Meet Tammy Metzler. As an active sports enthusiast, she loves many activities, but her favorite is swimming. Swimming is part of her daily routine, and the water has become a second home for her. 18 months ago when she started feeling pain in her right shoulder, it concerned her. Her doctor told her she had rotator cuff tendonitis. A rotator cuff injury could put a swimmer out of commission. But Tammy wasnt going to let that happen, so she started looking for solutions. She remembered seeing an Olympic Volleyball player with her shoulder taped up with pink elastic athletic tape during the 2008 Olympics. Tammy set out to do some internet research on how this performance tape could help her, and landed on KT Tapes website. A quick trip to Sports Authority and an easy online instructional video later, and she was back in the water.
While KT Tape allowed her to keep swimming, she knew there was a serious enough problem with her shoulder that she would have to have surgery. After surgery, the joint pain and inflammation kicked in. So, she stocked up on KT Tape, worked with her physical therapist and finally got approved to start swimming again. She resumed her kinesiology therapeutic taping routine and hit the pool.
"If it wasn't for this tape, I would not be able to swim. On the rare occasions I don't tape my shoulder (when I know I wont be able to leave the tape on for more than that day for whatever reason), my shoulder fatigues very quickly and begins to hurt after swimming for only a few minutes. When my shoulder is taped, it doesn't fatigue at all, and I'm able to swim at least 35-40 minutes before it starts to ache and/or hurt. I've also noticed that after the tape gets wet, it chills the skin and seems to act like an ice pack so its like icing my shoulder while Im swimming and then acts like an ice pack when I get out of the water until the tape dries. The tape stays on really well through several days of swimming, too."
Her physical therapist is even recommending KT Tape kinesiology tape to others because of Tammy.
"My physical therapist told me someone stopped in to see if he could buy some kinesiology tape. She told him she had a patient (me!) who buys KT tape at Sports Authority and told him to just go there and buy it because it would be cheaper than buying her tape."
It's been a long road to full recovery for Tammy, but we are so glad she's having KT Tape help her along the way.
Thanks Tammy for your story and sharing the KT Tape love. We definitely admire your determination and drive.
For taping instructions click here.
