Effect of kinesiotaping on subtalar evertor and invertor muscle strength in healthy individuals

Introduction
To date, no study examined the effect of ankle kinesiotaping on eccentric versus concentric subtalar evertor and invertor strength nor compared its effect between evertors and invertors. This study examined the effect of kinesiotaping on peak subtalar evertor and invertor eccentric and concentric torques assessed at 120º/sec. Eccentric versus concentric torque in both muscle groups as well as evertor versus invertor torque at both modes of muscle contraction were examined.

Methods
A group of 30 healthy individuals (24 males and 6 females) with mean age 21 ± 2.73 years, height 1.73 ± 0.08 m, and weight 75 ± 6.20 kg were tested. They were randomly tested with kinesiotape use and without. The kinesiotape was applied on the tibialis anterior, tibialis posterior, peroneus longus and peroneus brevis muscles. The peak torques were assessed using a Biodex isokinetic dynamometer.

Results
2×2×2 Repeated Measure ANOVA revealed that the peak torque was significantly higher with kinesiotape use compared with no tape for both eccentric and concentric evertors, and eccentric invertors (p ≤ 0.009). The eccentric peak torque was significantly higher than the concentric for both evertors and invertors with kinesiotape use, and evertors with no tape (p ≤ 0.001). Finally, the invertor concentric torque was significantly higher than the evertor torque with no tape use (p < 0.001).

Conclusions
Ankle kinesiotaping improves both evertor and invertor torques with the eccentric torque being significantly improved compared with the concentric. No significant effect on evertors versus invertors was found. This suggests kinesiotape use for managing musculoskeletal disorders caused by impaired subtalar muscle strength as lateral ankle sprains.