Over the fall and into the winter I've been doing my stretches and rolling on a small ball for my IT bands (Very similar to a foam roller). All along I thought I was doing this pretty well. My physio way back when told me that if I didn't feel pain when rolling on the ball that I was ahead of the game and that I was keeping my IT bands loose.
Well something I never thought about, little exercise ball, loses air over time. Its not that it was flat, however, it was definitely not as firm as a in the summer. Result being it wasn't applying the same pressure as it used to.
All this to say, I pumped up the little devil last night and did a 15 minute warm up on my bike then stretches for 45 minutes. YOWZA! That little ball brought back the pain. I guess this is a good thing because it means I'm stretching properly again and not just wasting my time. But yikes, sometimes I wonder.
So let that be a lesson for any of you out there, a lot of stretches you learn to do properly at physio and then month down the road you notice your not really getting a stretch anymore. Is this because you've stretched it out so well that your not tight? That definitely doesn't describe any triathlete I know, so take a step back and look at your technique, make sure your still doing it properly, you'll be surprised with how quickly the stretch comes back.
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