Athletic Tape Info Center

“Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.”
Lance Armstrong

Athletes deal with pain on a regular basis. The types of pain, however, can vary dramatically. There is the excruciating, but temporary pain of intense exertion that all competitive athletes endure every time they train. This is often followed by the duller, but longer-lasting  pain of muscles and joints that have been pushed beyond their limits. The most frightening type of pain is the acute pain that accompanies a traumatic injury, and tells athletes that their lives are about to change, at least for a while. And finally, the most frustrating type of pain is chronic pain – long-lasting pain that continues after an injury has healed or is out of proportion to the severity of an actual injury.

While serious injuries usually require an athlete to take a break from training and/or competing for a period of time, many other types of pain do not actually require time away from a sport. Continuing to work through these pains, may be uncomfortable and distracting, but seldom causes additional damage to the body. In these situations, anything that can reduce or relieve the pain can actually accelerate the recovery process and help an athlete return to top form sooner.

Kinesiology Tape to the Rescue!
One of the hottest modalities in working through the pain is a special type of sports tape, generically referred to as kinesiology tape. The best known brands are Kinesio Tape (aka Kinesio Tex Tape) and SpiderTech Tape. Kinesiology tape is a thin, stretchy athletic tape, with approximately the same thickness, weight and elasticity as human skin.

When applied over a painful muscle or joint, it can be nothing short of miraculous in its ability to rapidly relieve pain, swelling and inflammation. There are different ways to apply kinesiology tape, depending on the desired outcome. For pain relief, the affected muscle is held in a stretched position, as the kinesiology tape is applied without any additional stretch in the tape. For a detailed discussion of the different types of kinesiology taping applications, see my four previous posts on the “big 4″ benefits of kinesiology taping.

So, here’s the bottom line on using kinesiology tape to relieve muscle and joint pain associated with overuse, chronic injuries and the like. When properly applied, it is one of the most effective pain relief modalities available today. There are no side-effects, it’s totally legal, and it’s really inexpensive! What more could a sore athlete ask for? Kinesiology sports tape is not available in stores, but it can be found online. Some good keywords to search for are kinesiology tape, precut kinesiology tape, SpiderTech Tape and Kinesio Tex Tape.