Full Anterior Leg Massage, 7 Massage Techniques for Tight Quads, Shins & IT Band Pain

So you can decide if you want to do dry work or you can go right in with your oil. I typically like to start with some type of dry work especially for this outer quad muscle. Get a nice firm hold on there and you just have a lot of control when you're not feeling overly slidey. You can pick up on you know imbalances and where the trigger points are. A little easier. This is a great way to help your client just ground into their own body as well. And I'm also just tuning into my own body making sure that I'm in alignment with the direction that my hands are moving in. I like to squeeze around the knees gently. As you get to the lower leg most of the muscles are located on this outer side of the leg. Emphasizing that area. Work my way down. It always feels nice if you can include the feet just on some level. Just squeeze in the feet. I just want my client to get off of the table feeling a lot more aware of their own body and how connected everything is. And that took about two minutes which was plenty. So that dry work doesn't need to take a long time. It's nice to include. I find that you know getting into a nice flow with doing anterior leg is just a little more difficult for me. So I've just come to accept that I'm not going to feel as flowy as the back of the leg or other places. And when I'm really struggling with feeling like fumbly I will shorten my strokes and I'll try and not be in a position with my own body that feels too uncomfortable. Really focusing on that lateralis muscle. That bigger quad muscle on the outer portion of the leg. This is very gentle cross fiber work but just helping that muscle to feel less constricted. And it can be really nice to include this front hip flexor with at least a few of your strokes. And you want to make sure that your client's comfortable. It can be really nice for the hips and the quads. And I find that if I use the right amount of pressure I can really stay on that hip flexor and not just feel like I'm poking it around. Actually have a more therapeutic effect. So you do need to be careful of so with a flat palm my wrist is at a really weird angle. So I'm going to move to a soft fist which is a lot easier anyway. But I'm going to start applying some more pressure. Lateralis. No hurry here. Just really allowing that muscle fiber to respond and stretch and open. If you feel any type of resistance or pushing back that's a sign that you need to kind of lighten up a bit. But if you're being invited in to go deeper then go for it. And I like to combine some more superficial strokes with the heel of my hand in combination with deeper work. My soft fist. You almost want to feel like you're working with Play-Doh or clay. So it kind of like adjusts to the tool you're working with. So if you feel like it's like fighting against you or you're sliding off you kind of need to make some adjustments to really work that muscle fiber in a way that's going to be helpful. Or you might just not be in alignment with the lateralis. Place your hand so that it's running parallel with that muscle. And after I do some work running parallel I like to do some cross fiber work. And the easiest way is just to rotate the soft fist. And it doesn't need to be a full rotation. You can also do this with your thumb. You can do circles. If you're starting to tire from a certain technique you can use a different technique. I want to hit that medialis muscle as well especially for the sake of the knees. Sometimes you see runners get this really strange kind of pinchy pain in their knee and it can be because this quad muscle is getting really contracted and tight. And just by opening that up you can resolve the pain. And you know not each technique is going to be as effective because of the angle you're at. So like a slowed down petrissage is going to be really good for this area because of where I'm standing, where this muscle is. But just don't expect the same technique to work for all parts of the leg especially if you're doing deeper work. I could do petrissage on the lateralis if I stepped to the opposite side of the table. But I'm always careful about budgeting my time and moving around too much. I like to bring that petrissage stroke into the knee attachments and tendons of the knee but slowing it down and being very gentle. And if I do need to change position of where I'm standing I try not to lose contact. Keep at least one hand on the leg. So I'm going to start using the heel of my hand working parallel with that tibia bone and the tibialis that runs along that tibia bone. And again here I want to be careful not to over bend my wrist because you can really hurt your the joints in your wrist if you're not careful. You can also use a soft fist but I find that it's a little bulky for this area but you can use it. I just prefer the heel of my hand. I'll usually work I'll work upwards and then downwards with my thumbs. I'll start going down and using the whole surface area of my thumb not just my finger pad. There are different ways that you can do cross fiber work in here. You can go up and down. You can do alternating thumbs or you can do little compressive circles. Just a really good idea to do some type of cross fiber work here. I really like this technique because you can grab hold of the leg and you feel really stable. And you can use the whole surface area of each thumb. Just think big picture. You know each stroke doesn't have to be perfect and you're just helping that muscle feel less contracted or open less stuck. And sometimes I will forget things like I forgot to work on the IT band. No shame in moving back up the leg if you feel like it's necessary and your client's not going to know if you meant to do it earlier or never do it. I do like to typically work on the IT band right after I do that work because it can be pretty uncomfortable to have the lateralis worked on and very uncomfortable to have the IT band worked on. But if I have to revisit I'll just pace myself and go nice and slow. Start pretty light and just gradually start. And it's really the area in between that lateralis and the IT band that I'm focused on. Closer to the IT band that connective tissue gets really sticky. I'm just opening that up which is great for athletic performance and just overall feeling better. I love massage because it offers people the opportunity to feel better in ways that they didn't realize they needed to feel better. My approach to working on the IT band is going to be different for someone that's about to run a half marathon as opposed to just someone that wants to lessen tightness in that area overall. And I really I'm not worried about perfect transitions here. I'm just kind of not losing contact. Emphasizing these upward strokes on the inner portion of the lower leg. Tapping is one of the most underrated massage techniques and it's something that I really like especially for people that suffer from shin splints. I want to find a nice rhythm here. Not a technique that I like to end with but that I like to include. You can decide if you want to bring it into the quads as well. Why not? Especially that lateralis. And as I transition back, giving myself a little mini break, reposition. On these last few atherosclerosis strokes, just hugging the knee at the end of that stroke. You can bring that stroke into the medialis as well if you want. And this is more just about bringing awareness to the leg as a whole than doing anything specific. It can feel really nice to just graze the foot. That is all for today. Welcome to Yoga Plus. Courses available from pupil to yogi. Sort by yoga, fitness, and instructors. Create your own routines. Access the Pose Library. Yoga Plus by Psyche Truth. Available on Google Play and the App Store. Join us for 14 and 30 day programs, hour-long classes, and much more on our yoga app, Yoga Plus by Psyche Truth. It's free to download and features a variety of wellness content including yoga, fitness, Pilates, guided meditations, and interviews with dozens of wellness experts.