What are the three movements for iliotibial band stretches?

If you don't know much about the human body structure, you must not know what the iliotibial band is. In fact, the iliotibial band is located near the knee and thigh. This area is relatively hard when pressed and is not as elastic as the thigh muscles. Some people experience knee pain when running, and it is very likely that the iliotibial band is causing the problem, so you must stretch the iliotibial band before running. The correct stretching method is as follows.

Three iliotibial band stretches:

Small movements for daily exercise - iliotibial band stretch

Stand upright with your arms at your sides and your legs crossed, one foot forward.

Bend over slowly and try to touch the ground with your hands.

Hold for 15 seconds. Relax and slowly stand up. Repeat on the other side.

Your hands must not touch the ground, just grab your calves.

Four predisposing factors

Wrong running posture. Many runners have not received professional running posture training. During the entire running process, due to incorrect running posture, the iliotibial band and the posterior thigh muscles are overly tense.

Too much training volume. Due to long-term running training, the amount of training is too large, and the corresponding muscle groups are not stretched properly, which causes the iliotibial band and surrounding muscle groups to become tense, and it is impossible to relax after running.

The way the lower limbs exert force when running is wrong

This pain may be caused by weak muscles on the outside of the thigh or even by long-term wearing of running shoes that cause severe wear on the outside of the heel.

To put it simply, when running, as the knee joint is constantly bending and straightening, the iliotibial band, this rubber band, will produce friction with the knee joint. Under normal circumstances, there is a structure called a bursa around the knee joint that can reduce friction, but its ability is limited.

All of the reasons mentioned above may cause the rubber band to rub repeatedly beyond its tolerance limit, which may lead to inflammation. At this time, the normal sliding of the iliotibial band is hindered, and pain will be felt. In severe cases, there may also be widespread pain on the outside of the knee, even when the patient is at rest.

So, if you experience pain on the outside of your knee, see your doctor first. If it is confirmed as iliotibial band friction syndrome after medical treatment, or if you confirm it as iliotibial band syndrome yourself based on experience, some rehabilitation methods will be needed for treatment. If the iliotibial band friction is severe, surgery is required.

A must-learn stretch!

First of all, you should do enough warm-up exercises before you start running. When you are relaxing at the end of the run, you should do some iliotibial band stretching exercises to help relax the iliotibial band that has been too tense during the running. Of course, self-massage is also effective in relieving tension in the iliotibial band.

Second, improve your running posture, learn to use the correct sequence of lower limb force when running, and prepare yourself a pair of professional running shoes. Avoid running for a long time on uneven roads or running downhill too much, because this will cause excessive tension in the iliotibial band.

Third, you need to increase strength exercises for the outer thigh, posterior thigh and buttocks muscles. In layman's terms, if a certain part of the leg is not strong enough, the iliotibial band is needed to increase its bearing capacity to make up for this deficiency.