Pain Running Down The Outside Of Your Leg?

IT Band Syndrome

Ever had a pain stretching down the length of your upper leg, from hip to knee? This is something commonly referred to as IT band syndrome and is often exhibited in runners, but not exclusively so. It can commonly be accompanied by swelling on the outside of the knee.

Foot mechanics, repetitive stress and hip instability tend to be the main contributing factors in ‘IT band syndrome’ with hip instability being top of the list in my experience. 

Interesting Case Study

Whilst hip instability may well be a huge factor in ‘IT band syndrome’ you always want to ask why your hip might be unstable. A few years ago I was working together with a lady who presented with IT band syndrome, no matter how much direct work she did to create pelvic stability, she failed.

She’d had a history of cranial traumas and wherever she was in space (stood, sat, and laid down) her head would tilt. After testing her eye muscles and addressing the faulty information the muscles around the eyes were feeding back to the brain her head tilt disappeared and her ability to work through our pelvic stability sequence was vastly improved.

In the seven years I have worked in clinic I have seen this happen twice, where the eyes are misleading the body, creating instability. While rare it is a fascinating reminder that there are 7 billion of us all with different thoughts, traumas and experiences. No two hip pains are the same and therefore no two solutions are exactly the same.

Where To Start Building Pelvic Stability

Undoubtedly the best exercise and one of my all-time favourites are lower body rolling patterns. These teach you to control powerful movers including your bum muscles, the big muscular drivers that all too often aren’t as powerful as they could be.

The reason I love rolling patterns so much is that they really force you into discovering your weaknesses but can often easily be improved. Most people find them very difficult to begin with but after some consistent practice can really begin to generate power from their pelvic muscles, giving them a great base to build upon.

If you cannot control movement when laid down in a non-threatening environment, then you’re 100% compensating when standing. Follow the link and learn to control pelvic movement starting from the ground up –