Taping technique for ankle sprains. Very effective taping technique for inversion ankle sprains. Helps restore normal ankle joint mechanics to relieve ankle pain, swelling and restore movement. It corrects the joint positional fault which can occur due to the ligament pulling the fibula out of alignment. Tape can be left on for 24-48 hours to teach the joint to stay in the correct alignment. Very effective taping technique for a sprained ankle.

Tweetables:

How to Tape an Ankle  [Click To Tweet]
Ankle and Foot Taping Techniques [Click To Tweet]
Technique to bring the joint back in alignment  [Click To Tweet]

Transcript: 

Hey guys, this is Manu Kalia, physical therapist and Ayurveda herbalist. So I’m going to show you a simple taping technique for ankle sprains and specifically inversion sprains. These are the more common ones. That’s where your foot turns in and you have pain, swelling, loss in range of motion or mobility in that ankle and difficulty walking.  These are the common ones that a lot of people get and you overstress the ligaments or you can strain the ligaments through here, you can even have tears sometimes, and you also end up getting sometimes positional faults so the joint is kind of out of alignment, and that sometimes stays there for a while unless it’s corrected and the person can have swelling or irritation lasting for months at a time.

This is a simple technique to kind of bring the joint back in alignment and what we’re talking about is your lateral malleolus or the outside of your ankle joint. This is your fibula bone, the outside bone, and the tibia is the main, your shin. So we’re going to work at gliding this joint back into alignment as it might get pulled sometimes with the ligament in the forward direction.

So, two pieces of tape we’re going to use. All we do is we measure it out. We’re going to start here. We start here. We’re going to loop it around and come back and attach it here. So first I measure it out and I’m going to go here—it’s a spiral taping technique—and I come up and I’m going to attach it right in front right here. So rip it, so right here. Make sure it’s stabilized through there. So the force, my glide, is posterior, going back and up a little bit. So I pull it up in this direction. Remember, the ankle went this way inwards and I’m trying to get this back slightly in this position. You could even position yourself out a little bit so it sets you in a good position. And I’m going to loop it around and I’m going to attach it right here.

Now, make sure there is space available. Don’t overlap the tape. You want circulation. You don’t want to bind up things. So we’re going to loop it this way so that you can still have blood flow and circulation going on.

That’s one piece of tape and I’ll do the exact same thing and I’ll basically stabilize with another piece of tape there. So all I would do is I would wrap this, place it there, and then I’ll loop it around, give a little pull with your fingers in the backwards direction this way lightly, and then I keep the tension on the tape as I bring it around and attach it there. Now, those of you who have hair—me—either you shave it off or you’re going to rip them as you take the tape off.

So leave the tape on for about, you know, I tell my patients to leave it on for about 24-48 hours or so. So if your skin is sensitive, it causes any kind of itching, remember, take the tape off. Even if it feels good for the ankle and gives it support, we take the tape off because you don’t want your skin to get irritated. If it doesn’t get irritated and it feels good, still, leave it maximum of 48 hours or two days and then take it off.

So as I said, after you do your massage or manual work or exercises or other things, great way to finish off by taping yourself especially if you’re going to be up on your feet walking around and doing things, and you can leave that tape on so it keeps the joint in a better position so it learns to be in a better position and then it not only relieves the pain and it facilitates the healing process a little bit better.

So, easy technique to do, and you can use a few different types of tape. You can even use zinc oxide tape by Mueller. Actually, I like this one better. It’s a Kendall WetPruf Tape. A little bit thicker. I like this one. The Kinesio Tape doesn’t stick as well in my experience for this kind of taping. So this one does a bit better.

And make sure that for some reason if it causes you more discomfort, obviously, take it off. Don’t leave it on. Take your time taking it off. Soap the tape if you need to to wet it so it comes off easier too.

If you have any questions, leave a comment. Thanks.