Knee Pain

[physiobob]

I have a tight ITB as well.

This pain came about with excessive squatting exercises with a wide stance.

Ahh that reminds me....sitting on the plane made the knee quite sore as well.

Sounds like you have developed a chronic injury to the articular surfaces. These take months/years sometimes to develop to a level that becomes painful. So they will take a long time to go.

You comments above and the history suggest that the pain is specific to a range of motion or point in that motion. Leg extension exercises whilst somewhat useful for focusing on the extensor muscles (perhaps work on inhibition of the ITB/Glutes a little if you can whilst doing this - maybe with some EMG retraining) this is not useful for the normal leg movement. You should assess the balance of the leg muscles. Hamstrings need to work as strong hip extensors. Glute medius as a useful hip stabiliser etc. If the ITB is tight then the glute max is overactive and you need to correct that.

Basically the treatment approach should be two fold:

1. Assess the actual problem tissue and treat in a supportive manner to reduce pain and facilitate healing of the injured structures

2. Assess the biomechanics and muscle balance of what you have been doing in order to correct it. This will mean reducing weight considerably and retraining your existing movements as well as learning new ones so that this becomes a preventative strategy and not just a reactive one.