Stop Foam Rolling the IT Band
In this episode I share my thoughts about the common practice of foam rolling the IT band, especially for the reason of it being "tight."
I compare the Marvel character Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy to the IT Band and what the anatomy shows in relationship to how the IT band is supposed to be extremely stiff, but also has many sensory nerve endings throughout its length, which is why it can create so much discomfort and not communicate much other then a sensation that sometimes is recognized as tightness.
During this episode I mention:
Gil Headly and his YouTube video on the IT band: https://youtu.be/oXYKhqY8T9o
Lateral Femoral Cutaneous Nerve Glide: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CdRnQ2YlgNU/
Superior Gluteal Nerve Treatment: https://youtu.be/BF-n-ZnVGno
Yoga Tune Up Therapy Balls and Self Massage techniques: https://www.tuneupfitness.com/?rfsn=3901938.c151c3
Considering the viscera as a source of musculoskeletal pain and dysfunction is a great way to ensure a more true whole body approach to care, however it can be a bit overwhelming on where to start, which is exactly why I created the Visceral Referral Cheat Sheet. This FREE download will help you to learn the most common visceral referral patterns affecting the musculoskeletal system. Download it at www.unrealresultspod.com
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[00:00:00] Today's episode, we're gonna talk about why the IT band is basically just like Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy.
[00:00:12] The only thing it ever knows how to say is, I am tight, but is that really what it is saying? Is that really what the problem is? We're gonna talk about that today. All the anatomy of. Perhaps it's not telling you the right thing. You don't need to smash it with a foam roll, and it's supposed to be tight.
[00:00:40] Hey there, and welcome. I'm Anna Hartman and this is Unreal Results, a podcast where I help you get better outcomes and gain the confidence that you can help anyone. Even the most complex cases. Join me as I teach about the influence of the visceral organs and the nervous system on movement, [00:01:00] pain and injuries, all while shifting the paradigm of what whole body assessment and treatment really looks like.
[00:01:07] I'm glad you're here. Let's dive in.
[00:01:12] Hello. Hello. Welcome back to another episode of the Unreal Results Podcast. Today we're filming in morning light, which is a little different. Um, it is what it is. Gotta get it in. I'm headed up to Northern California to help my sister, uh, take care of my youngest niece while they're on a little trip with my middle school niece on a service trip.
[00:01:37] And, um, Yeah, so I'm trying to get this in before I have to do stay-at-home mom duties and not have any free time to do stuff. Um, the podcast today actually was inspired by, um, this past weekend I was teaching anatomy to a group [00:02:00] of yoga teacher training, 200 hour yoga teacher training students at Yoga one San Diego.
[00:02:07] So I teach their anatomy portion of their teacher training and. Uh, the way I teach anatomy is actually like super experiential, like feeling it in their body, feeling it, um, in action so they can have a better idea of how to utilize knowledge of anatomy to improve the movement experience for their students and themselves.
[00:02:29] So less about like, memorizing names of muscles and bones and ligaments and things like that, but actually knowing where things are and in their body and feeling it, seeing it. Skeleton and feeling it in their body and then seeing how it applies in the different yoga poses and things like that. So, um, one of, I don't even remember like how it came up, but of course one of the questions from one of the participants was, um, [00:03:00] it was, oh, about the IT band and like specifically foam rolling the IT band, and I was like, Yeah, let's not do that.
[00:03:11] Um, I'm a, I'm a very firm like no on that. So yeah. So I'm very firm no on film rolling in the IT event. So then I explained to them why, and um, I thought, you know what, this is probably a great episode for podcast. And so that's what we're gonna be talking about today. We're gonna be talking about the old IT band, and if you are.
[00:03:38] Foam rolling it or telling your patients and clients foam roll it. Maybe this knowledge will help you change your mind. Um, so inevitably, well this, this is interesting too because this whole conversation about why one should not foam roll, the it [00:04:00] bend goes it, it is like twofold. It's one like understanding the anatomy a little bit better, and then it's also debunking.
[00:04:08] Myths about how the body functions. And then it's also fundamentally a bigger story about outsourcing your, um, trust in your own body, like outsourcing. Um, Outsourcing your trust in your body. What I mean by that is like not having autonomy and believing the quote unquote experts over yourself and the messages your body is giving you, um, about what you're doing to it.
[00:04:43] Right? So, um, because when you think about it, um, When you think about it, your body, when you're foam rolling in, the IT band is like constantly telling you, you probably shouldn't be doing that. It is an extremely [00:05:00]uncomfortable experience, um, by design, but yet we believe there's. Two things. One, we believe the people who told us to do it, whether it was an actual human in front of us that told us to do it or something we read on the internet or watch on the internet or just like sort of passed down from person to person.
