Okay, today I'm going to show you how to tape your thumb. Now, I've had a thumb injury and I've had a lot of patients who've had these thumb injuries and the taping works really, really effectively. Now, today I'm going to show you how to tape with a elastic sports tape and how to overlay with a rigid tape if your thumb problem is quite bad. Now, most thumb injuries or most thumb sprints happen on that older clueless ligament. So that's on this side of the thumb, not that side of the thumb. So this side of the thumb and they usually happen when someone lands on an outstretched thumb. Okay, and they school, of course, the skier's thumb. Now, I've had it from skiing when my pole has been wrapped, or the strap has been wrapped around the thumb and I've dug in and it's opened up my thumb. What happens is when you've got a that, if you've got a downward pressure, the ligament on that side can get stretched too far and then rupture. Now, you can also damage things like bowl or plates, which is what I've had. And what you end up is with an instability. Now, some people need to take their thumbs for sport for ages because they've got a currency and they're trying to play sport. Or they've injured their thumb cutely and then we have to tape it to actually stabilize it. So I'll show you those two tapings. But if you have a look at this thumb here, this is my unhinged thumb. Now, when I bend that, now I'm a pretty tight ligament sort of person. I don't have any bend in there. This one, if you watch this, or a heaps of bend in there. Now that's got better over time. But that still gives me problems. I say when I'm at physio and doing work like this, we can think about that down with pressure which is the same mechanism as busting your thumb as I get a bit of ache going on if I do too much, especially neck mobs. So thumb taping is really effective. And for sport people, you want to have a bit of movement. So if it's just a minor instability and minor problem that you're returning to sport, the elastic stuff is probably the go. And you can actually do this yourself if you don't have the physio. So for physio's out there, here's a one way to take the thumb. But also for patients out there, this is how you can do it yourself when you can't get to that physio on that certain day. So you start on the back of your wrist at that bump there. Okay, that's your owner. So you put that sort of on the bump. That's a good reference point, okay? And you see I'm staying on a bit of angle because I'm going to come over to the thumb. So start on the angle there. And you can have a little bit of give there. I'd put it down a little bit first, so you got some tension there. Then you can roll that tape out a bit and you've got something to play with. Now, crucial thing is try and keep that hand in the position that you want to say catch a ball or hold a racket or whatever you sport you're doing. So don't be sort of down in this position, try and take your thumb. Keep it in that position like an open palm grip. All right? Now this tape is the first one. You've got to come around that thinner eminence over that injury. Okay? And then around the back of the thumb, all like in a diagonal type fashion. You can see that now. And then come around and meet that same spot. All right? Then when you come around, you're going to do this three times. Okay? When you come around again, again, reassess, get that wrist in the right position. I would come half over that one. So you're increasing the width of the taping. But you still have the ability to then cross through that gap there like that. Okay? And then around, watch the dozen Parker and sort of fold over itself. Come again half, you see that? Again, give my thumb in the right position. Preferably back, not forward, back. And then same again. Now the third one, what I like to do is sort of have a look at your taping before you start just roaring into the third one. What have you missed? What do you need to cover? Okay? So for this one, I'm probably going to go a little bit higher up into the thumb to stop my thumb doing this movement here, that MCP joint. Okay? This one here is what I mean, stopping this movement. So I'm going to come sort of maybe across the other wrist a little bit more. And then I'm going to come up higher because I've just missed a bit of that. Come around that flange a bit better. And then, you know, you can work on the tightness. You've got a bit of give there. Give the AC tight enough a bit, give that hand right position and then come over. Now the thing about this tape is you will need a pair of scissors but this because you won't be able to rip that one off, especially if you're not with your teeth. And I just come in there and just cut into that. And it's hard with one hand but do the best you can with that. You might have to hold the tape a little bit, get someone else to do it, and just get in there and cut that off. So these are really good, nice, supportive, easy, easy taping. You just whip up on a few minutes to give you that sort of stability. And give you that feedback and a bit of placebo to be able to place what if you've got a minor in stability in there. And you've had an old injury and you're recovering from it. That's also good sometimes just for daily life. But when you have sort of more permanent injuries or you've got an acute injury with maybe some aggravation and inflammation through that wrist. And you're actually just trying to stabilize it to actually make it better. Which is a lot of physios do is actually tape them for a period of time in between treatments just to stabilize it. Because they don't really need to go on a thumb brace, they just need a bit more stability. What you do for say a tendon problem up here and to try and hold that thumb back. Because remember if you've damaged the thumb, the last thing you want is these tendons overloading. So if you can unload that thumb, that would be really handy. So what you do is you grab your rigid tape. Now, rigid tape needs to be terrible. I'll show you that. Terrible meaning, a ridge along there that I can just cut through like that. So don't get that flat. It hasn't got a serrated edge because you won't be able to tape it. You won't be able to tear it. So I would take a section like that. And I would go from the back of the thumb. And you just get that spot down there like that, back of the thumb. And for this position here, you really want to lift your thumb into extension and then put it down along that sort of radius line. And again, it doesn't have to be pretty, but you want it the flatter you can because you've got more servicery when you do that. In that position now, it's already holding me up. So I find it very hard to go that way, which is great. And again, if you've got some sort of muscle injury here, having it supported like that is really good. Don't stop at one though. I'd probably follow the other tendon line so you're covering extension. And you're covering that abduction part. So over this way. And this time, come a little bit more across on an angle like that. And that's really utilizing that part of the forearm to hold my thumb. That's really supported now. Now that'll come off if you're just mucking around. So what I suggest you do is reinforce this with your rigid. So just overlay the same thing as you did for the sports stoping. Alright, so come from back of your owner. Alright, go around that little knobby bit there. And then, same as you'll get a long piece of total that. Get your hand in the right position, which should be pretty much in the right position now because you've taped it. And then come around, follow that line, follow what you've done. And this way, remember, it doesn't have any elastic properties now. You can really crank up the tension and hold it in the right position at this point. Just watch that it doesn't flip over itself. And try and keep the wrist in the right position and a taped flat. And there's one. You probably only need to do maybe two of those. Keep that taped flat. Be careful though that you don't go in time too much on the wrist and cut off the circulation through the wrist. Okay, important stuff. And then come around here, follow those lines. You'll find that the rigid tape is less forgiving and look less pretty than the other tape because it's rigid. It doesn't have as much give and you really have to watch your angles with this. So I wouldn't stress too much about how unpretty that tape is. As long as it's functioned off to give you that stability, then that's fine. And again, because this is easy, terrible tape, you can usually get in there with one hand and rip it off. If you can't, give me your teeth. Okay, and you lock it off. And so that is, you know, can look about ugly sometimes. Remember, you're doing this yourself. With a physiotherapist, it does it with two hands, it would look pretty. But it doesn't really matter as long as you've got enough coverage through that. And you can really feel that tape is getting out. And this face that after an hour is a sport, it's not going to look great anyway. So that's the way I would tape thumbs for those sort of, on a clatter of ligaments for that MCP injuries where you have like a scarce thumb type injury. And you've got problems through that and problems through the tenders where you really need to keep that whole MCP joint stable. As well as the base of the thumb stable to stop that aggravation re-entry. So there's my tape for today. See you next time.