KT Tape

[bethram]

Has anyone used it? Do you have any advice?

I've ordered some and I'm going to tape my foot on Friday for my practice run in Florida, then hopefully the half on Sunday won't be horribly painful. If it works and I still need it, I'll tape again for the Warrior Dash the following Saturday.

 

[Kristia]

Has anyone used it? Do you have any advice?

I've ordered some and I'm going to tape my foot on Friday for my practice run in Florida, then hopefully the half on Sunday won't be horribly painful. If it works and I still need it, I'll tape again for the Warrior Dash the following Saturday.

I use it quite a bit for my knee. I really like it and it does give my knee some extra support for long runs. I don't usually need it for runs less than 10 miles. There are usually a lot of taping technique videos on youtube if you haven't taped before.

 

[joel_maxwell]

Has anyone used it? Do you have any advice?

I've ordered some and I'm going to tape my foot on Friday for my practice run in Florida, then hopefully the half on Sunday won't be horribly painful. If it works and I still need it, I'll tape again for the Warrior Dash the following Saturday.

I think @Fievel uses that product. If memory serves, I recall a orange glow from hist lower extremities when walking to the Start corrals at the ToT.

 

[dreamfinder]

I've used it for my knee in the past with varying success. Whenever my PT applied it, it would stay on 3-4 days, even through back to back long runs. And it seemed to help keep my knee cap in place tracking wise, which was good while I was still working on my IT band. However when I tried to tape it myself, I would lose the tape 3-4 miles in. At the DLR half last year stopped by the KT booth, and talked to one of their reps. He said the issue was the hair on my legs. Tried to explain that the generic stuff my PT used stayed fine, and he tried to sell me on the KT Pro vs the normal KT that I had just bought the massive roll of. Wasn't terribly thrilled with his answer. So I broke down and bought a razor that night and shaved the area I apply the tape to, and used the normal KT tape I had. And when I was running the race, it came off at about mile 5-6. So I'm not sure if my technique sucks, or if the normal KT branded product is inferior to the generic industrial stuff my PT used, but that was my experience. Now that I'm normally regular with my rehab, I don't use it at all anymore.

 

[Fievel]

I do use KT tape. I tape calves and ankles, as I was did 5 years of high impact marching band that beat them up, and they tend to bug me toward the end of a race. I do use the KT Tape Pro, and I find that it works better than the standard KT Tape...even to the point of being hard to remove. They state it can stay on up to a week, which I believe. I do shave my legs during race season so that it holds better.

If you ask me, It helps. The muscles that I tape are still tight...but don't feel like i hurt them for a couple days after like they sometimes would. Because I work 2nd shift, I run a lot of 1/2 marathons in the morning, and then will work my 8 hours in the evening. It's not going to help you go an faster, but will act like a brace to help support the muscle, without the bulk of a brace.

The only time the tape has failed me was when I wore it for Tough Mudder, and even then it held up until about Mile 11 before it came off.

 

[Donald Duck]

Useless. Sorry. If s--t gets really bad, duct tape works really well, and is less expensive. I've had to do that halfway through a 50 mile training run. Save your money and find a happy place to get through the pain

 

[bethram]

I've used it for my knee in the past with varying success. Whenever my PT applied it, it would stay on 3-4 days, even through back to back long runs. And it seemed to help keep my knee cap in place tracking wise, which was good while I was still working on my IT band. However when I tried to tape it myself, I would lose the tape 3-4 miles in. At the DLR half last year stopped by the KT booth, and talked to one of their reps. He said the issue was the hair on my legs. Tried to explain that the generic stuff my PT used stayed fine, and he tried to sell me on the KT Pro vs the normal KT that I had just bought the massive roll of. Wasn't terribly thrilled with his answer. So I broke down and bought a razor that night and shaved the area I apply the tape to, and used the normal KT tape I had. And when I was running the race, it came off at about mile 5-6. So I'm not sure if my technique sucks, or if the normal KT branded product is inferior to the generic industrial stuff my PT used, but that was my experience. Now that I'm normally regular with my rehab, I don't use it at all anymore.

The reviews I read on amazon did say that the Pro sticks much better than the original. Luckily I did buy the Pro.

 

[bethram]

I do use KT tape. I tape calves and ankles, as I was did 5 years of high impact marching band that beat them up, and they tend to bug me toward the end of a race. I do use the KT Tape Pro, and I find that it works better than the standard KT Tape...even to the point of being hard to remove. They state it can stay on up to a week, which I believe. I do shave my legs during race season so that it holds better.

