I’m sure you often find yourselves asking what Tiger Woods, Serena Williams, Lance Armstrong, Olympics beach volleyball player Kerri Walsh, and I have in common. If you guessed that we’re all super-athletic studmuffins… well, you’d be wrong (at least in my case, I could knock you down with the wind generated by flapping my chicken wings).
As long-time readers may know, I have a bad back. Not just your regular, old, achy-muscle bad back, I’m talking degenerative disc disease bad back. This means my spine is prematurely aged, most likely due to years of heavy-duty shotputter workouts and irresponsible sports injuries (concussion and neck sprain after playing midnight tackle football on an unlit field with a bunch of Marines, anyone?). When I got an MRI done 4 years ago in Rostock, the technician stated that from looking at my scan he would never have guessed my age as under 60 years old. Yeah, sucks.
Yesterday, my physical therapist pulled out a new therapy he’s working with: Kinesio Tape. It’s that black stuff that was all over Kerri Walsh’s shoulder. Apparently, it’s being used by plenty of NFL, NBA, MLB, Bundesliga, etc, etc, teams. I’d never heard of it, but I’m always game for experimentation, so as I type I’ve got two fluorescent pink bands of tape running from just under my ribs down to my pelvic area, and two beige bands running down either side of my spine.
So far, I haven’t noticed anything. I just got them put on yesterday afternoon and they’re supposed to be left on up to 10 days (according to my therapist, 4 days according to the website). They’re made of 100% cotton with hypo-allergenic adhesive and work by compressing and stabilizing the muscles. You bathe like usual and just take them off when they start to itch.
And that’s what I have in common with the above athletes, we’ve all been treated with Kinesio Tape. I’m looking forward to seeing if this stuff lives up to the “hype.”
30 Aug 2008 Update: They’re not a miracle cure, but they do seem to do something. First, if I’m sitting or laying against something, I notice that the tape on my back feels pleasantly warm. Second, if I’m using incorrect posture, I notice the tape pulling a little and I go back to correct posture. My back still hurts, but it doesn’t hurt as much as usual. Also, the first day after the treatment, my stomach and back muscles were sore. Clearly, it’s doing something. Finally, I changed the title of the post. I was having a title-writing-block and just put on the lyrics of the song that was on. Now I’ve finally come up with a better title. Cheers!
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i just hope for you that taking them off isn’t as painful as unsticking duct tape from skin. it sure sounds interesting. maybe that’s a solution for the terrible pain in my back for when i have been sitting in front of the computer for too long, writing excessively long papers.
will you write a follow-up post on how the treatment worked?
I used to tape my shins back in the day and it sucked having glue on my legs afterwards. Now there’s Kinesio? Pretty cool.
I’ve seen those kind of bands on the back of some of my colleagues in Madrid and they say the treatment (for different kind of diseases) is working pretty well(so far). So, good luck with it and I hope you find a relieve on it.
I used that tape for my neck a few years ago. It was pretty cool. It felt like someone was constantly tilting my neck for a week or so.
Let me know if it works as I too have DDD, diagnosed 10 years ago. So far I’ve found nothing that really works although wearing a back brace helps some days…ciao
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I had no idea that you had that problem.
I did a bit of research after seeing the tape on the Olympic competitors and will be interested in knowing if it really does work.
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I took the tape off about an hour ago, it was peeling at the edges and Oliver was obsessed with pulling at it. It was not the most pleasant experience I’ve ever had, but it was not as bad as pulling duct tape off skin. And update on how I liked the treatment is written, added it to the bottom of the post.
Kevin’s used this on his knee before with success.
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A bit late for this thread but I have been taped for a couple of days and it’s the first time my back hasn’t been in agony for years…