By now, you’ve seen enough track meets athletes on TV with what appears to be duct tape on various body parts.. lower back, upper legs, lower legs, you name it.
The old days consisted of athletic tape or tensor bandages fully wrapped around the thigh for hamstring issues, or taping the ankle down completely like a downhill ski boot.
Those days are gone.
In my recent trip to Florida, I took a nice photo of Charonda Williams, Damu Cherry, Kellie Wells… you can call them Dennis’ Angels (sorry, Charlie). Here is that photo:
What are those funky looking strips of tape on Damu’s Achilles (the one in the middle)?
It’s Rocktape.
It provides a strong, lightweight, and external support that helps prevent injury and speed recovery. By applying Rocktape over affected tissue (in this case, the Achilles), you experience an external support which helps to prevent further injury and allows the body’s damaged tissue to rest and heal naturally despite continued activity. Of course, all this depends on the severity of the injury or “tweak”.
The secret lies in matching the elasticity in skin, and by stretching the Rocktape lengthwise, it flexes and moves comfortably with the body’s tissue, releasing and recoiling like a rubber-band.
Along with Achilles tendonitis, it also works for Plantar fasciitis, Jumpers knee (PFS), Groin & hamstring pulls, Lower back issues and Shin splints.
Here is a quick YouTube video of the three ladies above (Damu Cherry, Charonda Williams, Kellie Wells) along with Lashinda Demus and Tiffany Ross-Williams. This was filmed at the 2012 US Olympic Trials. Both Kellie Wells (100mH) and Lashinda Demus (400mH) are going to London.
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if useful why not glamorizing a bit about it (the duct tape) :)
interesting but i suspect it is wishful thinking.
my guess would be that if it was subjected to a proper trial it would not work better than placebo.
however, that applies to many things that were or are a standard part of athletic “treatments”-static stretching and icing come to mind!
A placebo band aid solution at its worst, or a great neuromuscular feedback technique at best! We use taping with my athletes and patients at our clinic quite often. A great way to control/correct neuromuscular movement, support tendonitis type injuries, etc. It will not however, provide any reasonable structural support. That’s where the white athletic tape will have to do…
I use KT Tape Pro and it works like a charm for my Achilles tendonitis! As an engineer, I was sceptical before using it but it truly made an immediate difference in the amount of discomfort I felt and I was able to train pain-free. It was so effective that it continued working for another 24 hours after I took the first application off! The key is to apply it exactly as they instruct and I sometimes augment it with compression socks as well.