Taping Techniques for the Hamstring

The use of tape is common in sports medicine as it can be used to compress and support injured muscles and the surrounding areas to prevent re-injury. A strain or contusion to the hamstring requires a taping technique that is simple and fairly fast. You will need specific materials, but the process itself is something most anyone can accomplish with a little practice.

What You Need

• Gather the materials you will need to complete the process and have them nearby when the injured person is ready to be taped. This technique requires adhesive spray, under wrap, two-inch non-stretch oxide tape and six-inch non-adhesive elastic bandage. You will also need a foam pressure pad. All of these items should be available where sports training supplies are sold.

Shave

• The person being taped should shave the back of the thigh prior to the application of the compression tape. This will prevent the tape from painfully pulling the hair during or after the compression wrap is done. If hair is present, you may choose to use adhesive spray directly on the skin and apply the under wrap before beginning, according to SportsInjuryClinic.Net.

Anchor Strips

• With the subject standing and facing away from you, adhere the foam pressure pad to the center of the injured area. The pad should be positioned over the actual injury site. Use the two-inch non-stretch tape and cut two anchor strips long enough to run from the upper thigh to a few inches above the knee. Place one strip on the outside of the thigh three inches outside of the injury, and place the other strip on the inner thigh about three inches inside the injury. The two strips should have the pressure pad centered between them.

Compression Strips

• Apply the first compression strip by using the two-inch non-stretch tape. Start the strip at the bottom of the inside anchor strip and pull the tape across at a 45-degree angle, passing just below the injury site and connecting to the anchor strip on the other side around halfway up.
  Apply the second strip beginning at the bottom of the outside anchor strip and pull the tape across at a 45-degree angle up and just under the injury site and connect it to the inside anchor strip.
  Overlap the first compression strip with a new strip by half and repeat the inside-to-outside, outside-to-inside method, working your way up until the entire area between the anchors is covered.

Wrap

• Close up the entire taped area using the non-adhesive elastic bandage. Ask the subject to flex his thigh muscles while you do this to allow for muscle expansion after the wrapping is complete. Start at the bottom and wrap the elastic bandage around the thigh, working upward at a 45-degree angle and then once it is at the top of the area, come back down in a 45-degree angle and secure the bandage.