JEFF: What's up, guys? Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX.com. Today I want to help you get rid of IT band
problems and pain forever. Not just for a short period of time. Iâm talking about for the rest of your life. Itâs possible. If we go at the real root cause of what the
problem is. So, I really donât need an introduction
to IT band syndrome because if you have it, you know it. Youâve been Googling it; youâve been finding
out. Itâs when you get that pain on the outside
of the knee. That can run all the way up the side of your
leg. I conveniently wear these pants just for this
video. I never wear these pants, ever before. You get a chance to see the IT band in action. Following those stripes. You guys know that was sarcastic, right? The following the stripes here of the knee,
all the way up to the hip. If you get any kind of pain, especially when
you press out there, or when youâre foam rolling â youâre not foam rolling, right? Because for this problem, foam rolling is
banned. Youâre not allowed to foam roll this because
all youâre going to do â I made a whole video about this before. You can see some of it here. Foam rolling is just making this worse. Youâre enflaming an already enflamed tissue. Youâre picking on a tissue that had nothing
to do with this in the first place. You need to get to the root cause. What I did in that video, if you havenât
seen it, I showed you how to attack a muscle called the TFL. Which is right here. You can see this TFL feeds down into that
IT band. The IT band itself is just a tendinous structure. Itâs just being impacted by the muscles
that we can have an influence over, that attach into it. And itâs not just the TFL, but this one
over here, too. That is the glute medias. You can see how they feed into the white portion
here â the tendon structure, which is the IT band. We know if we can go after this, we can start
to relieve some of the tension thatâs being placed here, down at the knee, and along the
whole band itself. We know if this muscle up here is tight and
pulling, if itâs attached somewhere else, weâre going to get tension down there, too. Up here weâre pulling, and down here where
itâs attached. So, we can influence that. That whole video is a must watch, if you havenât
watched it, on the right way to change the composition of the muscle thatâs up here
and overactive. But we want to get to the root cause of whatâs
happening here, to permanently make sure this goes away forever. You have to understand, this other muscle
is really whatâs happening. This is the problem. Both of them feed down, in. One feeds down here vertically, if you follow
the fibers. Thatâs what we always talk about. Then the glute medias is feeding into it this
way at a different orientation. If you look at the combined effect of these
muscles and the tension that they can apply to this common band, we need to have contributions
from both. We need to stop this from being so overactive
and get this to stop being so underactive because that will guarantee your glute medias
is incredibly weak. I made a whole video about it being the weakest
muscle in every personâs body. Iâm going to give you a couple tests in
this video to show you that you can determine your own strength there â mostly weakness
â and then a couple of things to do to really fix it very quickly. For the sake of why weâre doing this, when
this is weak and unopposed, you allow this downward force to dominate. So, all this force from this muscle here that
tightens, is pulling straight up on here, which is going to cause the most pain and
discomfort down here along the whole band. If we can offset some of that by having more
of this counterbalance from behind, weâre going to disperse those forces, taking all
the strain off the IT band itself, and get this thing going forever. Iâm going to bring Jesse in at this point
to test those weak-ass â I guess âassâ, really â glute medias of his and show you
guys how to test yours, and then give you those exact drills, and a couple of maintenance
stretches to do to make sure it never comes back again. Now weâre- JESSE: Whoa. Arenât you going to introduce me? JEFF: You need an introduction after all this
time? JESSE: I mean, I think it would be nice if
you introduced me anytime I come on this whole deal. JEFF: How about, I let you do it when we edit
the video? JESSE: All right. Thatâs fair. JEFF: All right. Can I proceed? JESSE: Please. JEFF: Thanks. All right, guys. Back to what I was saying. Now, with Jesse on the ground here, I want
to show you a test that you can do for yourself that will likely reveal a humongous weakness
in this glute medias. This is whatâs causing â remember, the
root cause of your TFL problems are not anywhere here and down here. Theyâre way up here in the hip, and on the
back side because weâre not getting that counterbalance. Hereâs what you do. Jesse, lie on your side. So, what I want you guys to do is stack your
hips. Make sure youâre not rolled back one over
