250 Responses “The best damn IT band stretch ever” →

250 Responses “The best damn IT band stretch ever” →

Hi Brian,

I have a problem that I think my physio has glossed over in her prescribed rehab routine.

I’m 28 male, never had any knee pain before what I describe below happened… also work a desk job and have done next to no exercise the last 4 – 5 years.

About 8 months ago I needed to replace my bed and bought one that was extra firm… way too firm in fact. I was waking up in the middle of the night with pain in the pressure point where my hip is in contact with the bed (the upper IT band / TFL runs right across here). I would roll over to the other side to get back to sleep only to wake up a few hours later with the same problem on the other side, so both sides were affected.

The pain went away when I got out of bed but after about a couple of months of trying to put up with this bed my knees started to hurt…. classic patellofemoral pain symptoms.

This scared me, I looked online and figured out pretty quickly that IT band problems can cause this sort of knee pain and instantly put 2 and 2 together and suspected the bed was injuring the upper IT band / TFL region and causing the knee pain.

I sold that bed and bought a good bed that doesn’t cause that problem…. however 6 months has passed since then and the knee pain is still there.

The new bed does not aggravate those 2 points at all but if I poke around in those areas they are still tender 6 months after I removed the cause (the hard bed).

I went to a physio a few weeks ago and she confirmed patellofemoral pain syndrome and prescribed the typical stretches and strengthening exercises:

Stretches: Hip flexors, abductors, hamstrings, IT band, glutes —- the IT band stretch she prescribed was the standing legs crossed over lean to one side one. I can not feel any stretch at all with this stretch (it is doing zero).

Strengthening exercises: Straight leg raises in all 4 directions (I strap ankle weights to the leg to increase resistance), quad sets.

I just feel that the bed / upper IT band problem I have is the cause of the knee pain. It’s way too much of a coincidence that the knee pain started at the same time as I was dealing with that bed…. and i’ve never had any sort of knee pain at all in my life whatsoever before that.

The above routine prescribed by my physio is doing zero for my IT band as the stretch is ineffective.

How do you think I should adjust the above routine prescribed by my physio?

Thanks so much for reading this and for any help you can give me.

Much appreciated.

Regards

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