“I’ve finally set a target to run at least 3 miles every day for a month when on the third-week of my fitness goal, I began feeling tightness on the lateral part of my knee. It went away a few hours after I cool down, and came back the following day with a pain that radiates from the hip all the way down to my ankles while I was doing the same activity.” Jen, 105 lbs, fitness junkie
Side of your knee hurt?
Iliotibial band syndrome (ITBS) is a common and often persistent knee injury, causing pain mainly on the side of the knee. This pain is common among runners and cyclists. The pain starts with a mild prick on the knee joints and quickly spreads on the outer part of your knee every time your heels hit the ground. This is a major discomfort especially for fitness junkies like Jen. It started when she overused her knees from running every day with the same mileage going in the same direction.
The pain may go away for a bit with self-care such as applying a cold compress on both knees and since it was caused by overuse in the first place, rest might be helpful too. But these are just short-term remedies. If you’re a fitness junkie like Jen or if running and cycling is life for you, then, you would probably want to subscribe to long-term treatment for ITBS.
Chiropractic care has been known to definitely treat ITBS but most runners and cyclists don’t know this. It is important to palpate the areas that need restoration in biomechanics such as your feet, ankles, hips, and knee joints. Gentle adjustments help realign the spine and other extremities to decrease inflammation especially when treating ITBS.
Misalignment of the spine can cause unnecessary tension and in Jen’s case, it’s her pelvis. She developed an artificial tilt on the pelvis thus causing painful inflammation. The injury involves your pelvic muscles that couldn’t function efficiently and thus needs chiropractic treatment which has techniques that can target areas that are hard to treat on your own. An assessment of the pelvis will be done by a chiropractor to check if your pelvis is functioning the way it is supposed to.
It is imperative for Jen to visit a chiropractor as soon as possible cause even if her pain is located in the knee, the problem could originate in the pelvis.
Dr. Michael Grossman
Contact Me
