Daily Mobility Exercises by Dr. Kelly Starrett Forums General Chronic IT band/quad TIGHTNESS and knee pain (chondromalacia patella?) for 6 years! Re: Chronic IT band/quad TIGHTNESS and knee pain (chondromalacia patella?) for 6 years!

#73452
Previous Therapy Routine: (3 times a week, ends up being like 2 hours) everything written is in the sequence performed. I was doing this for about 6 months now ( I was doing something similar before this routine for 1 year). Please feel free to criticize it and advise me were improvements can be made. 

Warm Up: (10 minutes)
1) Skip (aprx 2-5 minutes)
2) Various leg and hip swings (aprx 5 minutes)
3) Wobble board balance (3 sets, until fatigue/improper balance)


My strengthening Routine: aprx 45 minutes, and I usually do 5 exercises, I perform the exercises as a circuit. 

1) Glute medius:  x-band walks and/or side lying leg raise against wall (3 sets, each set until fatigue, aprx 50 reps per set)
2) Glute max: hip thrusts (single leg and/or double leg on yoga ball – 3×10
3) Core activation: Planks (front plank and/or side plank  – 3×10, and/or barbell ab rollouts 50×3)
4) Single leg functional movement pattern: single leg squats and/or lunges (3×10), using only body weight
5) Double leg functional movement pattern: squat (3×10), using only body weight, been doing wall squats, (double leg squats is a more recent addition to my regime, started doing it only about 1 month ago)
Self-Myofascial Release: aprx 30 minutes (PVC pipe, rumble roller, and lacrosse ball), mostly been focusing on right leg)
1) Hip flexor – rumble roller, lacross ball
2) Quadriceps – rumble roller (sometimes PVC pipe)
3) IT band – rumble roller (sometimes PVC pipe)
4) Calve and/or ant tibialis and/or hamstring and/or adductors – rumble roller and lacrosse ball (sometimes PVC pipe) (I alternate between the calves, ant tibialis, hamstring, and adductors on different days).
Stretching: 3 minutes total, 1 set x 40 seconds (do it for my right leg, sometimes I also do it for my left leg)
1) Rectus femoris/hip flexor stretch – against the wall 
2) Hip flexor stretch – knee on a mat, use different angles
3) hamstring stretch – leg on desk, use different angles
4) Piriformis/hip flexor stretch – back lying on mat, 
Massage IT band with rock followed by Suction Cupping: 
-I would put some skin lotion on thigh, and start massaging the IT band with a rock for 1-2 minutes
-I followed this with suction cupping
Suction Cupping – 15 minutes
-Quads, IT band 
-sometimes add hip flexors, ant tibialist, calves, hamstrings