“The gluteus medius should be considered in every running injury.”

BUTTOCK WEAKNESS = MAY BE CAUSING YOUR ITB SYNDROME 

“So many athletes with running overuse injuries of the lower limb present with poor gluteus medius function that I have come to the view that the strength and function of this muscle is probably the most important active component in the achievement of a biomechanical efficient running technique.”

The deep-lying gluteus medius muscle is normally associated with movement, but as your free report into the subject points out, its key role in running is to act as a stabilising force, to slow the downward drive of the pelvis on the opposite side during stance phase.

This pelvic restraint prevents excessive hip sway or roll of the type that is classically known as “Trendelenburg gait”.
But even short of the telltale waddle of a Trendelenburg, there are various adaptations that runners make to compensate for weakness in gluteus medius.

All these various compensations can herald potentially chronic injury for the runner, including shin splints and Achilles tendinitis.
Woking with myself and a podiatrist  & osteo will help with the source of the problem to weak glut med function which may be causing your ITB syndrome. 

Prior to commencing we will give you a fitness test, VO2, full postural analysis checking to see if you have any muscle imbalances. Test your muscle mass, body fat, visceral fat rating, bone mass, total water %, metabolic age internally, flexibility test, test your core with a stabiliser pressure bio feedback machine, then we will design a program to strengthen your glut medius and stretch you ITB.
If pregnant it’s a great time to do this rehab because you will have relaxin flowing through your blood which creates lots of elasticity.
Call us today to sort out your weak buttocks and itb syndrome?

Working with myself, a podiatrist & osteo will help find the source of the problem. Weak glut med function may be causing your ITB syndrome.

Prior to commencing, we will;

* give you a fitness test,
* VO2,
* full postural analysis checking to see if you have any muscle imbalances,
* test your muscle mass,
* body fat,
* visceral fat rating,
* bone mass,
* total water %,
* metabolic age (internally),
* flexibility test,
* & test your core with a stabilizer pressure bio feedback machine.

We will then design a program to strengthen your glut medius and stretch your ITB.

If pregnant it is a great time to do this rehab, because you will have relaxin flowing through your blood which creates lots of elasticity.

Best treatments...
...I've used so far, in order of effectiveness to my Vibes Fitness clients

Once you first experience the pain of ITBS, count on being out of commission for at least 1 month, and maybe more, depending on how aggressively you treat this and how your body responds. If you didn't glean this from the above medical definitions:

Immediately
STOP RUNNING to prevent further inflammation, don't just ease off
RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation). Ice - 20 minutes on, 10 minutes off, 3 times a session, twice daily. Be careful not to freeze the skin, especially if you use commercial ice packs, some of which freeze at a lower temperature than water.
Anti-inflammatory drugs (I use ibuprofen, you may find natural products such as Glucosamine and Condroitin Sulfate work for you),
Stretch ITB at least twice a day, 30-60 seconds each side, using at least 2 different stretches. Don't bounce; don't stretch till it hurts (i.e. too hard).
Self-massage of area, across the thighs and calves (sideways, not up and down).
Sore knees

Source (Elizabeth Doucette ead@NOSPAMHEREnbnet.nb.ca)
When running (also walking, and cycling), the inner most quad. Muscle (inner part of thigh) does not get exercised as much as the other three quads. Muscles of the thigh. If this inner muscle isn't strengthened by specific exercises, an imbalance of the muscles may occur. This can cause irritation of the underside of the kneecap (chondromalacia patellae) because the imbalance of the muscles can pull the kneecap towards the outside of the leg.

The kneecap (which has two convex faces on the back) rides in a broad indentation on the femur. Weak inner quadriceps (M. Vastus medialis) can pull the kneecap slightly out of its "track"; and it is theorised that this is what causes chondromalacia, which is called patellofemoral pain syndrome.

One of my clients had chondromalacia patellae for a long time (and many of my running friends did too) but she has not had problems since she ahs doing specific exercises for her inner quad muscle.
DO this every day, whether you work out or not. If there is any discomfort at all in my knees, make sure you do your exercises and the discomfort always disappears. My clients are always able to prevent a problem now.
The exercise is just a leg raise with the foot flexed and pointing away from the body. With this exercise make sure that your back is supported. As your quad. Muscles fatigue, there is a tendency to help out with your back muscles. You may not realize that you're doing this until you notice later that your back is a little sore.

