The effect of anti-pronation and anti-supination taping on neuromuscular control in recreational athletes with Achilles Tendinopathy: A randomized controlled cross-over trial

Objectives

To investigate the effects of different directions of athletic taping on neuromuscular control of the lower limb in recreational athletes with Achilles tendinopathy (AT).

Design

Crossover Study.

Setting

Functional assessment laboratory.

Participants

Thirty recreational athletes with AT.

Main outcome measures

Participants were randomly treated with anti-pronation taping, anti-supination taping, or no-taping. Under different taping conditions, neuromuscular tests were performed in random order: ankle proprioception Active Movement Extent Discrimination Assessment (AMEDA), Weight-Bearing Lunge Test (WBLT), single leg hop test, figure-of-eight hop test and Lower Extremity Functional Test (LEFT).

Results

Compared with no-taping, both anti-pronation taping and anti-supination taping significantly improved AMEDA proprioception test scores (p < 0.001,η_p² = 0.466), figure-of-eight hop performance (p < 0.001,η_p² = 0.307), unilateral LEFT scores (p < 0.001,η_p² = 0.448), and may reduce risk of lower limb injury in recreational athletes with AT (p < 0.001,η_p² = 0.432). Taping significantly reduced WBLT values (p < 0.001,η_p² = 0.259) but had no significant effect on single leg hop test scores (p = 0.139). Importantly, no difference between the two taping conditions was observed.

Conclusions

Both directions of athletic taping were equally effective in improving ankle proprioception, lower extremity functional performance, and reducing the risk of injury in athletes with AT, but had no significant effect on lower limb explosive strength and were associated with significantly reduced ankle dorsiflexion.