Running is such an excellent form of exercise to get your body moving, get your blood pumping, and get those endorphins rushing through the body. The challenge to increase your distance and push your body can be rewarding and inspiring, until all of a sudden you start to feel nagging pain at the outside of your knee or hip. 

You initially seek care from “Dr. Google” about your symptoms and narrowed down your symptoms to potentially be ITB syndrome? Are you foam rolling like crazy and not seeing any improvement? Now what? 

Let’s start from the beginning. What even is the ITB and what can you do to manage your symptoms to continue your training plan? 

The Iliotibial Band (ITB) is a thick band of fibrous tissue that originates from a muscle located at the front of the hip called the tensor fascia latae (TFL) and the largest muscle of your hip musculature (gluteus maximus) and goes all the way down the side of the lower leg and outside of the knee. 

There isn’t one thing that can cause symptoms of pain in the ITB region. Common contributing factors leading to ITB syndrome can include these individually or as a combination:

• Poor training or overtraining
• Poor footwear
• Anatomical factors
• Muscle inflexibility 
• Muscle weakness 

As you can see, addressing this takes more than a cookie cutter approach and usually involves multiple areas of the body. Below we’ve narrowed it down to 3 main categories: hip mobility, core strength, and hip strength to get you back on track, reduce and resolve your symptoms, and moving forward with your your exercise routine. 

Hip mobility

90/90 Hip Mobility

Couch Stretch 

High Lunge with Rotation 

Core strength 

Plank with alternating hip extension

Bridge Hold

Side plank with hip abduction

Hip Strength

Clamshells

Lateral Lunges 

Wall-bangers

 Don’t just sit back and let your symptoms limit your training. We encourage you to take action to resolve your symptoms and begin your journey toward restoring movement, function, and reducing symptoms of pain. If you are looking for further guidance or one on one exercise programming, please contact us to learn more about what our performance specialists at Inside Out Strength and Performance can do to help you reach your goals and live strong and confident in the life you live.

Most people don’t know how to stay healthy and fit without getting hurt. At Inside Out Strength and Performance we provide a clear plan to get you in the best shape of your life, without getting injured, so that you can be active and confident that you’ll feel your best for years to come.

We help North County San Diego’s active adults and runners dealing with pain or injury get back to living a pain-free, strong, and confident life.

We are the Strength Docs who help active adults and runners live a strong, confident, and pain-free life. Fill out our contact form here to get a clear plan and get started.