SOMA Living November 2021

FROM THE DOCTOR

RAISE THE ROOF!

WHAT IS “IT” BAND SYNDROME?

One of the most annoying injuries as a runner is an injury to your IT band or Ilio-Tibial Band. This can cause pain and discomfort which affects patients hip’s as well as knees. Your IT band is a thick bunch of fibers that runs from the outside of your hips to the outside of your thigh and knee down to the top of your shinbone. IT band syndrome also occurs most often in runners who cover long distances. The condition occurs when your IT band, a ligament that runs down your outer thigh, rubs on your thigh bone repeatedly causing inflammation. The syndrome usually causes pain in the knee, hip, or both places. If you get this condition it could take a while to treat. If you run, make sure you build core and hip strength to avoid the problem. Stretching it out is also advisable and should the condition worsen see your local physical therapist. Now that we know what we are dealing with let’s discuss how we put ourselves at risk for it. The biggest cause is not using the right training techniques, not doing enough to stretch, warm up, and cool down, pushing too hard -- you go too far or for too long, not resting long enough between workouts, wearing worn-out sneakers, running or training on the wrong surfaces, running downhill, running only on one side of the road. The road is sloped towards the curb throwing your hips off. Let’s go into some symptoms you may experience if you do have it. The main symptom is pain on the outer side of your knee, just above the joint. This pain can go away however when you warm up however it can get worse over time. Other symptoms include, aching, burning, or tenderness on the outside of your knee, feeling a click, pop, or snap on the outside of your knee, pain up and down your leg along the area of the IT band and warmth and redness on the outside of your knee. To prevent IT band syndrome you can Allow plenty of time to properly stretch, warm up, and cool down, give your body enough time to recover between workouts or events, run with a shorter stride, run on flat surfaces or alternate which side of the road you run on, replace your shoes regularly, stretch your IT band, hip muscles, thigh muscles, and hamstrings often and use a foam roller to loosen up your IT band. All of those above ideas can be helped by a physical therapist. They can design a treatment plan that is tailored around your needs to address your pain. PT’s can also help you choose the right footwear that would be best suited for your foot. There are also modalities such as Ice, ultra sound, cold laser and massage techniques that can be used to treat this condition. As always discuss any issues with your PT prior to starting a rehab or training program.

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Dr. Daniel Roig South Orange Rehab Wellness SouthOrangeRehab.com 973-761-0077

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