KT Tape
October 11, 2010
OK, so I actually do respond in a semi professional capacity to medical emergencies on a pseudo regular basis. Therefore I’ve got quite the backlog of medical stuff to test out and keep on hand. KT Tape is no exception; I had gathered about 8 samples of it, each consisting of two ten-inch bands. I had squandered one or two testers with poor application technique and kind of gave up for a while. My knees insisted on attention, though, and I realized that if I wanted to run this year I had better learn to tape for my injuries. So I went on the KT Tape web site to find out how I was supposed to be dealing with this stuff.
I have to give KT Tap props for all the info they put on their web site. There is a ton of stuff; instructional videos for taping almost any injury. I dug through the site and found the instructions for taping an IT band injury, which is what I think I probably most likely am suffering the most from. I followed the instructions, wasting only one strip of tape, and headed out for a trail run.
At first I noticed a significant difference in comfort level as I ran. I really did feel some pain relief and despite some general fatigue, I felt pretty good and planned a six mile route. Lately my knee has been seizing up at about that distance so that’s what I tried to do. I found that the KT tape reduced my IT band pain enough that, freed of the IT band issue, I found several new sources of pain in my knee. Awesome! Maybe I should just shellac my entire leg in the stuff.
I was pretty convinced that this tape was helpful, as I went the entire run without that creepy “I’m about to lock on you!” feeling from my knee. Yes, my knee talks to me, just go with it. As the run went on, though, the support seemed to fade, maybe because the tape didn’t stick that well. Most of it stayed down but the corners started peeling back, and once they come up, that’s all she wrote. The technique I used involved three pieces of tape, and one of them came so loose that I just pulled it off because it was annoying me, flapping around. That’s the problem that I have pretty consistently had, and I’ve chalked it up to touching the sticky tape with my greasy fingers and thereby contaminating it. This time, though, I was really careful and followed the instructions as well as I could, but the tape still peeled off eventually. True, it lasted a lot longer this time, and one piece didn’t really come up at all, so maybe it’s a technique thing and I just need practice. I really would like it to work, though, because the effects were noticeably beneficial while the stickiness lasted.
The web site claims 3-4 days per application, to which I say “buh?” I’ve yet to get as much as an hour out of one application. There is no way this stuff would survive a shower or hot tub per the online claims. I can tape pretty well with my standard PT tape, which doesn’t come off unless you pretty much go at it with a knife, so I can’t imagine I’m THAT inept at taping. I’d like to hear from some professional tape-appliers, though, or from some other folks that have tried KT Tape – what was your experience? I would really, really like to know where I am going wrong here.
For the rest of you, I recommend checking out Google Image results for KT Tape, because you’ll see some pictures of tape configurations that will seriously blow your mind. In the meantime I’m going to use up the rest of the tape samples to see if I can’t make any progress here. It helps – I believe that – I just have to get it to stick.
