Comparative studies of physical properties of kinesiotapes

Nowadays we observe growing popularity of kinesiotaping as a supportive method in physiotherapy. In documents available on kinesiotaping we can find that mechanical properties of tapes are similar to the ones of a human skin, but usually there is hardly any numerical data characterizing these properties.

Therefore, testing and comparing physical properties of commercially available kinesiotapes seems to be important.

Physical properties of five commercially available kinesiotapes were examined. Strain vs. stress data was collected up to 15 N. Program Origin 9.0 was used for data analysis.

The obtained results show that up to about 2 N the strain vs. stress characteristics of the tested tapes are similar while for greater stress they differ essentially.

An alternative, to commonly used, way of defining relative strain is proposed. This definition could be more suitable in those cases when desired tape tensions are higher than 50% i.e. in ligament and tendon techniques.