Are you injury-prone, currently injuries, or hoping to curb injury? Well, Kinesiology tapes are one of the most widely accepted methods for reducing your injuries.
As a means to faster recovery, Kinesiology tapes help reduce swelling, support joints, improve circulation, and provide additional strength to weak muscles.
What is Kinesiology Tape?
Kinesiology sports tape is a fine, breathable, stretchable material, usually made of cotton or a cotton blend. Its elasticity is very close to that of the skin’s, so it does not overly restrict the area to which it is applied to. It is designed to provide enough pressure and support to facilitate muscle and tissue strength.
Kinesiology tapes are medically approved with water- and sweat-proof adhesive. They also come in latex-free and hypoallergenic varieties. The tape can be used for three or four days continuously, even while swimming, showering, or exercising.
As you might already know, Kinesiology sports tape is elastic and therapeutic and can be applied to different parts of your body to aid your muscle or stress-related injuries. This tape facilitates fluid drainage and boosts circulation by lifting your skin in specific areas. This, in turn, helps decrease inflammation. You can apply the tape directly to the skin using different techniques and patterns ranging from I, Y, and X shapes.
How Does K-Tape Facilitate Recovery?
What’s the hype all about? By gently allowing the free flow of blood and lymphatic fluid, the kinesiology tape cleanses and heals inflammation without the need for medication or surgery. This tape helps improve circulation, supports muscles, aids the healing process of internal injuries, and helps prevent further muscle injury.
The kinesiology taping method developed by the chiropractor Kenzo Kase is based on the science of supporting the body while allowing blood and other bodily fluids to move freely through and around the injured muscle. The taping stabilizes the injured area by lightly adhering to the skin and applying pressure to the tissues and muscles around which the tape is wrapped.
Kinesiology tapes were made to help you recover faster and can be used for all body parts.
5 Ways K-Tapes Will Support You Through Your Recovery
What happens when you lift a block off a table? Less load. More space. Less tension on the legs of the table. The load in this context will be the pain you want to recover from, and the table will be the affected part of the body. Below are several ways the kinesiology tape can help you to recover faster:
- Reducing Pain: Pain is not something to be toyed with. By gently applying pressure, kinesiology tape helps to dissipate and reduce pain in people with musculoskeletal injuries, and may be useful when combined with other traditional therapies. The kinesiology tape can lift your skin to relieve you of pressure.
- Increasing Circulation: Swelling in injuries usually results from restriction in blood and fluid flow in the body caused by an obstruction. Kinesiology tape can help relieve congestion while efficiently circulating oxygenated blood and lymphatic fluids. Circulation flushes out irritants, reducing inflammation and chemical buildup and fostering a speedy recovery.
- Improving Posture and Supporting the Muscles: The tendency to have an altered posture during an injury is very high, especially if it’s a joint injury. Taping areas that set you off from proper posture can help gently support your muscle recovery. Proper taping enables weak muscles to function efficiently, reduces pain and fatigue, and protects against cramping, over-extension, and over-contraction.
- Improving Performance: Thisalmost magical tape can improve performance by delivering slight pressure to “sleeping” muscles.
Unlike other assistive devices, the kinesiology tape doesn’t make you dependent on it. Rather, it makes you consciously try to work better by assisting with coordination and movement, leading to improved physical performance.
- Serving as an analgesic:Kinesiology tape serves as an analgesic in most cases, especially for alleviating menstrual pain, reducing premenstrual symptoms in women, and reducing pregnancy pains.
How to Apply It
For something so beneficial, K-Tape is rather easy to use. Although it is always advised to seek medical advice for the first few applications, you can DIY it once you’ve gotten the hang of it and your doctor or physiotherapist gives you the go-ahead.
Before applying kinesiology tape, you will want to check a few things:
- Be sure your skin is not scratched, sore, or broken.
- Make sure that you have no allergic reaction to the tape. If you notice an allergic reaction to the tape, remove it immediately.
- Make sure your skin is clean, dry, and free from lotions before applying kinesiology tape.
To apply the kinesiology tape, you first have to clean the area to which you are applying it. Then, cut the required length of tape out. It is then essential that you peel off an inch or two to serve as an anchor end (there will be an anchor end on both ends of the tape).
Apply the first anchor end at the base of the pain. Then stretch the tape and apply some tension when putting on the rest of the tape, at least until you reach the other anchor end. Which also requires no tension. This ensures that the tape achieves the same elasticity as the skin.
Who Does Kinesiology Tape Benefit?
The kinesiology tape can be used by anyone; young athletes with overused or injured muscles, elderly persons with degenerative joint diseases, construction workers, factory workers, secretaries or people who sit and work at a desk for long periods every day, athletes, exercise enthusiasts, people with bad posture, etc.
Despite having this wide range of users, there are still cases where kinesiology tape should not be applied. For example, people with severe allergies to any of the tape content should under no condition use the tape. The tape also can’t be used on open wounds and by patients suffering from uncontrolled diabetes, active cancer, or deep vein thrombosis.
Purchase K-Tape From Hampton Adams
The Hampton Adams Kinesiology tape has helped a lot of athletes and people recover and stabilize their injuries. These people have had our tape with them through their recovery from sports-related injuries, joint, and muscle pains, posture problems, and any other muscle or tendon injury you could think of. Even pregnant women and those on their menstrual cycle use kinesiology tapes to provide muscle relief. Check out our tapes today!
