this is a real human it band and in today's video we're going to discuss whether or not foam rolling the it band has any real benefits or if it's just causing you needless pain discomfort and maybe even making things worse it's gonna be a controversial one let's do this [Music] to start off this video is going to get into the weeds it just couldn't be helped we cover a lot of different things so we've added chapters to the video playhead if you look below that'll make it easier for you to navigate through this video if you choose to jump around however obviously it's going to make a lot more sense if you watch the whole video the entire way through but it's up to you we've also listed all the references used to make this video in the description below so if you're up for some light reading feel free to knock yourself out but first i want to say thank you to the sponsor of today's video yoga body teachers college they specialize in science-based online certification programs for yoga teachers yoga breathing coaches yoga trapeze teachers and stretching coaches if you're interested in starting a new career or a side job helping people improve their health overcome injuries manage stress and live their best lives longer yoga bodies courses might be right for you yoga body takes a science-based business positive approach to yoga they turn passionate students into successful teaching professionals since 2007 yoga body has certified over 23 000 teachers in 41 countries they are backed by yoga alliance american council on exercise and even american council on education making them one of the only schools in the world eligible for college credits yoga body has put together a free report for you called how to choose a yoga teacher training program you can access it immediately at yogabody.com forward slash iha foam rolling has its roots in what's known as myofascial release among myofascial therapists there's actually debate as to what's actually considered true myofascial release some say that only gentle pressure makes a difference while others believe that deep pressure is required to see any progress at all and of course you're going to find plenty of people who are somewhere in between regardless though most would agree that the aim is to release restrictions in a tissue known as fascia we're going to be doing an entire video on fascia in the future because and this may come as a surprise to you but the precise definition and classification of fascia is hotly debated among fascia researchers and anatomists so for our purposes today in this video i'm going to be defining fascia as the dense connective tissue that is wrapping and compartmentalizing muscle groups now fascia is made of primarily collagen proteins which provide it with a high degree of tensile strength meaning that it resists being pulled apart however you're also going to find fibroblasts which are the cells that produce those same collagen proteins but on top of that you also find other cell types inside of fascia including telocytes fasciocytes and what are known as myofibroblasts you also find lubricating fluids permeating the fascial tissue and this is going to assist in its ability to have gliding movements which are absolutely essential to its function but going back to those myofibroblasts those are going to be extremely important coming up but for now just understand that when in comparison to how many fibroblasts and collagen proteins there are there are a lot less myofibroblasts at least in healthy tissue the collagen proteins are going to be scattered in many different directions giving it the classification dense irregular connective tissue dense meaning that there's a lot of them and irregular meaning that it's scattered however there are locations in the body where the fascia is layered and these individual layers consist of collagen proteins in a regular orientation meaning that they all go in the same direction kind of similar to my fingers here however since it's layered and when you stack those layers on top of one another it makes it appear as though they're going in every direction imaginable and so they look like they are irregular it's this scattering of collagen proteins in the multiple directions that makes fascists so extremely tough essentially it helps keep your body together in fact fascia is seen as one continuous chain of collagen proteins that are even penetrating deeper than the layers going down into the different tissues connecting organ systems to muscle groups to integumentary layers it is so cool it's the belief of myofascial therapist that this fascial network of proteins and fluids can actually form restrictions or adhesions in the fascial tissue and this can cause pain or limit range of motion or possibly even have a detrimental effect on the organ systems of the body the idea is that through slow and focused manual pressure you can release those restrictions obviously then decreasing pain increasing range of motion and even reducing inflammation this is why foam rolling is believed to do the exact same thing the first documented use of a foam roller for tissue manipulation comes from dr moshe feldenkrais an israeli nuclear physicist who after suffering a chronic knee injury applied his knowledge of physics body mechanics neurology learning theory and psychology into what's known as the feldenkrais method which he described as being a new understanding of human function and maturation it was one of dr feldenkrais's students that was the first to use a foam roller as a self-massage tool and over time it started to make its way into physical therapy and fitness realms then being described as a self-myofascial release the idea is rather straightforward by using your own body weight you can apply specific and focused pressure to these myofascial restrictions thereby releasing them helping with athletic performance relieving muscle tension and even improving range of motion and during the past 30 years foam rollers have evolved into many different shapes and sizes and have been adopted by many different rehab specialists personal and athletic trainers and have found their way into nearly every gym in the entire world iliotibial tract or what most would just call the it band is one of the most commonly foam rolled structures in the body it actually belongs to a larger fascial sheet of the thigh called the fascia latte now the fascial lattice surrounds the musculature of the thigh but it actually varies in collagen thickness and density depending on the location so the most lateral aspect of the fascial latae is the thickest and dentist and the collagen proteins here are far more regular in their orientation meaning that they're more parallel to one another than the collagen proteins in the rest of the fascia latte this thickened and lateral portion of the fascialatta is the it band so what we've done here is cut away most of the fascialatta so we could see the muscular tissue underneath but we've left the it band intact now two skeletal muscles of the hip are actually going to blend into the it band making it act as a hybrid of sorts between both fascia and tendon now the first muscle is this one here called the tensor fasciae latti and you probably have guessed judging by its name alone that it adds tension to the fasciae latae the second muscle is the gluteus maximus and it's the largest gluteal muscle and it also happens to be the one that we all know and love and as you can see the it band runs from the hip all the way down to the lateral condyle of the tibia now the it band is uniquely