Kinesio / Rock Tape Article

[pinoyathletics]

Not sure if this is the right section of the forum to post this. But have you ever noticed athletes wearing the funny sometimes colorful tape at track meets?

http://pinoyathletics.com/2012/09/17/kinesio-rocktape/

[lonewolf]

I have noticed mysterious, erratically located tape on lots of athletes.. never knew what it was for.

[gh]

sigh.... another fad with no scientific basis. Caveat emptor.

[guru]

They certainly had their product plastered all over the Olympics, without paying one cent to the IOC. I chuckled every time I heard a commentator mention it.

[Daisy]

sigh.... another fad with no scientific basis. Caveat emptor.

Do they invoke quantum mechanics and charge an arm and a leg?

[lonewolf]

I actually thought they were just decorative.. and the rules mavens had not got around to banning them.

[pinoyathletics]

They certainly had their product plastered all over the Olympics, without paying one cent to the IOC. I chuckled every time I heard a commentator mention it.

yes they do yet the athletes have formed a union to allow there own private sponsors in.

[MoHoSjo]

The Rocktape Website (www.rocktape.com) breaks down the science of kinesiology tape and how it works well. I had the chance to talk to some of the top track athletes at the Olympic Trials this year and all spoke highly of Rocktape and its multiple uses benefits which included injury prevention, increased recovery and even as a muscular cue to help them maintain proper form and engage certain muscle groups.

http://rocktape.com/products/tape/

[Daisy]

The Rocktape Website breaks down the science of kinesiology tape and how it works well.

This is all I could find on the 'science' of kinesiology tape: http://rocktape.com/products/tape/

How does Rocktape work?
When we manufacture RockTape, we introduce a bias into the weave of the fabric so it stretches in one direction and not the other. This creates a bio-mechanical lifting mechanism that lifts the skin away from the soft tissue underneath, which allows more blood to move into an injured area to accelerate healing and recovery.

Improving Sports Performance
While we can’t turn a 5 hour marathoner into a 3 hour runner, we do have methods to help you break the 3 hour barrier if you’re already close. When applied properly, Rocktape can help athletes improve form and decrease fatigue through better blood flow. These are the two most critical aspects of increasing performance in almost any sport.

Is there anything better?

My bet is that any research that shows improvements on blood flow were done on a group that already have circulatory issues. But on a healthy elite athlete?

edit:

OK I just did a quick search in web of science and there are only four hits for 'kinesiology AND tape'. And only one is relevant to performance in healthy athletes.

Title: The Effect of Kinesiology Taping on Respiratory Muscle Strength
Author(s): Zubeyir, Sari ; Nilufer, Kablan ; Burcu, Camcioglu ; et al.
Source: JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL THERAPY SCIENCE Volume: 24 Issue: 3 Pages: 241-244 Published: APR 2012

And this paper is unprecedented in that they have to cite dubious sources such as 'Kinesio Taping Association' and 'http://www.kinesiotaping.com' for the previously claimed benefits of the tape. Anyway the abstract of this papers states the following:

The current findings on the effect of kinesiology taping on muscular strength do not fully support the results of other studies reported in the literature.

In the conclusion they write

The results indicate that kinesiology taping applied to primary and accessory respiratory muscles has no significant effect on maximum respiratory muscle strength.

If the proponents of kinesiology tape are similar to homeopaths their defense against the claims of this paper will be that "they did not apply the tape correctly".

[Marlow]

As far as I can tell, RockTape is another BreatheRite strip, more hokum than science.
I probably told this anecdote already, but when my ace TJer was experiencing leg pain, the trainer put this Kinesio stuff down the back of her leg, hammy to calf. She then came to me in tears (There's no crying in T&F!!) and said it was no help. I then took my good old athletic tape and wrapped it around the hammy (not too tightly) and presto, pain gone. The pressure of the tape and the heat it held in was all she needed.

[Daisy]

The published literature is likewise scant. A 2012 review of Kinesio tape for the treatment of sports injuries concluded:

"In conclusion, there was little quality evidence to support the use of KT over other types of elastic taping in the management or prevention of sports injuries. KT may have a small beneficial role in improving strength, range of motion in certain injured cohorts and force sense error compared with other tapes, but further studies are needed to confirm these findings."

A recent study of Kinesio taping for healthy subjects found:

"Application of KT to RF, VL and VM muscles did not significantly change lower limb function, postural balance, knee extensor peak torque or electromyographic activity of VL muscle in healthy women."

http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/swi ... s-fad.html

[Pego]

When we manufacture RockTape, we introduce a bias into the weave of the fabric so it stretches in one direction and not the other. This creates a bio-mechanical lifting mechanism that lifts the skin away from the soft tissue underneath, which allows more blood to move into an injured area to accelerate healing and recovery.

I could never compose word salad of this eloquence .

[lonewolf]

"Word salad". I love that term ...and share Pego's opinion..