by rocktapeuk | Oct 28, 2015 | News, Studies
There is a particular news story that I can’t get out of my head. It was only ever a quirky, slightly comical story but I can’t help but think it’s part of a slightly bigger issue. The story of a lady temporarily paralysed because her jeans were too tight appeared in the news in June of this year. Now I am not concerned about what people wear but when people cannot move properly this does concern me – and it should concern them too. It is not ideal to awkwardly shuffle about while wearing restrictive clothing, but if you limit movement too frequently, you will end up limiting movement permanently by creating poor movement patterns. The end result is a stiffer and awkwardly moving body, with or without jeans. So while the skinny jeans may go out of fashion, they may leave their mark on our muscles and joints. In relation to back pain – if you stiffen up your legs with tight jeans then your spine naturally compensates by moving excessively and increasing the likelihood of poor lifting habits. Of course it’s not just about skinny jeans, lots of clothing can be very restrictive, in fact our culture and British history is marked by our sartorial standards, stiff collars, corsets, thick leather shoes, all wonderful refinery but coffins for our bodies. What’s the answer? Lets...
by rocktapeuk | Oct 2, 2015 | Medical, ROCKTAPE Study's, Studies
Our new Movement Beyond Mobility course is in the final stages of development and I thought our blog readership would like us to share some of the things we discovered while developing this course. It’s been an exciting experience, as we have been required to hone our physical ability to perform and present the techniques in addition to the theoretical content, its left us fitter and feeling a few years younger – we are eager to share these outcomes with our students at the British School of Osteopathy in London on the 15th of November. One of our overarching messages is the importance of movement and all of the systems that allow this to occur. Your clients and patients are likely to have read the recent reports regarding the latest health scare. I am not talking about Smoking, Cholesterol, Sugar, or Alcohol. This time it’s sitting – yes just SITTING. According to the research even FIT people are likely to be guilty of sitting too much. One fact that caught me by surprise is that even if you exercise for 30 minutes everyday, if you then spend the rest of the day predominantly sitting you are still categorised as sedentary with the associated health risks, which include, obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Like many jobs, working for RockTape UK involves lots of sitting, to answer emails, write course content, reading research, and inevitable travel up and down the UK. One aspect of the job does provide some compensation for this and is considered the most rewarding part of what I do – Teaching. The new Movement Beyond mobility course...
by rocktapeuk | Sep 16, 2015 | Rocktape Kinesiology Tape, ROCKTAPE Study's
There have been two studies published in the last couple of months that add to the growing body of evidence that kinesiology tape can reduce the negative effects of fatigue with regard to muscle function. One study by Zhang et al, published in Sports Medicine Australia’s journal, looked at the effect of kinesiology tape on the forearm muscles of tennis players, whilst the other study by Ahn et al, looked at fatigue in the quadriceps. Both studies showed that tape can assist with muscle function when fatigued. In the study by Zhang, they looked at a small group of healthy tennis players, and tested their maximal strength and “work fatigue” as measured by fifty repeated contractions of the wrist flexors and extensors. The subjects were tested with kinesiology tape applied, a placebo tape applied (underwrap “fix”type tape) and with no tape. The testing order was randomly assigned. Not surprisingly, they found no increase in maximal strength with kinesiology tape applied, as it is widely accepted now that there will be no immediate strength gains from taping healthy subjects. However, they found that for the wrist flexors, having kinesiology tape applied resulted in a significant reduction in “work fatigue”, as measured by the drop off in strength over the 50 contractions, when compared with placebo tape and no tape. The authors concluded that kinesiology taping may have “a significant positive effect on muscle fatigue resistance during repeated concentric muscle actions”. The Ahn et al study looked at the effect of applying kinesiology tape after a fatigue inducing protocol for the quadriceps. They had 45 healthy female subjects, aged between 25...
