The Benefits of Kinesiology Tape, According to SpiderTech's Director of Education

The SpiderTech Kinesiology Tapes are an extremely versatile tool engineered to integrate with your body, making them an essential part of your training regime. Manufactured in Toronto, Canada, SpiderTech is the pioneer behind pre-cut kinesiology tape, offering the best water-resistant, latex-free, hypoallergenic, professional grade products. SpiderTech has worked with top athletes, Olympians, and physiotherapists to craft the most comprehensive solutions to the most common injuries, simplifying your recovery process.  

Unlike traditional taping, which can involve endless hours of education on application, SpiderTech is unique in that they have taken the guesswork out of the equation, simplifying kinesiology taping for everyone with their Procuts. 

The Procuts Perfected are six body-specific pro-cuts designed for your anatomy. No more guesswork, only simply perfect results all day, every day. SpiderTech supports your performance and recovery with physiotherapist-grade treatment in seconds. 

SpiderTech Taping is more than just taping for pain relief, but it can also help enhance performance and recovery.  Dr. Nick Martichenko, D.C., the Director of Education for SpiderTech, recently shared some details on SpiderTech's science that can help us better understand exactly what kinesiology tape is, and how we can use it correctly. 

 Q: Dr. Nick, when it comes to Spidertech science, where does the magic happen?  

"The elastic property in SpiderTech tape causes it to retract back on itself, lifting your skin, which has multiple benefits depending on your specific needs," Martichenko says.  

 "The science behind SpiderTech connects all the different benefits it provides, whether it be pain relief, reduced muscle tension, improved proprioceptive awareness, faster recovery from muscle fatigue and injury or deceased swelling, inflammation, bruising, increased blood flow, lymphatic flow, and improved postural awareness and positioning is the lift to the skin that the elastic property in the tape provides."

Dr. Martichenko continues, "The lift to our skin provides constant mechanoreceptor skin stimulation to decrease pain and muscle tension through Gate Control Theory and increases proprioceptive awareness. It also increases the interstitial space between your skin and underlying tissues to allow inflammation, swelling, and bruising to flow out, normal blood flow to resume when congested, and opens lymphatic vessels through their anchoring filament connection to the above skin to restore normal lymphatic drainage."

 "The lift to your skin also provides a reminder to avoid bad postures, and promotes ideal postures without the movement limitations that rigid medical braces impose. This allows you to compete in sports, work out, and pick up your kids without a movement limitation, but instead with a reminder of the best way to functionally move," he concludes. 

Q: How does SpiderTech help to retrain and re-educate muscles that have lost functionality, or have been used in an unhealthy way of working when working out?  

"SpiderTech tape helps improve the activation of the muscles," Dr. Martichenko says. 

"Study after study shows that kinesiology tape helps your tired, fatigued, or injured muscles. Its ability to bring you back to your normal state of balance, proprioceptive awareness, strength, and performance is seen over and over again in agility improvements in college athletes, core muscle endurance testing, and range of motion improvements in athletes pre- and post-competition. All have been shown to improve or return to non-fatigued levels with kinesiology tape. The same can be applied post-injury or post-surgery."

Q:  How does kinesiology taping enhance recovery and reduce that intense muscle soreness you feel for days after a workout?   

"Less lactic acid! SpiderTech enhances your recovery after a hard training session and prevents the effects of DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) in multiple ways.

"There are six theories as to how DOMS occurs, and SpiderTech has a beneficial effect on all six mechanisms. Those mechanisms are: lactic acid, enzyme and inflammation accumulation, muscle spasms, connective tissue damage, muscle damage, and inflammation. When applied to your skin, the elastic property of SpiderTech causes the tape to retract back to elevate the skin. This skin elevation is the key to lactic acid, enzyme, and inflammation clearance," Martichenko says. 

"The kinesiology tape also helps to reduce pain and swelling. A study by Kafa et al. showed that applying tape right after injury-causing tissue damage widened the interstitial space for fluid to move out of the area by 300%. The same study also showed that kinesiology tape reduced fluid congestion, decreased tissue pressure, and shrunk the width of the swollen area. This decongestion has benefits in terms of pain reduction, as well as chemical mediators like Nerve Growth Factor (NGF) responsible for sensitizing the nervous system and lowering the threshold for pain perception were significantly lower."

Kinesiology tape can also lead to fewer muscle spasms, Dr. Martichenko says. "While multiple studies have used fatigue protocol intense enough to create muscle spasm, no kinesiology-taped muscle has ever been reported to spasm in any research study to date.

"Connective tissue damage can be limited if kinesiology tape is applied right after the injury occurs. A study by Kafa et al. showed that by applying tape right after the injury, fluid drainage was restored, limiting the need for tissue breakdown and maintaining collagen fiber formation. In the control group, significantly more collagen was broken down and rebuilt leading to the possibility of scar tissue formation.

"Muscle damage is preserved by the same mechanisms that clear inflammatory markers and connective tissue preservation. Muscle damage can also be limited if kinesiology tape is worn during the training session that caused the DOMS to later occurs. As fatigue sets in during the training session, our body loses normal proprioceptive awareness and balance in the fatigued area. If kinesiology tape is worn at the time that fatigue occurs, then the skin stimulation provided by the tape heightens the brain's awareness of the area and brings proprioceptive control and balance back to pre-fatigued or normal levels. 

"As a result, SpiderTech is recommended before, during, and for multiple days after an activity you suspect will be rigorous enough to later cause DOMS," Dr. Martichenko suggests. 

"A study by Kim et al. showed that the longer you wear kinesiology tape after a rigorous workout, the lower the DOMS symptoms that occur. DOMS is caused by the multiple minor tissue changes after a rigorous training session, and if SpiderTech is not worn, this can significantly affect performance by reducing joint range of motion, ability to absorb shock, and generate normal muscle contraction. Changes to normal muscle activation patterns also commonly affect balance and coordination. This often will create unaccustomed stress on surrounding muscles, tendons, and ligaments, increasing the possibility of compensatory movement patterns and being a common mechanism for additional injury to occur."   

Q: What are some suggestions for optimum taping results?  

1. "Get comfortable handling the product without touching the adhesive. Do not get discouraged. After you’ve used SpiderTech a couple times, it becomes really simple to apply. You will get the hang of it quick," Dr. Martichenko encourages.

2. "Stretch the muscle, not the tape. Whichever area of the body you’re applying tape to, if you stretch the muscle, not the tape, you’ll avoid almost all skin irritation problems and get the best therapeutic results."

3. "Carry it with you everywhere you go. You never know when an ache or pain will come up, or an intense workout sesh that leaves you feeling burned out."

Kafa, N et al. (2015) Effects of kinesiology taping on epidermal-dermal distance, pain, edema, and inflammation after experimentally induced soft tissue trauma, Physiotherapy Theory, and Practice, 31:8, 556-561 

(4) Kim, J et al. (2016) Longer application of Kinesio taping would be beneficial for exercise-induced muscle damage. Journal of Exercise Rehabilitation, 12(5):456-462  

This article was co-authored by Dr. Nick Martichenko and the SpiderTech team.