When you’ve got tight iliotibial (IT) bands, stretching looks like the logical answer. However coping with IT band syndrome, which accounts for 22 p.c of accidents to the decrease extremities, is just not so easy; most “IT band stretches” don’t even goal the IT band.
Right here’s what it’s best to learn about relieving IT band tightness and what causes it within the first place.
What Is the IT Band?
The IT band, or iliotibial tract, is a chunk of fascial tissue that runs alongside the skin of the hip and thigh. It begins on the ilium (pelvis) and ends on the tibia within the decrease portion of the leg.
Based on Dr. Theresa Marko, PT, DPT, MS, OCS, board-certified orthopedic medical specialist in bodily remedy and proprietor of Marko Bodily Remedy, PLLC, in New York Metropolis, the IT band has an vital, multi-faceted job.
“It helps to help your pelvis and your hip throughout actions like strolling, operating, and going up and down stairs in order that your leg and knee keep aligned along with your hip and that your knee doesn’t fall in in the direction of the opposite knee,” she says.
“It additionally has an enormous position in serving to the knee to flex/bend and prolong/straighten. The decrease portion of the IT band adjustments its perform with actually each step we take, serving to to straighten and bend the knee,” Marko provides.
Learn how to Stretch the IT Band
It’s not unusual, particularly amongst athletes and energetic individuals, for the IT band to really feel painfully tight, which might even trigger ache within the outer knee. So what are the most effective IT band stretches?
Technically, there aren’t any, says Lauren Lobert Frison, DPT, OMPT, CSCS, proprietor of APEX Bodily Remedy in Brighton, Michigan. “Your IT band is just not contractile tissue, like muscle is,” she explains. “Any IT band stretches you discover are actually simply impacting the tensor fascia latae (TFL) muscle,” she says. Positioned within the hip, the TFL is a small muscle to which the IT band connects.
To stretch and goal the TFL muscle, Marko recommends the standing aspect bend.
Standing aspect bend
- Stand along with your ft about hip-width aside. Elevate your arms straight overhead, and cross your left ankle over your proper.
- Push your hips to the left and bend your higher physique to the fitting. Maintain for 30 seconds.
- Come again by means of the middle. Launch the stretch, and uncross your legs.
- Repeat on the alternative aspect.
You could have the choice to carry out standing aspect bend pose subsequent to a wall for steadiness.
IT band therapeutic massage
As a substitute of IT band stretches, Marko recommends tissue mobilization or therapeutic massage for tight IT bands. “You need to loosen the fibers of the IT band, so it stops being so taut and pulling so arduous in your bones,” she says.
A bodily therapist can administer therapeutic massage, use a therapeutic massage gun, or carry out cupping, however you may as well do self-myofascial launch utilizing a foam curler, therapeutic massage stick, or Marko’s favourite self-massage instrument: the tennis ball.
“A tennis ball is a pleasant dimension and strain, appearing like an elbow being pressed in,” she says.
To therapeutic massage your IT band and the encircling tissues, lie in your aspect and place a tennis ball between your IT band and the ground. Calm down as a lot as you possibly can, permitting the tennis ball to “soften” your tissues. Slowly work your means down the IT band by barely adjusting the tennis ball’s place.
Aspect-lying leg carry
Stretching and therapeutic massage may help relieve the signs of a decent IT band, however if you wish to forestall IT band ache, you want to tackle the underlying concern.
Once more, a bodily therapist can present an individualized evaluation, nevertheless it’s widespread for individuals with tight IT bands to have weak gluteus medius muscle mass. The side-lying leg carry may help strengthen this portion of the glutes.
- Lie in your aspect along with your hips stacked on high of one another. Use your backside arm to prop up your head and your high arm to assist keep steadiness.
- Roll ahead barely and place the underside leg a couple of inches behind you.
- Elevate the highest leg 45 levels. “Greater than that, you might be utilizing your again muscle mass to do the lifting,” Marko says.
- Maintain for one second earlier than decreasing the leg. Full all reps on one aspect earlier than switching sides.
What Causes a Tight IT Band?
The IT band helps stabilize the hip and knee throughout actions like strolling, operating, and climbing. When the muscle mass across the hip and/or knee will not be pulling their weight in these actions, the IT band picks up the slack, inflicting it to tighten. So incorporating energy coaching — particularly glute-targeted strikes — may help relieve ache or discomfort.
Strolling or operating in worn-out soles could contribute to your tight IT bands, so it helps to substitute your athletic footwear frequently.
And when you’re coaching for an endurance occasion, drastic spikes in actions like operating and biking can set off IT band tightness and ache. Take a gradual strategy to growing your mileage, and your physique will thanks.
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