Whenever I do an it-band stretch I get pain in the hip area ,however light the stretch. When the pain gets really severe it spreads to the buttock and across the uppermost part of the hamstring ,and sometimes even to the lower back. The pain in the hamstring is felt even while not stretching ,for instance while walking up stairs or up a hill. At one point I couldn’t even do much more than a light jog ,but intense stretching of the gluteals and piriformis muscle meant I could run flat out after a week.
Now ,I stretch the hamstrings ,the glutals ,the groin ,the piriformis muscle and the lower back twice daily but the pain still lingers.
It seems to me that this is not caused by an inflexible it-band alone - has anybody got a clue as to what this could be?
Tightness in the IT band comes primarily from a tight tensor fascia latae. Therefore, there’s no real need to stretch or massage the ITB directly. Instead, concentrate on the TFL and surrounding hip musculature. It sound like you have a lot of muscle spasm and trigger points. Welcome to the club! I don’t think stretching alone will relieve your problem. You really need to get some massage work to loosen up the tissue. If you can’t afford or get easy access to massage, try using a tennis ball or maybe a larger rubber ball to work through the muscles in the hips. Use the floor or a wall and let your bodyweight do the work for you.
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Thank you for those suggestions. I have done a search for “tensor fascia latae” on the internet and it seems probable this is the culprit.
Turns out it was thight gluteus muscles(all of them!) , I just had problems locating the pain. Improved and continued stretching has sorted it out.