Effect of Gastrocnemius Kinesiotaping on Viscoelastic Characteristics and Performance of Musculoskeletal System during Vertical Jump Before and After Fatigue in Healthy Subjects

Sahar Boozari

Kinesiotape as one of the therapeutic interventions has been widely used in physiotherapy and sport physiotherapy filed since Olympic 2008 & 2012 [1]. Despite the various studies on kinesiotape, its effect on musculoskeletal system is still unknown. One of the questions on kinesiotape is its effect on viscoelastic changes of musculoskeletal system. Furthermore the studies on kinesiotape effect during weight bearing conditions or in high load tasks and fatiguing conditions are limited [2-7].
Viscoelasticity (stiffness and damping) is the main behavior of musculoskeletal system in response to the applied load. Changes in musculoskeletal stiffness and damping can lead to biomechanical and performance changes which can affect the risk of injury. On the other hand, changes in the performance features can change the viscoelastic behavior of the musculoskeletal system [8-13]. Musculoskeletal Stiffness and damping can also alter due to different conditions such as fatigue or after different kind of exercise (Fig. 1) [8-10, 14, 15].

Fig 1. Viscoelastic characteristics can change some performance features and vice versa.

Therefore knowing the stiffness and damping changes caused by different interventions or after different conditions can lead to better use of therapeutic interventions or better decision making to reduce the risk of injury.
In this study the effect of Gastrocnemius Kinesiotaping on musculoskeletal stiffness and damping during vertical jump will be studied. As fatigue is one of the conditions which can affect the musculoskeletal stiffness and damping [8, 9], kinesiotape effect will be studied before and after a fatigue protocol.
Musculoskeletal stiffness can be calculated using mass-spring-damper models. Different types of models have been developed to calculate the musculoskeletal stiffness and damping more precisely [16]. In this study musculoskeletal stiffness in push off phase (eccentric portion) will be calculated using a simple mass-spring model [17, 18]. Previous studies have shown a relationship between eccentric lower limb stiffness and jump height [18]. Musculoskeletal stiffness and damping in landing phase of jump will be calculated using a two degrees of freedom mass-spring-damper model [19]. This model has been used previously to calculate the stiffness and damping in jumping (Fig 2.).

Fig 2. The two degrees of freedom model to calculate musculoskeletal stiffness and damping in landing phase of vertical jump.

Furthermore vertical jump parameters extracting from vertical GRF curve will also be studied [20-22].

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