How to Tape Up a Foot

Athletic and recreational endeavors put a great deal of stress on your feet. If done properly, taping your feet can both alleviate pain and prevent injury. Taping your feet relieves the muscles, ligaments and tendons in your feet by providing structural support that your shoe or boot may not. While collegiate and professional athletes have trainers that typically tape their feet, if you are a casual athlete or a recreational sportsman, you may want to learn to tape your feet yourself.

Things You'll Need

  • 1-1/2 inch athletic tape
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Instructions

    • 1

      Wrap tape around your feet just behind your toes. Start at the top of your foot. Wrap the tape around the outside of your foot, over the ball of your foot, around the side and back up to the top. Tear the tape and repeat the process twice more. Flex your toes up as you do this so you do not wrap the tape too tight and cut off circulation.

    • 2

      Wrap tape from just behind your small toe, along the outside of your foot, around your heel and Achilles tendon, along the arch of your foot forward to the outside of the base of your big toe. Tear the tape and re-tape the same part of your foot twice more. Flex your foot back with your toes reaching for your shin. This will make certain you have flexibility

    • 3

      Tape the bottom of your foot in crisscrosses. Start at the base of your big toe and tape across the bottom of your foot to the outside of your heel. Then tape from the base of your little toe across the bottom of your foot to the inside of your heel. Crisscross your foot in this manner twice more. Make certain you flex your foot up while doing this, with your toes pointed toward your shin.

    • 4

      Wrap two layers around the remainder of your foot. Start at the top of your foot each time and wrap the tape around around the bottom and back up to the top. Wrap from your toes up to your ankle. Then, wrap three layers from your small toe around the outside top of your foot, around your Achilles tendon, then around to the base of your big toe. Do not tape any higher than the middle of your Achilles tendon.