Facilitatory and inhibitory effects of Kinesio tape: Fact or fad?

NewsBot · Feb 5, 2015

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Facilitatory and inhibitory effects of Kinesio tape: Fact or fad?
Z. Cai, I. Au, W.W. An, R.T. Cheung
Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport; Article in Press

Objectives
Kinesio tape (KT) is a commonly used intervention in sports. It claims to be able to alter the muscle activity, in terms of both facilitation and inhibition, by certain application methods. This study compared the neuromuscular activity of the wrist extensor muscles and maximal grip strength with facilitatory, inhibitory KT, and tapeless condition in healthy adults who were ignorant about KT. Potential placebo effects were eliminated by deception.

Design
Randomized deceptive trial

Methods
33 participants performed maximal grip assessment in a randomly assigned order of three taping conditions: true facilitatory KT, inhibitory KT, and no tape. The participants were blindfolded during the evaluation. Under the pretense of applying a series of adhesive muscle sensors, KT was applied to their wrist extensor muscles of the dominant forearm in the first two conditions. Within-subject comparisons of normalized root mean square of the wrist extensors electromyographic activity and maximal grip strength were conducted across three taping conditions.

Results
31 out of 33 enlisted participants were confirmed to be ignorant about KT. No significant differences were found in the maximum grip strength (p = 0.394), electromyographic activity (p = 0.276), and self-perceived performance (p = 0.825) between facilitatory KT, inhibitory KT, and tapeless conditions.

Conclusions
Neither facilitatory nor inhibitory effects were observed between different application techniques of KT in healthy participants. Clinically, alternative method should be used for muscle activity modulation.
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Admin2 · Feb 5, 2015

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NewsBot · Oct 1, 2016

Optimizing ankle performance when taped: Effects of kinesiology and athletic taping on proprioception in full weight-bearing stance.
Long Z et al
J Sci Med Sport. 2016 Sep 16. pii: S1440-2440(16)30184-0. doi: 10.1016/j.jsams.2016.08.024.

OBJECTIVES:
To explore the effects of kinesiology taping (KT) and athletic taping (AT) on ankle proprioception when tested in functional, full weight-bearing stance.
DESIGN:
Cross-sectional study.
METHODS:
Twenty-four healthy university students participated. Proprioception was measured using the Active Movement Extent Discrimination Apparatus (AMEDA). The three testing conditions: no-taping, KT, AT, and foot tested were randomly assigned. Perceived comfort, support and proprioceptive performance under two taping conditions were recorded.
RESULTS:
Proprioceptive discrimination scores with 95% CIs for no-taping, KT and AT were 0.81 (0.79-0.84), 0.81 (0.79-0.83), and 0.79 (0.77-0.81). Repeated measures ANOVA showed neither any significant difference associated with taping compared with no-taping (p=0.30), nor any difference between KT and AT (p=0.19). The group was then divided, according to their no-taping scores, into two sub-groups: with scores below the no-taping mean (n=13), and above the mean (n=11). ANOVA revealed a significant interaction (p=0.008) indicating that above-average no-taping performers proprioception scores were worse when taped, whereas below-average performers improved. For both KT and AT, only ratings of perceived comfort when taped were significantly associated with actual proprioceptive performance (both r>0.44, p≤0.03). Other perception ratings (support and performance) were significantly inter-correlated (both r>0.42, p<0.04), but neither was significantly correlated with actual performance (both p>0.31).
CONCLUSIONS:
Taping of the foot and ankle may amplify sensory input in a way that enhances proprioception of poor performers but produces an input overload that impairs proprioception in those who originally performed well when no-taping. Screening of ankle proprioception may identify those who would benefit most from taping.
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