S E9: Ep 9 – Kinesio Tape 101: What is it and does it work?

Hello and welcome to the Pain Free Living Podcast.

My name's Bob Allen and my aim is to help you to live pain free.

Let's begin.

Hello and welcome to the Pain Free Living Podcast.

My name's Bob Allen and this is Louise Gordon and I'm an osteopath.

And Louise, what do you do?

Well, I'm not an osteopath.

I am a change coach and consultant.

So I work with businesses and individuals, helping them to navigate change.

And as part of that, I enjoy asking lots of questions.

Yes, you do, Louise.

And I enjoy answering those questions, and that's why we make it a good team.

So today we are going to be talking about kinesio tape, or K tape or kinesiology tape, depending on what you read.

And.

Yeah.

So over to you, Louise.

What are we going to talk about?

Why are we going to talk about it?

Okay, so I'm going to start off, actually, before we get into the questions.

So I have obviously googled kinesiology to see that, what the definition is.

And the definition is that it's a study of the anatomy, physiology and body.

Movement, I would say.

Correct, because you probably are, because you googled it.

So there we go.

That's.

That's the definition of kinesiology.

So then we have something cannot come called kinesiology tape.

And Louise was looking at the floor because.

Because we have some kinesiology tape.

This is what it looks like.

It's stretchy, it's got paper backing to it.

And depending on what you read or what you look up, it's a miracle cure for every muscle and joint pain going or it's actually quite beneficial for certain muscle and joint problems.

Is it, is it actually elasticated, stretchy?

Yeah, yeah, it's got paper backing so you can't stretch it.

Got you.

Okay.

Yeah.

It's like a band aid.

Yeah, I was gonna say that.

That was how I was going to define it as.

It's like a band aid.

It is.

It's like a band aid, but actually it.

It has different properties too.

And we're going to go into how that.

How it works.

So, Bob, what is kinesio tape?

I just heard it.

How would you use it?

Use it for hurty bits.

That's what you do.

Okay, serious answer.

Kinesiology tape, to give it its full title, was developed by a Dr.

Kenzo Kaze in the 70s.

Sorry, it's not on your bit of paper.

I've got it down here in the 70s and it's used for muscle and joint problems.

It has many uses, but like I said, typically for me I use it where somebody needs a bit of support to get them through the day.

So if they so taken it in conjunction with things like anti inflammatories, it can significantly reduce pain.

It's a temporary solution, but when it works, it works really well.

Sometimes it doesn't, but as long as you choose the right type of condition for it, it can work incredibly well.

And it's also the only thing that I've found that works for people with rib pain or rib issues, particularly fractured ribs.

Because it's soft and it's stretchy, it can give ribs just that little bit of extra support and it can make a massive difference to how comfortable people feel with it.

And it's the only thing I've found that works.

How does the kinesiology tape work then?

Depending on what you read and where you read it?

Some There are lots, there are lots of research papers that say it doesn't work and there are lots of research papers that say it does.

And like I said, so, you know, the jury is still out, but in my experience it can work really, really well.

So there are three main ways that they.

That the research says that it works.

So the first thing that it does is changes tension in the skin.

So if it's properly applied, it alters the sensation in this, it alters the tension in the skin which then increases blood flow, lymphatic flow, and helps helps in.

In, helps in recovery basically.

Because if you.

So any, any issue any injury is going to.

The more, the more you can improve bl.

The more you can improve lymphatic flow, the more you can improve nutrients going to the injury, taking toxins, et cetera, away from the injury, the quicker the recovery.

So that's one aspect of it.

The other thing it does, it gives a little bit of support to the joint.

So again, applied properly, it can reduce tension in the.

Reduce muscle tension and reducing muscle tension.

And also by reducing muscle tension, it can also affect the pain receptors in the skin.

So it can reduce pain that way.

The third approach, which I, I haven't used it for, but like I said, the re when I was doing some digging around about all the ways that it can work is that it works on proprioception.

So proprioception is where it's your awareness of where your body is in time and space.

So it's that, that ability to close your eyes, touch your nose, touch your ears, you don't have to see where your hands are.

You just know where they are.

It's supposed to improve proprioception and elite athletes will, or.

I don't know if they still do it, they used to use it to try and give them that little edge.

Because if you can improve your coordination, if you can improve your joint movement, then it may be that extra little fraction of a second that wins you that race.

So it tends to be, or tended to be used for that.

Now, I don't work with elite athletes.

I've never used it to change proprioception.

But.

But you know that, like I said, that's one of the things that I've read that it does.

Having said all of that, when I've used it, it's worked really, really well.

So actually, I don't care.

When do you use it then?

With clients, we'll use it to offload a joint.

So how it.

What I would do, say, for example, somebody was getting irritation in the long head of bicep in the shoulder.

What I.

What you do is you take the shoulder, you take the arm behind, so that puts the muscle on stretch, you apply the tape, then you bring the arm back around and you get a little bit of puckering on the tape, which is.

Which shows that it's.

It's altering the tension in the spin.

Yeah, yeah.

And it gives you those benefits I was talking about before.

So, yeah, like, it is my go to for rib issues because it's the only thing I found at works.

And it's one of the advantages of being somebody who doesn't work within that monster conglomerate called DNHS.

I don't have to wait for 50 committees to say, yeah, use that, because that works.

But I've seen people that have fractured ribs or they've had an accident where they've hurt the rib and they basically get.

If they go to the nhs, a, they'll get sent away with painkillers.

What?

They don't.

What?

Because it's not accepted within the nhs, they won't get taped up.

But like you said, I've treated people with rib issues, put the tape on and they've gone away relatively happy.

