Joint Function & RockTape

The main goal of chiropractic care is to effect not just joint, but all movement and therefore the health of the body. We have many different ways for doing this. We push, pull, stretch, crack snap and sometimes just straight up jump up and down on ya.  Additional means of treatment include the use of modalities such as electric stimulation, hydro tables, flexion distraction tables, and kinesio-tape.

RockTap

Recently, Dr. Lee and I (Dr. Hickey) completed a functional based course on kinesio-taping, called RockTape. RockTape is a type of kinesio-tape that is used, not just in treating pain, but to aid in the movement of joints. Joints are moved by the muscles and over time, due to faulty movement patterns, some muscles get overworked and others are neglected. This causes those muscles to ‘cheat’ and ‘wrong’ movement patterns are ingrained. This leads to pain, injury and lost performance. RockTape can be placed on different areas of the body to act as a sensory boost to bring attention to a muscle that may be neglected. When that neglected muscle is facilitated, joint movement improves and the patient can notice an increase in stability. Once noticed, the proper movement patterns can be re-taught and then you’re better.

It’s NOT Exclusive To Athletes

RockTape is used the world wide round by athletes of all disciplines and levels to increase performance via muscle cuing and activation. But it’s NOT exclusive to athletes. Here, it’s used more for pain control, swelling and proprioceptive awareness. Lately, we’ve been using it in treating post-surgical scars, especially C sections to get the core turned back on to fix new mommy backs. Other common uses are treating bruises & edema/lymphedema.