Audience: Patients and therapists
Purpose: A brief argument on why attempting to lengthen your IT Band with stretching or foam rolling is a waste of time and not possible.
Warning: I recently changed the title on this post (formerly Stop foam rolling your IT Band. It can not lengthen and it is NOT tight.) because a few colleagues have suggested that it is a bit strong. I agree and also think that such hyperbole will decrease a healthy discussion in the area. I don’t want that.
However, I have not changed the rest of the content and again recognize that some of it is a bit salty. Much of it is how I talk to myself and entertain myself. When reading this please just consider the arguments and not HOW they written. I never expected 40,000 people to read this thing.
Please note, I have always been open to the idea that foam rolling might have an influence on our nervous system and ultimately pain. My doubts have been around what many people say foam rolling does which I always found biological not possible. This post explores those ideas.
Original Post -
I am in the minority when I cringe at the rampant unjustified use of the ubiquitous, seemingly harmless but actually evil foam roller for IT Bands. I’ve seen their use climb in the past 5 years and I am sure that my success rate at convincing my patients to not roll the crap out of their IT Bands is less than 10%. Those rollers are WINNING. Perhaps this post will sway the voters. (more…)