Home Forums Chat Forum tight IT band and foamrollers

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  • tight IT band and foamrollers
  • tjagain
    Full Member

    I have the classic tight IT band.  I believe foam roller is the answer and have been using it a bit but cam across such contradictory advice on the net that now I am confused.  I know its been discussed on here in the past so any advice?

    Should I be rollering glutes and quads first as suggested?  should I be using enough weight that it is painful but tolerable or keep it to less pressure than that?

    Any links to good guides?  I have the basic technique right I think

    Ta

    piesoup
    Free Member

    When I had tight IT bands, it was because of something else. Foam rolling was prescribed as complementary to fixing the issue. Mine was weak glute max, which let the IT band become irritated.

    Look at glute strengthening exercises. I then had to roll the glute first to loosen it, then the band.

    But was told rolling just the band and not addressing the issue was like putting a bandage over a bleed but not repairing the leaking artery!

    shermer75
    Free Member

    I’ve always rolled the TFL, as that is often what is making the IT band tight, but glutes insert into so that will likely help too- it depends which one needs switching off!

    There’s very little evidence to suggest that massage works, but it does seem to work, my own understanding is that switches the muscle off by taking it to it’s end of range- as lengthening a muscle does work, which is why stretches make a difference.

    So: crack on, it will be sore at first and then get less so- when there’s no pain it’s an indication that you’ve done as much as you can do. There’s no need to give yourself howling pain, but you are unlikely to do much damage in that area by foam rollering anyway so I wouldn’t concern yourself too much with that. (I’m assuming you are doing this as you have knee pain, not hip pain?)

    tjagain
    Full Member

    TFL ?

    I can feel the tightness all down the sides of my legs – not really painful just uncomfortable.  Been getting worse for years no hip or knee pain.

    Hmm – looks like I need some pro help then

    surfer
    Free Member

    There’s very little evidence to suggest that massage works, but it does seem to work, my own understanding is that switches the muscle off by taking it to it’s end of range- as lengthening a muscle does work, which is why stretches make a difference.

    I would say the opposite to that. There is evidence that (there are a range of types) massage works. On the other hand there is no evidence that “stretched” muscles provide any benefit, either in injury recovery or prevention. Added to the fact that the IT band is tendon like and cannot stretch anyway….

    ITB

    molgrips
    Free Member

    There’s a lot of bollocks but apparently some truth. I had loads of pain outside my knees every run after 3-4km no matter what I did, for a year or more. Then two sessions with a foam roller cured it pretty much for good, only came back slightly a few times, this was ten years ago. So clearly it did something for me.

    I just did the normal rolling outside my thigh with as much pressure as I could take. Rollering other body parts has not done anything beneficial for me.

    It may not help you as your problem sounds different to mine. My mate on the other hand has had good results with ITB area stretches which helped him a lot, although they did nothing for me. It’s not scientific but you can just try stuff until you find something that helps.

    tjagain
    Full Member

    You can stretch tendons and ligaments – thats how you increase flexibility.  Ask any gymnast or dancer!

    MRs TJ got knee pain a couple of years ago – recomended the foam roller to stretch the ITB and it cured her

    TiRed
    Full Member

    I just rollered the IT band. And did the stretches. Moving the saddle forward a little cured the problem as mine was caused by over extension when pedalling.

    I like the classic sit up on floor. Cross leg over with offending side foot next to other knee. Then pull the knee further across. There are other stretches too.

    tjagain
    Full Member

    Ta for that Tired – I’ll try that stretch

    i think a physio appointment might be in order

    surfer
    Free Member

    You can stretch tendons and ligaments – thats how you increase flexibility. Ask any gymnast or dancer!

    Number of assertions there but sticking with ITB. The ITB is adhered to the femur along its length. You will need to stretch your femur at the same time.

    longdog
    Free Member

    The ITB (tendon) is attached to the TFL (muscle) so releasing the TFL will take pressure of the ITB. Massage in general is good too, but you’ve got to figure out what is causing the tightness in the first place, usually muscle/activation imbalances in the hips/glutes etc.

    The ITB gets tender as the tension creates irritation and misalignment

    Google TFL release/massage for exercises.

    Do the rolling including rolling/massaging/stretching the TFL, but see a therapist to identify the cause would be my advice.

    tjagain
    Full Member

    it really is not surfer.  its a band of fascia that does not atttach to the femour at all – its runs from the pelvis to shin outside of the muscles of the thigh.  Remember I do have a basic understanding of anatomy and physiology.  I suggest you are getting confused with something else.  if it were adhered to the femour then it would lock your leg solid

    molgrips
    Free Member

    That diagram is the first clear sensible one that relates to the symptoms I used to have despite having googled it to death at the time.

