If you have knee pain on the outside lateral aspect, you need to know about the IT-Band. In this video Dr. Neil Murphy, chiropractor and owner at Advanced Chiropractic Ireland will share with you
- What is the IT band?
- Why is it causing you pain?
- How do you fix it?
The IT-Band is a thick band of fascia that runs from the ilium all the way down to the tibia of your knee, hence the name iliotibial band. And notice the word Fascia not Muscle. You don’t want to roll directly on IT-Band or do any kind of tennis ball work on this area. It is too close to bone and thus would be really painful. The IT-Band attaches with the muscle called the TFL or tensor fascia latea, and this muscle is found anterior (front) to the IT-Band. This TFL muscle runs all the way down beside the IT-Band and attaches into the knee. And it’s a major lateral knee stabiliser, and also helps with movement up at the hip joint.
However, the secret to IT-Band syndrome lies here in the Gluteus Medius. And in my clinical experience, in over 90% of patients who have lateral knee pain caused by the ITB, the gluteus medius is inactive or it’s weak. The answer then is that we need to strengthen this muscle. When the gluteus medius muscle is weak or inactive, the TFL and the IT-Band have to take up the slack. What we find is that we get a really tight TFL and a tight IT-Band because the gluteus medius isn’t working. This puts an enormous amount of stress at the attachment of these two muscles, which happens to be your lateral outside of your knee.
To find out exactly what to do about this, you can watch the video below or click here