Athletic Taping
Taping to Restrict Motion
For many athletes, manual therapy can provide a great deal of relief from many injuries, allowing them to exert themselves or just move normally without feeling too much pain. Unfortunately, manual therapy on its own only goes so far towards providing lasting relief from an injury. To supplement the amount of lasting relief provided by manual therapy, it is a good idea to use athletic taping around the injured area of the body. Restricting the motion of that injured joint or muscle gives it more time to heal while the amount of pain felt in that area is drastically reduced.
There are a number of other applications of athletic tape that can also promote a faster and less painful recovery such as being used as a splint or as a means of supporting a more substantial splint, supporting a person’s anatomical structure to prevent further injury, or to compress soft tissues to prevent excessive swelling.
Taping to Prevent Further Injury
The use of athletic tape alone can help reduce the risk and the severity of injuries, particularly in contact sports such as football and hockey and sports that require an athlete to make sudden, rapid movements and pivots such as ultimate frisbee, soccer, and basketball. It is also effective at profoundly reducing the number of injuries suffered in virtually any other sport. During sport participation, taping can allow the athlete to continue to play with minor injuries. Taping is particularly useful as a means of reducing the symptoms of injuries that cause chronic pain such as shin splints, patellofemoral pain syndrome, turf toe and hyper-mobile thumb. For the athletic tape to be most effective, it is advisable to have a physiotherapist or experienced sports trainer apply the tape along with manual therapy to speed the healing process.
Van Sports & Physiotherapy
Address: 625 Howe St #521, Vancouver, BC V6C 2T6
Phone: (604) 661-8878
Email: info@vansportsphysio.com
