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

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• 作者：C. Cai ; I.P.H. Au ; W. An ; R.T.H. Cheung ; ^{roy.cheung@polyu.edu.hk" class="auth_mail" title="E-mail the corresponding author}
• 关键词：Taping ; Performance ; Strength
• 刊名：Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport
• 出版年：2016
• 出版时间：February 2016
• 年：2016
• 卷：19
• 期：2
• 页码：109-112
• 全文大小：642 K

文摘

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.