Kinesiology for relief from sore and injured muscles.
Athletes, both professional and recreational, have used many methods to treat sore or injured muscles, from pain pills and topical creams to massage therapy and acupuncture. Treatments have improved over time as scientists have learned more about how muscles work. While traditional treatments restricted movement to injured muscles, today we know that keeping muscles moving and improving circulation reduce pain and speed healing. That's the science that inspired the father of kinesiology taping, Japanese chiropractor Dr. Kenzo Kase, to develop a muscle treatment in 1979 that he named the Kinesio Taping Method. This taping method gently lifts the layer of skin and attached tissue covering a muscle so that blood and other body fluids can move more freely in and around that muscle.
How does it work?
Kinesiology Tape is a latex-free elastic tape that has unique properties, but no medicine. The tape is designed to allow for a longitudinal stretch of 55 to 60 percent of its resting length, which approximates the elastic qualities of the skin. The thickness of the tape is approximately the same as the epidermis of the skin. The wavy pattern in the tape allows it to lift the skin, thereby stretching the fascia and opening up the superficial lymph vessels. The exact mechanism of why the tape works is still unknown, but studies are underway (through KinesioTaping Association) to identify what factors make the tape so effective. Depending on how much the tape is stretched and how it is laid on the skin, the tape will provide a directional pull to ease muscle spasm and correct muscle function.