Iliotibial band problems

At first it starts as just an annoying ache on the outside of your knee, but slowly it becomes something painful and sometimes downright stops you from training and competing. Welcome to the IT Band issue.

It is a classic example of a repetitive tissue injury. As the IT band slides over the lateral trochanter of the knee, it becomes inflamed and painful. Lets looks at the causes of this. Primarily what were dealing with is the bodies attempt at stabilizing the pelvis. When certain muscles, mainly the glute medius, don't have the strength or endurance to stabilize the pelvis, then the body feels it must recruit others (IT band) to help out with this job. Well the IT band wasn't designed for this, so over time, it gets really tight and shortens causing the friction over the lateral knee and ultimately pain.

So you must attack this issue from a few angles. First we have to do some glute med activation exercises, followed by glute med strengthening excercises and soft tissue work on the shorted IT band. The next post we'll get into the actual details of the exercises.