Just like a knee brace or any other type of joint therapy, KT Tape isn’t a magic bullet. You should always consult a doctor, chiropractor, or physical therapist to learn if using KT Tape is appropriate for treating any problems you have with your knee joint, and if you have the option of a physical therapist applying your KT Tape so that you can watch and learn how to do it yourself, you should always do so. Some athletes use kinesiology taping to help them achieve peak performance and protect against injury when they’re competing in special events. But how do you actually apply KT Tape to the knee? You can’t simply wrap it around the joint blindly and hope for the best. No, KT Tape has to be positioned with precision to ensure it’s supporting the right parts of your knee joint and stretched to the right elasticity before application so that it doesn’t provide too much or too little compression. To do otherwise means that all that athletic tape you just applied is either not doing the job or even possibly making things worse by pulling your knee joint further out of alignment, and the last thing you want is to make a knee problem worse because you didn’t know what you were doing! Pressure points are thought to be powerfully sensitive parts of the body. Some people believe that applying pressure to the body’s pressure points… READ MORE

The "Y" strip: This strip is used to cross sensitive areas of your body such as behind your knee or in the front of your elbow. It is also commonly used for applicationsto control the position of your kneecapas in patellofemoral stress syndromeor a subluxing patella. The "Y" strip is typically not as long as the "X" strip. Don’t expect KT tape to solve any ongoing pain or other issues. Research has yet to show any lasting benefit from using it. Knee pain: It’s extremely common in runners, and knee pain is often caused by overuse, arthritis, or weak surrounding muscles in your hip, foot, quad, or hamstring. KT tape can help reduce knee pain by supporting weaker parts of the body, or by lifting muscles and tendons off the kneecap to relieve tension and create more space in the knee joint, per research studies.Wu WT, Hong CZ, Chou LW. The kinesio taping method for myofascial pain control. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2015;2015:950519. doi:10.1155/2015/950519

When the space between the epidermis and the muscle is compressed, such as during an injury, these nerve receptors are compressed and send information to the brain regarding continuous touch, light touch, cold, pain, pressure, and heat. This information causes the brain to send out certain signals to the body on how to react to particular stimuli.

While it’s not visible to the naked eye, KT tape can alleviate pain and flush lymphatic drainage (the network of vessels and organs under your skin) by microscopically lifting the skin from the tissue, says Yu. When the lymphatic and fluid system is congested with inflammation, various chemicals accumulate in the interstitial space (the fluid-filled space between the cell membrane and skin or muscles and the circulatory system) ultimately resulting in pain. “The lifting from the tape increases that interstitial space and allows for decreased inflammation in the affected area,” Yu says. performancehealthresearch.com/article/1801 It may also improve circulation of lymphatic fluids. Lymphatic fluid is mostly water, but it also contains proteins, bacteria, and other chemicals. The lymphatic system is the way your body regulates swelling and fluid buildup.

Supports lymphatic drainage (the natural process the body uses to remove waste products from cells)The effect of this method is to create a bridge over the areas that are injured so that athletes can perform sport movements and have either prophylactic support or support to an injured part of the body. Athletic tape is typically removed after the end of an athletic event. Kinesiology tape is used to help with motion and reduce pain and spasm. Athletic tape is used for support andto limit motion, typically because of existing pain.