Tension? Ask why

I had a conversation with a student recently in which she asked me “should I be rolling out my IT band?” A common topic among dancers and many others, and one that, ten years ago, I would have answered MUCH differently.

I used to think that if something was tight, the obvious solution would be to do things to loosen it like rolling, stretching, massaging, “releasing,” etc. But I was ignoring the most important part of this — if something is tight, there is a reason! Our body doesn’t just create tension for no reason. There is always a purpose and a plan. We may not like it, but our brain’s job is protecting us, and it is very effective . . . which means we may end up with a tight IT (iliotibial) band because we have weakness elsewhere, and something has to tighten up to compensate for that weakness.

Powellle / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)

Oftentimes, a tight IT band is due to weakness in the hip abductors, specifically the gluteus medius and minimus. Without muscular support on the outside (lateral side) of our hip joint, we need something to help stabilize instead, and that is where the IT band comes in. If our body generates tension, our hip joint then has stability on the lateral side. This solution is great in the short-term, as it provides the support our body needs to continue to function (especially for walking/locomotion). But in the long term, that tension will start to become more permanent and long-lasting, and our gluteus medius and minimus will remain weak. Rolling out the IT band, while perhaps providing some temporary feeling of relief through the deep pressure, won’t actually fix the problem, and the IT band will remain tight.

This idea is true for any area of tension in the body — rather than trying to “release” the tension, first ask why? Why is your body finding it necessary to create tension there, and what can you do about it?

Have any areas of tension that you can’t figure out? Leave me a message below!