Bursitis is a term that is used to describe a build up of fluid in a small sac of the body called a bursa.45x
Typically, people notice pain and a lump in or around their joint.
For some people, the lump isn't noticeable, just the pain.
Others notice more lump and little pain.
Both situations are Bursitis.
A Bursa is a small sac of fluid in your body that is in place to stop friction between moving parts of your body.
It also protects the parts from banging together and causing damage.
The bursa provides both a cushion for parts of your body bumping against each other and a slippery surface for parts of your body sliding against each other.43x
Bursas are designed to protect your body tissue and they are intended to swell when your body detects injury in the area, close to the bursa, for an extended period of time.
There are a few types, but they all have the same purpose: to protect your bodily tissue.
A Subcutaneous bursa protects your skin from rubbing and bumping against bone.
A Submuscular bursa protects your muscles from rubbing and bumping on bones.
And a Subtendinous bursa protects your ligaments and tendons from rubbing and bumping against bones.
That's typically the case, but you have a few more just protecting one tissue from another tissue in high wear-and-tear areas too.
Also, most people have similar bursae in similar locations but some people have a few extra or a few less, it's just a matter of your body developed long ago.
So, no matter the type or location, these slippery little fluid filled sacs are all protecting your body from wear and tear.
When your body detects some kind of damage to nearby tissue, part of its defence response is to produce more synovial fluid.33x
This makes the bursa a bit bigger for better cushioning, and the joint gets better lubrication and an improved environment for healing.
If your injury persists for a long time, and your body keeps producing more and more synovial fluid, your bursa can puff up from a flat pillow to a ball and hurt under the stress.44x
That's bursitis.
'Burs' for 'bursa' and 'itis' means swelling in medical terminology.
We haven't labeled each bursa in the pictures shown, because the exact name and location isn't that important.
What is important is that you realize that the body is very complex.
There are a ton of bursas (bursas and bursae are the same thing, plural for bursa) in your body.
As mentioned, from person to person, the size and location of a bursa can vary, so everyone's situation is always unique.
The key thing to note is that bursitis is not the injury itself, it is a condition that comes from having an injury close to that bursa that hasn't healed for a long time.
A Bursa is a very important element of your body health.
The surface is both incredibly tough and incredibly slippery.
Your body grows them between the parts of your body that would rub on each other when you move.
Your bones are tied in place to connecting bones in your body with ropes in your body called ligaments.
Your muscles are tied to your bones with ropes called tendons.
Where two bones might rub on each other during motion, your body pads the ends of the ones with padding called cartilage.43x
The fluid inside every bursa is called 'synovial fluid'.47x
Synovial fluid has many roles too.
First, it is the cushion in the water balloon.
Second it is a lubricant, like oil, that helps your body tissues be more slippery against each other.
Third, Synovial Fluid also takes the place of blood in a lot of your joints.
A lot of the spots in your joints are too harsh of an environment for the delicate tissue that makes up your blood flow system.
But where things are harsh, those cells still need nutrition and cleaning and oxygen and the things that blood supplies to the rest of your body.
So, in the toughest environments, in the joints with the most pressure, your body creates something like a super-bursa between the bones called a 'synovial cavity'.
In a synovial cavity there can be bone, ligament, and other tissue that make up the joint and they are surrounded by a sea of synovial fluid.
There's no blood in a synovial joint, that role is instead performed by the synovial fluid which is made for the harsh environment.
Through the synovial membrane, the blood from the outside exchanges all this stuff with the synovial fluid inside the bursa / cavity for transport to rest of your joint.
The synovial fluid is the lifeblood of various joints in your knees, elbows, wrists, hips and shoulders.
These super-bursae, the synovial joints, are also linked to local regular bursas in the joint.
When there is long lasting repetitive damage taking place to tissue inside the synovial cavity, the attached bursa will often swell.33x
That's another cause of bursitis.
When you have bursitis, it is because one of your bursae is getting over filled with synovial fluid.45x
Your body is producing it for a good reason.