[00:05:22] Um, we were once told that the expert says that your IT band was tight and you should roll it out, and that will help knee pain or hip pain, or just general squat mobility or whatever it may be. Um, and then it's a little leftover as well from this old school thought process of no pain, no gain, and, um, no pain, no gain.
[00:05:49] That's just not, this is just like a very archaic way of thinking. So we definitely need to throw that out in general. Um, we talk a lot about, on [00:06:00] this podcast and I talk a lot about on Instagram and the YouTube videos is. We're wired for survival and, um, pain is usually associated with a threat. Um, and so from a nervous system standpoint, if things are painful all the time, you're never quite shifting into the rest.
[00:06:23] Recovery, restoration, regeneration side of your nervous system and actually tap being able to tap into the body's ability to heal itself and also maximizing your mobility, stability and performance that is all accessed when we have a balanced autonomic nervous system and can access our parasympathetic side.
[00:06:41] So if everything you're doing to the body, especially in. Label of rehab or maintenance care or like regeneration, like things that are supposed to be, you're supposed to be doing, designed to help you feel better if you do them with the intention of always [00:07:00] eliciting pain. You're giving a mixed message to the nervous system, um, that is just not the mode of the nervous system that we need to be in.
[00:07:10] If we're trying to, he tap into our body's ability to heal itself and fully rest and recover and like, get over the hump of like, um, training, aches and pains or injuries. So, and then also the bigger picture is this, and this is what I'm like so big about preaching, is I always tell people that I need you to trust your body more than anything.
[00:07:40] And that includes me, like, don't trust. Don't trust what I say because I am supposedly the expert. I want you to feel it for yourself and believe it for yourself. This is like this weekend why it's so important to teach, um, in an [00:08:00] experiential sort of way. Experiential sort of way is because I don't want you to believe me about like where the hip joint is or, um, That the getting the fibula to move is important, or rib mobility and expansion through the thorax is like the, the, the secret sauce to connecting into your core and giving your upper extremity like a solid base to move from.
[00:08:31] Right? I don't want you to believe me because I said so. I want you to believe me because you also felt it in your body, and your body felt. Was a positive movement experience and it just felt really connected. Right? So I am a big believer of like giving people back their autonomy and giving people back permission to trust their own wisdom of their body.
[00:08:57] That we, our bodies are [00:09:00] so intelligent, self-developing, self-healing. Intrinsically interconnected, intelligent cellular organisms. And so we need to lean into that more than we lean, need to lean into, um, the, uh, professionals in the industry because frankly, the industry has gotten it wrong for a really long time.
[00:09:23] Um, so that's sort of the overarching thing, because specifically in the IT van, Every single person you ask if they've rolled their IT band and what the experience was like, they'll say it was super painful. And they're like, everybody's like, oh yeah, oh you do, you're an athletic trainer. Um, man, I hate rolling out my IT band.
[00:09:47] It's so painful. And I'm like, yeah, stop doing it. Why would you do that? Why are you inflicting pain on yourself? But then the answer usually is, well, I heard that's what you're supposed to do. It's [00:10:00] really good for you. And I'm like, Hmm, yeah, it's not good for you. The reason why it's so painful is by design because.
[00:10:10] In the, well two folds. One within the fascia of the IT band. This is a very dense, connective tissue fascia that's very superficial. The fascia has like, So many sensory nerve endings in it, and it is constantly sensing where we are in space and, um, giving feedback to spinal cord and the brain. And so you essentially are giving it all this information that is like, Not happy because two, the IT band, when you look at how it's designed, it's not designed to withstand compression.
[00:10:55] It's designed to withstand, um, tension and [00:11:00] like longitudinal compression from gravity, not like a two by four on your thigh. So, um, the other thing, In addition to those sensory nerve endings that are within the fascia itself, the IT band also has, um, Throughout it, throughout the length of the it bend are perforating branches of one of our main cutaneous nerves of our thigh.
[00:11:31] Uh, it is the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve. And in fact, when you ask people what the most tender spots are on their it bend, when they roll 'em, they point to exactly the location of where these. Branch of the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve, perforate the um, fascia and come towards the skin to innovate the, the skin.
[00:11:56] It's a cutaneous nerve. And so, [00:12:00] um, when you're rolling on those, you're essentially smashing the, um, those branches of the cutaneous nerve, which doesn't feel. Those are threatening messages. Those are no susceptive messages of compression of a nerve. And um, so it's never gonna feel good no matter how much you roll it.
[00:12:22] And so then the next question that people usually give me is like, well, but why is it feel so tight? And this is, this is was the funny conversation in the weekend that I was like, listen, as smart as our nervous system. When it's under attack like this, or just when it's not happy, right. When a nerves being entrapped or compressed, a peripheral nerves being entrapped or compressed the majority, or over lengthened the majority of the experience we feel in our brain, right?
