Is It Beneficial To Tape Joints For Workouts?

It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!

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In cases where we’ve already covered something, we might link to what we wrote before, but will always be happy to revisit any of our topics again in the future too—there’s always more to say!

No question/request too big or small 😎

❝Is it worth it to use tape E.g Kinesio Tape on joints when exercising?❞

The short answer is “no“.

First of all, for any unfamiliar, Kinesio tape is a cotton-based, adhesive tape developed in the 1970s (by a chiropractor*) that’s claimed to lift your skin, stimulate sensory receptors, and improve local circulation, boost range of motion, increase strength, and reduce pain.

*And for any wondering how reliable chiropractic is, check out: Is Chiropractic All It’s Cracked Up To Be?

Or perhaps you’d rather read the founder (of chiropractic)’s own words, from when he started it as a religious movement based on it coming to him in a vision and in which he compares himself to Jesus: D.D. Palmer’s Religion of Chiropractic

Anyway, back to real science…

Does the tape do those things it claims? Well, the most commonly observed effects are skin irritation (40% of cases) and itching (30% of cases), which is understandable from a sticky tape that yes, lifts your skin, because that’s what sticky tape does, and stimulates sensory receptors, because that’s what anything touching you does.

So those are some things it does do.

There is no evidence we know of to suggest it improves circulation, though. Nor has it been clearly shown to improve range of motion, it does not increase strength at all, and pain reduction seems to be mostly comparable to placebo.

When looking for studies, about the most positive we can find is this one paid for by the company itself, that found a mixed set of results in a very small (n=15) study:

❝There were no significant differences among the results obtained using the four conditions for SEBT (anterior p=0.0699; anteromedial p=0.126; medial p=0.550; posteromedial p=0.587; posterior p=0.754; posterolateral p=0.907; lateral p=0.124; anterolateral p=0.963) and the KAT dynamic measurement (p=0.388). Faster performance times were measured with KT® and athletic tape in single limb hurdle test when compared to placebo and non-taped conditions (Athletic taping- placebo taping: p=0.03; athletic taping- non tape p=0.016;KT®- Placebo taping p=0.042; KT®-Non tape p=0.016). In standing heel rise test and vertical jump test, athletic taping led to decreased performance. (Standing heel rise test: Athletic taping- placebo taping p=0.035; athletic taping- non tape p=0.043; athletic tape- KT® p<0.001) (Vertical jump test: Athletic taping- placebo taping p=0.002: athletic taping- non tape p=0.002; KT®- athletic tape p<0.001)❞

Read in full: EFFECT OF ATHLETIC TAPING AND KINESIOTAPING® ON MEASUREMENTS OF FUNCTIONAL PERFORMANCE IN BASKETBALL PLAYERS WITH CHRONIC INVERSION ANKLE SPRAINS

As for strength, a much more robust study was done, a meta-analysis of 19 studies, comprising data of 530 subjects and 48 pairwise comparisons of muscle strength, and it concluded:

❝While the application of Kinesio tapes may have some therapeutic benefits, the usage of these tapes does not promote strength gains in healthy adults.❞

Read in full: Effects of Kinesio® taping on skeletal muscle strength—A meta-analysis of current evidence

So, what are those therapeutic benefits that “may” exist? Well, when scientists say “may”, what they generally mean is “our own work has not disproven it”, which in this case “may have some therapeutic benefits”, means “our study about strength gains did not prove that the tape has no other benefits whatsoever”, which thus becomes something a “we haven’t disproven Russel’s Teapot” statement.

Let’s look at pain relief though. A systematic review found:

❝There is insufficient evidence suggesting that Kinesio taping is superior to sham taping in improving pain and disability.❞

Read in full: Kinesio taping for chronic low back pain: A systematic review

Now, most of these papers offer small concession here and there. It may do this, it may do that, it got a slight improvement in range of motion with a tiny sample size and questionable methodology, that sort of thing.

A very recent overview of systematic reviews addressed this sort of thing, looking at 128 systematic reviews covering 310 randomized trials with 15,812 participants across 29 musculoskeletal conditions, and finding:

• Kinesio taping has little or no meaningful effect on muscle strength, range of motion, or disease-specific symptoms across most timeframes.
• Kinesio tape is only marginally better than sham taping, and this difference may not be clinically meaningful.
• Most reviews (78%) were judged to have critically low methodological quality, with high variability and overlap.

You can read that paper in full, here: Effectiveness and clinical relevance of kinesio taping in musculoskeletal disorders: an overview of systematic reviews and evidence mapping

The last thing we’ll say on Kinesio taping here is to mention this bit of the tape’s not-too-glowing resume:

Athletic Tape Maker Feels the Pain, Settles Misleading Advertising Suit

What to do instead?

You might want to consider:

• What To Eat, Take, And Do Before A Workout
• When Bad Joints Stop You From Exercising (5 Things To Change)
• Overdone It? How To Speed Up Recovery After Exercise

Take care!