Your body has detected that some of the tissue near the bursa or inside a synovial joint is injured.33x
It is typically some of the other tissue in your joint, as it is seldom the bursa itself that is damaged.45x
As mentioned, your body produces synovial fluid to keep your body healthy.
It is trying to heal an injury and you produce synovial fluid to help it heal and keep the injury protected.
In very rare circumstances, bursitis can happen because the bursa itself is sick or damaged.
That is incredibly rare though.
When that is the case, it is usually due to some kind of infection and it will show up in a blood test as an elevated white blood-cell count.
Your doctor will have done that routine test from the beginning and, if it is the case, the solution will just be anti-biotics.
But again, that is a very rare chance.
Most of the time, bursitis is because you've damaged your joint in some way and as fast as it heals you are doing something to reinjure it again and again.33x
Bursitis - your swollen bursa - is really a secondary reaction to another underlying injury.
Typically, this happens when you've had an injury for a long time and it hasn't been able to heal properly.
Perhaps you've damaged a ligament or tendon, or some cartilage, and as fast as it heals, your level of activity keeps reinjuring it.44x
The injury may be small enough that you haven't noticed it as pain in regular life - or maybe you have a bit from time to time.
When this cycle of reinjury continues for a long time, your body produces more and more synovial fluid until finally the bursa starts to swell.
As your bursa swells, you feel more pain.
And at this point your body has achieved its goal of telling you that it is injured and needs a break through signals of pain!
What is the underlying injury that is causing you to have Bursitis?
Most people with bursitis don't realize their body is actually injured.
That's why they are looking for information on bursitis, instead of the real problem in their body.
This is very common.
The most common underlying injury is a small tendon tear.52x
The second most common underlying injury is a small cartilage tear.43x
Cartilage is a piece of very tough tissue that your body grows on the ends of two bones that might bang together during normal activity.
Think of where your leg bones meet at your knees, or your arm bones meet at your elbows, or your bones in your ankles.
If those bones get pushed together while the joint is trying to flex, you don't want the bones wearing on each other.
Your body grows cartilage on the ends of your bones as bump pads and wear pads to protect the ends of your bones.
(In your knee the cartilage has a special name called the 'meniscus'.)
Cartilage is a rubbing pad, a protector, between your body bones so the bones don't actually rub on each other.
You may have heard the term 'bone on bone'.
Bone on bone is not a good thing which is why there is always cartilage between bones.
More often than it being cartilage damage (except in the knees), the damage that leads to bursitis is usually to a tendon or ligament in the area.52x When it is ligament or tendon, it's the same bodily response, with more synovial fluid production and swelling of the bursa if the condition persists.33x
So, a one time injury that doesn't get a chance to heal is a common cause of bursitis. When you are injured, it's important to let the tissue heal before resuming normal activity.
Pain killers are often used to mask pain from injuries. Stopping the pain is nice, but blocking the pain often causes people to do more than their injury can handle and results in constant reinjury.50x If you have bursitis, an important first step is to not use pain relievers like Tylenol or numbing creams during the day. Pain killers during the day are likely to contribute to reinjury and your condition getting worse.50x You can call us for more information on how to properly use medications in the treatment of bursitis.
Another common cause of bursitis is Osteoarthritis.44x People often don't realize there are two kinds of Arthritis: Osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Rheumatoid arthritis is the bad one because it's a disease-like condition and it is a problem that doesn't go away. But most arthritis is actually osteoarthritis which is a problem coming from overuse - overactivity in a joint.
We want to be clear here: Overactivity that causes osteoarthritis is when you do something excessively strenuous over and over. If the activity is light, you can do it endlessly and never have to worry about developing arthritis. If the activity is light, the bursa and synovial fluid are always in place, and the joint moves freely, without damage. Walking, running, lifting medium to light weights repeatedly, constant bending of the body - these are all considered light activity. Even a whole lot of light repetitive activity is not a concern for a healthy joint. Your body is designed to do that type of activity repeatedly.
