Duct tape on muscles to work them more?

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travelmad

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Anyone tried this? Physio (who is wonderful was was team GB physio, otherwise I would think this suggestion was crazy!) has suggested a few things to get my horse to engage his weaker back leg, including; sausage boot, stretches etc. All perfectly normal until she asked if I and heard of taping muscles... Apparently I put 2 strips of duct tape on the 2 muscles I really need to work, and this helps horse concentrate on using these specific muscles more. People at my yard will think I'm nuts, duct taping my horse! Anyone know technical terms for this, done this before or can point me to reading on it? Fom what I googled it's not finding much. I want to make sure I place the tape correctly and could do with guidance as I'm not totally offay with hind muscle groups :)
 
travelmad said:
Anyone tried this? Physio (who is wonderful was was team GB physio, otherwise I would think this suggestion was crazy!) has suggested a few things to get my horse to engage his weaker back leg, including; sausage boot, stretches etc. All perfectly normal until she asked if I and heard of taping muscles... Apparently I put 2 strips of duct tape on the 2 muscles I really need to work, and this helps horse concentrate on using these specific muscles more. People at my yard will think I'm nuts, duct taping my horse! Anyone know technical terms for this, done this before or can point me to reading on it? Fom what I googled it's not finding much. I want to make sure I place the tape correctly and could do with guidance as I'm not totally offay with hind muscle groups :)
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It's called kinesio taping. I'd strongly recommend you get a physio who has trained in the technique to demonstrate how and where to tape. Personally, I wouldnt tape my own horse - I'd happily let my physio do it though - she's trained in, and uses the technique
 
I tape my horses quite a lot but only if they are clipped or in summer .
Physio shows me how to put on each horse.
I have always struggled to get it to fix to the tummy but there's a numah now you can buy that let you use those elastic tapes that humans use for rehab that sounds like a good idea.
I use special elastic tape though not duck tape.
 
As above - it is called kinesio taping and works by increasing proprioception

However it is very important that the tap is placed correctly - so you definitely need your physio to draw you a diagram and follow it when applying tape.
 
I would second caution and research - especially using duct tape. Humans use zinc oxide tape although I'm not sure it'd stick to hairy horse legs! You need to know exactly where to tape or it may cause damage.

My own personal worry is allergies - I became very allergic to the zinc oxide tape during my own physio and lost all the top layer of my calf, not pretty. I'd be even more concerned about the duct tape!
 
Your Physio wasn't lee Clark was it? He physio's my and my horse, was a GB Physio for the Olympics and does a lot with kinesiotape.
I get kinesio on my back, to keep my muscles in tags right place it's the same principle with horses from what I gather, although it does r stay on as long due to the hair.
 
I have kinesio tape used on my back a fair bit, offers good support for my muscles, not sure about the 'making them work more ' bit.... :confused:

People train for a while in order to be able to offer this service so I wouldn't recommend whacking a load of tape all over your horse yourself!
 
It's not Lee Clark but apparently a lot of the team GB physios use it. Physio said that any kind of tape should do the same job, not just the kineseaology tape (auto correct is not allowing me to type properly!). I was shown which 2 muscles to tape but just don't feel 100% comfortable yet. Shall do some more research before I do damage!
 
I thought it had been proven to make b*gger all difference in human athletes? (Although used widely, just like good-luck charms, at the Olympics!)

TBH I doubt it would make a lot of difference to a horse (unless you're talking swathing one in the stuff, which I don't think you are) as it will only be applying pressure/pulling hairs out quite near the surface.

Whoever said it works by proprioception (well done! I had to google that to check meaning!) may have a point - but only assuming horse thinking about the taped bits will lead to horse thinking about the underlying muscles which may/may not work and if so, probably only marginally.

Allergic reactions/bald patches aside you're probably not too likely to do much harm though :-)
 
I had my knee kenesiotaped because I had a mistracking patella. My physio gave me exercises to build up the weak muscles that were causing the problem, but to prevent any more damage she taped my knee to hold it in the right place for me to do the exercises.

There was an article in H&H this week about taping, for humans and horses.
:-)
 
My physio totally swears by it, I'm no athlete but it works really well on my lower back-helps keep the muscles in the right place to reduce pain.
I think it is quite complex to get it right, I know my Physio says that if you get it wrong, it can make it so much worse. But that's true with a lot of things I guess.
There was an article on my Physio-Lee Clark about kinesiology in this weeks H&H If anyone's interested.
 
Kamakazegirl said:
My physio totally swears by it, I'm no athlete but it works really well on my lower back-helps keep the muscles in the right place to reduce pain.
I think it is quite complex to get it right, I know my Physio says that if you get it wrong, it can make it so much worse. But that's true with a lot of things I guess.
There was an article on my Physio-Lee Clark about kinesiology in this weeks H&H If anyone's interested.
Click to expand...

Never heard of this before - very interesting! Is it practiced or of any use in small animals? Dogs, cats etc?
 
For me its nothing to do with 'holding a muscle in the right place' (no idea how a bit of tape can do that) and all about proprioception. As an example, I have trouble keeping a bend in my elbows when riding and tend to lock them straight. It's hard to constantly tell myself to bend them when its such an ingrained habit. If I bend my elbow to the correct angle and then place the tape across the inside of my elbow, every time I move to straighten my arm the tape will start to pull on my skin and will trigger my brain to correct the position back to one of comfort, bent with no pull on the tape. It means you don't have to conciously remind yourself. I've used this on my lower back as a postural tool when doing deadlifts etc. Your horse doesn't have the same conciliatory thought if correction, so I'm not sure how this would apply. I'd be interested to know. It's a very effective tool using it the way I've described in people.
 
I haven't heard of it being used in small animals yet, I know he hasn't long been using it on horses. But I don't see why it couldn't be, not that I'm an expert though, I just know it helps on me!
when I say 'holding my muscles in the right place' that is the very basic explanation my Physio gave. It's probably more to do with supporting my lower back as I'm very hyper mobile. All I know is that it works. It's interesting stuff, I definitely want to learn more about it.
I thinks there's a video on YouTube about him using it on racehorses. This is it,hope the link works http://youtu.be/yfAL8h7SsNA
 
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