If you ask me, It helps. The muscles that I tape are still tight...but don't feel like i hurt them for a couple days after like they sometimes would. Because I work 2nd shift, I run a lot of 1/2 marathons in the morning, and then will work my 8 hours in the evening. It's not going to help you go an faster, but will act like a brace to help support the muscle, without the bulk of a brace.

The only time the tape has failed me was when I wore it for Tough Mudder, and even then it held up until about Mile 11 before it came off.

Hopefully it will work for my foot, DH thinks I may have a stress fracture but I'm not willing to go to the doctor until after the Warrior Dash and then only if it's still bothering me. I've thought about trying it on my knee, too. My knee hasn't been bothering me lately, that is until I had a couple runs that have been hard on my foot last week which I think was affecting my stride. I've got a brace but I'm not used to wearing it anymore so I'd prefer not to. I guess I'll see how my run on Friday goes then decide.

 

[Kristia]

Hopefully it will work for my foot, DH thinks I may have a stress fracture but I'm not willing to go to the doctor until after the Warrior Dash and then only if it's still bothering me. I've thought about trying it on my knee, too. My knee hasn't been bothering me lately, that is until I had a couple runs that have been hard on my foot last week which I think was affecting my stride. I've got a brace but I'm not used to wearing it anymore so I'd prefer not to. I guess I'll see how my run on Friday goes then decide.

If it is bad enough that you think you may have a stress fracture, don't mess around with that! If you continue to run on a fracture, you will make it much worse and could have bigger problems down the road. No race is worth it. The Warrior Dash is pretty intense. I think if I even suspected a stress fracture, I would definitely want to rule it out before running something like that JMHO.

 

[bethram]

If it is bad enough that you think you may have a stress fracture, don't mess around with that! If you continue to run on a fracture, you will make it much worse and could have bigger problems down the road. No race is worth it. The Warrior Dash is pretty intense. I think if I even suspected a stress fracture, I would definitely want to rule it out before running something like that JMHO.

Thank you for your concern! I'm not so sure it is a stress fracture- it's DH's theory. My chiropractor adjusted my foot on Saturday and it hasn't been as uncomfortable since then, in fact it hasn't hurt much at all of course I haven't run on it since then either. Plus I'd imagine I would have been in pain if there was a fracture it in with the way he was manipulating it.

I've run the Warrior Dash twice and we usually take it pretty slowly because DH hasn't been much of a runner until this year. I won't push myself to the point of significant pain, I don't want to have any long term issues. Thanks!

 

[bethram]

I taped this morning and ran 5 miles with no pain I'm going to have to replace at least one piece of tape before Sunday's race but hopefully not both.

 

[Sumrdog]

Hopefully it will work for my foot, DH thinks I may have a stress fracture but I'm not willing to go to the doctor until after the Warrior Dash and then only if it's still bothering me. I've thought about trying it on my knee, too. My knee hasn't been bothering me lately, that is until I had a couple runs that have been hard on my foot last week which I think was affecting my stride. I've got a brace but I'm not used to wearing it anymore so I'd prefer not to. I guess I'll see how my run on Friday goes then decide.

I had some major foot pain right before the Princess Half Marathon and I got my foot taped at the booth and it was miraculous. The doctor I saw thought it was a stress fracture from running in my ice cleats long distance (no support over my mid metatarsal) anyway, he said I couldn't make it any worse by running on it. So I decided to go do the Princess Half. I don't know what the tape did but it turned my pain from unbearable to tolerable and I was able to run the whole thing. So I am convinced that it definitely can help certain injuries.

 

[bethram]

I had some major foot pain right before the Princess Half Marathon and I got my foot taped at the booth and it was miraculous. The doctor I saw thought it was a stress fracture from running in my ice cleats long distance (no support over my mid metatarsal) anyway, he said I couldn't make it any worse by running on it. So I decided to go do the Princess Half. I don't know what the tape did but it turned my pain from unbearable to tolerable and I was able to run the whole thing. So I am convinced that it definitely can help certain injuries.

It was actually from your trip report that I got the idea to try KT Tape, so thank you! It worked well, I had no foot pain at all during the half.

 

[Fievel]

The reviews I read on amazon did say that the Pro sticks much better than the original. Luckily I did buy the Pro.

I'll vouch for that...the pro can last for days. I tend not to wear it past race day, and the pro is actually difficult to remove if you try and remove it same day.

 

[bethram]

I'll vouch for that...the pro can last for days. I tend not to wear it past race day, and the pro is actually difficult to remove if you try and remove it same day.

The pro stuck well enough to last through most of the Warrior Dash after I had applied it on Thursday