Lots of hours of squatting, tugging, pulling and pushing heavy loads in the garden can tighten the iliotibial band, a long, strong strand of connective tissue that goes down the outside of your leg. The IT band stabilizes you from side to side and helps control movement as you locomote. When it’s tight it can cause butt and leg pain, and even knee pain. (I had knee pain.)

What do you do about IT Band tension?

Along with an herbal (possibly Arnica) supplement or even an over-the-counter anti-inflammatory (if that’s your bent), strong abs and core posture muscles (check my Posturally! blog for tips on this), certain stretches, gluteus medius strengthening and self-massage can be helpful. You have to develop strong ab and posture muscles over time. Yoga, Pilates and similar systems are great for this as well as for stretching and strengthening around the hips and knees, the domain of the IT band. I’ll cover specific stretches and gluteus medius strengthening in future posts. For now, here’s a recipe for a self-massage you can do. Beware: Giving yourself an iliotibial band massage is hard work, so be prepared for this.

IT Band Self-Massage Instructions

Sit comfortably, but preferably on a hard surface.

Take the hand on the side of the leg you are starting with and find the area near where the IT band attaches. It is just above the knee, on the side of the thigh. Try to feel with your fingers the taut bands, and differentiate between that and the muscles that border it on the front of the leg (quads) and back of the legs (hamstrings). Then, with your fingers, make circles across the width of the IT band. Move up the leg a little and repeat. Keep doing this until your fingers have made their way to the top of your thigh. You can repeat the whole thing going back down to the knee, too.

Some people like to dig, so I’m going to give you another technique. Please do warm up with the circles first though. For this move, start a little higher up the side of the thigh than you did with the circles. You don’t want to put undue pressure on the knee – it’s a vulnerable structure.

Use both hands for this. So cross the opposite arm over the leg and position the hand next to the hand you have been using. For a lighter effect, use your fingertips. If you really want to dig in and release tension, make a loose fist and use your knucles. You’ll have to reach over a little more for this version. Now, instead of circles, it’s as though you are “ironing” across the width of the IT band – from the back of the side of the thigh toward the front. Begin lower down and keep repeating up until you get to the top. Adjust your pressure according to what you can comfortably handle. Many of my clients like what they invariably call “the good hurt”. The good hurt is a pressure level you would definitely call pain, but it also feels good. It’s a place of therapy for your soft tissue.

When you get to the top, switch to your finger tips again, and try to locate a big bony knob on the side of your hip. This knob is called the greater trochanter. The muscles near there are usually sore or strained, because the area around the greater trochanter has a lot to do with hip movement. Switch to your fingertips and use a more gentle pressure to work this area. Circles around the greater trochanter often help relieve strain there.

The next time I blog about this, I’ll give you an exercise or two for the gluteus medius and some other hip muscles. In the meanwhile you might want to finish up your self-massage with a nice quad stretch.

My friend, and Your Gardening Body guest blogger, Deborah Giraud has some great tips on getting a healthy root system to develop in bare root plants. Deborah is the Farm Advisor for UC Cooperative Extension. In March, I’ll have tips on sustained kneeling, on Gen Schmidt’s Northcoast Gardening blog So look for that.

J-Shaped Roots are a No-No

J-Roots in Strawberries and Grapes will Destroy the Root System.

Bare root plants such as strawberries, fruit trees and grape vines are sometimes planted incorrectly and the symptoms don’t show up for some time. I recently saw some strawberry plants with poor growth, dug them up and saw the roots had been jammed in the holes with a planting tool which left them in a neat J shaped configuration. Unfortunately, the roots were strangling themselves and the plant was unable to grow a decent root system.

It is hard to be kneeling and planting for long periods of time, but it is essential to make sure the roots are spread out and have not been crimped and damaged. Similarly, I have heard of grapevines that have been jammed into holes and all the roots get pushed up and damaged. Probably most of these problems are on farms where folks are in a hurry to plant large areas, and in your home garden you can take the time to be gentle and plant correctly.

How to Correctly Plant Small Fruits

Loosened soil added back to a hole with the bareroot plant’s root evenly spaced and spread out is needed for excellent root growth. Dig your shallow hole, create a volcano in the bottom of the hole, spread the roots around that mound and then fill in with the soil you took out.

Soil and Ground for Bare Root Plants

Do not add any amendments to the natural soil. You can create drainage problems by adding a loam or compost into a clayey hole. When an amendment is added, water will flow into the hole and it drain very slowly, drowning the roots. If all the soil is of one type, the water will percolate downward evenly and will not puddle around the roots. Tender root hairs can only survive a matter of hours in water; they need oxygen to survive.

Crowns of any plant should be just a bit higher than grade so that water runs off from the crown. Planting too low can cause problems, and you may find you need to bring in soil. Always till in new soil in as large an area as you can before planting shrubs and trees.

Deborah Giraud, MS, has worked as the UC Cooperative Extension Farm Advisor in Humboldt County, California for the last 25 years. She is the point person for farmers with production, pest control and marketing questions. She also helps landowners develop new opportunities in agritourism. The website for her office is: http://cehumboldt.ucdavis.edu

Because we as human creatures, tend to do our regular activities the same way nearly every time (it’s called habit), we set ourselves up to be what I call “an accident waiting to happen”. Working only one way creates strong and weak spots throughout the musculature. When this happens in the pelvis, especially, we risk losing support for the spine, knees and other joints. The pelvis is the center of balance for the human body. We mess with it when we neglect to vary our positions, and our styles of movement.

The best way to deal with this is to become body aware, to learn about alignment and to strengthen your core posture muscles. Especially the abdominal muscles. So think Pilates, yoga, Feldenkrais and body work. After you’ve firmly planted these types of activities in your routine, try switching sides for just a few minutes every gardening session. This is to give your mind-body connection a chance to try something new. You only need a few moments of this to start. Over time your muscles and brain will get used to it and you’ll be able to increase the length of time you spend in the non-usual position.

WW - I start my master gardener training tomorrow.