How to Strap a Knee Properly

Knee strapping is a technique used by many athletes for a variety of purposes. It involves applying a brace of tape in long straps to provide support to the knee. When the knee is strapped, it is protected from the jarring and painful shocks it normally experiences. Standard strapping provides reasonable support and helps ease slight knee discomfort, but you can follow the same steps and simply add more layers for additional strength.

Things You'll Need

• Hypoallergenic backing tape
• Non-stretch sports tape

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Instructions

• 1

  Apply a layer of hypoallergenic tape as backing, then put on the sports tape. Put the hypoallergenic tape on in the same exact way you apply each layer of sports tape. Hold your leg so it is horizontal, slightly bent at the knee and put on the backing and sports tape in a horizontal band just below your knee. The tape should wrap all the way around your leg. This "double banding"--a length of sports tape on top of a length hypoallergenic tape--should be used on all subsequent steps.

• 2

  Add another band of hypoallergenic tape/sports tape just above your knee so that both bands are parallel with your knee, with one band above and one below.

• 3

  Apply a diagonal piece of hypoallergenic tape/sports tape starting from the front, middle section of the lower band. The tape should run across the inner leg, and stop when it reaches the upper band at your inner thigh.

• 4

  Put a second diagonal piece of hypoallergenic tape/sports tape starting from the lower band, at the back of the calf and reach up across the inside of the leg to the upper band, in the middle of it. This will create an ‘X’ shape with the other diagonal piece of tape.

• 5

  Make another ‘X’ in the same way on the outer side of the leg, also to the side of the knee.

• 6

  Create support pieces by running hypoallergenic tape/sports tape vertically from the middle of the lower band on the inside of the leg to the middle of the upper band directly above it. Make three of these supports on the inside of the leg.

• 7

  Run the vertical lines on the outside of the leg in the same way, also applying three rows of tape.