Kinesio Tape Case Study

This study investigated the effects of the inhibition Kinesio Tape technique on the triceps surae muscle after an isokinetic fatigue protocol.
To the best of the researcher knowledge, there was only one study that used a fatigue protocol to study the effects of Kinesio Tape. This study was conducted by Yeung et al. (2014) and showed no significant difference in muscle strength when applying the facilitating technique of KT on the knee extensors before and after an isometric fatigue protocol. They reported that applying the facilitation technique to the vastus medialis oblique muscle VMO only did not improve the peak torque or the EMG activity during the knee extension. Yet, in their conclusion they reported that KT shortens the time needed
This finding agreed with Fratocchi et al. (2013) and Lumbroso et al. (2013). Fratocchi et al. (2013) reported an increase in concentric and eccentric elbow flexor peak torque after application of KT on biceps bracii muscle. Despite the fact that the application of Kinesio Tape was from the insertion to the origin with 75% stretch to the tape, which mixing the inhibitory technique of Kinesio tape with the technique of facilitation the muscle, their conclusion was applying the KT from insertion to origin with this amount of stretch will be more effective. In the same context, Lumbroso et al. (2013) investigated the effect of KT on hamstring and gastrocnemius muscle in regards of straight leg raising, knee extension angle, weight bearing ankle dorsiflexion, gastrocnemius, quadriceps and hamstring peak forces. They found significant increase of gastrocnemius peak force immediately after KT application; however for the hamstring peak force the difference was insignificant until 48 hours of KT application. This can be interpreted by the fact that KT has the ability to provide continuous tension to the skin, resulting in tension to the superficial until
(2013) investigated the effect of KT on gastrocnemius muscle strength. They failed to demonstrate any significant changes in muscle tone, extensibility and strength. However, they reported a short term increase in Gastrocnemius EMG readings. This study has some strength and weaknesses as well. It was a double-blinded placebo-controlled trial which can withdraw any learning effect among the participants and any measurement bias could be done accidentally from the researchers. Nonetheless, they recruited only nineteen participants which could prevent the results to reach the significance