With Lockdown lifting on 12 April, I wanted to put together a series of articles to spotlight some of the different treatments on offer at Body Equilibrium Wellbeing. This first article focusses on the use of kinesiology tape (K tape), and specifically, the brand RockTape which I use in the clinic.
You may have seen images of athletes wearing brightly coloured fabric tape on their legs, shoulders, or backs. In fact, these days it’s used so much that you may have even seen it on the runner who went past you in the park earlier. Or, you may have tried it yourself and not really been sure about how and why it worked, but you just know that it helped.
You know when you bang your elbow or stub your toe, your first reaction is to rub it? For some reason, it helps and although it many still ache, it doesn’t feel quite so bad. Well, without going into crazy amounts of science, this relates to the pain signals traveling to the brain. When we interfere with those signals, we can change how the body interprets that pain. RockTape has a similar effect. Applying it to places where there are injuries, we can effectively, turn down ‘the pain “volume” that your body hears’. Therefore, it’s no surprise that so many people think that RockTape is ‘magic’! For me personally, RockTape absolutely saved my quads when I was marathon training. After some long runs, I could barely walk down the stairs without it on, but once I had applied it, I felt so much more flexible, the pain become far more manageable, and longterm, it helped delay fatigue.
RockTape can decompress areas of swelling and inflammation. When it is applied to the skin, it has a microscopic lifting effect upon the the skin and the layers beneath. This means that the by-products created by the inflammation can be removed more quickly.
When we injure a part of the body, say the ankle, movement in other parts of the body – say the hip – compensates and changes. Short term, that probably doesn’t seem that bad, but long term it can lead to altered movement pattern or at worse, maybe even another injury. RockTape helps bring the dormant muscles back to life and helps calm down the overactive muscles. So it can help your body coordinate movement as if it wasn’t injured or hurt, which means it can start to heal properly.
If you’ve ever used sports tape before, you’ll know that certain tapes such as zinc oxide tapes are designed to hold a joint rigid and therefore, lack any movement. In contrast, RockTape allows you full movement of the taped area and, because of that, it can help distribute forces to nearby areas such as ligaments, fascia, and even bones.
I’m also happy to announce that I will now be stocking RockTape for sale in the clinic so you can try it out.
Have a read of another article on RockTape here.
Quotes from: https://www.rocktape.co.uk/how-it-works/