Sports Taping and Strapping

Physio Taping Service Adelaide

If you’ve ever watched professional sports you would have seen the many different types of physio sports tape that is available these days. But did you know, they’re also good for injuries, reducing inflammation and supporting people with arthritis? If you think you need sports strapping you might be asking yourself, which tape is right for my injury or issue?

Sports taping, sometimes known as sports strapping, is used for many different reasons. At City Physiotherapy in Adelaide, we may use it to limit and restrict your range of movement of an injured body region, usually around joints, helping to reduce or to control the pain of an injured or affected body part. Apart from sports injuries, strapping can also be used to provide support during pregnancy, postural pain, pinched nerve referred pain, arthritis, to reduce inflammation and bruising as well as controlling muscle spasms and cramping.

Our Physiotherapists are skilled in treating your injuries based on an overall assessment of your specific issues. We will choose the right tape for your injury. If it is simple enough we can teach you how to do this at home between your physio treatments. If it’s a bit tricky you’ll need to come back for the re-strapping service we offer for our current patients.

 

Sports strapping keeps you safe while you play in Adelaide CBD

 

Which type is right for my sporting injuries?

Rigid strapping tape

The rigid strapping tape has minimal elastic properties. We use it mainly to reduce unwanted movement in your injured joint by reinforcing that joint and providing additional support to your affected structures. It is primarily used prior to and during sport competitions and to protect your joints in the acute phase of an injury.

Rigid Sports Tape – When do we use it?

We use this type of tape when we want to reduce unwanted movement or to offload, compress or support structures in your body that are weakened by injury. It is believed that you can decrease the reoccurrence of an injury due to improved proprioception from taping an injured body part. What does this mean? The tape on your skin increases the sensation to the nerves in this area.

Proprioception is your brain and nervous systems ability to understand where that body part is in relation to the rest of your body and what is around you.

When we get injured our brain’s ability to do this is decreased. Sports taping helps your brain and nervous system to put you in “protect mode” and therefore reduces the reoccurrence of injuries.

Commonly used in the sporting field, rigid strapping tape can be used to strap most peripheral joints. It is a common misconception that the majority of ankle sprain injuries are caused by lateral movements. Studies have been shown that ankle injuries are most commonly caused during landing after jumping. Strapping (or bracing) both ankles for training and games has been shown in both AFL Football and Basketball to reduce the recurrence of ankle injuries.

This tape is not hypoallergenic so if your skin reacts to the adhesive you may require a hypoallergenic under wrap tape to be applied to your skin prior to the application of the rigid strapping tape.

Rock / Active / Power / Kinesio Tape

Kinesio taping (K-tape) was developed by a Japanese therapist to be used between treatment sessions. K-tape is 100% elastic and made from a polymer blend which gives it its elastic properties. The elastic features of the tape allow it to ‘bunch’ and to lift the first layer of the skin away from the muscle fibres at a microscopic level. K-tape can be used pre-competition, during competition or post-competition depending on the desired outcome, as well as for alignment, rehabilitation and pain relief.

This tape is hypoallergenic and water-resistant, so you can usually wear it for up to 5 days.

Sports Taping Adelaide

When do we use it?

Pre-competition: Used in a pre-competition setting (usually in instances of sports or athleticism) to support hands-on physiotherapy treatment.

During competition: Used for short-term relief to assist you to finish an event before seeking further treatment. We apply different amounts of tension allowing us to use it for different purposes. The more tension, the greater the stability it will provide. K-tape can also be used to reduce your range of movement (ROM) in an injured or weakened body part.

Post competition: It can be used to restrict ROM, and pain relief. It should in no way be used as a primary source of treatment post-injury during competition.

Alignment: it can be used to increase alignment in a joint by providing greater proprioception to the injured structure.

Rehabilitation: it has been shown that using K-tape and the lifting effect that it has on the skin opens the fascial tissues to allow greater lymphatic drainage and increased blood flow. This can reduce the amount of swelling and inflammation, whilst also reducing muscle fatigue.

Pain relief: it allows greater fluid circulation thus reducing pain. K-tape intercepts pain signals in the body reducing the feelings of pain.

If your injury requires taping your Physiotherapist will discuss this with you as part of your treatment.

If you are currently being treated as a patient at City Physiotherapy and you require your Physio to reapply new tape between your Physio treatment sessions or prior to participating in sport, a run, a competition or training session then you may book a very short appointment. We only charge you a small fee for this service, which includes the cost of the tape.

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