If the activity is heavy though, if you are putting a lot of pressure on the joint during the motion, tissue can rub that shouldn't. Bones can push together damaging the cartilage on their ends. Or ligaments and tendons can get squeezed against other body parts, to the point the synovial fluid gets squeezed out of the way. If it happens occasionally, that's not a problem. The bursae and cartilage are there for that purpose, to be a bumper and wear pad during times of heavy strain. But there's a limit when it comes to heavy activity.
If you do a heavy load activity over and over and over again so that the parts of your body are constantly bumping and grinding on each other, then it is possible they get worn down over time faster than they can regenerate.43x When that is the case, a doctor will tell you the joint has developed osteoarthritis.
Osteoarthritis can go away if you let up on the activity and let the joint heal.33x Often, active people develop osteoarthritis in their joints that they don't even realize is there. And the body's response to osteoarthritis is, again, to start producing synovial fluid to help the joint heal47x . When it is mild enough that you don't notice it, but it persists for a long time, then that can cause bursitis to develop.
Again, it's worth noting that if you are doing mild repetitive activity, you are not likely to sustain any injury no matter how much you do it. If the cartilage on the bones is not being pushed hard enough to bump and rub a lot, then your joint can do that activity forever. If the tendons and ligaments are not being squeezed excessively during repetitive motion then you will be fine. So don't get confused by the terms 'overuse injury' and 'repetitive strain injury'. That sort of injury only occurs if the excessive activity is also excessively strenuous on the joint.52x
Never wear compression bandages or straps or tight elastic products around your joints during times of repeated activity. That is a recipe for strain on your body that results in tissue damage and eventually arthritis and/or bursitis. Think about it: Your body put a cushion between your tissue and the bone to protect it against wear and tear. Putting more pressure on that tissue as it rubs against the bone is only going to make the wear and tear worse. Bands and Straps during activity defeat the protective abilities of your bursa. Don't make this mistake. Yes, companies make compression sleeves and compression bands and sell them to make money. But these are not aids, they are hazards and are only likely to injure the person wearing them. Bands and straps may look cool, but they are definitely compromising your body health if you wear them during activity.
Your body is designed to be in constant motion. That motion contributes to synovial circulation and prevents the parts of your joints from getting squeezed for too long.43x Your blood has your heart to pump it through your body, but synovial fluid only moves through your joints as a result of motion.47x You don't need to be excessive though, and the motion does not need to be under heavy weight. If you have any pain at all when you are moving, then you are doing something you should not be doing. Heed the pain. Move, but heed the pain.
People don't realize, you can actually hurt your body by 'doing nothing'. Constant pressure on a body part when it is not moving can lead to injuries called Isometric Strain Injury.48x 49x If you are inactive for an extended period of time, and your body is being held in a position where part of it is being squeezed to much and too long, you may be hurting yourself.
You have a synovial fluid and bursa buffer between the parts in your body to protect them most of the time. When you move, the synovial fluid is squeezed from between the parts into areas between the bones called synovial cavities.47x The synovial fluid moves back when the squeeze is released, over and over again. It's designed to work that way. That gentle flow in and out of the bursa to other parts of your body acts as circulation for the synovial fluid to do the work of the blood that isn't there.
Isometric Strain may be hurting your body when you aren't moving at all. This kind of injury happens when you keep your body locked in a certain position for a long period of time. It may be locked straight, or bent, or maybe with a twist. But, if you keep your body pressed into any one position for an extended period of time, that tissue being squeezed can get damaged. Remember the synovial fluid shock absorber? Well, if you keep enough pressure in one place for long enough, the synovial fluid gets pushed out of place until there's nothing between the different tissues. Then, if you move suddenly, maybe not even with a lot of effort, a tear is much more likely.48x 52x
Isometric Strain happens more often than you realize. It's what happens to people who stand in one place for a long time with one or both knees 'locked'. Or think about crossing your legs for a long time when sitting - that torque on your body is severe. Some people cross their ankles when they sleep. Doing so causes the body of the top leg to hyper-extend for hours possibly, constantly pressing on one part of the knee joint.