by rocktapeuk | Jul 27, 2015 | CrossFit, Guest Posts, Reviews
I had the pleasure of representing RockTape at the wildwest crossfit competition which took place in Malvern in late July 2015. Firstly, it needs to be acknowledged that wild west was a fantastic event, from start to finish, the highly organised teams and management led to a very smooth weekend with a fantastic vibe. It was additionally great to see such a variety of athlete who were competing, from a few familiar faces from the Meridian Regionals in Copenhagen, to the first time competitor, it catered for all. As part of the RockTape team, accompanied by Jade Parsons and Amy Bennett, we were primarily responsible for taping and strapping the athletes. With the nature of many crossfit competitions being constantly varied, the taping techniques varied immensely between each individual athlete. Some techniques included grip taping to survive the brutal 75 seconds max effort rope climbs, to lower back /lumbar support to help battle with the never ending clean ladder. As many of you know, pull ups can take a toll on our shoulders, so again, various taping techniques were used to accommodate the athletes and enhance their individual performances. Furthermore it was great to see a few athletes smashing pb’s on their over head squat with shoulder RockTape applications. . One of the great things about RockTape is that it can help with so many elements of an athlete’s performance. It can simply provide feedback, correct movement patterns or facilitate muscle contraction, which all contributes to enhancing the best performance possible! 🙂 RockTape with their highly qualified rockdocs are always more than willing to help all athletes at the...
by rocktapeuk | Jul 15, 2015 | Reviews, Rocktape Kinesiology Tape
Hey!! first of all Id like to say RockTape Rocks!! It has seriously helped me a lot through my running career. I am an endurance athlete for Enfield and Haringey Athletic Club, but also run 2nd claim for Hertford and Ware Athletics club. I only took up running a few years ago when entering a local 10k (which I won) and it was then recommended to me that I start training with a club and I took part in a few various track events half way through the season and did very well. Track 3000m Hertfordshire County Champion Track 5000m Hertfordshire County Champion I also continue to compete at 10k off road distance and achieved my ultimate goal of a sub 40 10k last year in October, with a time of 38:58. Injuries, as any runner or any sports person will know, come with the sport and I have unfortunately been off running now for about 20 weeks with a suspected stress fracture in my ankle (awaiting results). RockTape had helped me a lot over the past few years as I suffered a lot with shin splints, however, recently it has been more helpful than ever as a support whilst training. (I have taken up swimming whilst recovering from my injury to keep up my fitness) and the H20 RockTape kinesiology tape has really helped with the support I need. I had to pull out of this years London Marathon due to my injury, but am focusing on getting fit and injury free for 2016! I cant recommend it enough and thank RockTape for all the support! Becca...
by rocktapeuk | Jul 14, 2015 | Medical, Rocktape Kinesiology Tape, Studies
It’s always nice to find some research that backs up what we find useful in clinic. Anyone who has taken a FMT course will be familiar with the Spiral squat chain taping that we teach. This study by Song et al examines the effect of a very similar taping (basically it’s the top half of the application hip-knee) on female patients with patello-femoral pain (and a control group without pain) during a single leg squat movement. The study compared 2 taping techniques, one group with no stretch on tape and the leg in neutral posture. The second group had taping with ‘moderate stretch’ on tape with the leg in an externally rotated position. The first group is a little like our symptom reduction taping and the second group is pretty much exactly how we would tape as a dynamic postural taping. They found that in the PFP group both taping applications where effective in reducing pain on squats, but only the second taping application was effective in altering the pattern of movement and muscle contraction seen during the squat. The take home message here is if all you want to achieve is pain reduction, apply tape with little to no stretch. More stretch won’t create more relief. On the other hand if you want to use tape to alter posture and movement patterns it might be a good idea to consider apply tape in the corrected position and using a little more tape stretch, however if you do this you are inevitably upping the risk of skin reaction so avoid tape stretch over delicate areas and go gentle on...
by rocktapeuk | Jul 2, 2015 | Athletics
What’s it’s like being involved in elite sport? Everyday. You have to find what pushes and keeps you going when are out in the pouring rain doing a fartlek session, and wondering why on earth you are there! You have to find something to drive you to carry on. For me it’s racing and the desire to win. The thought of pushing my body to do something it’s never done before, run faster than i have, and be on the podium representing my country gets my heart racing just thinking about it. It’s also the fact that I love what I do, I love training and being around like-minded, positive people, and seeing myself improve everyday. The thought of one day being paid to do what I love as a job is the dream. It’s hard to put it into words how lucky I am to be involved in athletics, it’s a great sport for everyone- there is an event for anyone and any age! Of course it’s hard, and being a popular sport, the climb to the top is massive, and the journey for me has only just begun. It’s not just physical, it’s very mentally tough and you have to be able to cope with that. I’m very lucky to be in a place where there are great coaches and facilities, but that’s the thing with athletics- to get to the top you need a lot of help because as much as it is an individual sport; parents,physio’s,coaches,fellow athletes and many more all pay a huge part. Being at school still can be a struggle to balance...
