KT Tape: Team USA and Your Chiropractor May Recommend It

Both summer and winter Olympic athletes, as well as athletes in other sports, use kinesio tape. While athletes use kinesio tape to support their joints and muscles during sports activities, your chiropractor will use kinesio tape to relieve pain, decrease swelling, and stabilize your injured joints during the healing process. 

 

KT Tape and Chiropractic Care

Kinesio tape was developed in the 1970s by Japanese chiropractor Dr. Kenzo Kase for his chiropractic patients. It’s become popular as an effective non-drug treatment for joint inflammation, pain relief, and support for injured muscles. Kinesio tape is generally used in six basic ways in chiropractic care:

• Mechanical Support: improves joint stability and the body’s biomechanics.
• Muscle Lining Movement: decreases swelling and eases and controls the movement of the muscle lining, called fascia.
• Spacing: decreases pressure over a target tissue.
• Ligament and Tendon Relief: relieves pain and decreases stress on a ligament or tendon.
• Functional Improvement: enhances sensory stimulation to assist or limit a motion. 
• Lymphatic Circulation: moves lymphatic fluids from one area to another.

It is used to treat common issues, including:

• Headaches
• Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
• Lower back pain
• Knee conditions
• Shoulder conditions
• Hamstring injury
• Groin injury
• Rotator cuff injury 
• Whiplash
• Tennis elbow
• Plantar fasciitis
• Ankle sprain
• To change muscle tone
• To move lymphatic fluids
• To correct movement patterns
• To improve posture
• To reduce scars

What is KT Tape?

Kinesio tape is an extremely high-quality elastic athletic tape. It is designed to remain in place during strenuous exercise — without irritating the skin — for an extended period, usually 3 to 4 days. It is latex-free and FDA approved. Kinesio tape has an elasticity that matches that of your skin and muscles, so it works with your body as you go about your daily activities. It provides support and stability with a full range of motion without peeling off or leaving any residue. 

How Does KT Tape Work?

Kinesio taping is a technique based on the body’s own natural healing process. It affects the body’s neurological and circulatory systems. Muscles control not just movement but also the circulation of blood, lymph flows, body temperature, and more. Muscle dysfunction can cause a wide range of symptoms. That’s where kinesio taping comes in. It treats muscles to activate the body’s own healing process.

Muscles constantly extend and contract. Sometimes they extend and contract beyond their normal range of motion. When this happens, muscles become inflamed. Inflamed muscles become stiff and swollen. The space between the skin and the muscle is compressed, resulting in restriction of the lymph flow. This compression also applies pressure to the pain receptors beneath the skin, triggering pain. When you have pain, you don’t use the area correctly, and when the lymph flow is compromised, healing doesn’t happen as effectively. Using kinesio tape helps solve these problems.

Kinesio tape also affects the muscle lining, called fascia. Fascia and lymph are closely connected. Fascia divides and separates the muscles and internal organs. Lymph removes fluids and chemical substances in the muscles. Lymph channels pass through the fascia between the bone and the muscle and between the skin and the muscle. When the flow of lymph is disturbed, fluid accumulates, resulting in swelling. This decreases the space between the muscle and skin, causing the body to react.

Kinesio tape pulls the upper layers of the skin, creating more space between the skin and the muscle, relieving pressure on the lymph channels and pain receptors. This allows the body to function more normally, removing roadblocks to the healing process.

Dilated blood and lymph vessels: blood and lymph flow normally
Uncompressed pain receptors: pain is relieved

Kinesio tape also affects deeper tissues in the body. The increased space that allows lymphatic flow and reduces pain also gives muscles more room to contract, resulting in better muscle performance. This also helps reduce muscle fatigue and increase the range of motion.

Whether you are interested in kinesio tape to improve athletic performance or heal an injury, talk to your chiropractor to find out if this technique might be right for you.

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