It makes it a lot more comfortable.

So, yeah, it's situations like that and.

I guess there's something as well around.

Post surgery or rehab, it can be used for providing some support to a joint.

So you've got the stretchy kinesio tone.

And then the alternative to that tends to be either a physical brace, so say it's an ankle problem, you can have a Physical brace that you put on the ankle and it will tend to restrict the movement in the ankle so it reduces range of movement and therefore pain.

What the kinesio tape does is it allows different, depending on.

So it's stretchy.

So depending on how much stretch you put through the tape, it can either be, it can either be changing the tension in the muscle or it can provide support for the muscle.

So the tighter you put it on, the more you move towards what we call zinc oxide tape or a brace which actually supports and restricts movement.

Okay.

But I don't, I don't use it for that.

I will use it for just giving it, giving the joint a little bit of support, taking some of the tension out of the muscle.

So particularly for a muscle strain, if you, if you can just offload some of that, some of that tension in the muscle by using the tape, then it can reduce pain and get, get people moving better, quicker.

Got you.

So are there any contraindications to using kinesiology tape?

Yeah, I mean, it's a similar sort of thing to band aids or elastoplasty you were talking about before.

So some people are just allergic to the adhesive.

So you wouldn't say.

You will always check to see if they're allergic to the adhesive in there.

It's a slightly different kind of adhesive to what you get in elastoblasts.

But if they're allergic to one, there's a good chance they're going to be allergic to another.

You wouldn't use it for an open wound, for example, you know, so a lot of it is things that you wouldn't normally put sticky stuff on anyway.

So like for older clients, I would be reluctant to use it just because the skin can be a little more fragile, you know, so there's certain, there's certain times that you wouldn't use it.

Clear times that you wouldn't use it.

But also I have found that for certain people, applying kinesiology can make the pain worse.

Very small minority of those people, and I don't know exactly why, but the good thing about it is that it will do its job while it's on.

If somebody says, yeah, that's really uncomfortable, then take it off and they're back to where they were.

So, yeah, as long as it's applied well and properly.

And you just ask people and say, yeah, we'll do this.

See how it feels.

If it starts to hurt or it starts to make things feel worse, take it off.

So, yeah.

And can people self help with kinesiology tape or do they need a professional therapist to administer it?

Right, okay.

So from a bank balance point of view, I would say they absolutely need to go and see a professional because we know how to do it properly.

From a real world point of view, I would say that there are video out there that will show you exactly how to apply the tape.

In fact, there's a couple.

I'll put those in the show notes.

One of the guys that's huge on YouTube is he used to be one of my tutors at uni and he's done loads and loads of, loads and loads of videos on how to apply the tape.

The only thing I would say is that most of the time you need somebody to apply it for you because you need to be able to apply both ends of it.

You need to be able to apply stretch to it.

Knees, you can self tape.

But generally speaking, if it's a shoulder or, or another body part, then you need to have somebody who can, who can apply it for you.

But there are, there are lots of YouTube videos out there that show you exactly how it's done.

So the, the guy I'm talking about is John Gibbons.

He's got a massive following on YouTube and that's because he is good rock tape who make their own version of kinesiology tape.

There are.

So there are a few different sources of information, but yeah, people absolutely can apply themselves.

I guess the, what will make the difference though is knowing where you're applying it and why you're applying it.

Yeah, but this is one of, this is one of the joys of John Givens tapes is that he, he explains where you apply the tape, how you apply it, how much stretch you put through the tape, etc.

Etc.

So if you follow, if, if the person that's demonstrating how to use the tape actually explains what they're doing while they're doing it, that's what you want to watch.

You don't just want to watch a video of somebody sticking a tape on because if you get it right, it'll work.

If you get it wrong, most of the time it's not going to make any difference.

Occasionally it can make the pain worse.

So yeah, I would always say, you know, check the video.

If the guy explains what he's doing, why he's doing it, how he's applying it, how much stretch to put through it, that's what you want.

You don't just want somebody who shows you.

Yeah, you put it here and you put it here and then you just Put it on.

So, yes.

Does it work for posture?

It can be used for posture, but I wouldn't personally use it.

So, you know, you get these posture brace things, and this is another topic for another podcast at some point.

But, you know, you get those kind of like shoulder.

Yeah, you know those shoulder.

Yeah, yeah.

So you can use kinesio tape for.

For postural.

Postural correction.

I don't want to say that because that's not.

It's not a thing, but it is because larger people make money out of it.

So, yeah, you can use kinesio tape to help.

Need a lot of tape to do that?

Not really.

I mean, it's quite straightforward.

What you would do is you'd put some, say, at the center of the shoulder blade and you'd.

You'd get somebody to.

To lean forward, forward, and then you'd apply the tape, anchor it here.

And then when they're okay.

Oh, actually, no, it's the wrong way around.

No, you get them to lean back, apply the tape, and then when they.

When they're upright, the tape is slack, but if they lean forward, it puts more tension through the tape and it just reminds them that they're leaning forward.

I'm not a massive advocate of that because I think it's better to work with people's awareness of.

This is how you.

When you're sitting at a desk, this is how you want to sit.

But yeah, as a little reminder, it can work.

But, yeah, those, those shoulder brace support thingies, I do not recommend at all.

And like I said, I'll do a podcast on why I don't recommend them.

Okay.

Great stuff.

Thank you, Bob.

I've learned quite a bit about the kinesiology tape today.

Okay, We've come to the end of the episode.

Hope you enjoyed it, Hope you learned a few things, and please tell all your friends like and subscribe and I'll see you next time.