IT Band Syndrome: Why Does the Outside of My Knee Hurt

Should shoulder exercises be painful?
Some mild discomfort during rehabilitation is often acceptable, but exercises shouldn't cause severe or progressively worsening pain.
How often should I do my shoulder exercises?
This depends on your injury and stage of recovery. Your physiotherapist will prescribe a program suited to your individual needs.
Can resistance bands replace weights?
Resistance bands are excellent for early rehabilitation, but many people eventually benefit from progressing to free weights or gym equipment.
Should I copy exercises from YouTube?
Not always. Exercises that are appropriate for one shoulder condition may aggravate another. It's important to know what you're treating before beginning rehabilitation.
Why Choose The Addison?
At The Addison Physiotherapy, we believe rehabilitation should be individual - not generic. We assess your shoulder, identify the underlying cause of your symptoms and prescribe exercises based on your goals, lifestyle and stage of recovery.

Whether you're aiming to return to the gym, sport or simply everyday life without pain, we'll help you build a stronger, more resilient shoulder.

What does typical shin splint pain feel like?

You start your run feeling fine.

A few kilometres later, a sharp or burning pain develops on the outside of your knee.

You stop and it settles.

Then the next run, it happens at almost exactly the same distance.

This is a common presentation of iliotibial band syndrome, or ITBS.

Is my IT band just tight?

Probably not in the way you think.

The IT band is a thick piece of connective tissue. Simply trying to stretch or foam-roll it into becoming “looser” usually doesn't address why symptoms developed.

Instead, we want to understand why the tissues around the outside of the knee are becoming irritated during repeated running.

Common contributors

These may include:

sudden increases in running volume
downhill running
rapid increases in long-run distance
inadequate recovery
hip strength or control deficits
running mechanics in some individuals

Why does it appear at the same distance?

Running involves thousands of repeated loading cycles.

An irritated structure may tolerate the first few thousand cycles before reaching its current threshold.

That is why someone might say: “I'm completely fine for 5km, then it starts hurting.”

That information is useful because it helps us set an initial running load below the point where symptoms escalate.

What does rehab look like?

Rather than simply resting and foam rolling, rehabilitation usually focuses on improving lower-limb capacity and progressively restoring running volume.

For some runners, temporary modifications to cadence, hills or stride characteristics may also help.