Properties and Benefits of Kinesio Tape

Elas­tic ther­a­peu­tic tape, also called kine­si­ol­o­gy tape or kine­sio tape, is an elas­tic cot­ton band with acrylic adhe­sive that is used to treat pain from ath­let­ic injuries and oth­er phys­i­cal dis­or­ders. Research in peo­ple with chron­ic mus­cu­loskele­tal pain shows that an elas­tic band can help relieve pain.

The med­ical and sci­en­tif­ic skep­ti­cal com­mu­ni­ties have appre­ci­at­ed the ben­e­fits of CT and have rec­og­nized it as one of the con­ve­nient ways to alle­vi­ate pain after an injury. The prod­uct was devel­oped by Keen­zo Kase, a Japan­ese-Amer­i­can chi­ro­prac­tor in the 1970s. The com­pa­ny he found­ed sells vari­ants under the brand name “Kine­sio” and takes legal action to pre­vent the word from being used as a gener­ic trade­mark.

The surge in pop­u­lar­i­ty was the result of the prod­uct being intro­duced to Olympic ath­letes at the 2008 Sum­mer Olympics in Bei­jing and the Lon­don Sum­mer Olympics in Lon­don. Mas­sive expo­sure to the gen­er­al pub­lic came about thanks to Ker­ry Walsh, who wore a rib­bon on his shoul­der and dom­i­nat­ed the 2008 beach vol­ley­ball tour­na­ment. You can read more about the prop­er­ties and pur­pose of kine­sio tape on the page http://athleticmed.ru/kak_eto_rabotaet/bbtape, where you can also choose the patch that suits you.

The prod­uct is a thin elas­tic cot­ton band that can stretch up to 140% of its orig­i­nal length. As a result, if the tape is applied stretched more than its nor­mal length, it will “shrink” after appli­ca­tion and there­fore cre­ate a trac­tion force on the skin. This resilient prop­er­ty allows for a sig­nif­i­cant­ly increased range of motion com­pared to tra­di­tion­al white ath­let­ic tape and can also be applied per­ma­nent­ly before re-appli­ca­tion.

Designed to imi­tate human skin with approx­i­mate­ly the same thick­ness and elas­tic prop­er­ties, the tape is stretched by 30–40% in the lon­gi­tu­di­nal direc­tion. This is a latex-free mate­r­i­al with an acrylic adhe­sive that acti­vates when heat­ed. Cot­ton fibers allow evap­o­ra­tion and dry faster result­ing in longer wear up to 4 days. Accord­ing to the man­u­fac­tur­ers, the effect on the body depends on the loca­tion on the body and how it is applied, the direc­tion of stretch­ing, shape and loca­tion.