Elbows and wrists often experience isometric strain when we sleep. Do you lie with your wrist or elbow bent tight and under your head or body as you sleep? Maybe you sit for hours each day in front of your computer with your head resting on your wrist. Lying on your side propped up on one elbow as your read or watch TV can put unusual compressive strain on your shoulder joint.
There are things that we do, that maybe you haven't thought about that cause isometric strain in different parts of your body. If you are unsure what caused your injury, think about this possibility as well. If this is the culprit then you may need to correct that habit, or you risk causing the injury over and over again. You will need to stop it for some time to at least let your body heal.
This goes for your tendons and ligaments, bones, cartilage and nerves and the other tissue in your joints. If they get squeezed under even modest pressure for a very long time, they can get damaged.49x
With Isometric Strain, you usually don't notice it when you're actually doing the damage.
This makes it hard to figure out, because you end up feeling the pain during other times of activity.
It is quite possible that the activity you are doing when you feel the pain isn't the root cause of the problem.
But the pain is an indication that your situation is bad enough that the painful activity may start to make your condition worse.
By this point, all sorts of activity may start to make your situation worse.
The good news is, that if you correct the underlying cause and treat the condition so it heals, you may be able to resume your favorite activity and never have to worry about developing bursitis again.
There are other much less common inner body injuries that can result in bursitis. Suffice it to say that if some part of a joint has an injury that you don't know about, and your body is trying to resolve it for a long time, bursitis can result.
So often people go to their GP complaining about pain and swelling in the body and the doctor says, "it's bursitis". They may call it by bursitis of that particular part, but it's all the same issue to you. In the vast majority of cases, that is likely to be an incomplete diagnosis. Bursitis is what happens when an underlying injury goes for an extended time without healing - it's a symptom of an underlying injury. Yes, the bursitis is the cause of your pain, so that's often all the doctor addresses. When they call it bursitis it's because they haven't yet determined what is the underlying issue.
As discussed, there are many body issues that can show up as pain and swelling. There could be ligament damage or a torn tendon, or perhaps tendonitis. There could be bone spurs. You might have rheumatoid arthritis or be feeling osteoarthritis without bursitis being part of it. There could be infection or gout. It may be something more serious. Whatever the case, declaring it 'Bursitis' is just the doctor saying you have a symptom.
If it has been nagging you, you want to know the underlying cause so you can address the issue most effectively. An X-Ray or an MRI, or perhaps an Ultrasound will provide further insight, so the real issue can be properly diagnosed. If you know what part of your body is injured and in what way, it will give you valuable insight into what you can do to recover properly and completely.
Bursitis is going to last until your body successfully heals the underlying injury. By the time that swelling develops to the point that you notice it, you have probably had the injury for several months already. There's no doubt about it, something in your lifestyle is causing your injury to persist - your body can't heal the problem as fast as it's getting reinjured. So, it is unlikely that it will just go away, unless you change something about your activity.
Some people get to this point and realize what may be the root cause. Perhaps it was an increase in activity level or a new activity. Perhaps it was that you have always maintained a fairly high activity level, but as you age or gain weight (we almost all do a bit with age), maybe your body can't keep up as well. In many, many cases, you did something once that caused you to have an injury in the moment, and it didn't have a chance to heal, and the injury has persisted ever since. That's the best scenario, because if that's the case, if you can allow your body to heal and get past that injury, you are likely to be able to return to the same activity level as before and never have the problem again. No matter what the cause, though, you have an underlying injury and you need to let it heal. If you heal your injury, regardless of the reason it started in the first place, your bursitis will go away and you will likely be able to resume normal life. That is, if this whole ordeal is dealt with properly...
When you get a diagnosis of 'bursitis', almost always, the bursitis is the second thing that is wrong with you.
In very rare circumstances your bursitis might just be an infected bursa and, if your doctor suspects that, they will do bloodwork.45x
Then, if it's infection, they will prescribe antibiotics.
Most of the time though the bursitis only occurs because of the underlying injury that hasn't been able to heal.
A lot of the time your doctor won't do any more tests and will just tell you to go home and rest.
