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 = 0.466), figure-of-eight hop performance (p < 0.001,η = 0.307), unilateral LEFT scores (p < 0.001,η = 0.448), and may reduce risk of lower limb injury in recreational athletes with AT (p < 0.001,η = 0.432). Taping significantly reduced WBLT values (p < 0.001,η = 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.