The Effectiveness of Kinesio Taping in Recovering From Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness: A Crossover Study

Abstract

Context: Kinesio taping (KT) is a popular taping technique used in the recovery process; however, in the relevant literature, there is no real consensus on its efficacy. Objective: To investigate whether rectus femoris KT application after delayed onset muscle soreness enhances recovery of muscle soreness, edema, and physical performance. Participants: A total of 22 healthy amateur male athletes participated in this study. Design: Randomized, crossover study. Setting: Human performance laboratory of the university. Interventions: Participants performed an exercise protocol inducing delayed onset muscle soreness. They accomplished 2 distinct trials, with or without KT. The washout period between trials was 6 weeks. For the KT condition, KT inhibition technique was used and applied immediately after exercise bilaterally on rectus femoris. Main Outcome Measures: Range of motion, muscle soreness, and edema were measured at baseline, 30 minutes, 24, 48, and 72 hours postexercise. Dynamic balance, sprint, and horizontal jump were evaluated at similar time frame except for 30-minute postexercise. Results: The findings showed that there were no significant differences between the KT group (KTG) and control group for all outcome variables (P > .05). Muscle soreness returned to baseline values 72 hours postexercise only within the KTG (P > .05). Although the horizontal jump performance decreased substantially from baseline to 24 and 48 hours postexercise only within the control group (P < .05), the performance increased significantly from 24 to 72 hours postexercise within the KTG (P < .05). Balance increased significantly from baseline to 48 hours postexercise (P < .05) in both groups. Balance also increased significantly from baseline to 72 hours postexercise only within the KTG (P < .05). The effect size of soreness which is our primary outcome was large in both groups (r > .5). Conclusions: KT is favorable in the recovery of muscle soreness after delayed onset muscle soreness. KT has beneficial effects on horizontal jump performance and dynamic balance.

Effects of Kinesio Tape on Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

“…Eight studies involving a total of 289 participants from three Chinese [ 22 , 26 , 27 ] and five English articles [ 4 , 5 , 23 – 25 ] [ 4 , 9 , 11 , 12 , 28 ] were included in the final analyses. The included studies were conducted in China ( n = 3, 37.5%), Thailand ( n = 1, 12.5%), Turkey ( n = 1, 12.5%), the Republic of Korea ( n = 1, 12.5%), Cyprus ( n = 1, 12.5%), and Poland ( n = 1, 12.5%).…”

Effect of Different Kinesio Taping Interventions on the Local Thresholds of Current Perception and Pressure Pain in Healthy Adults

“…They argued that this increase in PPT values is related to the reduction of muscle and fascia tension. In previous studies, KT intervention exhibited good clinical efficacy in alleviating common musculoskeletal disorders, such as delayed muscle pain, knee osteoarthritis pain, low back pain in pregnancy and mechanical neck pain (Saavedra-Hernández et al, 2012;Kaplan et al, 2016;Kakar et al, 2019;Kirmizigil et al, 2019). The present study further suggested that this clinical efficacy is possibly related to the interference of KF intervention to the input of sensory information to C nerve fibers, resulting in the thin nonmyelinated nerve fibers in the human skin to exhibit a dull response to pain, thereby inducing nociceptive pain relief.…”

“…Subsequently, mechanical stimulation of the skin through KT increases the afferent stimulation of large-diameter nerve fibers and reduces the afferent input received by smalldiameter nerve fibers, such as nociceptors, thereby reducing pain sensation (i.e., gate theory) (Thelen et al, 2008;Pamuk and Yucesoy, 2015). Afterward, KT increases blood circulation and muscle temperature by stimulating the vasomotor reflex, and the associated increase in metabolic activity may reduce pain (Kirmizigil et al, 2019;Liu et al, 2020). Finally, owing to the sense of stability and security generated by KT, the psychologically expected response of the subjects may increase, thereby inducing placebo effects (Mak et al, 2019;Yin and Wang, 2020).…”

“…However, this series of processes is only a hypothesis deduced from experimentally observed phenomena. Moreover, the current methods for assessing pain are merely functional scales or visual analog scores (VAS) (Parreira Pdo et al, 2014;Boobphachart et al, 2017;Kakar et al, 2019;Kirmizigil et al, 2019;Rahlf et al, 2019). Experimental results reported in the literature are subjective, variable, and uncertain and thus cannot provide an objective and quantitative standard for pain assessment.…”

Kinesiology Tape: A Descriptive Survey of Healthcare Professionals in the United States

“…[32][33][34] For post-exercise soreness, several researchers have documented that KT may diminish the effects of delayed onset of muscle soreness (DOMS) after intense exercise. [45][46][47][48] For neuro-sensory feedback and muscle re-education, there are mixed results in the literature. Two studies compared KT versus placebo on knee joint position sense in healthy subjects; 49,50 a significant group differences was not found in either study, questioning the efficacy of KT for this type of intervention.…”