K-Taping is a fairly new Wholistic, Non-pharmaceutical, Therapeutic Taping Technique, that can be an alternative to athletic taping. It can help support/maintain activities of daily living, decrease injury time/rehab, and help other Disorders/Syndromes in the body. K-Taping can be applied to help many different disfunctions, depending on the issues presented.
Basic Functions of K-Tape:
- Improve Muscle Function: Decreasing muscle overloading to balance opposing muscle groups, which helps decrease connective tissues from stretching or tearing that can cause pain, stiffness, inflammation, and increase muscle tension. Applying specific Taping techniques can alleviate many disfunctions.
- Decrease/Eliminate Circulatory Restrictions: Inflammation is a common bodily reaction to stress/injury, to tissues (eg. Lymph Flow). K-Taping can help lift up skin & fascia in injured areas, which helps decrease swelling and decrease pressure.
- Pain Reduction: Applying techniques to decrease/disrupt signals to Pain Receptors, resulting in Pain Inhibition and disrupting the Pain/Inflammation Cycle.
- Support of Joint Function: Using techniques that correct muscle group imbalances/tensions around the joint. Also helps stimulate kinesthetics & proprioception. Improving proper joint function helps improve the healing process & shorten rehab time.
Four Main Techniques/Applications:
- Muscle Technique: To increase or decrease muscle tension, resulting in neutral/resting position. Increases pain relief, improve muscle loading capacity, which results in quicker healing times
- Corrective Technique: There are 2 types; Functional & Fascial.
- Functional – used to correct specific skeletal dysfunctions (eg. Taping for abnormal patella positioning).
- Fascial – Correction for adhesions within muscle fascia, resulting in loosening of fascia and pain reduction.
- Ligament Technique: Used mainly for injuries due to overuse of ligaments/tendons. Also relieves pain & pressure, improves load capacity for ligaments/tendons, thus improves healing times.
- Lymph System Technique: To help alleviate Lymph flow disruptions, by lifting skin, increase space between skin and tissues and to increase lymph fluid.
Other Taping applications can help neural irritations, stimulate acupuncture points, and trigger points, and other disorders, such as Migraines & TMJ issues. K-Taping can be a big part of any rehab program or help postural corrections.
K-Taping applications are now available at the Clinic, please feel free to contact me, Dave Reichelt RMT, to see if K-Taping techniques can help you and make it a part of your healthy future.
References: K-Taping International Academy Manual