Coming off knee/back injury...IT band help

[Aaron Stahl]

Hi all, looking forward to the program.  On day 3 of fundamentals.   Anyway, a little background.  I recently committed myself to becoming more flexible. (my failed New Years goal 2 years ago was to touch my toes ha, if that tells you anything).  I'm in decent shape, run a lot, mountain bike, former crossfitter, but not super flexible.  

I tried some self guided yoga a couple months ago and managed to sprain my ACL.  Guess I got a little too aggressive with it.  In coming off that knee injury my IT band is now crazy tight.  To the point I can't do the equivalent of a leg kick unless I work it out for a while.  I've tried some deep tissue massage but I was hoping some people on here might have some ideas.  

Also, my back goes in and out of 'tweaked' every couple weeks.  Power cleaning did me in about 8 months ago.  Feels relatively healed but still twinges quite often.

So my questions are:

1.  Any specific movements to help loosen up the IT band?  

2.  During the early stages of the fundamentals program are there any other stretches/exercises I should be doing specific to a recovering knee and tweaked back?   

Appreciate any insight.  Thanks!

Edited July 7, 2016 by Aaron Stahl

[Aaron Stahl]

Just wanted to bump this back up.  Youtube's full of ideas but figure thoughts on here are better.

On day 9 now of the program.   Overall feeling great, can damn near touch the toes.  But the IT band and back of knee are still feeling pretty rough.   Actually feels worse for a couple days after a good hamstring stretch.  Then settles back in to just kind of shitty until I do it again.   I can run and bike ride with no real issues.  Odd movements, full extension (kicking), standing up after sitting for a while, etc are where I really feel it and pain touches a 9.0 out of 10. 

Any thoughts would be great.  Thanks!

[Michael George 192636]

Hang in there.

Remember, "he who treats the site of pain is lost." This gymnastic bodies training will get to the spots that need attention to resolve our issues. Wishing you the best.

 

[Jeremy Aldridge]

 I had back surgery 5 years ago so I know where you are coming from on the back pain. As a former crossfitter myself, I also have a bunch of tweaked issues that really didn't stem from crossfit but from my lack of flexibility. While doing crossfit I was constantly doing mobility work and getting no where. Just as fast as I would loosed everything up, I would break all back down again. And the main problem with that is the fact that I had to muscle everything up rather than using proper ROM. So I decided I was sick of injuring myself and decided to give GST a try and nothing else. I am not doing any additional lifting, running, or anything that would be counter productive to what I am trying to accomplish. Once I get full ROM then I may play with light weights but honestly I enjoy what I am doing and I love not walking around always aching. After about 6 months is when I really started to feel like I was getting somewhere with this whole mobility thing and it feels great. I will tell you that it is a MUCH slower process than building strength but stick with it, you will be so glad you did. After a few months you will feel your joints start to strengthen and a lot of the pains you feel now will begin to subside.

[Douglas Wadle]

As people are saying, the key is to go slow but steady, and you'll find a lot of the GST progressions and iM's will help your back and IT band.  I do think when there is a specific area identified as weak it is good to redouble ones efforts there, however; so if you know your IT band is tight and inflamed, then do some focused mobility there.  More than any other body site (in my opinion), the IT band responds awesomely to foam rolling.  In fact it is the only place I actually use a foam roller.  It is painful, but oftentimes the problem is all your tissues being stuck together, and rolling them out will stretch out the cord of tissue and break up fibrous (scar) tissues that are holding it in place.  Then remember this is a bandaid, and if you do not work on knee mobility and strength and proper single leg squat progressions, it will recur in the future.  Good luck!

[Elizabeth Snow]

I've started having worsening IT band pain on one side since starting GB.    Sometimes my psoas is tight and may be the origin of the pain.  Rolling on top of a tennis ball on my stomach over the tight psoas can help.  But I've had worse pain on the IT band recently and the psoas doesn't seem as tight now.   I tried rolling it with a MobilityWOD Supernova ball.   It is very intense, but I don't feel the IT band released.   I don't know if this pain is due to increased mobility and a feeling of instability with the increased ROM.   Any other suggestions besides the foam roller?

[Pauline Taube]

Hi Elizabeth,

Sorry to hear about your IT band pain. It's very hard to give any specific advices behind a monitor. I highly recommend to consult with a physio or other medical professional in order to get an assessment and maybe some body work.

Please keep us posted with the results!

[Suzanna McGee]

Elizabeth, just what Pauline said… but also check if your gluteus medius on that bad-IT-band side is maybe really weak, or not engaging? It happens often to my tennis players students—when the glute med stops engaging, the IT band takes the load and gets overused/tight… but a good physio will figure it out for you.