How To: Taping Mechanically for Arch Height

Excessive changes in subtalar eversion and medial longitudinal arch height and the velocity and duration of this change have been implicated in overuse conditions of the lower limb, including medial tibial stress syndrome, achilles tendinopathy and plantar fasciitis.^1-4

Rigid Taping

Rigid taping, most commonly a low-dye or low-dye plus reverse 6’s technique, has been used to control pronation with studies reporting increased navicular height, lower local muscle activity (e.g. tibialis anterior and tibialis posterior) and EMG changes up the kinetic chain.^5-9 Studies have also reported changes in plantar pressure.⁹

Some of the changes persist after removing the tape, but with a substantially lower magnitude.^5,10,11 Similar improvements have also been reported in MTSS, plantar fasciitis and Sever’s disease.^6,12,13 Rigid taping is thought to passively restrict movement with 3D kinematic studies showing a general reduction in rear foot motion (not limited to pronation)¹⁴ as well as mid foot control. Soslowsky et al¹⁵ showed that loads can induce tendinopathy, and McPoil and Hunt¹⁶ proposed a tissue stress model to explain the lower limbs overuse injuries. They suggest that excessive loads cause micro-failures when the tissues go beyond the elastic region of the load-deformation curve. Overuse injuries may result if load and damage exceed the capacity of the tissues to accommodate the load and regenerate.

Low-dye taping restricts motion and prevents stress to the supporting connective tissues¹³ and resulting creep and hysteresis. Restricting movement, however, may lead to unwanted effects elsewhere in the kinetic chain as the body attempts to dissipate load. The taping is often uncomfortable and fails to absorb load or decelerate movement directly.

Dynamic Taping

Dynamic Tape has strong recoil properties, stretches in all directions and has no rigid endpoint. It permits full range of motion and, when applied correctly, creates a ‘bungee’ effect to decelerate motion and reduce the load absorption requirements of the tissues while allowing desirable movement to accommodate to ground surfaces or further dissipate load.

In a preliminary study,¹⁷ Dynamic Taping effectively reduced foot length and raised the navicular height in both non-weight bearing and weight bearing. Furthermore, taping the foot in a ‘short’ position – for the greatest load absorption and resistance to pronation – resulted in a greater improvement than taping in a neutral position.

In an experimental design single-case study on a long distance runner with plantar fasciitis, we found that this effect persisted for 3 days despite significant exercise challenges (a 16km run and a yoga session on day 1 and a 12km run and a yoga session on day 3). The considerable change in navicular height was present 24 hours after removing the tape.