The effects of facilitatory and inhibitory kinesiotaping of vastus medialis on the activation and fatigue of superficial quadriceps muscles

Key points

1. 0117 healthy collegiate athletes each completed all four conditions: no-tape, sham, facilitatory and inhibitory taping of the Vastus Medialis.
2. 02Muscle activation (RMS) showed no significant difference between taping conditions for any of the three muscles, before or after fatigue.
3. 03Muscle fatigue rate (median frequency slope) was also unaffected by taping direction in the taped muscle and its untaped agonists.
4. 04The fatigue protocol itself clearly tired the muscles (negative median frequency slope), so the lack of a taping effect was not due to the muscles staying fresh.
5. 05Findings only apply to healthy athletes, not to patients with pain or musculoskeletal disorders.

How it was conducted

Design

Within-subject crossover, four sessions one week apart, randomized taping order

Participants

17 healthy collegiate athletes (10 male, 7 female), age 24.76 plus or minus 3.99 years

Conditions

No-tape (control), sham, facilitatory, and inhibitory kinesiotaping of the Vastus Medialis

Fatigue protocol

100 dynamic maximal concentric knee extensions at 90 degrees per second on an isokinetic dynamometer

Outcomes

Surface EMG activation (RMS, %MVIC) pre- and post-fatigue; fatigue rate as median frequency slope of VM, VL and RF

Analysis

Two-way and one-way repeated-measures ANOVA, alpha set at 0.05

What they found

• No significant main effect of taping on muscle activation for VM (F = 0.31, p = 0.82), VL (F = 0.4, p = 0.72), or RF (F = 1.65, p = 0.19).
• No significant Time x Taping interaction on activation for RF (F = 0.51, p = 0.67), VL (F = 0.8, p = 0.96), or VM (F = 1.14, p = 0.34).
• No significant effect of taping on fatigue rate (median frequency slope) for RF (F = 0.73, p = 0.53), VL (F = 0.45, p = 0.71), or VM (F = 2.14, p = 0.11).
• Median frequency slopes were negative across all conditions (for example VM no-tape -0.069 plus or minus 0.020, facilitatory -0.056 plus or minus 0.020), confirming the protocol produced muscle fatigue.

Limitations

• Only healthy athletes were studied, so results may not apply to patients with patellofemoral pain or other musculoskeletal disorders.
• Small sample of 17 participants, limiting power to detect small effects.
• Joint torque output was not reported, so any whole-muscle-group mechanical effect of taping cannot be ruled out from these data.
• Confounders of fatigue such as sleep quality, mental fatigue and nutrition were only self-screened, not formally measured between sessions.

Why it matters

For patients

If you use kinesiotape on your thigh hoping it will switch a muscle on or delay tiredness, this study suggests the direction of the tape is unlikely to do that.

For clinicians

Choosing facilitatory versus inhibitory taping of the Vastus Medialis to modulate quadriceps activation or fatigue is not supported in healthy athletes, though effects in patient populations remain untested.

For readers

This is a small, healthy-volunteer crossover study, so the absence of an effect is suggestive rather than definitive evidence against kinesiotaping.