- If you are currently experiencing pain
on the outside of your knee, there's a good chance
it could be related to your IT band.
So, it may not actually be your knee itself.
Now, if you've been to see someone about your pain,
there's a good chance they've also diagnosed you
with IT Band Syndrome.
If they have done it,
then maybe they've given you some exercises
or some foam-rolling to do for the outside of your thigh.
But in today's video, I'm gonna explain why the advice
that you've been given is wrong,
and what you could do about it, instead.
So, quite often, patients come in to see me
and they say they've got IT band problems,
or IT Band Syndrome.
They've often been given foam-rolling exercises to do
for the outside of their thigh.
But the reason I think that that is wrong,
is because the IT band
is essentially a big, thick, long tendon.
Now, by foam-rolling that tendon, all you're going to do
is irritate it.
And by foam-rolling it, you're not gonna create much change.
You're not gonna cause a lengthening of that tendon.
In order to get that tendon to change,
it's gonna take years.
So, let's just say we've got pain
on the outside of our knee.
That pain is probably due to tightness along this IT band.
Fine, that's probably true.
But, rather than trying to release the IT band,
we need to think, where is that IT band connected?
So, there's two muscles that attach to the IT band.
The first is the tensor fasciae late,
which is at the front of the hip.
And then, the second
is your gluteus maximus muscle.
So, if you just look at
how my trouser leg is affected by me squeezing here.
So, if this is the insertion point and I'm squeezing
with my left hand, you can see it effects lower down.
So, if we're trying to release this IT band,
rather than trying to release the tissues down here,
if we can let go of some of this contraction up the top,
that's gonna take some of that pressure off the IT band
lower down.
So, what we need to do,
instead of working the outside of your thigh,
which is just gonna be painful
and it's gonna cause you irritation and pain,
what we're gonna do instead is trying to release the TFL,
the tensor fasciae late, and the gluteus maximus muscle.
And, I'm gonna show you that right now.
So, what you're gonna need for this is a lacrosse ball
or any other massage ball,
but personally, I prefer lacrosse balls.
So, bring your lacrosse ball to the front of your hip.
Now, if you can find the bony part of your pelvis,
there's like a bump at the front,
just drop the ball just underneath that,
roll onto your front and get some pressure on that muscle.
So, what you do from here is move
until you can find a tender point.
Once you find a tender point, then just stay on that point.
There's no point rolling around, up and down like this,
because what you're gonna do
is cause pain and irritation.
So instead, what we're gonna do is roll,
look for a tender point, press, and then just hold.
And you can hold this for 20 seconds, up to 60 seconds.
But, do your best just to relax,
just focus on your deep breathing,
just nice and controlled, nice and slow.
Relax into that.
After about 20 to 60 seconds, then you can slightly turn
just to find another tender point, move around.
When you find another tender point, hold and repeat.
And, you can keep doing this all the way around the front.
And what you're doing
is working from that bony part of your hip here,
down towards this bumpy part of your outer thigh,
right here.
So, once you've used the ball
and you want to now stretch that TFL muscle,
what you need to do is find something
that you can kneel on, a towel.
In this case, we've got a squishy block.
Kneel on it with the side that you want to stretch.
So in my case, I'm stretching my right,
and I'm in a kneeling position.
Now, quite a lot of the time,
what you will find is that people are telling you
to do some kind of lunge movement, which is fine.
But, what you might find is that actually,
that starts to stretch your quads or your hip flexors.
Although the TFL does slightly flex the hip,
but to target it more specifically,
what you need to do is to shift this front foot across
and then shift your hips across, as well.
So, we're taking the affected side more underneath us.
So from here, you should have your hip pushing out,
and then you can slightly lunge forward, as well.
Now, a couple of points just to make,
is that when you are lunging forward
or while you are kneeling,
what you need to do is to contract your abs
and squeeze your buttock muscles.
That's gonna stop your lower back from arching.
So, you're in this position,
and you contract your abs and contract your glutes,
so your back is nice and straight.
Then from here, you are shifting to the side
and lunging forwards, as well.
So, back from the front view,
you're in this lunge position,
shift your front foot across,
drive your hips across as well,
contract your abs, squeeze your glutes,
and push your hips forwards.
So, you should be feeling that right in here.
Once you can find that stretch and you feel it,
hold that for 20 to 60 seconds,
and then repeat on the other side.
Now, maybe only you've got one side affected,
but it certainly won't hurt you
to do the other side, as well.
Now, last but not least,
to stretch your gluteus maximus muscle,
what you're gonna do is decide that you want to stretch.
Lift your foot, place the outside of your shin
on top of the other knee.
Then, with your hands,
grab your knee and then lift the knee up
and towards the opposite shoulder.
So from here, you're gonna bring it up and over
until you can find a stretch going through the buttock here.
Once you've got the stretch, hold that for 20 to 60 seconds,
and just focus on your breathing.
So, there have it.
That is the stretch for the gluteus maximus,
which is the muscular attachment of the back of the IT band.
So now, we've worked the front and the back.
If you can release those two muscles,
then you're gonna have a release of tension
going down the outside of your thigh, and therefore,
it's gonna take some of that pressure away from your knee.
So, there we have it.
Hopefully now, you've got a couple of extra techniques
that you can do to relieve your outer knee pain
or your ITB tightness.
Hopefully also, that's gonna save you hours
of useless rolling on the outside of your thighs.
And, it's gonna save you a lot of pain, as well.
Let me know in the comment section below
how you get on with these,
and let me know if you were doing rolling
on the outside of your thigh,
and how much this has helped you in comparison.
Now that you understand that, go away and practice that.
And, I will see you in the next video.