here, or one too far forward. You stack one, right on top of each other. The legs are stacked on top of each other. Now, youâre going to lift this leg up into
adduction, which is toward the sky. Youâre going to do so with the hip backward
from that midline. So, youâre not just lifting straight up
off that other knee. Itâs up, and then back, and youâre leaving
it right here. Do you feel that right here? JESSE: Yeah. JEFF: You should be able to feel it right
here, in this spot. Right on the back side in that glute medias. Hold it there. I let go and he already started dropping because
he doesnât really have that strength. But there are two tests to do here. If you have somebody nearby, the first thing
they can do is stabilize right here and just push to see how much resistance you can take,
if you really canât take much. Or you just try to hold it there. I want to see if you can hold it for 60 seconds. How you doinâ? JESSE: It hurts. JEFF: It hurts? Do you think youâre going to make it? JESSE: No. JEFF: So, this is a very easy drill here. Youâre just lifting and holding, but a lot
of you wonât be able to do that and hold it for 60 seconds. Or you certainly wonât have the strength
to be able to withstand any kind of downward force. JESSE: Right. JEFF: The next thing we want to do is try
to strengthen that. So, how do we do it? JESSE: You tell them. JEFF: The same way we just did it. The same thing becomes an exercise. Itâs so simple. Itâs not remedial. Iâve mentioned it before, the âJane Fondaâ
exercise, side leg lift. This is incredibly helpful here. This helps with low back pain as well, to
prevent that from coming back. So, get back into position, stack everything,
and now you have to go slow and deliberate. So, make sure you go straight down to the
ground. Flat down. All right. There you go. Now what you want to do is lift straight up,
slow, control it, squeeze through here, bring it back at the same time. Thatâs where youâre going to start and
end, okay? Youâre going straight down, and then up,
and back. Right there. Squeeze it. Is that â right. Okay, go down. And up. Right there. And squeeze it. So, every one deliberate, every one squeezed,
every one with a purpose. Iâm telling you; youâll be lucky if you
get 10 or 12 good repetitions here. But it showcases just how weak this muscle
is. Once you start to finally address it, youâre
going to be amazed at how much more effective it is for getting rid of this pain. A couple of other things. Number one: things to watch out for. As you lift it up, donât lift up and start
bringing it in front of the body. Thatâs a substitution. Instead of being back here at extension, youâre
shifting the focus off the glute medias to more of the hip flexor to do this work for
you. You donât want to do that. The next things thatâs likely going to happen
is, as you start to bring the leg up, youâre going to turn your body. Your pelvis is going to drop back in this
direction. Thatâs no good either because whatâs happening
there is this weak glute medias is begging for help and trying to get help from the hip
flexor on the front side, or maybe even the TFL, to lift up for you. We donât want that either because all youâre
going to do is feed more into the problem youâve already caused. This imbalance between the two. The second exercise I want you to do to strengthen
up these weak glute mediasâ is to sit on a bench. Again, a lot of cyclists, a lot of runners
will get this problem because theyâre going through this continued cycle of a straight
leg, and then a bent leg. A straight leg, and a bent leg. What happens, as you can imagine, this band
â this tendinous attachment down here at the knee â when the leg straightens out
thereâs the most lax that thereâs going to be on it. Then when I bend, I start to bend that structure
thatâs already tight. Then it tends to snap over the outside structures
of the knee. Then when I go straight again itâs lax and
can move. Then when I start to bend it builds that tension,
and it snaps. That leads to a lot of the irritation, repetitive
irritation, of the outside here. So, you want to make sure youâre strengthening
this under load, in all scenarios of extension, or flexion of the hip. So, what we can do is take a band like this. You step through it, like that. So, you just step your feet through. Now you wrap it around here, you cross over
once, like Jesseâs doing there. Now you take this band, youâre going to
wrap it around the knees one more time. So, over the thighs and under the foot. Over the thigh and under the foot. Now youâve got this resisted structure here
for your hips. Now however far apart you keep your feet is
going to determine how much more tension you have on that band. But about hip width apart is a good place
to be. Now we move from here. Youâre going to go and spread the legs apart. Go out into adduction and then you come back
in. Again, deliberate, good repetitions. Out, squeeze, hold. You can feel it right in that spot, right? JESSE: Yep. JEFF: Right through the glute med. Youâd do a set of 10 good, well-intentioned
