Hey Readers! I use a lot of different tapes, and taping techniques in my toolbox when dealing with athletes and their injuries. A lot of these things are just "tools" from my toolbox to help athletes cope with their injury(s). I don't think I can think of a single incidence where I consider the tape to be a fix to a problem but it does work as a great complementary treatment to reduce pain and increase function for my patient's when used in combination with rehabilitate/corrective exercises.
About two months ago I attended Rocktape's Fascial Movement Taping level 1 & 2 certification seminar (read that review here). Since then I have experimented with various taping techniques and have had results ranging from mediocre to outstanding for some of my athletes. One technique in particular that I have used with great success is one for anterior knee pain. I have used this with a number of athletes suffering from anterior and/or medial knee pain and they have noted definite rapid and dramatic differences in knee pain with activity. Some people might argue that this tape is purely placebo and if that is true, so what! I use a neuro-based model for a lot of the manual therapy and corrective exercises that I use on a daily basis. So if I am just tricking the brain into thinking that it is feeling less pain with this tape job then mission accomplished!
Without further ado, lets get to the tape job. I use Rock Tape myself because I feel from previous experience that it is stickier, better elastic recoil, cooler colors and patterns (more placebo power), and great construct quality compared with competing brands of "kinesiology" tape. Nevertheless, I feel that this technique would work when using those competing brands of tape as well.
Step 1 (After prepping the skin)
- No stretch at anchors/ends
- No stretch as you lay down the tape, just tension off tape.
- Rub down tape to set adhesive
- Distal/Proximal pull doesn't make a difference.
Step 2
- Repeat step 1 (above) but in the exact opposite fashion.
- Do not begin tape on top of tape if you want better results in terms of application longevity.
Step 3 (Final)
- Apply a "decompression" strip over the sight of pain/soreness
- This means you apply a stretch in the middle of the tape (25% - 75% stretch)
- No stretch to the anchors or ends of the tape
- Supposedly this applies a very nice "lift" to the middle portion of the tape where the stretch is at.
Here is a video I made for all of you that shows how to do this taping technique in real time! Check it out! Ignore my mint green shirt! It was made to support National Athletic Training Month 2014...which coincidentally is right now (March)!
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