The Long Run: Kinesio Tape Keeps Athletes Going

The Long Run: Kinesio tape keeps athletes going
- Gerry Chester

When an athlete suffers an injury, they are left with one of two choices: Stop working out altogether or wrap it and try to train through the setback.

While today’s injured athletes use a variety of taping procedures to allow them to continue training, heal more quickly and protect their muscles during competition, a unique way of treating sports injuries called Kinesio taping has appeared on the scene and achieves the same results.

While most Americans received their first glimpse of Kinesio tape from watching American volleyball player Kerri Walsh during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, it has been around since the 1970s, when chiropractor Dr. Kenzo Kase developed it as an alternative taping technique to help his Japanese athletes heal injured muscle tissue.

Up to that time, conventional taping methods supported the injured muscle but severely reduced the athlete’s range of motion and many times inhibited the actual healing process.

Kinesio tape still provides support and stability to a person’s joints and muscles but doesn’t reduce circulation or, more importantly, the athlete’s range of motion.

Extremely strong, flexible, and non-restrictive, it supports the injury and relieves pain and promotes healing by lifting the skin away from the muscle, which helps increase circulation to the injured area.

William P. Macnamara III, a Certified Chiropractic Sports Physician for the past 20 years in Killingly, explained that "Kinesio taping is based on a different way of thinking, which aims to give the athlete free range of motion to help the body’s muscular system to heal itself biomechanically."

Kinesio tape is available online and at most sporting goods stores, and while there are a multitude of videos and self-help websites that demonstrate how to tape yourself, it is recommended that your first taping session be done by a trained professional.

While specific procedures for each treatment need to be followed initially, they can be easily learned once the therapist demonstrates the proper technique.

Once described as a gimmick by its detractors, Kinesio tape is now used in practically every sport and at all levels of competition from elite athletes to weekend warriors.

Meb Keflezighi, winner of the 2009 New York City Marathon, and Molly Huddle, current American record holder in the women’s 5,000-meter run, are just two of the many top-flight runners who use Kinesio tape in their training.

- Here at Rosa Family Chiropractic of Alexandria, we utilize the benefits of kinesio tape on a daily basis; providing kinesio treatment to high performance and non-athletes.

Dr. Nick Andolina
Chiropractor, Physiotherapist

Alexandria, VA