomechanics Training
    • HIIT & Conditioning Training
    • Kettlebell & Ropes Training
    • Martial Arts Conditioning Training
    • Triathlon Training
    • Health & Wellness Coaching
  • Webclass
    • Personal Fitness Trainer Workshops
    • WEBCLASS: Wellness Coaching Careers
    • WEBCLASS: MMA Fitness & Conditioning Coach
    • WEBCLASS: Certified Personal Trainer
    • WEBCLASS: Master Personal Trainer
    • WEBCLASS: Lifestyle & Weight Management Careers
    • WEBCLASS: Fitness Nutrition Coach Certification
    • WEBCLASS: Master Health & Wellness Coach Careers
    • WEBCLASS: Holistic Life Coaching Careers
    • WEBCLASS: Make $50k/yr as an Online Coach
    • WEBCLASS: Sleep Science Career Success
    • WEBCLASS: Group Exercise Instructor Careers
    • WEBCLASS: How to Start a Nutrition Business in 15 Minutes
    • WEBCLASS: Biomechanics for Trainers & Coaches
    • WEBCLASS: Triathlon Coach Certification & Business
    • WEBCLASS: Metabolic Conditioning Coach Certification & Careers
    • WEBCLASS: Life Coaching Careers
    • WEBCLASS: Sport Yoga Careers
    • WEBCLASS: Get Clients from Google
    • WEBCLASS: Sports Nutrition Specialist Certification
    • WEBCLASS: PURSUIT Fitness Business System
    • WEBCLASS: How to Use Online Coaching Software
    • WEBCLASS: Corporate Fitness & Wellness Careers
  • Resources
    • Personal Trainer Magazine - FREE
    • Job Board
    • Certificate Verification Search
    • Business & Career Resources
    • Blog

Does Kinesiology Tape Really Work?

03/06/2020 by Liz

Does Kinesiology Tape Really Work?

Certified Sports Injury Specialist

Kinesiology tape is a thin, stretchy, elastic cotton strip with an acrylic adhesive. Therapeutic kinesiology tape can benefit a wide variety of musculoskeletal and sports injuries as well as a number of inflammatory conditions.

Kinesiology tape is almost identical to human skin in both thickness and elasticity, which allows Kinesiology tape to be worn without binding, constricting or restriction of your movement. More and more professional athletes use kinesiology taping to improve their sporting performance, prevent injury and allow them to return to sport quicker.

How Does Kinesiology Tape Work?

There are multiple explanations for how Kinesiology tape works. Some experts believe kinesiology tape lifts the skin away from the muscle, allowing blood and fluids to flow more easily, promoting healing.

Kinesiology tape has a comprehensive array of therapeutic benefits. Because kinesiology taping can usually be left on for several days or up to a week, these therapeutic benefits are available to the injured area 24 hours a day, significantly accelerating the healing process from trauma, injuries and inflammatory conditions.

The skin receptors are directly influenced when the tape is applied. Pain is reduced and the muscles are stimulated. Taping is like a constant massage. It supports microcirculation (nutrient exchange and cell transport through capillaries) and lymph drainage, breaks down fascial adhesions, and improves the mobility of muscles and joints.

Another explanation is that the tape supports muscles, addressing incorrect movement, which causes pain and injury. Unlike traditional taping, which straps up an injured muscle to prevent further injury, Kinesio-tape tells the muscles, and connective fibers called ‘fascia’, how to work, and encourages the athlete to move.

Benefits of Using Kinesiology Tape

Muscle Support

Correct taping can help provide support to muscles by helping the muscle to not over-extend or over-contract. Kinesiology tape is also used to add extra support to muscles or joints that need it. Clients with patellofemoral stress syndrome, IT band friction syndrome, or Achilles tendonitis, could benefit from kinesiology taping. Unlike white medical or athletic tape, kinesiology tape lets you move normally. In fact, some studies show that it can enhance movement and endurance and when used on fatigued muscles, performance improves.

Reduce Swelling

Kinesiology provides a passive lift to the skin via its elastic properties. This vacuum effect allows the lymphatic and venous drainage systems to drain swollen or bruised tissue quicker. It is also thought that this same principle can assist the removal of exercise byproducts like lactic acid that may contribute to delayed muscle soreness.

