hackskii

I have been suffering with squats and knee problems lately.

I went to Palm Springs for a few days to rest and went to a gym out there.
I have been feeling stiff lately so Id thought id stretch out some.

A trainer came over and we chatted for a bit and I explained that my knees hurt.
He checked my form out and said it was a knee alignment problem and tracking specifically.
He asked me if I sit alot and I answered yes.
He said it might be my I.T. Band that needs stretching.
So, he took this round hard foam and I layed on it with my outter quad. That hurt like hell and he said I was far too tight.
Seems that sitting all day made that shorter and tossed off the tracking on my knee.

I kept trying to pulverise that area and it got less tender and almost immediatly my knee felt better, lower back too.

He told me that if I used that IT band roller within 3 weeks I would have almost no knee pain.
He said I would get more range in squats too.


Ya learn something new every day. I was trying to kill the day as my GF is at work and my daughter is at school.
I am so glad I talked to that guy.

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crazycal1

thats sounds along the lines of trigger point therapy-
ive never thought of doing the front of my thigh for lower back-
i beleive its all to do with the attachment points of the back muscles.
never heard of the IT band or a roller tho.

samurai69

Hey hacks....

i am familiar with ITB tightness..........lots of martail artists that train side kicks tend to suffer from it

I am interested in the stretch the trainer got you to do, could you explain it more as i am finding it difficult to understand it


thanks mate


s69

LondonGeezer

I got knee problems too.. doc says most definatly cartilage problem (osteoarthritis) - gota go for checkup in 8weeks & maybe some keyhole..

Glad to hear you feelin better hacks and gud info there.. my pains started gettin worse after squats - I assumed it was because of the excess pressure on the knee so i stopped.. wont start again until im in the clear.

hackskii

OK Samuri, here I will try to explain this in depth, have not been drinking so I should not have any problems....heeee heee

OL, the IT band issue where it was most painfull would be the exact same spot that the side kicks would hit the side of the quad.

The pain when I focused on this spot was not even bearable, it hurt like hell and the guy said I definately had some issues with that.

OK, the roller was hard foam rubber about 3 feet long and bigger around than if you put your hands together in a circle so I am guessing around 22 inches around.
Lay the roller on the ground and the leg that you are going to target/stretch will be straight. You will support your upper body with your elbo.
So, you are kind of laying on your side supporting your upper body with your elbo and the lower part of the body (IT band) is on the roller.
You roll to the spot where there is pain and just let it sit there.
If you are really good you can use the weight of the outside or upper leg on the lower leg to aid in more weight or force on the roller.
To be honest I could not put hardly any weight without it hurting way too bad. This is evidence that the ITB is tight.

I noticed even more pain when I rotated my body to where it hit a little twards the front (still on the side of the leg though) quad. No kidding I didnt expect there to be that much pain but honestly I felt relief almost instant.

Problems with a tight ITB (runners get this) is it will throw the tracking of the knee off and promote injury.
If the knee was tracking wrong the knee wont be as efficient. He noticed I point my feet out when I did a squat and he said that it would be better for me to not do this and to have the feet pointed strait.

He did suggest that in about 3 weeks if I used the roller every day for a few minutes I would notice a huge improvement in my knees.
He also suggested that beings is everything is connected my back would not bother me as much.
He said with the ITB short (from sitting so much) that my range in squat would not be as much.


London, if you have ostioarthritus then I would suggest some

glucosamine, chondroitin combination. MSM will help but only with not pain and support.
My dog has the same problem with you and the vet recommended glucosamine and condroitin in a brand name of cosequin.
This will help to give support to the joints to keep them strong.

Knox unflavored gelatin is another inexpensive product that will help you.
Hell, it will give you good nails and actually add some protein to the diet.

Collagen is another product that supports connective tissue and probably would be good for joint health.

Some hyaluronic acid, is something else that will be helpfull for you and is not that expensive, it helps with tissue dehydration, lubrication and cellular function.

There are other things but I would be careful not to increase the risk of injury or hinder recovery.

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samurai69

cheers hacks...........

understand now

ONE SMART COOKIE

[quote=hackskii;219125]So, he took this round hard foam and I layed on it with my outter quad. That hurt like hell and he said I was far too tight.
Seems that sitting all day made that shorter and tossed off the tracking on my knee.

I kept trying to pulverise that area and it got less tender and almost immediatly my knee felt better, lower back too.

He told me that if I used that IT band roller within 3 weeks I would have almost no knee pain.
He said I would get more range in squats too.

quote]

You can also use a medicine ball or basketball to do the same thing.....

Been using the med ball on these type of exercises for some time now to aleviate a lot of my injuries and scar tissue build up..............

LondonGeezer

Hey thanks hacks!!

I should have posted it up sooner lol i been taking glucosamine at a high dose with codliver oil but nothing else.. will look into the stuff you listed..cheerrs mate

SD

Nice post Hacks,

Crazycal1 had a point that it does sound like trigger pointing, which fools the muscle into relaxing.

Tight IT band, known as Illio Tibial Band Syndroem ITBS, is very common and causes a condition known as runners knee.

I used to get this when I was in the Navy/Marines training for a fitness test. The physios taught me an ITB stretch that cured it but explaining this stretch was so hard I cut & pasted it:

Stand with the right leg crossed in the back of the left leg. Extend the left arm against a wall/pole/chair/other stable object. Lean your weight against the object while pushing your right hip in the opposite direction. Keep your right foot anchored while allowing your left knee to flex. You should feel the stretch in the ITB muscle in the right hip and along the

outside of the right thigh. Hold for 30 sec. Relax slowly.

Even when I know the stretch, the explanation is a little confusing so all I can suggest is get a trainer to show you this stretch.

Trigger relaxes a tight muscle Hacks but stretching stops it getting tight in the first place.

HTH

SD

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hackskii

I love you SD.
I have been using that roller and now I can do it. It hurt so bad in the beginning I could not even do it but now I can.

Someone just asked me what an ITB was and I could not tell them.
But now I know what Illio Tibial Band Syndroem ITBS is. Way cool there.

I am still not getting that stretch tho. I take it that stretch above is stretching the right ITB right?
i tried it and it felt more in the hip than the outter quad.

I should probably go and get a full body massage and loosten things up.
I feel pretty damn tight.

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LEWIS

nice explanation hacks - i have similler probs

myles

I suffer from Illiotibial Band Syndrome as well. A friend showed me a few stretches that seem to work. One is crossing your feet over at the knee with the dodgy leg in front, then lean forward keeping both legs straight, using a wall as support. I have always felt that this does the job. Bloody painful, and you can quickly develop scar tissue on the ITB which rubs whilst running, and also hurts, so that is both cardio and lifting affected:boohoo:

mrmasive

Root of my knee problem, just keep stretching baby :smoke:

James W

Since discovering a foam roller about 3 months ago I now don't know what I would do without one!

Especailly when I am doing a lot of leg work it works absolute wonders in terms of tightness and muscle tone.

If you are ever feeling particulalrly cruel then try using it on your LATS, bit of a difficult position to get in but works wonders! hurts like hell though!!

Nytol

I hate to mention anything about 'T nation', but there are quite a few detailed articles on there about foam roller treatment.

It does sound interesting.