[00:12:57] The, the way we understand this [00:13:00] sensation is the only way can we describe it is it feels tight. The word tight in describing things as tight is pretty worthless. I basically ex, I basically explained it like, it's like your IT band is like Groot from guardians of the galaxy. You know how Groot is like, you know, big and tough and strong and um, but cannot communicate.
[00:13:33] Groot can only say one thing. All he says is I'M Groot right? And that is exactly what the IT band does. All those nerves can really ever say is, I'm tight. And so you roll them and you piss them off, and then they're like, I'm tight, I'm tight. I'm tight. That's the only message they're ever sending to you.
[00:13:54] And so what happens when you're rolling on them? Sometimes that message that them yelling at you that [00:14:00] they're tight, all right? They're saying like, I am Groot. I'm Groot. You roll them. It's essentially like beating them up. And when you beat the shit out of somebody, Oftentimes they become unconscious, right?
[00:14:13] That's sort of what happens. You beat the shit out of the IT band and instead of yelling at you that it's tight, it just stops yelling at you. And so you have this, um, sort of analgesic effect of like, oh, I feel better. And, but then the next day you wake up, the IT band comes too, and then it's like really yelling at you.
[00:14:34] And guess what? It says, I'm tight, I'm tight, I'm. It's telling you the same message because that's the only message it knows how to relay. So don't believe the message that I'm tight because it's, it's like group. I'm group, I'm group. So, um, anyways, kind of a funny way to explain it. But that's exactly what happening.
[00:14:58] What's happening and, and [00:15:00] also even if the message I'm tight was an accurate one, it's supposed to be. Believe me, you do not want your IT band to not be tight. You would not be able to stand up. You would literally fall down as a result of gravity pressing down on you without having a really tight tensional structure of our fascia to help hold our legs up.
[00:15:30] We need it to be tight. If you look at the anatomy of the IT band, the collagen, Fibers that are aligned in vertical on the it bend are so strong. The capacity to withstand tensile force of the it bend is ridiculously strong. We're talking about thousands and thousands of pounds of strength in and, um, no foam roll's gonna [00:16:00] change that.
[00:16:00] No stretch is gonna change. Because it's designed to withstand those forces of tension, right? And we want that. Now you also have fibers of collagen on the, uh, different type of collagen on the IT band that go horizontal to the ground and basically invest in the rest of the factual container of the thigh.
[00:16:28] College and structures, they're designed to stretch. They're more flexible collage. And they have to stretch to allow for a change in shape of the cylinder when your quad and hamstrings and adductors contract. So there is stretch that goes circumferentially around the IT band from the IT band, but not in attention standpoint.
[00:16:51] So if you're feeling like your IT pan is tight, meaning you're bringing your. Towards the midline in hip A deduction. [00:17:00] It's not the IT band that's limiting you, it's other structures. Either it could be the TFL, which connects into the IT band, the glute medias, or minimus. Right connects into the IT band, the glute max connects into the IT band.
[00:17:18] Could be the lateral quad, or it could be the lateral hamstring, or which I think it is most of the time. Um, it's usually, in my experience, most of the time a combination between, um, the pure forus and the tfl that is limiting range of motion into hip, a deduct. Um, at zero degrees of hip extension, meaning with your legs straight, like long axis hip, a deduction, it's almost always the pure forus because the pure forus at that degree of hip flexin, which is zero long axis, is our primary hip ab doctor [00:18:00] and external.
[00:18:03] All right. This is a very important part of the way our gate works, is this action of the pure forus in a closed chain position. I know often we think of the pure forus as just a rotator, and often like we stretch it in 90 degrees of hip flex. It has a completely different function than when, when it's mean function during walking.
[00:18:26] And so it's gonna limit our hip abduction, our A deduction, quite a. And so, um, focusing treatment or focusing a stretch on the pure performance can often get us that leg to midline mobility we're looking for with the IT bed. The other one would be the tfl. And the tfl interesting enough is innervated by the same nerve that innovates the pure performance, which is the superior gluteal nerve.
[00:18:54] So oftentimes both of those are tight together, not because. Of any other [00:19:00] issue, but the nerve that goes to them gets entrapped. So sometimes if you take a step back and can treat the superior gluteal nerve with whatever treatment you want, can be hands on, can be a cup, can be a needle, can be a a, a movement pattern, like a nerve glide.
[00:19:16] You're gonna get. The pure forus to change in length and the TFL to change in length, and all of a sudden your leg is gonna go way more into HIP a deduction. Now the other thing that I notice is at higher levels of hip flexion, Um, the majority of the tension, at least in my athletes, comes from glute max.
