Rehab and Kinesio Taping
Have I mentioned that I HATE being injured, but then again, who does? I am starting to get really impatient and irritated even though physical therapy is going pretty well. I was feeling relatively pain free this week and then I ran on Thursday. It hurt for the first few minutes until I stopped and stretched. It felt fine the rest of the morning and afternoon and started bothering me in the evening.
I had an appointment for physical therapy yesterday and got what the PTs refer to as the "spa treatment". This means I did not have to do any exercises while I was there. (Although I did them later in the day anyway) We started with a 20 min warmup on the bike, a bit long but I did not mind the breif exercise. Then we stretched, did some ultrasound, and the very painful deep tissue massage. There was nothing "spa" about that...owie. Finally we finished up the treatment with some iontophoresis.
Then, Kris my therapist started telling me about this special kind of taping technique that can relieve swelling, and help with the relaxation of the muscle. I was intrigued, and I told him that if he told me that eating only grapes for one month would make me leg heal I would try it, so let's do it. The technique is called Kinesio Taping. That link does a great job explaining what it is and how it works. Basically, applying the tape to the skin while the muscle is in a slightly stretched position creates tiny convolutions in the skin and raises it away from the muscle creating increased interstitial space. This increased space facilitates the flow of the lymphatic system and decreases the amount of pressure on the nerves and pain receptors. Sounds good, and makes sense to me!
The tape actually feels like a warm fuzzy blanket on my calf and bottom of my foot. It is very flexible and does not limit my range of motion whatsoever. I can even shower and better yet swim with it on. I was pretty skeptical after he put it on because I did not understand the methodology of the taping, but after reading more about it I'm willing to keep it on and see if it helps. 24 hours and so far so good.
I had an appointment for physical therapy yesterday and got what the PTs refer to as the "spa treatment". This means I did not have to do any exercises while I was there. (Although I did them later in the day anyway) We started with a 20 min warmup on the bike, a bit long but I did not mind the breif exercise. Then we stretched, did some ultrasound, and the very painful deep tissue massage. There was nothing "spa" about that...owie. Finally we finished up the treatment with some iontophoresis.
Then, Kris my therapist started telling me about this special kind of taping technique that can relieve swelling, and help with the relaxation of the muscle. I was intrigued, and I told him that if he told me that eating only grapes for one month would make me leg heal I would try it, so let's do it. The technique is called Kinesio Taping. That link does a great job explaining what it is and how it works. Basically, applying the tape to the skin while the muscle is in a slightly stretched position creates tiny convolutions in the skin and raises it away from the muscle creating increased interstitial space. This increased space facilitates the flow of the lymphatic system and decreases the amount of pressure on the nerves and pain receptors. Sounds good, and makes sense to me!
The tape actually feels like a warm fuzzy blanket on my calf and bottom of my foot. It is very flexible and does not limit my range of motion whatsoever. I can even shower and better yet swim with it on. I was pretty skeptical after he put it on because I did not understand the methodology of the taping, but after reading more about it I'm willing to keep it on and see if it helps. 24 hours and so far so good.
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