Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve had a few calls with a few people who’ve been experiencing IT band pain.
Now this can present differently in different people.
Sometimes, it feels like an unbearable tightness in the side of the hip that radiates down the side of the leg.
More often, it’s a pain on the outside of the knee that kinda wraps down and under the kneecap.
And it tends to show up a couple miles (or more) into a run, maybe earlier if there’s a substantial amount of downhill.
It’s a very common problem, so much so that over half of the calls I had in relation to my workshop had at least something to do with IT band pain.
And typically the cause is fairly simple…
A lack of lateral hip stability.
When you’re experiencing pain related to your IT band, it usually means your knee is creeping in towards your center line on your runs.
This puts the IT band in a slightly lengthened position, which means it’s often going to end up rubbing on part of your shin bone, which is why you end up with knee pain.
It’s also a good indicator of the muscles on the side of the hip trying to do more work than they’re able to achieve, so that’s why you get soreness in the side of your hip.
So how do you fix it?
Make certain muscles stronger so your hip is more stable and your knee doesn’t cave.
Fairly simple.
Not necessarily easy.
When most people talk about exercises for IT band pain, they tend to spend a lot of time recommending various types of clamshells and banded lateral walks.
Which are fine…
But if you’ve ever heard me talk, you’ll also probably guess what I’m going to say.
If you’re strong enough to run a couple miles, then you’re probably too strong for a rubber band to provide any real stimulus.
So while those exercises can be great for reminding your muscles that they need to do their job, they’re not going to do a lot when it comes to actually building muscle mass and making you stronger.
Which is probably what you need if you’re a runner with IT band issues.
So instead of (or in addition to) spending a couple minutes per day with a rubber band around your knees, it’s also probably a good idea to pick up some heavy weights and make muscles stronger.
Here are three exercises I really like to help improve strength in your lateral hip.
A lot of gyms have these. Mine does not. That’s why I don’t have a video of me demonstrating it.
Pros: Easy to use and pretty much guaranteed to target the right muscles.
Cons: Bilateral, so if you have a side-to-side imbalance (which is pretty normal for IT band problems), it might not to solve that.
I program these for a lot of people as they’re fairly simple to set up and you can even do them with a band.
Pros: Easy to set up and easy to target the right muscles with minimal effort.
Cons: Easy to cheat by leaning sideways and tilting your pelvis.
3 – Single-Leg Romanian Deadlifts
I particularly like this cross-loaded, hand-supported version as it allows you to really focus on your pelvic position.
Pros: All you need is a heavy dumbbell.
Cons: Easy to cheat by not keeping your pelvis flat and as you get stronger, you might need to buy a set of wrist straps.
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Any exercise that really targets the sides of your glutes is probably going to do some good when it comes to improving IT band pain, but those three have delivered some of the best results for me and the people I coach.
Now, as with all strength training, these movements have to be difficult.
You can’t just pick up a weight that you could do for sets of 30, do 15 reps, and expect to get stronger.
You actually have to push strength work pretty close to failure in order to see results.
And unless you’ve actually taken an exercise to true failure… there’s a high chance you’re going to underload things.
So if you have IT band pain…
You probably just need to make the side of your butt stronger.
And doing that just takes a good amount of consistent, somewhat difficult work.
If that makes sense and you have specific questions on what that might look like for you, then I’d be happy to chat.
CLICK HERE to book some time on my calendar.