1. Wrap the Knee to Help it Rehabilitate
Dancers, gymnasts, cheerleaders, runners and all kinds of weekend athletes know the pain of a knee injury. An injury to the knee that requires medical care or attention may be a problem for years to come if not rehabilitated correctly. Some injuries need more than a little time off and rest to heal and rehabilitate. For those injuries, your doctor may require surgery determined by the severity of the knee injury. From that point, follow the instructions of your doctor or orthopedic specialists to learn how they suggest you wrap your rehabilitating knee.
2. Different Knee Wraps Help Different Knee Injuries
For a hyperextended knee, bruised knee or sprained knee, rest is needed to help healing begin. When it's time to go again, take some extra care to wrap the knee properly so it can continue to rehabilitate itself and not cause any further injury. Use the wide elastic bandages to wrap the knee, giving the knee much needed support as you start using it again. Use the elastic bandages that are at least three inches in diameter, depending on the size of the injured knee. Hold the end of the bandage right over your knee and then snugly wrap the bandage around the knee moving up over the knee and back down. Cover an area several inches above and below the knee as well as the knee itself. Secure the bandage with a small butterfly clip. However, it's better to use flexible medical tape to wrap completely around the bandage in several places to hold the elastic support bandage in place.
3. Some Knee Wraps are Really Cool
Some knee patients wrap their rehabilitating knee with a wrap that appears to be a large foam piece with Velcro secures to hold it in place. Many foam knee wraps have inside pockets for gelled cold packs, which are wonderful if you're still experiencing knee swelling. Your orthopedic doctor or physical therapist may even recommend these. Some foam knee wraps are about 6 to 8 inches long to cover the basic knee area. Your doctor may recommend using a much larger and firmer supportive knee wrap to really hold the knee and surrounding ligaments in place. These supportive wraps usually have a hard plastic core with foam padding on the outside for comfort where it touches and rubs the skin.
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