Should You “Tape” Like an Olympian?

As you watch the Olympics from Rio, you may be saying, “why are some of them taped up like that?” Just as likely, you may be saying, “Who cares? It looks so cool, where can I get some of that?”

Known as kinesiology tape, or k-tape, it was developed by Japanese chiropractor and acupuncturist Dr. Kenzo Kase in 1979. Kase was looking to create something that would sustain the benefits of massage therapy and chiropractic care for his patients in between sessions. Most recently, it has become colorful, which makes for both brilliant marketing as well as an even more festive Olympiad.

Kinesiotape is currently the Kleenex of therapeutic tapes, that is, the brand is so well-identified with its product it's become nearly a synonym. But a number of other companies make competing brands, and a cottage industry has arisen around training people how to properly apply k-tape; it's not something an athlete can do for herself.

The tape as now marketed is a thin elastic cotton adhesive that comes in a variety of sizes and tension strengths. Its proponents believe that it facilitates joint motion and “lifts” up the skin in such a way as to create an interstitial space below it which increases blood flow and the circulation of lymphatic fluids.  The presence of this interstitial is also supposed to decrease pressure on the joint's pain receptors. Kinesiotape's website says their tape "alleviates discomfort and facilitates lymphatic drainage by microscopically lifting the skin." They say that it can be "applied over muscles to reduce pain and inflammation, relax overused or tired muscles, and support muscles in movement on a 24-hour-a-day basis."

What's the science? We're not sure there is any, actually. Overall, the studies have not been kind. Where there are some slight benefits, the research shows there is not much difference between k-taping and the application of more traditional athletic tape and bandages. The British Journal of Sports Medicine reviewed k-taping as better than nothing, calling it “superior to minimal intervention for pain relief.”

But athletics at the Olympic level is almost as much about the mental game as it as the physical one, and many of the competitions mark the space between victory and obscurity in fractions of a second. In this rarefied air, the so-called “placebo effect” is not to be undervalued. Steve Harridge, a professor of human and applied physiology at King's College London, told Reuters that "The fact that athletes think it's going to do them some good can help in a psychological way." But he's not drinking the k-tape Kool-Aid when it comes to any physical boosts, noting “to my knowledge there's no firm scientific evidence to suggest it will enhance muscle performance."