What’s up folks! Patrick Lerouge here from Evolve Restorative Therapy. You can find me at livepainfreeprocess.com. Today we are going to be talking about a big mistake I see many people doing. Many people ask why foam rolling your IT band hurts so much. Foam rolling your IT band first hurts all the time. This is mainly because it is doing its job.

It is mainly composed of fascia that is widespread and additionally serves as a reactive device, because it is attached to your quads, hamstrings, and glutes. It has so many functions that if you don’t clear those attached areas first, the IT band will hurt. In Eastern philosophy, an organ similarly designed to keep you compressed, is the gall bladder meridian. The more times you try to expand, the more things will fall apart. The smart thing to do is to clean up the areas around the IT band first. The IT band can cause issues in the knee, the hip, or the quads and can even cause back pain since it’s always pulling on a muscle. This is why many people go after the IT band first. Yet, this is a bad thing to do up front. Everything needs to be worked on, yet you need to be systematic about it. Work with the other areas around it, before you go for the IT band. So let me show you what areas you have to work with first.

The IT band is the fascial sheath that runs all the way from the top of the hip to the knee. Yet if you look at the muscle groups of your lower body, you will notice the glute covers a majority of the IT band.   If you don’t get the glute to stop pulling on the IT band all the time, you’re never going to be able to clean up the IT band on the posterior side. That’s just one of the muscles attached to the band. You also have your hamstring and quad pulling at it. You have to slow that down before can you ever get the IT band to stop reacting.   To start becoming more functional, you have to stop the band from reacting. This is very important. Start realizing that you can’t just work on your IT band without a proper strategy beforehand. Be present to what you are doing and ask yourself, is this working or is it not working? If you enjoyed this tip, share it. I love the responses I’m getting and that people are starting to ask questions. Thank you very much and if you send your email, I can drop all this information into your inbox. See you next time! Bye.