That's because if you rest your body enough, the underlying issue will go away and then so will the bursitis.
There's no medicine to cure bursitis, so there's nothing more the doctor can do.
If your bursitis persists for a long time, your doctor may send you for an MRI or X-Ray to get a better look.
Regardless of whether the underlying issue is tendon or ligament or cartilage (maybe your meniscus), rest is what is really required.
As long as that inner injury doesn't heal, the problem will persist.
Don't get cortisone shots.35x 36x 37x Some doctors will offer a cortisone shot for persistent bursitis. The plus of cortisone is that it can add a bit of lubrication. It can also reduce the swelling, but that's not actually a good thing because the bursa is swollen to help protect an underlying injury. Reducing the protection does not help it go away. Cortisone can also relieve the pain.37x But again, the pain is there to warn you that you are injured and to encourage you to avoid activity that will make your condition worse. Cortisone masking the pain is likely to enable you to do activities that further advance the underlying injury.50x Cortisone shots often lead to further complications down the road and potentially a more serious condition.35x 36x 37x Yes, it can relieve short term pain, but it often comes at a cost later on.
The internet is full of bad advice about treating your condition.
When it comes to Bursitis, there is a lot of misleading information online.
Many sources are focused on gaining followers or selling cheap gimmicks on platforms like Amazon.
Their priorities are often based on what benefits them, not what helps you.
Here's a short list though:
It's not your shoes and most orthotics are gimmicks.
Draining it doesn't solve the underlying problem.
Painkillers probably make it worse as they set you up for reinjury.50x Driving through the pain will just make it worse.44x
One of the most harmful things you can do for bursitis is wear tight elastic bands, sleeves, or straps around your sore area.
These products are sold everywhere, especially online, but they are not medical devices and they will not help you heal.
Your bursitis is trying to prevent tissues from rubbing.
Tight bands increase the risk of damage by squeezing your joint tissues together and making them rub against each other when you move.
This can aggravate your injury and lead to more pain and swelling.
Yes, compression can have a place - but only short sessions at rest using true medical cold compression like ColdCure®.
Never use continuous elastic compression bands during daily activity.
If you want support for your injury, use medical tape.
Tape over the joint to reduce strain without squeezing your tissues together.
Another common mistake is relying on topical creams such as Voltaren or other pain ointments.
These may dull surface pain for arthritis, but they do not reach the bursa inside the protective synovial capsule.
For bursitis, they offer no healing benefit.
Worse, by numbing your nerves they mask pain signals that would normally prevent you from reinjury.
This leaves you vulnerable to doing more harm without realizing it.
If you need safe, effective relief, use cold compression instead.
Cold works directly to reduce pain and swelling in the joint without disabling your body's natural defenses.
You usually don't have to undergo surgery in order to get rid of your bursitis.
Most often, you can get rid of your problem with conservative treatments.
However, it's possible that your underlying condition or injury requires surgery.
These are very rare cases.
Surgery carries serious risks including infection, nerve damage, tendon rupture, and extended recovery times.
Even when successful, patients often still face related issues in the future.
That is why surgery should be your last resort, pursued only after exhausting conservative treatment options.
A TENS machine is designed to overstimulate nerves to block pain.
It does not stimulate blood flow, and it does not promote healing.
Worse, by forcing your muscles to spasm during treatment, TENS can cause further tissue damage and slow recovery.
Respect the pain of your injury.
Pain is your natural warning signal that something is wrong.
Masking it with a TENS unit may let you push harder in the short term, but it will almost always make things worse over time.
TENS machines should never be used on bursitis or other soft tissue injuries.
For a little while - not forever - it is really helpful to give your injured area a rest. In many cases, resting for a few weeks will give it time to heal to a point that your body gets ahead of the healing / reinjury cycle. It's important to realize that once the pain and lump go away, your underlying injury may not be healed completely, so take it easy. Go back to regular life gradually, once the pain and swelling are gone. If you want to be more proactive about healing the problem, you can click here to visit the Recommended Treatments page.
