I have been fighting IT Band issues for a while so I just bought a foam roller and have been using it. Everyone says it is painful and that is an understatement. I started rolling from above the knee to the hip and today I feel like I have a bruise just below my hip. Is this normal or am I doing something wrong. I don’t mind the pain if it works towards being able to run consistently but I don’t want to hurt myself trying to heal something else!
Any advice from the foam roller experts will be greatly appreciated!
yes, thats what it feels like. keep going. i fixed IT band and related knee problems with a foam roller last year. its a miracle product. it goes deeper than a serious sports massage, but with less pain & fear, since you control the positioning and speed.
Ok, I love my foam roller but always wonder if I am doing it wrong.
I know the basic movements for the quads, IT band, etc. but do you just roll back and forth until you find a particularly tight/tender spot and then roll it over that area with gradual pressure until it starts to loosen up? Is that the basics of it?
It took me about 3 weeks to deal w/ the pain, but afterwards, its nothing but love!
Seriously though, once you start, don’t stop. If you go a few weeks without rolling out and have some pretty serious training, it hurts like hell using it again! I feel that supplementing the FR w/ yoga or deep outside hip stretching works very well (my hips/ITB gets tight)
Yeah it hurts a lot, keep doing it. I have had IT band issues for over a year. Just keep rolling it out. Whenever I quit doing it my IT band flares up. I would even recommend getting a super firm roller – the white ones break down and get soft quickly.
yes, thats pretty much what i do. i’ll keep doing gradual, slow motion over the trouble spots until they are no longer so sensitive/tight, then finish with some good full length “strokes” again.
the one thing i avoid is using it on my upper back - i gave myself a nasty pull doing that. its very much person-specific though - my wife loves that particular roll move.
yup, just like that:) it’ll usually (or at least in my experience) get less painful pretty quickly, or maybe not less painful but you’ll be able to apply more pressure when roling. I just got a trigger point therapy Quadballer and it makes the foam roller seem soooo nice and soft in comparison:) bring on the pain!
Try doing the foam roller on the IT Band with a metal plate and seven screws attached to your distal femur (right under the muscles and tendons). Feels like you are tenderizing meat.
It can hurt like a mo-fo, but as the Marines like to say, pain is weakness leaving the body. Roll 20-30 times on each side where the IT band runs. Also do the front of your quad, each ass cheek and your calves. If you really want to go all out, get the TP massage stuff.
The trick is that you don’t “massage” yourself with the roller. Self myofascial release is better accomplished by finding a point of adhesion (pain) and then parking there for 20-45 seconds (static pressure).
Start with the roller on your hip bone (supporting all of your body weight) then roll slowly towards the knee until the pain becomes excruciating. Then STOP and just sit on the spot until you feel the pain begin to release (20-45 seconds) then start to roll back and forth about ¼"-½" (.5-1 cm) for another 20 seconds or so. Then move down your leg to the next major point of irritation.
Also, a PT or running coach might be able to diagnose the underlying cause of your ITB syndrome. Otherwise it may haunt you for years.
be sure and use the roller on the lower leg as well- from knee to ankle bone down the side- when my accupuncturist treated my ITBS she explained a couple of trigger points and tie in areas that can keep the ITB around the knee tight- I would also roll on the glutes, piriformis and medial glutes and low back, psoas- they are all connected. I use the 20-45sec. pressure point hold and then roll at those problem areas. I also roll on the quads with knees turned out so that you get the inside of the knees and some inner thigh work- treat the whole body