How to PROPERLY Foam Roll Your IT Band for Knee Pain
Let’s address a really common syndrome called IT Band Syndrome and let’s learn how to properly foam roll your iliotibial band (the IT band!)
IT Band Syndrome: It’s what happens when you start to get pain around the outside of the knee, which is where the iliotibial band attaches down and into the knee.
Typically, if someone starts feeling this pain, they will try to foam roll the IT band directly.
This does not address the actual problem. Foam rolling the IT band does NOT break up any scar tissue, soften muscles, or release any tension.
When you’re foam rolling the IT band, you might be getting some momentary relief, but then you get back up, start moving in the same movement patterns, and that knee pain comes right back.
We have to address IT Band Syndrome in a different way if we want to see results!
What is IT Band Syndrome?
The IT band is a thick band of connective tissue (“deep fascia”) that runs from your hip down the outer part of your thigh and into your knee and shinbone. The IT band attaches up into the hip muscle and connects to the glute (like right at the back of the glute and inside of your hip) and also connects into the TFL (tensor fascia latae.) Remember how I always say everything is connected?
The IT band helps with stability in the knee, as well as extension, rotation, and lateral movements in the hip.
If your IT band becomes too tight, you may experience swelling and pain in the outer knee. This is called IT Band Syndrome. It usually occurs in runners or other people who do activities that bend the knee repetitively like cyclers or hikers.
Foam rolling the IT band directly is a highly contested topic and you may find some differing opinions on the internet.
But here’s what you need to know:
It makes more sense to focus on foam rolling the hip and TFL rather than down the side of the leg if you have IT Band Syndrome because this fascia is thinner.
We don’t typically associate knee pain with our hips but I’m going to challenge you to start thinking this way.
How to properly foam roll your IT Band
Because I use the Intelliroller I can get a bit more specific with how and where I roll. With this I can either roll right on the edge of the roller or I can essentially sit into the curved surface which offers some more surface area for the muscle and around my leg. If you don’t have this type of foam roller that’s fine, but I highly suggest this one!
Start by sitting your glute onto the foam roller. For some added intensity you can cross your leg (ankle over opposite thigh) to get deeper into the muscle.
Continue to roll forward and back on the glute. If you want to get even deeper into the glute, roll your hip toward the edge of the foam roller. Find those points that feel like they’re super tense and get into it. Maybe just focus on moving in that space for a while or stay still and press into the foam roller.
What’s super important here is the breath. Remember to keep breathing. This helps us tap into the parasympathetic nervous system and continues to encourage our body to relax.
Foam rolling for the TFL
Place your hip right on top of the foam roller and come down onto your elbow. The TFL is just underneath your hip bone. Start to explore here. Just feel into the body and relax into the foam roller.
Hip mobility
Now that we’ve warmed up the muscles surrounding our glute, the hip, and the TFL we can get into some hip mobility. This is my favorite hip mobility exercise (you might have seen this if you tried my mobility test!)
This is important to note: sometimes when we’re lacking internal rotation we also have a hard time actually coming into hip flexion as well. (Hip internal rotation is the ability to turn your thigh bone inwards towards your pelvis and flexion is the ability to bring your thigh up and in towards your torso, as if in walking or running)
For internal rotation, you have to be able to make a posterior shift in that hip joint. It’s the same for flexion as well. If you’re limited in how far your leg is able to go into internal rotation then we’re typically going to have restrictions in flexion.
Think about all the movements that require hip flexion:
- Running
- Squats
- Lunges
- Stepping up onto something
So if you have limited flexion in the hip that can lead to IT Band Syndrome.
Our objective now is to open up the hip and gain more free movement within our internal rotation and hip flexion.
Hip 90/90
Place the leg you’re working on in internal rotation. Come into the 90/90 position. This means that your front leg and back leg are both placed at 90 degrees. Make sure that your back foot isn’t creeping towards the glute or otherwise you’ll be putting more pressure on the knee joint.
Place your hand behind you for support and gently relax back onto the glute. No need to force the glute onto the ground, just relax and breathe into the stretch. You can even place your hand onto the TFL muscle again and give it a massage to encourage the release of tension.
To add on, you can lean forward, lifting the back leg and glute off of the ground, feeling those muscles turn on, and then come back. As you sit back notice how the hip rotates. Continue gently moving forward and back.
To make a set here, stay in the grounded position for about two minutes and then practice the forward and back motion about five to ten times. Really pay attention to how it feels when you increase that hip rotation.
When you’re finished, come to stand and see if you have any relief around that knee joint.
Do you want to OPTIMIZE your body?
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