If you want your swollen bursa to go away as quickly as possible, you need to rest that part of your body.
Avoid any physical activities that could cause further injury.
If your bursitis developed from another injury or condition, do your best to avoid the activity - at least for a while.
Consider using crutches to keep the weight off your injured area if it's in the lower body.
Do regular ColdCure® treatments to control the pain and swelling.26x The compression during each treatment helps gently move the synovial fluid back into your nearby tissue from the bursa sac.
You can also add regular BFST® sessions to your routine.
Around the 4-6 week mark you can start doing some light stretching and strengthening exercises.
Slowly work your way back to your regular level of activity.
Continue doing BFST® long after the pain and lump disappear to maintain the progress you have achieved.
Do a ColdCure® treatment if you experience any flare-ups of pain and swelling and after any significant activity.25x
Painkillers mask the pain, causing you to continue to stress and injure your body.
This will only make your condition worse.
It is understandable that people need relief from the pain, so if you have to take painkillers, restrict them to times when you are at rest.
You can use painkillers to help you sleep.
Using them when you are active can lead to further damage.25x Your choice of painkillers is important.
You can give us a call to discuss which ones are best.
The ColdCure® Wraps are designed to relieve the pain associated with bursitis. 26x This safe and effective pain reliever is also great at bringing down swelling and inflammation. 27x The ColdCure® Wrap is incredibly soothing and provides support and protection for your injury.
The pain relief element is incredibly powerful and it works instantly - there's no 20 minute wait like with pills.51x
There is no doubt about it, for healing most tissue injuries in the body, blood flow is the most critical element in rapid recovery.
Blood brings the building blocks for new cell growth.
It carries away waste and damaged tissue.
It delivers antibodies to protect against infection.
Your circulation supplies the cells with everything they need and removes much of what needs to be taken away.
While your heart ensures a sufficient supply to the body as a whole, the amount that reaches a specific area depends on many factors.
Motion in local tissue can play a major role in circulation, but when you are injured, motion is reduced, and so is the trigger to bring blood to the area. 43x
People often do not realize that gentle motion alone is enough to encourage circulation.
That does not mean putting a heavy load on your body.
Simple, light movements without pain are all that is needed.
Adding weight or stressful activity does not improve the flow further, and the added loads can result in reinjury. 33x
Find light, gentle motions you can do with no pain at all and repeat them several times each day.
Move only as much as you can without causing more pain.
Diathermy is a medical process to promote blood flow in tissue at rest. 7x
It works by sending energy deep into the body to stimulate blood flow far below the skin. 1x 2x
An example of diathermy is ultrasound treatment, which is often used in physiotherapy. 13x
The challenge with ultrasound is that diathermic effects last only about 4 hours, while most people only receive treatment once every few days.
It also carries more risk, as ultrasound can damage tissue if misused, and it must be performed by a trained technician in a clinic.
That means you cannot do it at home.
The good news is that you have an option for this painful condition other than ultrasound. 9xBFST® devices from King Brand are diathermic devices that you can safely use at home to promote healing. 1x 2x
With a home diathermic device, you can treat yourself multiple times each day, which greatly improves blood flow and accelerates recovery. 7x 20x
They are also more powerful, providing deeper stimulation than clinic-based ultrasound treatments. 13x
Unlike ultrasound, which treats only a small focused area and must be moved constantly, BFST® devices treat up to 70 square inches of tissue at once.
This means your injury can be treated more completely, with better safety and far less effort. 1x 2x
They are typically up to 10 times more powerful than ultrasound and completely safe for home use. 13x
BFST® brings extra oxygen and nutrient-rich blood to the area - something the body must have to heal itself. 1x
Unfortunately, an injured body at rest often has restricted circulation, which greatly slows recovery. 33x
With a King Brand® BFST® Wrap, blood flow can be stimulated in the area of injury while you are at rest.
With improved circulation and reduced strain, you lower the risk of reinjury and you can recover from Bursitis at an optimized rate.
For more in-depth information about how an injury heals click here for our Healing Page.
