Acute effect of kinesio taping applied to the gastrocnemius muscle on the jumping performance in the athletes and sedentary individuals

This study aimed to investigate the acute effect of kinesio taping applied to athletes and sedentary individuals on vertical and horizontal jumping performances. The study included 20 licensed male basketball players whose ages ranged from 18 to 25 years, and 20 male sedentary individuals. After recording the demographic information of the participants, their body mass indexes were determined by measuring their height and weight. Pre/post test model was applied to both groups. Vertical jumping height and horizontal jumping distance were evaluated with these tests. In order to measure the height of the vertical jumping, free jumping performed on one leg by placing a mark on the wall and squat jumping tests using the Newtest Powertimer 300 device and the mat integrated into the device were performed. For the measurement of the horizontal jumping distance, the single leg hop test performed on one leg with the marking on the ground was selected. Tests using one foot were carried out with the dominant foot. Tests after kinesio taping were carried out 10 minutes after applying the facilitation technique to the gastrocnemius muscle. When the pre-taping and post-taping data of the athlete group were compared, there was a significant increase in both squat jump and single leg hop tests (p<0.05). In the sedentary group, there was a significant increase only in the single leg hop test compared to before taping. (p<0.05). When the performances of the athletes group and the sedentary group were compared, all pre/post test values of the athlete group were higher than the sedentary group (p>0.05). Considering the performance increases after kinesio taping, it was seen that the performance increase of the athlete group was higher in all tests (p>0.05). Our study has revealed that the kinesio tape can improve the jumping performance in both athletes and sedentary. We think that kinesio taping will affect the performance especially in sports such as basketball where jumping movement is used too much.