The Benefits of Sports Tape

Sports Tape is used to provide support to joints, help reduce pain and swelling, improve physical activity and enable athletes to optimise their performance without compromising on safety. It is often seen across the shoulders, backs, legs, arms and hands of sports players in both track and field and a wide variety of indoor and outdoor settings – including boxing, gymnastics, running, rock-climbing, football, rugby and cycling. As discussed later, it can also enable sports people to feel more supported and confident. 

Sports strapping is used depending on the sportsperson's needs. Some sport tapes are highly flexible and stretchy to afford the wearer the full range of his or her motion, while others are made from inelastic material to immobilise the joints and give the wearer full protection while in play/activity. 

An example of how Sports Tape can be used to support joints, help reduce pain and swelling, improve physical activity and enable athletes to optimise their performance without compromising on safety…

Some types of tape such as Kinesiology Tape work by lifting the skin to create more space around a joint between the dermis and the muscle. Other types of tape, like Elastic Adhesive Bandage and Cohesive Bandage, provide varied degrees of pressure and compression. 

By helping to increase the blood flow in the injured area, athletic tape decreases swelling which alleviates pain. The elasticity of some sports tape can also serve as a support for the affected muscles. It naturally goes back to its original position, which takes some of the workload off the athlete's muscle.

Some sport tapes are highly flexible and stretchy to afford the wearer the full range of his or her motion, while others are made from inelastic material to immobilise the joints and give the wearer full protection while in play/activity.

Some sportspeople also enjoy a positive psychological effect as taping specific areas of the body can lead to psychological stimuli that 'remind' the wearer of certain actions that need to be performed, such as good posture. The direction of taping can encourage the wearer to perform movements in specific ways. Pain can be reduced psychologically through' sensory bombardment' meaning the body is distracted from pain by stimulation in that area.  

Sports tape should be changed every three to five days to retain its benefit.