Kinesiology taping involves placing strips of special tape on your body in specific directions to help improve your mobility and support your joints, muscles, and tendons. Kinesiology tape was developed in the 1970s by a chiropractor named Dr. Kenso Kase, DC. He found that using a flexible tape that harnessed the interface between the skin and the muscles could provide long-lasting effects for his patients.
Is Kinesiology Tape the same as Athletic Tape?
Kinesiology tape is used to facilitate motion and inhibit pain and spasm and athletic tape is used for support and to limit motion. Kinesiology tape is a flexible material that moves when you move; athletic tape is relatively inflexible. Kinesiology tape helps to improve lymph transport and increase circulation by tenting the skin and fascia, while the tight binding nature of athletic tape serves to decrease circulation.
What Kinesiology Tape Does
Kinesiology tape serves different functions when applied. First, it helps to change the proprioception input of the sensory nervous system in the muscles, joints, and skin. The tape is thought to improve the interaction between the skin and the underlying structures to help reset the circuitry of this part of the nervous system resulting in improved muscular activation and performance. Secondly, kinesiology tape inhibits nociceptors (pain pathways) in your muscles, skin, and joints. Decreasing painful input to the brain helps to normalize muscle tone, resulting in decreased pain and muscular spasm. In general, it helps to reduce pain, decrease swelling, and improve muscle performance and function.