Strength Resurgence Podcast

#5: Changing Pain & Improving Function By Taping Your Skin

Jim Wittstrom

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0:00 | 1:12:59

If you've ever seen people out on the streets, in the gym, or on the court sporting colourful strips of tape on their skin, you might have been been staring at kinesiology tape (also known as kinesio tape or K-tape). Kinesiology tape is cloth-based tape with elastic properties, and it can be utilized for various reasons ranging from decreasing pain to helping our brain interpret and correct dysfunctional movement patterns.

Originally invented back in the 1970's, kinesiology tape is utilized for athletic and non-athletic individuals alike all around the world. And if you understand the basic science behind how it interacts with the connection between our skin and our brain, you can use it as an adjunct for turning down pain signals to the brain (i.e., decreasing nociception), helping to decrease congestion beneath the skin, and helping to "re-wire" our movement patterns.

Best of all, it's a very safe intervention and one that can yield surprising levels of benefit to many individuals. So, if it sounds interesting to you, you'll likely enjoy the concepts and topics I cover in this podcast episode.