Pain in the side of the ankle can be painful and affect your daily activities. However, if you learn some easy peroneal tendonitis taping tips and techniques, you can treat your pain at home and go about with your daily life.
Taping can help your tendonitis and something to try before you decide to buy peroneal tendonitis inserts or shoes for peroneal tendonitis.
These techniques are very easy and all you need is some tape. Let’s have a look at peroneal tendonitis and how you can begin treating it yourself at home by taping your ankle.
What Is Peroneal Tendonitis Taping?
Peroneal tendonitis taping is a method that can be used to help support and stabilize painful tendons in your ankle. The taping will also help to reduce the tension on the tendons, which will help them heal.
Taping is easy to apply and it can help decrease lateral ankle pain. It can also help to reduce movement of the ankle, reduce swelling, and improve the function of your peroneal tendons and muscles.
Unlike an ankle brace, peroneal tendonitis taping allows for functional movement while limiting excessive motion. This will allow you to return to an activity and prevent further injury.
Benefits of Taping
Taping offers stability, support, and compression for the ankle joint. It also improves proprioception—the body’s ability to know where it is in space.
Taping will offload the stress that’s placed on the outside edge of the foot, peroneal tendons, and calf muscles. It can increase blood flow to the area and encourage lymphatic flow, which will help reduce swelling and promote healing.
Taping your foot and ankle before an activity can provide additional support for peroneal tendonitis, which can prevent you from reinjuring yourself.
There are two types of tape that you can use to tape your foot and ankle: athletic or Kinesio tape.
Athletic Tape
Athletic tape doesn’t stretch and it’s designed to create support and restrict movement.
The tape provides significant support so it’s great for stabilizing an injured ankle, restricting movement, and preventing an injury.
With that being said, you can only wear athletic tape for a short period of time, sometimes less than a day, as the rigidity of the tape may affect your blood circulation.
Kinesio Tape
Kinesio tape is soft, flexible, and can stretch up to 50 percent of its original length while retaining its elasticity.
It’s great for when you need additional support but would like to retain some range of motion in the ankle.
Kinesio tape gently lifts the skin slightly which increases blood circulation, reduces swelling, helps prevent further injury, and promotes healing.
You can also wear Kinesio tape for up to 7 days. And because it’s waterproof you can shower or bathe with the tape on.
Taping Tips
Before you start taping your foot and ankle, quickly wash your feet so that you can remove any moisture, dirt, oils, and lotions.
If you’re using athletic tape, you may want to use pre-wrap or non-adhesive gauze pads underneath the tape over the area to be taped.
This will help prevent any friction between the tape and your skin that could lead to blisters.
Take your time when applying the tape, as you don’t want to wrap your ankle and foot so tightly that it restricts your blood circulation. The tape should be wrapped firmly and provide a snug feel so that it provides the right amount of comfortable support.
Rub both the athletic and Kinesio tape several times after you’ve applied it, as this will help activate the adhesive.
Before applying the tape, remove the paper backing on the ends of the tape. This will allow you to create an “anchor point” while you apply the tape.
Apply at least two anchor strips before taping, as this will prevent the tape from moving or coming undone.
If you are particularly hairy or have fine hair on your feet, you may want to trim it. This will ensure that the tape sticks better and it won’t hurt when you remove the tape.
You should apply the tape at least 1 hour before you start an activity, as this will allow you to make adjustments if needed. The tape should provide moderate support to the outside of your ankle.
Remove the tape immediately if you notice any skin irritation, rash, or if it causes itching.
Kinesio Taping Technique Instructions
This taping technique helps to support the ankle and the outside edge of the foot—lateral foot. It will also increase your proprioception.
You’re going to need to cut 2 pieces of kinesiology tape. The first piece will have one end that’s placed on the bottom inside edge of the foot, which will then extend across the outside ankle bone, along the outside to mid-calf.
The second strip will be wrapped around the back of your ankle—parallel with the floor—from your inner ankle bone to your outer ankle bone.
To get better adhesion, cut and round the edges of the tape.
While you’re in the seated position, tear about 2 inches of the backing paper off the 1st piece of Kinesio tape.
Then place an anchor at the bottom inside the edge of the foot, about mid arch—approximately 5 cm behind the fifth toe—without any stretch.
Then with 25% stretch on the tape, wrap it with a slight incline around the outside of the ankle. Continue up the outside of the leg and anchor the other end of tape without any stretch mid-calf.
Rub the tape to promote full adhesion to the skin.
Grab your 2nd piece of tape and break about 2 inches of the backing paper off.
Flex your foot slightly and apply the anchor without stretching below the inside of your ankle.
With your foot still flexed pull the tape to 50% stretch around the back of your heel and onwards over the first strip.
As you come over the first strip of tape you want to extend your foot slightly so that the end of the strip is parallel to the first strip and just ahead of the outside of your ankle.
Apply the end without any stretch and rub again for adhesion.
Athletic Taping
This technique provides stability for ankle eversion and prevents painful movement of the ankle, which can contribute to peroneal tendon pain.
Start by wrapping either non-adhesive gauze pads or pre-wrap around the entire ankle and upper foot to protect the skin from the tape.
You can add extra padding to the front of the ankle and the Achilles tendon to prevent blisters.
Anchor the pre-wrap with athletic tape at the top and bottom.
Then place a strip of athletic tape from the top mid-calf anchor on the inside of the leg and wrap it under the arch.
Place the other end on the top anchor on the outside of the leg so that it looks like a stirrup for your lower leg. Repeat this with another 1-2 strips of tape if you need a bit more stability.
With the tape parallel to the floor, start to wrap the entire ankle with one strip of tape at a time. Each piece of tape should start and end at the front of your shin, with each piece of tape overlapping by at least 25 %.
Make sure that you cover your entire ankle until you reach the heel.
Now, you need to complete the heel lock to support your ankle.
Do this by starting at the top of your foot, then wrap the tape under the arch before crossing the back side of the heel at a diagonal.
Then wrap the tape back across the top of the foot and repeat this step but in the opposite direction. This will provide stability to your heel in both directions.
ACE Wrap Technique
Before you start, make sure that the ACE wrap is tightly rolled up.
Flex your foot upwards so that it forms a 90-degree angle at the ankle. Place the end of the wrap at the base of your toes and wrap the ACE wrap around your foot once.
It should feel snug when it’s wrapped around your foot, but not so tight that it will cut off your circulation.
Then keep wrapping the ACE wrap around your foot until you get to your ankle, where you’ll start to wrap around your heel, so that the wrap forms a figure 8.
Repeat this motion, moving backward and upwards in a circular motion. While you’re wrapping your figure-8, you can lightly pull the bandage so that it’s taut either on the inside or the outside of the foot for extra support.
If the ACE wrap that you have doesn’t have the piece of Velcro at the end, then use a pin to fasten the ACE wrap.
