Newsletter Archive: Stop Smashing Your ITB

From Newsletter 6/28/2020

I'm so glad you decided to my the 3DRunner team. Here is the newsletter which was send last Sunday! I hope you enjoy it. 

Are you constantly rolling your ITB without resolve? Day after day, you pull out your foam roller, sprawl over the ground, "to make your ITB loose", only to do it again the next day. You've been told to "strengthen your glute". You lunge and bridge and squat, always finding yourself in the same position. You are on the ground rolling your ITB.

Try Decompressing the ITB

When you roll over the ITB, the premise is the smashing the tissue will help it loosen. That's what I've been telling my patients for the past 10 years and my runners, even longer, almost 20 years. If you ask me now, I will tell you something different. DECOMPRESSION. There is a nerve, called the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve, which is the ITB with branches which goes through the ITB. The locations of where the nerve goes through the ITB, is the same location of "trigger points" that I release for my clients and athletes. Nerves really don't like to be compressed. When you compress the tissue surrounding the nerve, it will let go slowly and painfully. When you decompress the tissue, it provides more space for your nerves to move. Your body will tissues will relax as a response.

Here's a photo of the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve from the back view. The white portion on the right is the ITB. The nerve goes through the ITB! The most common tender spot is where the nerve comes out in the middle of the ITB.

What to do?

All right team, you want to DECOMPRESS the area. Use a cup to decompress the ITB to give more space for the nerve. If you don't have a cup, you can use a skin lift technique. Click the pictures below for a link to the videos. Here is the link to the cups I use. (No, I don't get kick backs for sharing this.)

                                                                  Cupping the ITB

                                                            Skin Lift Technique  for ITB 

STOP Squeezing Your Abs AND/OR Glutes

When you squeeze you abs and/or glutes, your pelvis tucks under your body (a posterior pelvic tilt). Referring to the photo below (looking from a front view), a posterior pelvic tilt will bring the top of the photo away from you and the bottom towards you. This position puts tension on the inguinal ligament (which can give you a host of other problems which won't be discussed here). The inguinal ligament has ATTACHMENTS to the ITB. So by tucking your pelvis under your body, again occurs when you intentionally squeeze your abs and glutes, you TENSION your ITB. 

***The circled area is highlighted because those ligaments gets slacked in a posterior tilted position contributing to increase pressure to the sciatic nerve (again, maybe for another post).

So STOP TUCKING YOUR BUTT!

I hope this provides insight into different options besides rolling.