How should you tape your wrist?

How should you tape your wrist?

Do you have pain when bending or stretching your wrist or hand? Then you may have overloaded your wrist. Do you notice swelling around your wrist? Then you have to deal with a bruised wrist. In both cases, movement can be very painful and you will be limited in your daily activities. That is why a quick recovery is important so that you can get through the day pain-free 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 benefits of taping are and how you can tap in the right way.

What does taping help with?

Taping helps with strain on your wrist and hand. Taping also helps with a bruise. You often see professional athletes taping their wrists as protection against serious wrist injuries or bruises. Taping therefore not only helps to heal a painful wrist, but also to prevent possible injuries and damage to the muscles in your wrist.

Benefits of taping your wrist?

Taping your wrist has many advantages, for example, taping promotes the healing of your hand and wrist. Kinesio tape provides support and stabilizes your injured wrist joints and muscles. Applying the tape reduces the pressure on your wrist, causing you to experience less pain throughout the day. It also improves your blood flow, which also relieves pain and accelerates the healing process.
If taping is used preventively, it helps improve and strengthen muscle strength around your hand. It also ensures longer endurance and allows you to continue your efforts for longer. Furthermore, taping does not affect your freedom of movement, so preventive taping is recommended.

Taping your hand or wrist?

Do you suffer from 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 gives you more support during your activities and any damage to the joints will heal faster. The thumb is also taped in case of tendonitis. This does limit freedom of movement, but this gives the tendon enough rest to speed up healing.
Do you suffer from the general movement of your hand and does the pain radiate to several fingers? Then this pain is due to overload of the wrist joints. Then tape your wrist for more support.

How should you tape your wrist?

Preparation:

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

• First make sure your skin is completely clean and dry. You can choose to apply underwrap foam first. This foam protects the skin, so you do not have any irritation or unpleasant feeling when removing the tape. In the example we include the application of the underwrap foam.
• Make sure you have sharp scissors to cut your tape.

Roadmap:

1. Hold your hand extended forward with the side of the 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 twice. Continue with the foam towards your thumb, make a hole for your thumb and then wrap it around your hand through the thumb. Then go back towards your wrist and wrap the foam tightly around the wrist again and cut it off. The foam will stick automatically.
3. Now start applying the sports tape. 3 strips of tape will be applied around your arm and wrist, which you can already cut to size. Make sure your strips are long enough to go around your arm and wrist once. Still keeping your hand in the same position, 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. It is best to use the tape roll itself for this step. 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. From your wrist, go behind your thumb around your wrist to create a V shape.
6. Press everything firmly and now cut the tape loose. Then cut 3 pieces of tape 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 the first strip from the back of your hand to the end of the tape on your arm. Then stick the 2 strips as an X sign on the first strip. Move your hand and see if it doesn't feel uncomfortable.
8. Now repeat steps 3 to 5 again.

WATCH A USEFUL INSTRUCTION VIDEO HERE (source: SportSmart)

Kinesio tape

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