has anyone had any IT band problems? mine is extremely tight and causes a feeling of weakness in the knee during explosive jumps/sprints. i am currently in therapy, but was thinking ART might help loosen it up a bit better. i know streching is a huge part of it, and i have incorporated microstreching. any imput is welcome.
Is the pain just below of the vastus lateralis/ above the patella? I’ve been carrying a similar injury for about 6 months! Its pretty hard to strech effectively - you have to contort yourself to a certain angle in order to feel it.
I personally found gentle massage to be more effective than ART in loosening my IT bands. But this depends on the skill of the therapist involved. ART will focus in on specific points of the ITB, which doesn’t cause nearly as much discomfort as a masseur who tries to blast the whole thing with his elbow (which I’ve had done to me in the past). However, my current massage guy used a Shiatsu technique that involves gentle pulsing and rocking to loosen the ITB, which worked better than previous ART work, which never seemed to “hold”.
clemson,
i was thinking that about SMR, but thought it may become “too much.” i do get SMR at therapy and usually do it on my own at night. i will up the volume and see how that goes. a lot of people i talk to think a tight IT band is no big deal, but i really believe an imbalance in the IT can lead to a lot of problems, specifically in my case, atrophy of the VMO. my VMO volume is at about 90% of where it should be, which is great considering i lost about 50% of its mass. i have EMS to thank mainly for that…
You are all concerned about IT band tightness. Have you checked glute med strength? How is your pelvic alignment? Trendelenberg. Eg. if you look at a video of yourself sprinting from behind and your right foot makes contact with the ground does your left hip drop? This would cause internal rotation of your leg and voila! ITB problems. I see this with a lot of athletes! you can do ART, myofascial release till the cows come home but if it is a strength issue the forget about it.
clemson and macsprint make great points. the problem, i believe, is finding a PT or doctor that is as knowledgable as you guys.
clemson,
i just did the NASM overhead squat test, i found two things, my feet externally rotated & my lower back arched. the thing is, when i back squat, these are two qualities of my form. i always point my feet out, and keep my chest out and low back arched. my hips did feel extremely tight though at the bottom of the squat.
Espn3 what is your general alignment like? EG. Genu/ tibial varum puts more stress on ITB. Is only one leg affected? If so, do you have a leg length discrepancy? Do your feet over pronate. Tight calfs? External tibial torsion?
Overhead squat test gives you a clue to what is going on but both feet are planted on the ground. This doesn’t happen when sprinting… people rarely have itb symptoms doing squats. video would be the most helpful clue to what is going on to determine if this is a structural, muscular, hip/ foot/ knee problem or plain dumb training. obviously the necessary steps to fix the problem depends on the cause.
Clemson. I do video analysis of runners for a living to help Md’s PT’s source out biomechanical problems with their patients. obviously, this comes in handy coaching my sprint group. I lprefer to look at things dynamically. I use other tests to confirm my findings. eg. ROM testing, Strength, flexibility etc. foot mechanics often play a role. Frequently, I’ll note inconsistancies between test results and what happens in the real world. eg a person’s pelvis might be stable walking but not sprinting. ESPN3 where are you from? You need someone to properly evaluate the kinetic chain. Maybe we can hook you up with someone who can help you out. Send me a U2U in a couple of days…I’m at a biomechanics conference over the weekend and won’t be able to chat until I get back.