Review
Effects of Kinesio® taping on skeletal muscle strength—A meta-analysis of current evidence

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Abstract

Objectives

The purpose of this study was to test whether certain applications of Kinesio tapes might facilitate contraction and increase muscle strength in healthy adults.

Design

A meta-analysis of studies investigating the efficacy of Kinesio tapes application was performed.

Methods

The scientific databases Pubmed and Google Scholar were systematically searched for appropriate articles. Descriptive statistics were extracted to calculate measures of effect size (Pearson's r) and estimate the overall population effect. The methodological quality of the included studies was assessed using a specific quality appraisal tool. In addition, the included studies were grouped according to the muscle groups examined, to test whether Kinesio tapes effects were dependent on the area of application.

Results

A total of 19 studies, comprising data of 530 subjects and 48 pairwise comparisons of muscle strength were included. The methodological quality of these studies ranged from moderate to good. While substantial variability of individual effect sizes was observed, the overall population effect (r = 0.05, CI: −0.23 to 0.34) suggests that, on average, the potential to increase strength by application of Kinesio tapes is negligible. Comparisons between studies grouped by the muscle groups examined showed that the effects of Kinesio tapes are not muscle-group dependent.

Conclusions

While the application of Kinesio tapes may have some therapeutic benefits, the usage of these tapes does not promote strength gains in healthy adults.

Introduction

Kinesio tapes (KT), the colourful elastic cotton strips with an acrylic adhesive that may be stretched to up to 140% of their original length, were invented by the Japanese chiropractor Kenzo Kase in the 1970s. After a first worldwide exposure during the 1988 Seoul Summer Olympics, these special tapes quickly developed to become a widely used physiotherapeutic tool for the treatment of various musculoskeletal disorders and further clinical conditions, and faced a surge in popularity following the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, where, amongst others, the U.S. beach volleyball gold medalist Kerri Walsh appeared wearing the tapes following a previous rotator cuff injury on her right shoulder. According to their inventor, KT may promote different therapeutic objectives, including pain inhibition, improved circulation and lymphatic drainage or a reduction of delayed onset of muscle soreness (for a comprehensive summary see Bassett and colleagues1). The question whether or not KT application may have any clinically significant benefits is the subject of ongoing research, with the most recent systematic reviews concluding that there is some anecdotal support but still little quality evidence to recommend the usage of KT for the prevention or treatment of musculoskeletal injuries.2, 3, 4

Apart from its alleged clinical usefulness, Kase also suggested that the tapes may be used to modulate muscle tone5 – a claim that received support from reports of augmented muscle activity following KT application in the direction from muscle origin to insertion.6, 7, 8 Although the precise physiological mechanisms underlying the proposed greater motoneuron recruitment have not been elucidated yet, the exciting prospect of being able to positively affect a muscle's function via an intervention as simple as the external application of tapes has resulted in an exponential increase of studies designed to test the hypothesis that the cutaneous stimulation provided by KT might indeed serve to increase muscle strength. For instance, a Google Scholar research for the terms “kinesio tape” combined with “muscle strength” resulted in only three papers published up until the year 2000, but this number increased to 14 in 2007 and further to an impressive total of 216 in 2013. These figures notwithstanding, the studies published to date differ strongly in the cohorts and muscle groups examined and were, on many occasions, conducted in relatively small samples (e.g. Refs. 9, 10, 11, n < 10). Moreover, the results reported in these works are contradictory, with some studies lending at least partial support to the postulated strength-promoting effect of KT application6, 12, 13, 14 and others disqualifying KT as entirely ineffective.15, 16, 17 In the light of this conflicting evidence, uncertainty remains regarding the true performance-enhancing potential of KT application, and only a synopsis of data can help to shed light on this issue.

Very recently, Drouin and colleagues conducted a systematic review of the literature on the effects of KT on measures of athletic performance.18 While the authors concluded that “evidence is lacking to support the use of kinesiotape as a successful measure for improving athletic-based performance”, we found that the literature research performed in this study, strongly selective by virtue of the databases searched, falls short of reflecting the considerable amount of evidence published in this field of research. Further, being a review but not a meta-analysis, the work by Drouin et al.18 is confined to a descriptive comparison of study results. With these limitations in mind, we aimed to expand on previous efforts by conducting the most comprehensive literature research possible and combining the results from different studies for the statistical analysis of pooled data. The ultimate goal of the present meta-analysis was to evaluate the effectiveness of KT application in increasing muscle strength in healthy individuals.

Section snippets

Methods

The online databases Pubmed and Google Scholar were systematically searched for the search terms “kinesio taping”, “kinesio-taping”, “kinesiotaping”, “kinesio tape”, “kinesio-tape”, “kinesiotape”, “kinaesthetic taping” or “kinaesthetic tape”, in combination with “strength” or “performance”. Following the database search, both authors of the present study independently selected the articles to be considered for further analysis according to the following criteria: articles had to be published in

Results

The initial search resulted in a total of 4890 articles. By screening the titles and abstracts, 147 of these papers were identified as potentially relevant and considered for further analysis. After discarding duplicates and exclusion of studies according to the criteria outlined above, 19 articles were included in the present meta-analysis. The precise process of literature research and selection is reflected in the flow chart shown in Fig. S1 (supplemental material).

. Flow chart reflecting the

Discussion

The aim of the present study was to investigate, based on a synopsis of scientific literature, the strength-enhancing potential of KT application in healthy subjects. Our results are based on the meta-analysis of 19 articles and comprise the data acquired in a total of 530 subjects. While substantial heterogeneity of study results was observed, the calculation of an overall population effect (r = 0.05) suggests that the application of KT does not significantly affect muscle strength.

The majority

Conclusions

  • The strength-enhancing potential of KT application in healthy subjects has been investigated in numerous scientific investigations.

  • The application of KT to facilitate muscular contraction has no or only negligible effects on muscle strength.

  • The strength-enhancing effects of KT are not muscle-group dependent.

  • The overall methodological quality of studies investigating the potential of KT to improve muscle strength is moderate to good and tends to be lower in studies reporting significant effects.

Practical implications

  • Current evidence suggests that knee extensor and flexor as well as ankle plantarflexor and grip strength cannot be improved by KT application in young (∼25 years) and healthy subjects of both sexes.

  • Conclusions about the strength-enhancing effects of KT application on other muscle groups and in other cohorts, such as healthy elderly subjects, require further investigation.

Grants

No external funding was received for this study.

Disclosure

There is no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgements

We thank all authors of the original works cited in the present study, who readily assisted us by either sharing their manuscripts or providing additional data required for this meta-analysis.

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