Is your IT band feeling quite tight or stiff along that, or even ... Do you perhaps have
pain on the side of your knee? So, in this video, I'm going to explain why foam rolling the IT band
itself isn't actually that useful when you have these symptoms, and what muscles you should
be foam rolling instead to help relieve that tightness you feel in the IT band.
And then also, I'll demo all of those muscles for you. And then lastly, you may want to consider,
if you have got pain - or you've been told that you've got ITB syndrome - where you've got pain
on the side of the knee, we've made a whole video about ITB syndrome and how you treat that best,
and I'll link to it here or in the description of this video as well.
For those of you don't know me, my name is Maryke. I'm one of the physiotherapists from
sports-injury-physio.com, where you can get online physiotherapy assessment as well as treatment for
your injuries. Have a look at the description of this video if you want the link to our website.
OK, I'm cheating a little bit, because I'm not going to show you how to foam roll your IT band,
because it really doesn't help to foam roll the IT band. I despair when I see people
telling others to, if they've got tightness or soreness on the outside of the knee,
'Foam roll your IT band, because it's probably tight!' Now, the IT band is a sinewy
piece of fascia, a really thick fascia. So, fascia is the white stuff in meat. You know,
when you cut meat and there's this really thick white stuff, sinewy bits, that you can't chew,
you can't do anything with it; it's heavily strong? That's what fascia is.
And the IT band runs right down the side of your leg, all along that bit ... attaches to
the bottom of the knee. And what it does is, as you walk and you lift your opposite leg up,
it tensions and stops your pelvis to drop. So, it has a very important stability
function there. But, it can't tension by itself because it's ... Think of it as a safety belt
in a car; it's exactly like that. So, it needs other things to pull on it, to tension it. So,
the IT band itself can't become tight; the things attaching or the muscles attaching onto it are the
things that become tight. So, you want to foam roll those muscles if you want to release your
IT band. So, which muscles are those? It's your glutes. So, glute max, glut med,
your tensor fasciae latae, which is a small muscle that runs right ... this bit, right there. So, if
you do the glute massage, like I showed in another video, and you massage all of this bit, that will
help release your IT band, because it will take the tension off here, give it slack lower down.
But also, your lateral quad attaches to the IT band, so you want to work on that as well.
Not ... Yes, fine, you're gonna go a little bit over the IT band there, but the idea is not to
nail it and make it really painful, especially if you've got pain on the outside of your knee,
because all you'll do is, you'll compress that and cause more inflammation and pain.
So, work on the muscley bits, release that. Think about ‘comfortably uncomfortable’ discomfort.
But don't go and nail just the IT band. So, to massage your own glutes, I tend to use a tennis
ball because I find I can get into my glutes more easily. I don't really find the foam roller
is effective for myself. But you can try whatever you want. What I will say is, just be gentle with
it. Because remember, your sciatic nerve runs right in the middle of your buttock, so, through
or underneath the piriformis muscle. And if you are too aggressive with it, you can make
the piriformis go into a spasm, and that can actually cause sciatic pain down your leg. So,
be gentle with it, okay? So, there are two versions. The first is a little bit more
aggressive and it's on the floor. And essentially all you're going to do is, you’re going to aim
to get … If you can feel your bone there. And then, the top of the pelvic bone there,
so, the hip bone that everybody calls ... It's kind of in that area that you want to be in - the
squishy bits. And literally, you're going to angle yourself, that the ball is in there, and you're
gonna allow it into it and just relax into it and then just move it on to different spots.
I tend to not roll at the beginning, because mine's always quite sensitive, but you could also
just roll it along it. There's really no right or wrong with this type of thing, because we've not
really established what works better than anything else. So, it's literally just that that you do.
And at this point, I can feel, there's a tender spot, and I'll relax the leg that I'm on ... I
like to prop it up a bit. And just angle my body, that I get a bit more pressure through there,
and then you can move around as you go. That bit's quite tender! So, you just ease off a little bit.
There we go! So, you can hold that pressure for about 30 seconds, or until you feel that it's
calming down and going away, and then you can move onto the next bit, and just put some pressure on
there. And then, once you've done that for a bit and you feel you've covered the whole glute area,
everything that's tender, you can then roll it and put some weight through that. But yeah, I prefer
to do the holds first and then the rolling bit, but you may want to do that the other way round.
Now, if your glutes are really, really sensitive, you can do it against a wall. Let me just see if I
fit into the picture. Yes, that's fine. I'm gonna shift that away for now. So, the leg
that's by the wall is going to be relaxed. So, I'm putting the ball in between the wall and my glute,
where I want to be on it. And this leg is pressing into the wall. This one's totally relaxed,
so that the ball can actually get into it, because otherwise, if you contract this one as well, you
can't really get into the glutes. And it's exactly the same thing: I'm just guiding it with my hand,
but I'm pushing into the wall at the pressure that's comfortable for me. And then you can
just move around and roll it as well if you want to … Nice, slow, long strokes. But the whole time,
I'm aiming for comfortably uncomfortable, not painful. And definitely not to the
point where I get referral down the leg or where I feel I want to pull a face.
OK, so we're gonna foam roll the quads. I usually find it's quite an upper body workout to do the
quads! And again, I use my opposite leg to support myself and to take some weight off my upper body.
Let's see what's the best way show you this. I think I'll do his leg. So, I tend to just lean
onto it first and get a feel for it. And then, we want to go ... Remember, there are four parts
to your quads. First two muscles lie on top of each other right in the middle. You've got your
vastus lateralis on the side, and then medialis. The outside is always more uncomfortable and more
tender, so don't go killing yourself on that. Be gentle; comfortably uncomfortable is what you're
looking for. So, I tend to start in the middle and just get a feel for it. And you'll notice
that at this point I'm not even putting much weight through my arms yet, because I'm being
very gentle because mine's quite tender. And then, we just go down along the length of it.
There we go! Ooh! Why is mine so tender today? And then, you want to angle your body that
you're more onto your side. And I'm not trying to hammer by IT band here; I'm actually just
on the lateral quad, but your IT band tends to run over that. So, you want to release that,
but be gentle because it's always sensitive when you're on the IT band. There we go!
Excellent! Hope you found that useful! Now remember,
if you need more help with an injury, you're welcome to consult one of the team via video call;
the link to our website is in the description of this video. Take care!