IT Band -- Different or advanced techniques?

[Pompal 09.]

Hi all,

I have a male client with major knots/tps in his upper IT Bands. He has experienced significant relief from regular massages, but I would like to do more! I'm so frustrated that they are still there at all!

Can anyone suggest additional ways to work on the IT Band? I do it prone, supine and side-lying (seems the most effective) but would like to see more lasting results. Any special techniques out there?

Thanks! What a GREAT group!

Sherry

 

[John K]

You might have good lasting results if you spend a nice amount of time working the TFL and the gluteus min and med.

I work the IT band supine, very slow. I let my palms sink in to the tissue. Usually I am on the opposite side of the table reaching over, cupping the tissue and letting it spread and release under my palm pressure. Hard to explain other than that.

 

[Happy Turtles]

In Sports Massage we were taught to snap the IT as if it were a pencil, in effect bending or folding it towards itself. This move can be quite difficult and painful, but very effective when getting the IT to relax. Hope this helps!

 

[Pompal 09.]

Thank you - IT Band

Thank you Akb and Dodab . . .

Dodab . . . I had an excellent sports massage class in school, but that technique was never mentioned. Can you explain a little more about your postioning and what tools you use re fingers, hands, fists, forearm, elbow etc.? I'm having a hard time picturing this and want to try it next week! Thanks! Sherry

 

[? we voted for pedro ?]

I'll give it a try!!!!

With the client side-lying bottom leg straight and top leg bent at the knee, stand behind the client, grasp a hold of the IT band on the sides of the thigh, on each side of the band. (ie. anterior and posterior to the IT) While gripping the IT, bend it postierior, bringing the thumbs toward each other. The band will be very tight in your fingers, and can really be painful to the client, so be ginger about it at first. You won't be able to totally bend it in half, but the motion itself is what you are after.

Let me know how it goes! Hope this helps.......

 

[swimma]

I get good results with PIR stretches for ITB/TFL/
Assume we are talking right leg.
Face up lying.
bend left knee to about 45 and place left foot to the right of right leg.
stand on left side of foot end of table and hold right ankle.
pull ankle to left to limit of ROM(leg straight), right hand holds right knee
ank client to push right foot to right against your resistance and hold
After ten seconds tell them to relax, then take up any additional movement available.
Repeat up to 4 times

 

[........yewwww]

The technique that dodab is refering to we learned in class also and refered to it as bending the banana, because when you bend it, it looks like a banana.

 

[MiakoSamuio]

Definitely the best treatment for the ITB/TFL is stretching, and make sure that they stretch it on their own time as well. Jeff mentioned stretching to do while they are in session, but they need a way to do it on their own. I have ITB issues from being a soccer player and then going through 2 knee surgeries. The best way for me to stretch it was to take my dogs leash, put the handle say around my L - foot, lay on the floor and pull the leash with my R - hand to get a cross legged stretch. Hold for 10 sec. take a deep breath, then pull a little further. 3x each, 3x/day.

 

[Tim O]

IT band

For any resistant area, it's not so much what we do in session, as what the client does in the rest of their daily routine that makes the longterm difference.

Stretching homework is great ---- and increasing water intake ---- and having a fitness professional watching to correct form during exercise all help. Every so often, I have a client demonstrate to me how they are doing the homework stretches so I can be sure they understand how to do them. Sometimes the key is sleeping position --- so we go over that.

Remember, it's not all about what happens in a session! Do your best and let it go.

I'm lucky to practice in a Wellness Center, where there are some great personal trainers who are willing and able to do evaluations of form during exercise. The folks who do the best longterm are those who are willing to make a free appointment with one of them and actually correct their form. Often when I refer a client to a trainer, the trainer says thank you ---- because they too have noticed something really off in the way the person uses the treadmill or the elliptical or the weight equipment.
We don't intervene usually unless they are being totally unsafe, but the fitness staff does circulate and make suggestions if the members are open to hearing that.

Linda B in NC

 

[MzConception]

Here's my theory; the bending of the IT band technique that is being referred to is "technically" called a GTO release, or a Golgi Tendon Organ Release. It shouldn't be painful so much as slightly tender, it isn't a lot of pressure either. If the IT band is very tight, don't expect this technique to work until its been released. As far as stretching the IT band goes, its a little vague. The IT band is non-contractile tissue and therefore can't be "stretched" in the same sense that we stretch a muscle. When doing and IT band stretch, against a wall or off a table, you're actually stretching TFL. TFL and Glut Max, both having attachments on the IT, counteract each other. Like hamstrings and quads or pecs and rhomboids. Anyways, working the gluts, deep six and tfl is great. Sometimes the IT band adheres to Vastus Lateralis underneath it and if VL is really hypertoned then it will restrict proper function of the IT band. Stretching and releasing trigger points in vastus lateralis should help, strengthening vastus medialis (as well as TFL!) should also be a main goal to decrease the amount of load lateralis is taking up. When all that's said and done do a lot of fascial release on the IT itself, around the retinaculum of the knee and try to pry the IT band off of Vastus Lateralis. Its a long haul but it should work.