The tissue around your bursa moves a lot through the day, and when you're struggling with bursitis, you feel every little movement.
You can't stop everything and wait for your body to heal, so let's provide some support for your injured area, without taking away your range of motion.
KB Support Tape™ is designed to protect your tendons, ligaments and muscles and help prevent further damage as you go through your day.24x
It does this all without squeezing the damaged tissue that's causing the bursitis in the first place.
Our skin is soft and elastic and can stretch much more than the tissue underneath.
When you apply Support Tape™ to your skin, it becomes a much more rigid surface than before; serving to limit how much the skin can stretch.
Support Tape™ makes your skin a source of outside support to hold your damaged tissue beneath it in place, helping you avoid re-injury.24x
That's why we call it armor for your injury.
Support Tape™ - Protection from Re-Injury
Too busy to be injured? Have to keep going? Then Support Tape™ is your "must have".
Constant re-injury is often the biggest reason the underlying issue doesn't heal.
It heals when at rest but when you get back on the go, the injury gets worse.
Athletes are always taped up. That's to prevent against re-injury while they are active.52x
And King Brand Support Tape™ is made for that purpose.
Taping is very underappreciated and very effective.
If you have to keep moving, you have to tape.
There's one big difference between King Brand Support Tape and the kinesiology tapes and athletic tapes you find in drug stores:
store-bought tapes are not medical grade - even though the name "kinesiology" makes them sound clinical.
King Brand tape is real medical grade, designed to be worn all day long, day after day, especially when recovering from bursitis.
Don't be misled by appearances.
Other tapes may look similar, but the materials are entirely different.
Athletic and kinesiology tapes are typically made for short-term, occasional use - maybe an hour or two here and there.
They're made with lower-grade adhesives and fabrics that can irritate your skin and even contain carcinogenic materials if worn too long.
King Brand Support Tape is built for healing.
It's safe, durable, and optimized for long-term use during real injury recovery - not just while playing a game.
Choose medical grade. Choose wisely. Stay safe.
The color is purely your sense of style.
The Pre-Cut Strips are super convenient; they're really the right length for most taping.
You still may cut one piece in half though.
The Continuous Roll gives you more control over how you tape your injured area and you get the most use out of a single roll.
If your injury is on a larger part of your body, consider using Wide Tape.
This is an option you don't often find in stores.
Common tapes are 2 inches wide.
But wide tape is 3 inches wide and that extra inch makes a huge difference!
Wide tape provides much more than twice the support of regular tape.
The wide tape comes in a continuous roll that you cut using scissors into lengths for your unique injury.
Every injury is different and you will adjust how you tape your injury over time based on what works for you.
In most cases you will tape in an 'X' or 'T' formation, using two strips of tape, where 'X' marks the spot over the most painful area.
When you are done, the two pieces of tape will cross over where you're feeling the pain.
Over time, try modifying your unique taping method to ensure that you're getting the best support.
You'll know the best taping style because you'll really notice how much less your injury hurts through the day when you have it right.
Remember to listen to what your body is telling you.
Use the pain as a guide.
If you feel the pain in a specific area of your body, apply the tape to that area.
King Brand® soft tissue rehabilitation medical products are the #1 choice by top Athletic Therapists and Medical Practitioners worldwide. We provide guaranteed results and customer satisfaction. Like all King Brand® products, there simply isn't a better performing option. All King Brand® products come with a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Try our products and if you are not completely impressed, you can send them back for a full refund. We know you will love them though, because hundreds of thousands of people already use them and rave about the results.
Click here to see our Customer Testimonials
King Brand® BFST® and ColdCure® Wraps are FDA Registered medical devices. They are intended to prevent, treat and cure soft tissue injuries and chronic conditions. Part of being an FDA Registered company means that our products are made from high quality, biocompatible materials. These devices are manufactured and tested to the highest safety standards in the industry.
Click here for more information on our FDA Registration
Tape is great, but there's a lot more you can do. To be more proactive about healing your underlying problem, follow one of our quick-links or use the main menu to focus on a particular body part.
Click here for treating Shoulder Bursitis
