Kinesio Taping (KT Taping)

Kinesio Taping

KT Tape is a therapeutic option that your physical therapist may use if you’ve had an injury or illness that has caused problems with your mobility or joint stability. It involves placing strips of special tape on your body in specific directions to help improve your mobility and support your joints, muscles, and tendons.

You may have noticed these strips on various athletes and wondered what they are or if they are the same as traditional athletic tape. While kinesiology tape seems a lot like athletic tape, there are many differences between the two.

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• 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. The tight binding nature of athletic tape serves to decrease circulation.

• Kinesiology tape helps to create balance in the neural circuitry in muscles, tendons, joints, and skin. This is thought to work to reduce pain, decrease swelling, and improve muscle performance and function.

It is also thought to realign joint positions, and it may also be useful in remodeling collagen tissues such as in scar tissue management.

1. There are different theories about how kinesiology tape works. First, it is thought to change the proprioception input of the sensory nervous system in the muscles, joints, and skin.

2. 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.

3. Kinesiology tape is also thought to inhibit nociceptors (pain pathways) in your muscles, skin, and joint structures. Decreasing painful input to the brain is thought to normalize muscle tone, resulting in decreased pain and muscular spasm.

Contact our physical therapy clinic today to schedule an appointment with an experienced physical therapist. We’re ready to help you feel and move better, no matter where life takes you!