Research in Sport Medicine and Technology

Objective: KinesioTaping is a method for rehabilitation of patients and athletes.
The efficacy of taping to enhance proprioception precision and balance has
been studied. The effects on skin sensory receptors and limb consciousness
are mechanisms of taping but there is an important question that if the persons
pay attention to other task the effectiveness of taping is still exists or not?
Materials and Methods: Ten healthy persons with average age of 28±3/3
years¸ height of 161±4/1cm and weight of 52±14/1kg participated in this study.
The index of stability was assessed in five conditions standing on the BIODEX
ISOKIETIC Instrument. The examination five conditions were as following
order.1-standing barefoot for 20 second (dominant foot).2-standing and dual
tasking for 20 second.(Reverse numbering from digits between 100-150). 3-
standing with taping on proneal muscles for 20 second.4-standing with taping
and dual tasking for 20 second.5-first condition was repeated. Results:
However¸ there was not any significant difference between the Stability Index
(SI) of the test conditions in this study but the pattern of changes showed that
when volunteers performed dual task with or without tape the stability index
improved. Improvement of SI with taping was not considerable. Conclusion:
Taping has a little positive effect on stability but effects of dual tasking were
coincided with the non-linear U-shaped pattern of dual tasking effect. It means
that stability was improved by the dual tasking used in this study which may be
too light to decrease stability of the subjects. This finding showed that triple
reverse numbering is not enough difficulties to attention demand interferes the
stability of the subjects.

Introduction: This research aimed to compare two methods of kinesiotaping
and stretching of upper trapezius muscle in treatment of neck pain due to
forward head posture.
Research Methods: Design of this research was semi-experimental. 36
subjects (29 female and 7 men) with forward head posture between 20-40 years
of age with no history of neck pain due to vertebral fracture, disc herniation,
tumors, radicular pain to hands and arthritis rheumatoid were selected for this
research and assigned randomly into 2 groups with 18 subjects. One group
received kinesiotaping treatment and the other group received stretching upper
trapezius muscle treatment. Subjects received 10 treatment sessions 3 times
per week. All subjects completed visual analog scale (VAS) and neck disability
index (NDI) pre and post-tests. The data were analyzed with significant level of
p≤0/05. Data were analyzed by SPSS 15. Statistical paired t- test were used to
analyze effects of kinesiotaping and stretching of upper trapezius muscle in
reduction of neck pain and disability due to forward head posture in each group
and independent t- test were used to compare the kinesiotaping with stretching
of upper trapezius muscle in reduction of neck pain and disability due to forward
head posture.

Results: The results of the present research indicated that there is a significant
reduction in severity of neck pain and disability in both groups (P<0.05), But
there is no significant difference between two groups in severity of neck pain
and disability (P>0.05).
Conclusion: This research showed that either kinesiotaping or stretching of
upper trapezius muscle reduced severity of neck pain and disability due to
trigger points of upper trapezius muscle significantly. Also findings of this
research showed that there is no significant difference between kinesiotaping or
stretching of upper trapezius muscle in reduction of severity of neck pain and
disability. Therefore kinesiotaping can be used in case of vigorous pain either in
patient under other treatment methods or in patient who cannot tolerate
techniques like stretching or ischemic pressure until tolerable pain threshold.