Pain along the iliotibial band, like all other conditions it seems, seem to arrive in clusters at the office. I've had my quota this past month to qualify as the next blog topic.

The iliotibial band is a long tendinous ligamentous band that runs from a small lateral superficial hip muscle called the tensor fascia lata, all the way down to the lateral knee at the level of the upper fibular head. The tensor fascia lata, later referred to as TFL, is a superficial muscle that guides some precision work of the hip and knee, but is not meant to be the primary stabilizing muscle during ambulating and other weight-bearing stability activities of the lower extremity.
As a result, the tensor fascia lata will become symptomatic and injured during failure of deeper stabilization mechanisms as it has to take over some additional stability and weight bearing loads that it's not engineered to handle. The typical presentation is a deep pain along the lateral lower hip, leg, and into the lateral knee. It can mimic lateral knee pain from internal knee derangement such as a meniscus.
While iliotibial band syndrome is common, and quite painful, it really should not be treated as a standalone problem. Suddenly at times it's become a self-perpetuating problem that requires soft tissue treatment, but trying to treat it alone is really unsuccessful in the long run since there is usually an underlying problem driving its overload. In my clinical experience some of the more common sources include chronic sacroiliac functional problems, chronic weakness of the hip extension, anatomical or functional short leg related to ankle pronation.

Next time you find yourself stuck in a persistent IT band painful cycle, stop blaming and come in to find the real culprit