Treating Injuries

Injury specialists sometimes use kinesiology taping as one part of an overall treatment plan for clients who’ve been injured. Kinesiology taping is most effective when it’s used in conjunction with other treatments like manual therapy. Kinesiology taping can be used to mitigate pain and swelling.

Re-educating Muscles

Kinesiology tape can help retrain muscles that have lost function or that have gotten used to an unhealthy way of working. For example, kinesiology taping can be used to correct posture in your head and neck. Physical therapists think this may be because having the strange sensation of tape on your skin can make you more aware of how you’re standing or moving.

Enhancing Athletic Performance

Some athletes use kinesiology taping to help them achieve peak performance and protect against injury when they’re competing in special events. For example, many runners use kinesiology tape every time they run a marathon. The tape is often placed along the glute as a way of waking up’ the muscle and reminding it to keep working.

Reducing the Appearance of Scars

Kinesiology tape should never be applied on an open wound, but there is some scientific evidence to suggest that kinesiology tape can improve the long-term appearance of scars after surgery or injury. This use of kinesiology tape should be discussed with a professional first.

Using the Kinesio Taping Method

Neck

Localized neck problems involve burning, nagging pain around the cervical vertebrae (sometimes also radiating from the neck to the shoulders). These symptoms are often followed by limited mobility in the cervical spine. Incorrect posture at work (e.g. sitting) or sports are common causes of these problems.

Neck Taping Instructions

Knee

Do you have a stabbing pain in the outer side of your knee? It might be runner’s knee. Usually, the problems develop due to improper running technique, incorrect training, or underdeveloped muscles. Jumper’s Knee is a chronic reaction to overuse or an injury to the patellar tendon, which joins the bottom of the kneecap or patella to the shin bone.

Knee Taping Instructions

Wrist

Overuse or improper strain (e.g. during bodyweight training) can lead to pain, swelling, and limited mobility in the wrist. The tape should be attached all the way around the wrist. Make sure you do not attach it too tightly. If your fingers fall asleep or your hand turns pale, remove the tapes immediately.

Wrist Taping Instructions

Shoulder

Shoulder pain can have many different root causes but is almost associated with anterior shoulders. Muscle imbalances, notably overly strong or tight muscles in the chest and weak muscles in the back, can aggravate this issue and exacerbate poor posture.

Shoulder Taping Instructions

Continuing Your Training and Coaching Education

Check out what it takes to start a career in personal fitness training. This is your most affordable and fastest way to become a highly qualified personal trainer.

Learn how to keep your clients safe by learning essential injury treatment and prevention and becoming a Certified Sports Injury Specialist.

Is your recertification coming up? Learn more about earning your CEU credits. You can find the full list of CEU courses here.

There is always something exciting about earning a new training or coaching certification and applying that new knowledge of how you train your clients. This also helps you hit the reset button.

NESTA coaching programs are open to anyone with a desire to learn and help others. There are no prerequisites.

That’s it for now.

Take action!

NESTA | Spencer Institute

PS: Click here to see many helpful business/career resources

NESTA Pinterest

How do you apply KT Tape?

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Certified Sports Injury Specialist, How do you apply KT Tape?, How does kinesiology tape work?, how to apply kinesiology tape, how to apply kinesiology tape to knee, how to use kinesiology tape, kinesiology tape ankle, Kinesiology tape benefits, kinesiology tape for injuries, kinesiology tape shoulder, kinesiology taping, lymphatic and venous drainage systems, personal trainer, Pinterest, runner, sports injury specialist

1-877-348-6692

Student Login
Privacy Policy

Company Policies
About NESTA
Our Accreditations
Testimonials

NESTA Quick Links

NESTA-PFT Recertification
NESTA Approved Providers
NESTA-PFT ECB Forms and Policies

Social Share NESTA

ShareTweet

Copyright © 2021 · NESTACertified · NESTA Personal Trainer Certification, Nutrition Courses, Fitness Education

Copyright © 2021 ·