    The TFL is where I feel stretching when I do ITB stretch exercises. And also how I get around London.

    MoreCashThanDash
    Full Member

    If it’s really tight, might be worth getting a physio to make sure that there isn’t another underlying cause being missed – I had knee pain, which turned out to be due to a tight ITB being aggravated by weak glute muscles. A few stretches and exercises dealt with the root cause (though if it’s really tight, accupuncture helped release mine quicker and with less pain than rollering or manual pressure – others on here will be along shortly to say my experience was incorrect and it was witchcraft)

    MoreCashThanDash
    Full Member

    That picture is an xray of my issue!

    longdog
    Free Member

    Nah accupuncture/dry needling has helped release back muscles in me a few times that were in spasm and massage wasn’t touching. Not painful, but not a pleasant relaxing experience for me with much weird nerve sensations.

    tjagain
    Full Member

    I suspect its just a usage issue – too much cycling leads to shortening of the ITB and also the hamstrings.  I am pretty sure I do not have weak glutes – I can crack walnuts with my arse!

    Looks like a physio appointment is in my near future tho

    tjagain
    Full Member

    Acupuncture is an odd one – its the only “alternative” medicine that actually had decent evidence for it being effective without placebo effect even if the explanations given are at best “unscientific”

    longdog
    Free Member

    Yeh it not just the glute max it’s all the ancillary muscles too, hip flexors etc. I have a similarly nut cracking arse, but have lots of other hip muscle tightness I have to keep on top off or I get issues with the piriformis which is another PITA.

    tjagain
    Full Member

    I have no pain – I can just feel the tightness

    jamiemcf
    Full Member

    It may be the glute med. If I feel mine tightening while running I switch to that funny sideways run for a wee bit.

    I was switched onto this via Del from Proactive physio (she reckons he is either there or at Vivo physio now, Edinburgh based) after he sorted out my wife’s IT band issues.

    To prevent I do what I know as gorrila walks with a band or sideways leg raises.

    kormoran
    Free Member

    TJ don’t overlook your piriformis, tightness here will cause very similar and agonising knee pain. I had dreadful knees, tried the usual ITB stretch/rolling to no avail and then by chance learnt about the piriformis. Easy to do with a tennis ball ideally or just your fist, first time I did it instant relief in the knee.

    Also psoas release really helps, again a tennis ball on top of a book works really well

    edit just reread your post and realised you don’t have pain. Which is great! But I had the tightness too, so maybe worth a try…made a big difference to me

    twinw4ll
    Free Member

    You need to do hip abduction to work the gluteus medius, do you waddle when you walk?

    molgrips
    Free Member

    that funny sideways run

    Which funny sideways run?

    ampthill
    Full Member

    I have had cycling related pain in ITBs a few times. Always related to bike postion. From memory if your hips rotate too far forward that mucks up the angle the ITB runs at relative to everything else. This then causes rubbing. In the short term a slightly more upright position helped. Sorting out the tight muscles round the pelvis means its just a distance memory

    rOcKeTdOg
    Full Member

    i had classic ITB symptoms, and like most cyclists (ask any yoga teacher) i did minimal or no pre or post ride stretching. I rollered the ITB and it its very painful just using your own body weight but it did improve the symptoms after a couple of weeks of post exercise rolling

    tjagain
    Full Member

    do you waddle when you walk

    No – should I?

    mogrim
    Full Member

    I like the classic sit up on floor. Cross leg over with offending side foot next to other knee. Then pull the knee further across

    This one was key for me when I had trouble with the ITB.

    footflaps
    Full Member

    Moving the saddle forward a little cured the problem as mine was caused by over extension when pedalling.

    Same for me.

    Years ago I was chatting to the tri-club coach on a group ride that I was having ITBFS and he suggested moving my saddle forward an inch or two (it was quite far back). Pretty much cured it overnight.

    As for foam rolling. 10 years ago the thinking was that foam rolling broke down / changed myofascular (sp) tissue whereas now it’s pretty much agreed that is causes no physical changes to tissue but can desensitise an area by increasing the pain temporarily which causes the brain to reduce it’s sensitivity to the nerves in that area. So if the root problem is the IT band is too tight, unlikely foam rolling will do anything.

