How to Explain Kinesiology Tape

As a sports therapist, you face a huge amount of pressure to ‘heal’ or ‘fix’ the patients that come through your door. Half the challenge is getting them to stick to the rehab programs you’ve set.

Kinesiology Tape could help with that. Easing the pain so they can perform exercises effectively. But, when you send them away with a roll of tape and a plan, you need to know they’re going to stick to it!

So presents the big question…how do you explain Kinesiology Tape in order to get your patient to buy-in?

Just to make sure we're all on the same page here, let's just make sure we all know exactly what Kinesiology Tape is first and foremost.

Kinesiology Tape is a stretchy, cotton (or synthetic) tape designed to mimic the elasticity of the skin. It’s used by athletes and therapists worldwide to provide proprioceptive feedback, pain relief and support to joints, muscles and tendons.

Kinesiology Tape has rapidly become one of the most used products in sports medicine. Gracing the bodies of athletes and weekend warriors all over the world as they strive to compete injury-free. They're still commonly made from cotton with various blends of nylon, lycra and other materials to add stretch. Some contain latex (not ours), and fabric density can vary greatly.

Now that we have that, let's look at how we explain all of that Kinesiology Tape information to a patient or a player who has absolutely no idea.

Kinesiology Tape is tricky enough to explain at the best of times. Especially since the effects aren’t always immediate. But, you can’t expect someone to follow a program blindly, you need to be able to explain why tape will help…

Follow these tips and discover how you can make your life in the clinic easier, and improve your chances of getting a great review.

Grab a scrap of paper and a pen, and write out the following headings:

• How Kinesiology Tape works
• Why I'm using it
• What results to expect

Under each heading, make a bullet point list of what you could say. You should also make a list of the most important take-home information. For example, how long you keep the Kinesiology Tape on.

Once you’ve got your plan and your bullet points together, you need to think about the language you'll use. You need to think from a novice's perspective. They don't know much about Kinesiology Tape. Take out the medical jargon, and keep it simple.

Here’s an example from SPORTTAPE Education Director, Rob Madden to get you started…

“We’re going to use this tape on you today to help your function and pain. It works by reducing the pressure on the pain receptors that are in your skin.I’m hoping that it will reduce your pain, improve the function around this muscle and just generally help the overall recovery process. Keep it on for a few days, you can shower in it no problem, and we’ll see what affect we can have.”

Rome wasn’t built in a day. The more convincing you can be, the more likely you are to get buy-in. Be confident, you know the tape will work. Try this process for any treatment you use in your clinic. You’ll see the difference it makes to your patient’s confidence in no time.