How to Wrap Your Ankle With Athletic Tape
If you are an athlete you should know how to wrap your ankle with athletic tape in cause you receive an injury. Even if you are not an athlete, it is a good skill to know because accidents happen all the time, such as tripping over something or falling down. If you twist your ankle, wrapping it can help you stabilized it until you can seek medical attention.
Supplies
- Athletic tape
- Foam pads
- Adherent spray
- Pre-wrap material
- Purchase the supplies you need at a local pharmacy. If you need help with any of them, any pharmacist will be able to show you where they are located.
- Keep the injured foot at a 90-degree angle while you are wrapping it. Be careful to not move it from this angle until you finish.
- Spray the ankle with the quick drying adherent spray you purchased at the pharmacy. Spray the entire foot starting at the toes and up to the lower shin.
- Place the foam pad on the top of your foot where it bends at the end of the leg. Place another foam pad at the back of the heel on the foot.
- Wrap a continuous piece of the pre-wrap material where you will be taping the ankle. This is to protect your skin and hair from getting pulled by the tape when you remove it.
- Put a strip of athletic tape on top of the foam only, making sure you do not get the tape on your skin. Start the piece of tape on your shin bone, and wrap it around your leg overlapping slightly, and it should end close to the shinbone. You will wrap it around your leg one time.
- Cut the tape and apply a second piece below it approximately ¼ inches. The tape should be tight but you should be able to move the foot.
- Put the athletic tape starting at the inside of your leg and then down under the heel. Wrap it back up the outside part of your leg. Wrap a second and third piece in the same way, staggering them ¼ inches apart.
- Put a piece of tape on the inside of the ankle, and wrap it around the back of your heel to the inside heel.
- Place one long continuous strip of the athletic tape in a figure 8 around the heel on your foot, back around your heel, etc. You should make approximately 4 figure 8’s around your foot.