    I would have thought IT band specific stretches would be better if you want to elongate the tendon, although it will take a lot of stretching to achieve any gain as tendons are tough as old boots and take ages to lengthen (ask any gymnast how many years it took to achieve the splits).

    tjagain
    Full Member

    Interesting that footflaps – a senior NHS physio told ms TJ to do the foamroller as a tight IT band was causing her knee issues. totally cured it

    I like the classic sit up on floor. Cross leg over with offending side foot next to other knee. Then pull the knee further across

    Just tried that – that gets right to the spot

    I do not have knee or hip pain or anything else – just this very tight uncomfy feeling down the outside of both thighs

    edward2000
    Free Member

    Athlean X – Jeff Cavaleres videos always work for me. He demonstrates the jt band is attached to the Glute Medius and the TFL and the imbalance in muscle strength causes the tightness and the inflammation.

    The video shows the necessary corrective action.

    End of thread

    nedrapier
    Full Member

    Seems like there’s a bunch of conflicting anecdotes in support of different interventions.

    I’m not a fan of foam rollering, partly because it hurts, but mostly because I don’t think anything that’s supposed to help mend your body should hurt like ****.

    As I understand it, when you hurt yourself, your body creates scar tissues/adhesions which limit your motion until your body can heal the injury. The limitations lead to tightness. If you bulldoze them to the point of significant pain, what you’re doing is pulling those adhesions away from the muscle/fascia they’re fixed to, creating more damage, and your body’s going to want to create more adhesions, more scar tissue to give your body the time and space to repair the damage.

    Some people love the rollers, but is it a constant, symptom-reducing effort when that effort might be spent targeting the cause of the symptom – the tightness, the instability, the damage?

    I’m going to watch that vid edward2000 posted a few times – it’d be easier if he didn’t shout so much! I’d love to run a bit, but ITBS means it’s not worth it as my body is at the moment – cycling’s just funner and faster and less painful.

    Good luck with yours, TJ!

    surfer
    Free Member

    bulldoze them to the point of significant pain, what you’re doing is pulling those adhesions away from the muscle/fascia they’re fixed to, creating more damage, and your body’s going to want to create more adhesions, more scar tissue to give your body the time and space to repair the damage.

    I agree however its a bit like training itself. You need to be near the point of breaking down otherwise you have scope to train even harder. Get it wrong you become injured/ill/stale etc. Testing/prodding an injury at the right time triggers a positive response and can speed up recovery. Difficult to get it spot on though.

    tjagain
    Full Member

    sorry surfer =- thats a basic misunderstanding of the anatomy.  the IT band is not connected to the femour.  It just isn’t Look at the picture in that article.

    Where the misunderstanding lies is all parts of the body are interconnected but as the IT band lies outside of the muscles its only attachment to the femour is indirect thru those muscles and the facia sheaths on the musckles

    if the IT band was as you seem to think attached to your femour the whole way down your leg could not bend

    surfer
    Free Member

    The picture shows nothing. The peer reviewed stuff makes it clear.

    Even if (and the evidence indicates it is) the ITB is not adhered the length of the femur, even attachment at certain points would negate the ability to stretch it. The article explains that it can only be stretched around 2% in total anyway and that may come from the elongation of the attachment points.

    This is largely moot anyway unless there is evidence that “stretching” a tendon or muscle provides any benefit in terms of injury prevention or cure, that evidence doesnt appear to exist.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    I do not have knee or hip pain or anything else – just this very tight uncomfy feeling down the outside of both thighs

    Haven’t you just upped your riding volume a lot? Sounds like it could be the ultimate cause, that sort of thing happened to me when changing volume suddenly.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    The article Surfer links to says that foam rolling doesn’t alleviate ITB pain. However for me, it very quickly alleviated some pain that was very similar to how ITB is described, so clearly it’s worth a try given the low cost of the experiment.

    but is it a constant, symptom-reducing effort

    Not for me, the roller is currently under the bed gathering dust. Did my third 5k in about a year on Saturday, no pain.

    tjagain
    Full Member

    Molgrips yes but the tightness has been getting worse for years

    TiRed
    Full Member

    Just tried that – that gets right to the spot

    Thanks. The other one is stand up with good leg pointing forward. Tight leg foot behind at 90 degrees and bend forward. Not as easy for balance.

    The outside knee pain was entirely due to saddle position and over extension. The pain is due to rubbing just above the attachment point on the knee. I avoided knee surgery after an MRI that allegedly showed wear and tear some 15 years ago and a surgeon recommended (naturally) surgery. Never had a problem since. I make that recommendation to anyone with outside edge knee pain on cycling now. Lower and further forward.

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