The Iliotibial Band – Forever and Ever
The lower legs lead up to the thicker muscles and tendons of the thighs. Here our roots become our trunks. And like the lower legs, the thighs call for understanding, compassion, and nurturing. Ever notice how children running around seem to gain energy from running? Unfortunately, as we age, often the sheer joy of running, leaping, spinning around, escapes us, much to the detriment of our legs and our whole body and spirit. Rather think of the legs rather as passageways for nurturing, nourishment, and excitement not just as mechanical vehicles taking us from place to place. Know them as one of the most vital elements of our structural and energetic foundation.
One of the strongest, most fascinating soft tissues of the thighs are the iliotibial bands. They are the longest tendons in the human body. Inserting into the iliotibial band from above is the tensor fascia lata and arguably also gluteus medius and minimus. Then, inserting into the i.t band from the top and continuing along the femur at least about three-quarters of the way down is the tendon of gluteus maximus (making it in turn one of the longest muscles of the body). The i.t. band lies over the vastus lateralis, the largest and most powerful of all the quadriceps.
From the standpoint of Asian medicine, the iliotibial band is part of the gall bladder meridian associated with the “wood” element that in turn can be associated with the emotion of anger. The wood element is nurtured by the water element. It is not difficult to see how strong yet flowing movements of the legs are essential to health of the i.t. band and the muscles of the thigh. Commonsensically we can relate to water feeding wood just as it is essential for the trees and plants. Conversely, we can imagine how a wooden stiffness doesn’t serve the legs. It is not accidental that the action of “goose-stepping” characterizes the marching style of Nazism and other de-humanizing ideologies.
Often we can feel with compassion, the wooden quality of under-inhabited or overworked thighs. So how can we through movement and massage help restore the flexibility and health to the thighs? Starting with the i.t. band, we can notice that it is often “glued” down to the underlying vastus lateralis. The vastus being the strongest muscle of the thigh, is often overdeveloped and some think that i.t. band problems come not from its being too tight, but from it being overstretched by the underlying hypertrophied vastus lateralis.
Here is a wonderful side-lying fulcrum I teach in the second level of my Deep Massage courses for addressing the i.t. band, the thigh, hip and even on up into the psoas.
Client: Side-lying with a pillow under the head and one between the thighs and knees. Knees bent to approximately 90°.
Therapist: Standing at about knee level facing the front of the person’s body.
For simplicity’s sake, say the client is lying on his/her left side.
Therapist: take your right hand and a place it under the medial epicondyle of the femur of the right leg (remember both knees are bent). Position your hand with gently curved fingers and palm under the medial knee, so you can easily bring some traction through the femur into the hip joint.
Simultaneously place your left forearm (using the fleshy surface between ulna and radius) on the lateral femur just beneath the greater trochanter.
Now that you are in position, take out the looseness with your forearm and your hand each pressing gently into the body – so you’ve engaged both the lateral and medial aspects of the femur.
Then, with both hands, add a gentle distal traction toward yourself, opening up the hip.
Maintaining that traction, with your forearm now begin to very slowly move down the entire length of the iliotibial band creating a long “moving fulcrum.”
Pay attention both to easing tension in the i.t. band , lengthening and allowing the hip joint to enjoy a feeling of openness, of “breathing room.” I suggest visualizing the traction going up through the hip, in and up through the iliopsoas muscle, visualizing up to the top of its origin at T12, not adding force, just being aware of the even deeper sense of lengthening that can be conveyed.When your left forearm reaches the top of the lateral epicondyle, gently disengage and leave the person with a sense of openness through the whole hip and thigh.
This three-dimensional engagement of the hip and leg works much better than just mashing into the i.t. band!
The pace with which you move through the iliotibial band, since the tendon is so very long, can vary and may even modulate the person’s sense of time. If you choose to move quite slowly it can seem to take forever and in that process, time can almost seem to come to a standstill. With the busyness of our lives, the sense of being part of something endless can be deeply relieving and healing.
Image Source: dubinchiro.com