Most manual therapists have traditionally been taught a very mechanical model when it comes to soft tissue therapy. Recently, many people would agree that the benefits we achieve with soft tissue therapy can be attributed to both the neurological effect as well as the biomechanical effect. This more modern approach can often mean that we can have significant effects with our clients using less forceful hands-on therapy than we have traditionally used. This is great news for those clients that don’t particularly like or respond to forceful, heavy hands-on treatment, but it’s also great news for ..read more

Kinesiology tape is typically applied with a small amount of stretch on the tape, but recommendations vary for how much stretch to apply.  Whilst the optimal amount of tape tension will most likely vary from person to person, a recent US study tried to compare the effect of different tape tensions on pain perception in a group of healthy university students. The study utilised “Quantitative Sensory Testing” (QST), which is an evidence-based way of studying pain perception and relief with various interventions including physical to medication-based.  The QST techniques used in this pa ..read more

This study from Iran set out to investigate the effects of using kinesiology tape on dynamic knee control in a group of female athletes.  An increase in knee valgus in landing is thought to increase the risk of many knee injuries such as ACL and MCL injuries.  Generally, females are thought to be at a biomechanical disadvantage with regards to knee valgus control and are also more likely to suffer knee injuries.  It is believed that the hip external rotation muscles are important to help to control the femur, whilst the tibialis anterior may be important in controlling the posit ..read more

Knee osteoarthritis (OA) can be a debilitating condition resulting in pain, loss of mobility and a decrease in independence.  Exercise, in particular strengthening exercise, is one of the key components of knee OA management.  However, often the knee pain that is experienced by the patient limits their ability to complete the desired exercises.  This is where kinesiology tape can be a fantastic adjunct to their rehabilitation. A recent systematic review looked at 18 studies published between 2014 and 2019.  This collated the effects of kinesiology taping for knee OA for 876 ..read more

Kinesiology tape is typically applied with a small amount of stretch on the tape, but recommendations vary for how much stretch to apply.  Whilst the optimal amount of tape tension will most likely vary from person to person, a recent US study tried to compare the effect of different tape tensions on pain perception in a group of healthy university students. The study utilised “Quantitative Sensory Testing” (QST), which is an evidence-based way of studying pain perception and relief with various interventions including physical to medication-based.  The QST techniques used in this pa ..read more

This study from Iran set out to investigate the effects of using kinesiology tape on dynamic knee control in a group of female athletes.  An increase in knee valgus in landing is thought to increase the risk of many knee injuries such as ACL and MCL injuries.  Generally, females are thought to be at a biomechanical disadvantage with regards to knee valgus control and are also more likely to suffer knee injuries.  It is believed that the hip external rotation muscles are important to help to control the femur, whilst the tibialis anterior may be important in controlling the posit ..read more

Knee osteoarthritis (OA) can be a debilitating condition resulting in pain, loss of mobility and a decrease in independence.  Exercise, in particular strengthening exercise, is one of the key components of knee OA management.  However, often the knee pain that is experienced by the patient limits their ability to complete the desired exercises.  This is where kinesiology tape can be a fantastic adjunct to their rehabilitation. A recent systematic review looked at 18 studies published between 2014 and 2019.  This collated the effects of kinesiology taping for knee OA for 876 ..read more

Knee pain and the effects of kinesiology tape have been well studied with many articles showing a benefit in pain levels and daily function with tape applied.  There have been two recent articles that have added to the evidence base for using kinesiology tape for people with knee pain associated with osteoarthritis (OA). One study by Park et al, looked at the pain and function in a small group of 10 people aged 60+ with reported pain of more than 5/10 on the VAS scale.  The study design was a crossover trial, with the participants randomly allocated to completing the test conditions with or wi ..read more

Persistent low back pain is a very common problem worldwide costing millions of dollars with a huge variety of interventions being used, often without much success.  Kinesiology taping is a relatively cheap, non-invasive modality that can be used as an adjunct to exercise in this patient cohort.  A Turkish study recently set out to test which application method of kinesiology tape gave superior results in those with persistent low back pain, alongside a generic exercise program. The study included 125 people with persistent low back pain of at least 3 months duration.  They divided the subject ..read more

Kinesiology tape is a divisive subject. The mention of it tends to send some physio-centric social media channels into meltdown!  But I believe that many therapists have formed opinions of kinesiology tape based on outdated claims that have their origins in the 1970s.  We know a lot more about pain science and the role of touch since then, but unfortunately many of the original inaccurate hypotheses still sour therapist’s opinions of the use of kinesiology tape.  In our RockTape courses, we base our curriculum on the most up-to-date research in both the pain science and kinesiology tape fields ..read more