Cover image via Reuters
It's highly unlikely that you missed last night's Olympics badminton semi-final (which felt like a final) match between Lee Chong Wei and Lin Dan. Immediately after the match was over, both the shuttlers took off their t-shirts, revealing big brown tapes on their shoulders:
Image via REUTERS
Following which, Malaysians on social media wondered what those weird brown tapes were for. One user, while commenting on a SAYS post on FB, wrote that he "felt sad" by all the tape on their bodies.
Image via Reuters
They are called 'Kinesio tape' and they come in all sorts of colour:
Image via REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach
Image via Encore_Rehab
Image via Global News
Developed in the 1970s, Kinesio tape is made of cotton, is latex free, and has a heat activated acrylic-adhesive. Olympians apply the thin, stretchy tape in seemingly haphazard patterns to the body surface.
[According to Science World Report](http://www.scienceworldreport.com/articles/45480/20160815/the-real-reason-why-olympic-athletes-wear-these-colorful-tapes.htm), which cited the Kinesio website, the tape alleviates discomfort and facilitates lymphatic drainage by microscopically lifting the skin.
The Kinesio tape can be applied over muscles to reduce pain and inflammation, relax overused or tired muscles, and support muscles during constant movements.
While a lot of athletes believe that the Kinesio tape facilitates healing by stimulating blood circulation around muscles, there's limited scientific evidence that supports such a belief. Clinical trials, however, found no negative effects of using the Kinesio tape which may be why trainers use it on athletes who report benefits with it.
Image via AMBRO/FREEDIGITALPHOTOS.NET
The Kinesio tape doesn't really do much. Yet, athletes continue to use it because sometimes lying to yourself can lead to good things.
Having the belief that you are better than you are might actually *make* you better than you are. And so, perhaps that's what this tape did for our Dato' Lee Chong Wei. It gave him the illusion of an edge over Lin Dan, which turned out to be all he needed to have.
Image via Reuters
