Acute effects of Kinesio taping on muscle strength and fatigue in the forearm of tennis players

Objectives: To explore the immediate effects of Kinesio taping applied over the wrist extensors and flexors on muscle strength and endurance during isometric and isokinetic muscle actions. Design: The study had a single-blinded, placebo control, and randomized design. Methods: Fourteen trained male volunteers were required to complete 5 s isometric maximal voluntary contractions and 50 consecutive maximal concentric wrist extension and flexion repetitions at each of two angular speeds (60 degrees/s and 210 degrees/s) in three taping conditions: Kinesio taping (KT), placebo taping (PT), and no taping (NT). Results: KT did not improve peak moment, peak power, average power, and total work for wrist extensors and flexors in the isometric and isokinetic contractions. However, KT showed a 13% decrease in work fatigue of the wrist flexors compare to NT (p = 0.014) at 60 degrees/s. Furthermore, a 20% decrease was also observed in the rate of decline of moment (k) of the wrist flexors in KT compared to NT (p = 0.007), and the k in PT was also significantly lower in magnitude compared to NT (p = 0.035). Moreover, there was also a trend in terms of magnitudes for k(KT) < k(PT) < k(NT) in the wrist flexors at 210 degrees/s. Conclusions: Kinesio taping may not be able to modulate strength production in healthy athletes immediately, but does have a significant positive effect on reducing muscle fatigue during repeated concentric muscle actions. Additionally, the potential beneficial effects of placebo taping on muscle endurance should not be ignored either. (C) 2015 Sports Medicine Australia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.