[00:19:35] Glute max, glute max goes into the IT band. The IT band is like the tendon to the glute max. So that muscle can get really tight, especially my athletes who are always doing a ton of, um, sprinting acceleration work and squatting and all the glute things. And so that can be a primary limiter of the range of motion too, not the actual IT band.
[00:19:56] The IT band is not designed to stretch. So you can [00:20:00] see a great video of this, um, the, the Anatomy of the IT band in these college and structures, um, on YouTube from Gil Headley. I'll link it in the show notes because it's so cool to see, because once you can see the architecture of the tendon of the IT band, excuse me, of the fascia, you could begin to understand why it's not supposed.
[00:20:26] Not be tight. It's supposed to be tight by design. So whether or not that is even a clear message coming from it or not that it's tight, it's, it's okay. It's supposed to be. Um, so definitely check that out and I'll provide you some, um, In the show notes too, I'm gonna link the superior gluteal nerve glide, um, because that's gonna help pure forus and tfl.
[00:20:54] And then I'll also link the, um, a nerve glide to the lateral femoral [00:21:00] cutaneous nerve. So sometimes this tight sensation not only can be from smashing the lateral femoral cutaneous branches with the foam roller rolling your quad. Or sorry, your IT band out, but sometimes this message of tightness on the outside of our thigh, there can actually be, because the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve is getting entrapped somewhere along its line as it comes from the spine.
[00:21:26] Around the, uh, posterior abdominal wall, top of the iliac crest, and then it actually comes through a little ligamentous canal right by the tfl, um, and it band there. And sometimes it gets entrapped right there. And then you have sensations, sometimes numbness on the side of your leg. But oftentimes when a nerve's entrapped instead of being completely numb, it just is, feels tight on the side of, again, it's grouped, it's all, all it.
[00:21:53] I'm tight. And so, um, that's a really great thing to try too, is a lateral [00:22:00] femoral cutaneous nerve glide. It looks a lot like a traditional quote unquote it band stretch, but the intention is different and intention matters. We're not trying to stretch the thing that's supposed to be tight. We're stretch.
[00:22:17] Or gliding the nerve at a very specific spot where it sometimes doesn't glide very well. And then with that said, does that mean, you know, also I don't want you to finish this podcast and think like, oh, Anna is against self-massage. That's not it at all. I'm 100% pro self-massage. It's super helpful, um, to rehydrate some of the fascial tissues and just, um, work on some of her muscles.
[00:22:47] Again, you have to know the anatomy and be smart about it, and a hard tool on the IT band, which is what a foam roll is. Especially nowadays, most foam rolls are so hard, um, that's not the [00:23:00] right spot and it's not the right tool, um, most of the time. Um, a. Foam roll like that. There's not a whole lot of spots that I would recommend it.
[00:23:12] I, the only reason I use a hard foam roll is actually as a prop for exercises or just to lift a body part up. Uh, I'm not using it as a self-massage tool at all because if you look at the research and you. Experience it, the softer balls. So the softer stress transfer medium it's called actually can get deeper into the tissues and do a better job of creating, um, a.
[00:23:42] Or facilitating rehydration of the tissues through shearing of the fascia. It's this shearing, this being able to be in the fascia and sort of shearing it that, uh, that actually stimulates the hyaluronic acid in it to, um, [00:24:00] improve the fascial hydration because the hyaluronic brings water to the area and.
[00:24:07] Having the right tool and then using it in the right spot is important. So can you roll something on the IT band area? Yes. Could it be helpful for the structures beneath that superficial band? Absolutely. As a, and it's also very important to get the area underneath the IT band and the edges of the IT band to, to have good hydration so it slides and glides on on each other, but it's a different tool, a softer.
[00:24:37] With, you know, um, more intention is important, and then also realizing that when you have a really intense area of the IT band, you're probably right on one of those deep perforating branches of the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve. And don't have the massage ball or person's hand, thumb elbow right in that spot.
[00:24:59] Just move to [00:25:00] the side of it and you're gonna have a better experience because you're not beating the shit out of the. So hopefully this was helpful. Definitely check out all the links in the show notes and know that just because you're getting the message of tightness doesn't mean something's tight and it needs to be smashed or stretched.
[00:25:20] Understanding the anatomy allows us to have. A better intention in a more skilled or precise and specific way to make changes in range of motion into hip a deduction. If that's what you need and want, but don't do it because you think it's needs to be done or it's the thing to do, or you're tight. So, so the best way to make your IT band feel better for almost everyone is just stop foam rolling it.
[00:25:53] Let it. And move, move your body. Stop foam rolling. Stop beating the shit out of it. [00:26:00] And that's it. Um, that's all I got from you, uh, back to like an actual short episode. So thank you for joining me. I'll see you next time.
[00:26:13]
