How to tape your wrist?

How to tape your wrist?

Do you have pain when bending or stretching your wrist or hand? Then it is possible that you have overloaded your wrist. Do you notice swelling around your wrist? Then you are dealing with a bruised wrist. In both cases, movement can be very painful and you are limited in your daily activities. That is why a quick recovery is important so that you can get through the day without pain again. There are various ways to promote the recovery of your hand and wrist. In this blog we will go into more detail about taping your hand and wrist, what the advantages are of taping and how you can tap correctly.

What does taping help with?

Taping helps with overloading your wrist and hand. Taping also helps with a bruise. You often see professional athletes taping their wrists, they do this to protect against serious wrist injuries or bruises. Taping therefore not only helps to heal a painful wrist but also prevents possible injuries and damage to the muscles in your wrist.

Benefits of taping your wrist?

There are many benefits to taping your wrist, such as promoting the healing of your hand and wrist. Kinesiotape provides support and stabilizes your injured wrist joints and muscles. Applying the tape reduces the pressure on your wrist, which means you experience less pain throughout the day. It also improves your blood circulation, which also reduces pain and speeds up the healing process.
If taping is used preventatively, it helps to improve and strengthen muscle strength around your hand. It also provides longer endurance and allows you to continue exercising for longer. Furthermore, taping does not affect your freedom of movement, which is why preventative taping is recommended.

Taping your hand or wrist?

Do you have problems with your tendon and thumb joints? Or are you planning to put extra strain on your hands? Then it may be advisable to tape your thumb. This will give you more support during your activities and any damage to the joints will heal faster. The thumb is also taped in the case of tendonitis, this does limit the freedom of movement but this gives the tendon enough rest to allow healing to proceed more quickly.
Do you have problems with the general movement of your hand and does the pain radiate to multiple fingers? Then this pain is caused by overloading the wrist joints. Then tape your wrist for more support.

How to tape your wrist?

Preparation:

To ensure that you can tape your wrist yourself, you need to make some preparations.

• First, make sure your skin is completely clean and dry. You can choose to apply underwrap foam first. This foam provides protection for the skin, so you don't have any irritations or an unpleasant feeling when removing the tape. In the example, we include the application of the underwrap foam.
• Make sure you have a sharp pair of scissors to cut your tape.

Step-by-step plan:

1. Hold your hand out in front with the side of your thumb up. Straighten all your fingers and keep them apart.
2. Now apply the underwrap foam crosswise, starting at the wrist. Wrap the foam tightly around the wrist 2 times. Continue with the foam towards your thumb, make a hole for your thumb and then wrap it through the thumb around your hand.Then go back to your wrist and wrap the foam tightly around the wrist again and cut it off. The foam will stick on its own.
3. Now start applying the sports tape. There will be 3 strips of tape applied around your arm and wrist, you can already cut these to size. Make sure your strips are long enough to go around your arm and wrist once. Keep your hand in the same position and start wrapping from your arm to your wrist. The first piece of tape then goes half on your skin and half on the foam, so that it remains well fixed. Stick this around your arm.
4. Now you can stick the two remaining strips of tape up to your hand, around the wrist.
5. For this step, it is best to use the tape roll itself. Stick the end of the tape from your wrist to the back of your hand, going diagonally between your thumb and index finger. Make the tape fit the space between your thumb and index finger by folding it in half. Then continue sticking towards your wrist. Go from your wrist behind your thumb around your wrist so that you make a V shape.
6. Press everything well and now cut the tape loose. Then cut 3 pieces of tape that are long enough to stick from your palm to your wrist in a straight line.
7. Now point your hand more towards your arm, then stick from the back of your hand to the end of the tape on your arm, the first strip. Then stick the 2 strips like an X sign on the first strip. Move your hand and see if it feels uncomfortable.
8. Now repeat steps 3 through 5 again.

LOOK AT  HERE  A HANDY ONE INSTRUCTIONAL VIDEO (source: SportSmart)

Kinesio tape

In addition to normal sports tape, there is also kinesio tape. Kinesio tape is an effective way to support your muscles and joints and prevent injuries. Also see how you through the correct warm-ups your muscles from unnecessary damage. Do you want extra support for your muscles during sports or other efforts? Then see here which type of kinesio tape suits you best.