What's up guys! Michael Kamalu, medical student here. Approximately 25% of people who engage in
regular physical activity will develop IT band syndrome at some point in their life which will
manifest as lateral and knee pain. It's extremely common, something that I myself have dealt with
and today, I'm gonna tell you why what 90% of people do to alleviate the pain doesn't work and
what you can actually do to treat it. First, let's take a look at the anatomy we need to understand
what the IT band really is in order to know how to treat it. IT stands for Iliotibial Tract,
it's an extremely long tendon that runs the length of the upper leg and inserts down here, on the
lateral side of your knee. Now, it originates up here from two muscle bits. A relatively small
muscle called the Tensor Fasciae Latae and larger Gluteus Maximus. Here's where people go wrong.
What they do and, what my own trainer on my high school basketball team had me do is, get a roller,
foam roller or whatever and smash out the lower lateral part of your leg. The reason that does
not work is because, as you can see, that part of the IT band is completely made up of tendon. And
tendon does not stretch. So all you do there is pull on the knee joint and you can actually worsen
your condition. Anybody who's tried this and has IT band syndrome knows that it's extremely painful
and a lot of people think "Well, if it's hurting me, must be good for me." In this case, not
true. The tendon is not going to stretch at all. You're not going to relieve any of the symptoms
by rolling that part of your leg. Now, what can you do then? Whereas tendon does not stretch,
muscle fibers do. They're made up of what's called Actin and Myosin that linked together and those
can stretch and contract. So, in order to relieve the tension and pressure down here on the knee,
we ask the knee to fall on what can stretch. And the only thing that can are these two muscle beds,
the Tensor Fasciae Latae and the Gluteus Maximus. So, I'm going to give you two
different strategies that you can do to relieve tension on your IT band. The first is what's
called Myofascial Release and the second is the more classic stretching. With Myofascial release,
that's what the foam roller is for, you're putting pressure down on the muscle bed in order to get
those fibers to stretch. So, the difference in what you're gonna do is, rather than trying to
do it down here along the middle and lower leg, you're going to only focus on the part that can
stretch, which is right up here. If you find the top of your pelvis and go right underneath that,
that is where the Tensor Fasciae Latae lies and so you can either use a roller pin like this at home.
Have one of your family members or friends really press on that for you or, if you're at the gym,
you can use a foam roller on the ground. Another thing you can do, without a roller,
is just using a small ball like this tennis ball. What you'll do is, put that right where the Tensor
Fasciae Latae is, and you can either put it up against the wall and move your knee up and down,
which will really put pressure in that Tensor Fasciae Latae and make those fibers stretch or,
a more intense way to do it is to put it on the ground, lay on top of it and then move your leg
up and down. So, those are the strategies that involve the Myofascial release. Now,
how do we stretch those muscles so that we can relieve tension down on the knee. There's
two different things. I'm going to show you the first, sit down and, with one leg out straight,
you're gonna bring the other over across and hug your knee. Now, what this does is, this stretches
the lateral portion of your Gluteus Maximus and, to get an even better stretch, you can move this
elbow to the opposite side of your knee, put your hand down and press to the opposite side and
you should be able to get a really good stretch there. That will actually also work your stretch,
your Tensor Fasciae Latae simultaneously. Now, the way to isolate the Tensor Fasciae Latae itself,
because it originates right here and inserts right here is, to try and bring those two points away
from each other. The way you're going to do that is, whichever leg it is that you want to stretch,
bring that across your body and then, with the same sided arm, you're gonna reach over and across
as you try to push your hip out that side. You'll get some stretch in your obliques as well but,
you should be able to hit the Tensor Fasciae Latae pretty well. Now, the other way you
can do that is, with the leg that you want to stretch, have that facing the wall. Step out,
away and then lean into the wall. That will also give a good stretch of the Tensor Fascia
Latae. So those are the major ways that you can fix it. Remember, do not try to relieve
tension of the IT band by putting pressure or stretching or rolling out anywhere below here,
because anywhere below right here on your leg is pure tendon. All you're gonna do is aggravate your
knee and make the symptoms worse. So, if you like this, please let me know, leave a comment below,
share this with your friends, especially anyone you know who has been dealing with lateral knee
pain, even if they don't know that it's IT band syndrome that is the most common cause
of lateral knee pain. So, it will most likely help them. Thank you and I'll talk to you later.