by rocktapeuk | Jun 30, 2015 | Uncategorized
Paul Sidi of Chertsey and Woking based Practice SIDI PHYSIO was once again keeping the wheels turning on the Waterloo 200 Ride of the Lions (ROTL) charity bike ride tour; a two day, 200 mile cycle led by a host of rugby legends. 10 ex British & Irish Lions and four wounded veterans formed part of a 100 strong team raising money on behalf of Walking With The Wounded, a charity that helps to retrain and re-skill our wounded troops and support them in finding new careers outside the military. The star studded line-up of rugby stars included Roger Uttley OBE, Peter Winterbottom MBE , Mike Teauge, Steve Bainbridge, Ben Clarke and Dean Richards of England, Rob Henderson of Ireland, Rodger Arneill and Roger Baird of Scotland. Daffyd James of Wales was due to start but had to pull out due to imminent knee surgery. These Legends were riding alongside 100 members of the public as well as several wounded soldiers. A touch of glamour was also added by supermodel Jodie Kidd, who rode alongside the rugby greats on the Dover to London leg and required treatment using Rocktape to ease neck and shoulder pain. The event marked the 200th anniversary of the Duke of Wellington’s victory over Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815 with the route mirroring that taken by Major Percy who was entrusted by the Duke of Wellington to take his written notice of victory (his Dispatch) by horse and carriage to the Prince Regent in London; who was eventually found at what is now the East India Club. SIDI PHYSIO’s lead physiotherapist is Paul Sidi, ex...
by rocktapeuk | Jun 15, 2015 | Uncategorized
By Georgina Ewer, Head Physiotherapist for London Welsh RFC I always aspired to work full time in sport and having studied physiotherapy in Cardiff, the rugby capitol of Wales, what better a place for me to get involved with the sport of rugby. I studied at Cardiff University from 2003-06 and shadowed physio’s at local rugby clubs throughout my training. Upon qualifying I worked in the NHS for just shy of 5 years, again supplementing this experience with part time rugby at the Cardiff Blues Academy and the age grade international women. My main move into sport came from a post at the University of Bath Sports Injury Clinic where I grew immensely as a clinician. My time here included 3 years with the British Bobsleigh squad and commencing an MSc in Sports Physiotherapy which I plan to conclude this year with a study into the effects of Kinesiology Taping Following my first season as Head Physio at London Welsh RFC I have transferred skills from previous posts and added this to my rugby specific knowledge with a big focus on emergency trauma management within the RFU. Working in full time sport is tough and life consuming, certainly not glamorous but the rewards from being part of the team keep you going through the highs and lows. If you are looking to work in an elite sports environment, then voluntary and/or paid grass roots level work and hours of hands on experience in a sporting environment, along with hard work and a willingness to throw a hand to anything will be your basic necessities. Clinical skill set and expertise...
by rocktapeuk | Jun 3, 2015 | Uncategorized
I have just finished being part of the Medical team looking after Athlete Services at CrossFit Regional’s in Denmark 2015. There was a team of 20 led by Danish local Per Rosenquist Kyed and ROCKTAPE Instructor Rob Crowley. The team included Massage Therapists, Sports Therapists, Physiotherapists and Chiropractors all of whom were all working for Rocktape. We began the process with the Clinical lead, ‘Rock Doc Rob’ showing our team the correct and most effective taping strategies for CrossFit athletes. Rob is a Chiropractor and CrossFit athlete himself, so he not only talks the talk, he walks the walk too! Most of the team had already been trained on the FMT 1 & 2 courses, but it was nice to refresh the skills. Rock Doc Rob’s golden rules are: • Round the edges of the tape • Stretch the body part before taping • Don’t touch the sticky part of the tape • Don’t tape on tape The treatment area was perfectly placed as we were imbedded in the athlete warm up area. The treatment areas were separated into two, an eight bedded massage area and a single bedded ‘Mobility’ area. The Mobility treatment area was for quick treatments/taping and the massage area was used for all treatments including taping. Thankfully there were no serious injuries, just tight sore muscles pumped with lactate. It was great to see so many British teams and individuals make it to regionals. The Rocktape team would like to think that we made a good contribution towards injury prevention and performance enhancement in all the athletes we treated. Big thanks to Simon, Pedro, Jade...
