The Effects of Instrument-Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization, Tissue Flossing, and Kinesiology Taping on Shoulder Functional Capacities in Amateur Athletes.

Instrument-assisted soft tissue mobilization (IASTM), tissue flossing, and kinesiology taping are increasingly popular treatments among athletes for improving functional performance, despite limited evidence for their efficacy. Previous research regarding the efficacy of soft tissues and neuromuscular techniques on improving functional capacity of shoulder joints in athletes has yielded conflicting results. We examined the immediate and short-term effects of IASTM, flossing, and kinesiology taping on the functional capacities of amateur athletes' shoulders. Randomized controlled study. Clinical assessment laboratory. Eighty amateur overhead athletes (mean [SD]: age = 23.03 [1.89]; weight = 78.36 [5.32]; height = 1.77 [.11]). We randomly assigned participants to 4 research sub-groups in which they received the following treatments on their dominant shoulders: IASTM (n = 20), flossing (n = 20), both IASTM and flossing (n = 20), and kinesiology tape (n = 20). Nondominant shoulders served as controls. We evaluated participants-before, immediately after, and 45 minutes after the therapeutic interventions-with the following tests: internal and external shoulder rotation range of motion, isokinetic strength and total work, the functional throwing performance index, and the one-arm seated shot put throw performance. All therapeutic interventions significantly improved the strength and functional performance of the dominant shoulder in comparison with the control (P < .005) immediately after and 45 minutes after the treatment. The IASTM led to significantly greater improvement in shoulder internal rotation than kinesiology taping immediately after (P = .049) and 45 minutes after the treatment (P = .049). We observed no significant differences between the other treatment interventions (P > .05). Findings from the current study support the use of novel soft tissue and neuromuscular techniques for the immediate and short-term improvement of the shoulder functional capacities in amateur overhead athletes.