Featured in Health and Fitness Sports Magazine

 Miracle Tape?

U.S. Olympic beach volleyball gold medalist Kerri Walsh’s right shoulder was covered with the curious looking black tape. Olympic swimmers and divers used it; as did basketball and track stars. Cycling legend Lance Armstrong has extolled its athletic virtues. But kinesio tape is not just for world-class athletes.

“It has become popular because it allows athletes to have full range of motion, but it also provides support,” said Dr. Case Ricks of Clear Lake’s Nasa Chiropractic. “I use it mostly with tennis players who need elbow, wrist and shoulder support and with high school volleyball players who have strained muscles or tendonitis in their shoulders. Kinesio tape gives them the extra support they need to continue to play.”

Kinesio is a Japanese-founded company with worldwide headquarters in Albuquerque, NM. The kinesio taping system uses therapeutic elastic tape and helps reduce muscle inflammation, while relaxing and supporting tired muscles.

Ricks says thanks to exposure from athletes using the tape during the Beijing Olympics, the company website (Kinesiotaping.com) has been bombarded with requests for information and local therapists have been busier than usual.

“There has definitely been a lot more interest in the tape over the last few months,” says Ricks. “Taping doesn’t replace treatment for more serious injuries and, in fact, most people don’t come in to our office just for Kinesio taping. It’s part of our overall treatment plan, another thing we can offer athletes to give them an edge.”