Sitting on the floor, bend one leg (like you're going to do a sit-up), bringing the knee towards the chest. The other leg is straight. Place your hands behind you on the floor to support your back. You can vary this by leaning against a wall and hugging your knee to your chest with both arms. YOU CANNOT BE TOO CAREFUL WITH YOUR BACK. (Practise your PP principles Pilate principles) start with your right leg being straight and flex your foot (bring your toes towards your head, as opposed to pointing them away from you). Turn your leg to the right, so that your toes and knee are pointing to the right as far as possible. The position of the foot is important because it helps to isolate the inner quad. Muscle. Now, do leg raises.

Start with small sets. Don't do the leg raises too quickly because technique is more important than speed
Build to three sets, each leg of 60 repetitions (alternating legs after each set) for a total of 180 per leg. It takes about 10 minutes.
You can tell if your muscle is getting fatigued because it will start to quiver. Don't push it, change legs. Keep note of how many repetitions you do before you get fatigued and try to increase the repetitions next time. Compare you to you, not to others.

 
Abduction and adduction
what exactly is the iliotibial band? I the central feature of the iliotibial band is a key muscle, the tensor fascia lata, which runs down the outside of the thigh just below the hip. Like all muscles, the tensor fascia lata has a band of connective tissue at each end, which bind it to bone. The upper band merely ascends vertically a short distance to attach at the top of the hip (thus the name ilio-), but the lower one runs all the way down the side of the thigh before attaching to the lateral side of the tibia, just below the knee (hence the name -tibial). The iliotibial band runs down the outside of the leg from the hip to below the knee, kind of like a broad stripe in one's 'musculo-tendinous uniform'. If you're curious about the muscle's name, the word 'tensor' means 'makes tense', 'fascia' means 'band', and 'lata' signifies 'wide', providing a pretty accurate description of the characteristics of this key muscle.

You’ll find that the key action of the tensor fascia lata and its associated bands of connective tissue is supposedly to 'abduct the thigh' (in the patois of human anatomy, 'abduction' means moving a body part away from the midline of the body). At first glance, this 'key action' seems to make sense. If you activate a muscle which originates at the hip and runs down to the outside of the leg just below the knee, wouldn't it simply pull the leg outward, away from the other leg and from the imaginary centre line of the body, a bit like flapping a wing? Of course it would, but how useful is that motion during running? In fact, how instrumental is it to everyday life?

Someone who makes a habit of abducting his legs during movement should set his sights on the ballet stage, instead of athletic competitions. The real function of the iliotibial band during running is not to flap the leg outward but to control and decelerate adduction of the upper part of the leg. Adduction is the reverse of abduction; it's the movement of an anatomical structure toward the body's midline. And it's this very motion, which requires constant control during running.

If that's not exactly crystal clear, picture yourself running for a moment. Let's say that you have 'toed off' from you left foot, soared through the air for a fraction of a second, and have just landed on your right foot. As you do so, your right foot tends to pronate (the ankle joint rotates in a clockwise direction and the foot rolls to the inside), your tibia rotates in a clockwise direction, and - lo and behold! - Your femur (the bone in the upper part of the leg) moves inward (goes through adduction). If you still can't picture this, see for yourself by going through your running mechanics in semi-slow motion.

The role of the iliotibial band is to control this adduction - about 90 times per minute per leg as you run and almost 22,000 times during a four-hour marathon! No wonder the ITB sometimes complains! What makes things especially tough for the tensor fascia lata is that when the right foot makes contact with the ground and the left leg begins to swing through there is a natural tendency for the left hip to drop temporarily, pulled down by the omnipresent force of gravity. As it does so, the pelvic girdle 'rocks' like a seesaw; the right hip goes up as the left hip goes down.

As you probably guessed, since the ITB runs from the hip down to the knee, the upward movement of the right hip stretches the tensor fascia lata and overall ITB at the precise time that it is trying to shorten and control adduction of the right thigh. That constitutes an 'eccentric' movement of the tensor fascia lata, and you no doubt know that eccentric actions are the ones which can be especially trauma provoking to muscle tissues.

Call us today to sort out your weak buttocks and ITB syndrome.