human serving as a tension strut to help distribute forces away from the femur you see the femurs aren't completely vertical instead they come at an angle which is what we call the quadriceps angle now by allowing tension to travel down the it band it makes the femur less susceptible to bending forces and therefore less susceptible to potential injuries the it band also stores energy during locomotion such as walking and running so when the leg has moved backwards during its swinging motion the it band stores energy that is then reclaimed on the way forward making it act like a biological spring of sorts and also making humans some of the best runners on the entire planet now that we've properly set the stage i want to ask you two questions first what causes the it band to become tight and second can slow and specific pressure actually relieve the tension in the it band earlier in the video i mentioned a cell called the myofibroblast now myofibroblasts are found in other areas of the body besides fascia and they're extremely important in wound repair scenarios so basically a myofibroblast can produce collagen just like a normal fibroblast but then they're able to contract like a smooth muscle cell pulling on the collagen generating tension and since they've found myofibroblasts inside of fascia it suggests that fascia has contractile capacity it's well known that fascia can contract in pathological states such as depoitrian's contracture where high numbers of myofibroblasts have been discovered however it wasn't until recently that researchers found that myofibroblasts exist in healthy fascial tissue that's unaffected by disease so you're probably asking yourself now are myofibroblasts responsible or at least partially responsible for myofascial restrictions and interestingly it doesn't appear so research suggests that while yes they are capable of generating tension it's primarily there to maintain the structural integrity of fascia there simply aren't enough myofibroblasts and healthy tissue to generate a statistically significant amount of tension however some researchers have suggested that maybe they are able to generate enough tension to irritate neurons that are in the fascia and then that in turn can irritate the underlying muscle tissue and when that gets irritated muscle tissue is more than capable of generating enough tension that could create that feeling of tightness but at this point that's essentially just speculation inflammation of the it band is another potential culprit many of you probably heard of itband syndrome which is a painful condition of i-t-band inflammation typically around the knee but it can also happen up in the hip now the reason why it's so painful is because fascia is loaded with neurons and when the inflammation hits those neurons it sends painful signals up to the brain letting you know that something's wrong now most often it's a product of overuse which is why we typically or frequently see them in runners and cyclists now interestingly though foam rolling has been shown to have anti-inflammatory effects however the pressure being applied as well as the overall health and state of the fascial tissue really comes into play because what can happen and has been shown is that inflammation can increase due to foam rolling and that's because you're causing more injuries so if inflammation is present it's minimal at most and at this time it's not believed to be responsible for general i.t band stiffness if you recall earlier i mentioned that the muscles tensor fasciae latti and gluteus maximus directly insert into the it-band and fascial latae now obviously we know that muscles are capable of contraction and that's why they are seen to be the most likely cause of it band tightness which this probably makes a ton of sense here right the muscle contracts which then pulls on the connective tissue and then causes stiffness in the joints and discomfort in the fascia due to the pressure being placed on the neurons this is also why we have seen that when you release the tension in these muscles you tend to see relief from that i.t band stiffness now to answer our second question can slow and specific pressure on the it band release tightness well based on what we just discussed you might be wondering why you'd even want to try i mean after all if fascia hasn't been shown to contract when healthy and creating more inflammation is a legitimate possibility why wouldn't you just focus on the muscles that have been clearly shown to actually create tightness on the it bands the fact is there isn't a lot of evidence-based research in support of myofascial release techniques on the other hand there is a ton of anecdotal evidence and while anecdotal evidence is valuable the problem is that's all there is at this point there is no rational reason to believe that foam rolling the it band is going to do anything for the i.t band except make it more susceptible to injury and this doesn't mean that foam rolling in itself is bad in fact foam rolling has been shown to increase blood flow in muscles improve oxygen saturation in muscles and as i said earlier it's been shown to have some anti-inflammatory effects psychologically foam rolling has been shown to work simply because people believe it will work that in and of itself isn't bad but it's definitely not scientific formaline has also been shown to decrease pain post workout but it doesn't do this by fixing anything as much as it's just distracting the nervous system away from the original painful source now again this isn't really a problem in and of itself we do this all the time with other pain relieving medications such as ibuprofen or acetaminophen in athletics research is also starting to suggest that foam rolling might be beneficial depending on the specific physical activity however it's also showing that it's far more likely to benefit elite athletes rather than just your average recreational athlete foam rolling has been shown to improve flexibility however those improvements are extremely short-lived and disappear only after a few minutes truth be told the data suggests that you're far better off just improving your form when it comes to that physical activity or sport than attempting to have a foam roller accelerate the process in any capacity when it comes to these performance-based studies that have been performed around foam rolling unfortunately a lot of them come with contradictory results which tells me we really just need more rigorous data my main concern is that it's actually possible to damage blood vessels muscle tissue even bony tissue if you do it improperly and most people are only foam rolling because they were told by their friend to do it because they were told by someone who saw another guy doing it at their local gym i hate to be that guy who's like we need more data but sometimes you actually need more data on something especially when it's a foam roller that you can find in pretty much every gym in the entire world and trust me if that data comes in and it comes to show that foam rolling and myofascial release techniques have some legitimate weight behind them i will be the first to sing their praises but until then i am going to stay here and maintain my healthy dose of skepticism thanks again to yoga body teachers college for sponsoring today's video be sure to check out the link in the description below to get your free report on how to choose a yoga teacher training program as always be sure to like comment subscribe if you feel so inclined and i will see you in the next video [Music] you