repetitions here. This is with a pretty upright torso. We have about 90 degrees of relative hip flexion. If you want to make more hip flexion, just
bring your torso forward. Now the hips are flexed a lot more toward
the trunk, relatively. Instead of having to move the hip up, we move
the torso down. Now we do the same thing. Sound effects included here. Right? JESSE: Yeah. JEFF: Harder here? JESSE: Yeah. Way harder. JEFF: Okay. Again, probably weak in this range. Same thing. 10 good repetitions there. Then the last thing, you can put your hands
on the bench, you allow yourself to lean back. Your feet can come out a little bit this way,
toward me. Scoot your butt forward. Now youâre into more of an extended range
of motion at the hip. Not fully extended, but youâre less flexed. Now you do the same thing. Out and in the same way. Into adduction. Hold, squeeze, and then come in. Youâre not speeding through these reps. Youâre doing each one with quality. So again, something really simple you can
do. 10, 10, and 10. You do these a few times a week and I promise
as that gets better, youâre going to start to feel this pain on the outside of your knee,
or even up your leg is going to be gone forever. And you never had to foam roll in the first
place. One last thing I want to show you are two
maintenance stretches you can do, just to make sure youâre keeping it loose and feeling
good all the time. All right, Superstar. Youâre going solo on this one. You got it? JESSE: Yeah, I got you. JEFF: All right. So now, the stretch. What you do is find something you can lean
up against. In this case itâs a box. Go ahead and put your elbow on it. Make sure your elbow is underneath your shoulder
like Jesseâs doing there for support. Then what youâre going to do is, if youâre
going to stretch your right leg out â the right IT band â then it goes out to the
side and itâs straight like that. Youâre trying to keep your knee as straight
as possible. With your left leg now, step across and down. Now, all heâs going to do is allow himself
to sink straight down. Just like that. Heâs just getting that stretch all the way
around the outside. Hip all the way down to the knee. If you bend your knee, youâre going to lose
some of that. The other thing that youâre looking at is,
up here at his torso heâs trying to create some extra flexion. Lateral flexion. So, you can see heâs leaning in that direction
to open it up. That would be a nice, additional stretch. Youâll feel it from the lat attachment up
here at your armpit, all the way down to the outside. So obviously, do both sides. Hold this for about 45 seconds or so, per
stretch and youâre good. So, this one, you donât need to rest on
anything. You do it freestanding in space. So, hereâs Jesse, again, standing. What heâs going to do is, against the right
side, heâs going to step in front of that right side with his left foot, and now turn
his body in that direction, and then start to lean his whole body while he shoots his
hips â his right hip â all the way out to the side, as far as he can. I can hear him groaning from here. So, the left leg there thatâs in front is
trying to hold his right leg straight to keep his knee from bending in the back. Is that what youâre doing there, Jess? JESSE: Yes, sir. JEFF: All right. So, then you basically reach out, you kick
that right hip out to the side. Come back up again. Relax. Do it one more time. Again, step there, across, now youâre leaning
that way, kick the right hip all the way out to the side. Straight out to the side. Like that. Now lean down and try to touch the outside
of your foot over here, in this direction. Again, youâd hold this for about 45 seconds
and thatâs just a quick, easy thing you can do. The most important thing is, working on the
strength is going to be the long-term key to your success. So, there you have it! Finally, a permanent fix to your IT band problems,
and it had nothing to do with your IT band. At least, not directly. As we remember, itâs these two areas right
here that need your attention. Mostly, this one right here is going to need
your strengthening attention. Thatâs what Iâve shown you here. By the way, I have a whole other video that
I didnât mention in the beginning about the weakness and the weakest muscle in your
body being this glute medias. I will link that as well at the end of this
video to show you another exercise option that requires no bands at all. The fact is, guys; start paying attention
to this, to counteract this, and I promise this is going to start to feel a whole hell
of a lot better. If youâre looking for programs that put
the science back in strength â because as you see, all this matters. Thereâs a reason why our bodies are put
together the way they are. Weâve built them into all of our programs. Theyâre all over at ATHLEANX.com. If youâve found this video helpful, leave
your comments and thumbs up below. Let me know what else you want me to cover. And if you havenât already done so, make
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when we put one out. All right, guys. See you soon.
Has anyone actually won the giveaway