Itb

[hopey]

I know this has been covered before, but I think it might have been on the old forum.

People where talking about using foam rolls to help stretch the ITB?

Also any good stretches for it would be good.

Cheers

[AJF]

Stand up straight, cross legs, bad behind good then lean down and to the opposite side of your bad leg. e.g right behind left leg, lean down and left until you feel the strech down right leg.

Other is sit down. Cradle bad leg like holding a baby and pull towards you. Also rock over your arse bone seems to help a bit too.

Sit down, legs out straight. Bring bad knee up and over the good leg and twist core to opposite side whilst pushing your elbow on leg. e.g put right leg over the left leg. Right knee bent. Turn to your right, put left elbow on right knee and push.

Another, sit at your desk at work. Cross your legs so the ankle of bad leg is on top of leg of good leg. Now push down on bad leg until you can fit it under the table. Jam it under and leave as long as is bearable. (probably not one you will find on the internet but worked for my left leg )

Any others that people have I would love to know. My descriptions are a bit vague but I reckon you can get the idea?

Also, if you have itbs on one leg and not the other, make sure that you stretch both legs. I didn't and managed to cure left only for it to re-appear in the right. Doh!!

[detritus21]

The ITB is a complex structure with attachments to bone and blending in with muscles particularly around you backside.

To effectively stretch your ITB you need to be stretching the surrounding structures also.

You should bare in mind that the ITB has a tensile strength higher than steel which when you think your average climbing Carrabina has a breaking strain of 14+KN you are talking some serious strength so stretching the ITB in isolation is futile if you ask me. ITBS and the ITB is one of my areas of special interest within Physio so like to think I know a little but by all means not everything its also something I have problems with from time to time mainly because I don't follow my own advise.

My way of stretching the ITB would be looking at addressing hip, knee and calf muscles along with isolated myofascial release which is essentially what you are doing with the ITB rollers or tennis balls.

I don't believe that the straps that some companies sell to "solve" ITBS would work due to the compressive forces it puts on the band thereby in effect shortening it and making it rub more either at the knee or around the hip.

I'll devide the stretches into different sections and other advise etc.

First stage in an acute flair up of ITB pain you need to be looking at settling down any accute inflammatory changes this would include your normal Ice and anti inflammatorys either in tablet or gels I wasn't a fan of gels till I tried them recently.

Onto the stretches

Stretching of the Glutes is in my oppinion one of the most important areas.
As well as piriformis

My favorite piriformis stretch







Continued in the next thread

[detritus21]

Next area of focus is the Quads



With the above quad stretch the aim is to keep your pelvis flat to the floor it doesn't matter if your foot doesn't touch your bum



The above stretch can also be varied to stretch out the ITB. If you use your bottom foot it is possible to put pressure onto the upper leg increasing the stretch.
The other way is in standing with your knee on a chair whilst doing a traditional quad stretch the move your hips over in the direction of the knee on the chair. There should be more stretch felt at the knee end of the ITB.



Another traditional stretch.

The purpose of using a roller or tennis ball is really to perform a deep massage on the ITB. My prefered method is to use a tennis ball and starting at the hip end of the ITB and lie on your side with pressure through the ball. Gradually work your way down the leg with the ball. Apply as much pressure through the ball as you feel comfortable and leave for approx 10 seconds what you should find is the pressure appears to get less put more pressue through and repeat two to four times. The other way is to roll up and down the ball which will provide more of a frictional massage which in theory will help stretch the ITB.

I'll see if I can find a the stretch pictures I used for my dissertation anywhere when I get some time after training tonight. Hope this all amkes sense I know its probably abit OTT but I feel that if its going to be stretched it might as well be throrough

[hopey]

Cheers for that plenty to be going at there.

[hopey]

I'm doing all these stretching and I'm still struggling like hell. :(

[detritus21]

How much are you running at the moment?

I know its not ideal but you may need to rest it then gradually build up again. Its taken me over 4 months to be confident with mine after my last bout.

I had to rest for a month then gradually build up. Everytime I felt my knee starting to even feel as if the sensation of the pain was about to start I'd stop running and walk back. I'm now back to full training except my calf has pulled so not because of that. The reason for stopping is if you carry on you end up causing more irritation. The more irritation you create the worse the problem becomes

Other things that might be worth a try are anti inflammatory gels over the area of pain or Ice. My method of icing would be to get one of them polystyrene cup jobbies fill with Water and stick it in the freezer. When frozen peel back the poly to reveal the ice then rub directly onto the area for a maximum of 5-10 mins. Be warned Ice can leave a nice burn if you keep it still. Repeat as and when but no more than once an hour.

Just keep going with everything. ITB probs are a right bummer to shift

[AJF]

It takes quite some time. As it is the IT band and not the muscle it takes a lot more to actually stretch and make a difference. Stretch it whenever you can not just after running. If sat on couch try to stretch it with one leg on other knee. If waiting for the kettle put bad leg behind good and stretch. Basically just keep at it and you will notice an improvement.

Once it doesn't hurt any more, keep stretching, stretch some more then some more.

Again don't do the stupid thing like me and only stretch one side. Do both as it will just transfer to the other knee.

Think the explanation of the IT band being as strong as steel by detritus21 shows how long it will take.

Good luck with it! Really takes some perserverance to shift it.

[Physio Ian]

There's always the option of an ITB release if the problem doesn't shift or reoccurs - the band would have several incisions made into it to 'free-up' the affected area, but that would be a surgical matter for an orthopaedic referral, and a last resort I guess.

However, there must be an underlying issue such as poor pelvic/hip/knee/ankle control during your gait/running causing the ITBS over a long period of time until one day you notice pain. You need assessing by a physio who knows what they're looking for, as unless the underlying cause is identified and addressed (such as poor hip control for one of many examples), you can treat the symptoms all day long but you'll always have the problem re-occur-you'll just be papering over the cracks!!

Check out the following for a list of causes http://www.time-to-run.com/injuries/thebig5/itb.htm

Just been on a course and the tutor mentioned one of his aussie female tri-athletes had a release six-weeks before taking silver at Athens, impressive!

Good luck