Lots of clients get pain in their hip and knee, through overuse of the Iliotbial Band, sometimes called your ITB, but what causes it and how can you treat it and avoid it altogether.
There is a lot of activity that goes on in this area and a lot of friction, created from the back and forth motion of our legs while walking and running. This motion along with some risk factors are the main contributors to ITB syndrome. Some of the risk factors include running on a hard surface, poor ill-fitting trainers ( check they’re not worn on the outside edge) and overtraining. Also, tightness in the hamstrings, glutes, or quads, can make the situation worse.
As you can see in the picture above the band is all tendon and fascia, it’s the longest tendon in the body, it basically helps you to stand up and is not only connects the muscles to the hip and knee joints but is also attached to the gluteus maximus on the lateral side.
Making sure you properly stretch and massage the injured area after exercise, is essential to aid recovery and eliminate it returning. It’s also important to strengthen the ITB and the surrounding muscles (hamstrings, glutes, and quads) to help in resolving the issue. The best approach to getting rid of ITB syndrome is a rehab program that is a little of both stretching and strengthening. Three to five strengthening exercises and stretching and massage is the most effective and fastest way to be injury free.
ITB syndrome can be very painful depending on how tight the ITB is. So we stretch out all the leg muscles at the end of class, and on band and magic circle weeks we include some deep stretches to release and strengthen the legs.
Please mention in class if you’ve had an issue with this and I can suggest some exercises for “homework”.
See you in class….
