IT Band issues... SOLUTION NEEDED!!

Had the same thing happen to me recently. I had IT band issues a few years ago and it cropped up for the first time this year after my longest run of the year a few weeks ago.

I switched to running in flats 2 days later and the pain hasn't been back. Let it heal and then work back up trying flats.

That's what helped me this time and what helped me 2 years ago when I had been rolling on a Nalgene bottle, got active release, etc.

I've also been told to stretch the adductors well. It makes sense that the general IT tightness still lingers after stretching and loosing it up because the adductors just keep pulling on it. groin stretch here we come!

anyone else?

Massage is the way to go. But, it's not enough just going once or twice a week. This is something you can do on your own. Several times a day. Do some deep tissue massage on the band. Length wise and cross ways. The whole band. Dig really deep and loosen that band. It must be several times a day about 5-10 minutes each time. Gotta loosen that band.

It's crucial that you stay on top of it. Be consistant. Good Luck!

Flats were the solution for me as well.

definitely stretch the adductors (groin stretch). it works! I've been running 3 days now nearly pain free.

strengthen your hamstrings

Strengthen and lengthen.

Strengthen with lateral leg raises and one-legged squats.

Lengthen with a foam roller (lie on side with roller on the floor).

My ITB problems lasted YEARS. I tried MANY things. FWIW, this is what finally worked for me.

Best wishes

Your tensor fascia latta muscle probably has some damage from the marathon and is tightening up pulling on your ITband.

It is simply an overuse injury. Work on the muscle (massage)and the ITband will be fine.

Also watch how you are landing on that foot and make sure you aren't landing on the outside of your foot putting extra strain on the outside of your leg. (pronation)

I quit running marathons because I never wanted to take enough time off afterward and always ended up with ITband problems.

I feel a twinge every once in a while when I get in the 70-85 mile range but an easy day takes care of it.

http://www.drpribut.com/sports/spitb.html

While everybody wants to blame a "weak" muscle on an injury, most are simply overuse.

You can "strengthen" all your "running" muscles by slowing your pace down and building your mileage up over time.

"Strengthen and lengthen.

Strengthen with lateral leg raises and one-legged squats.

Lengthen with a foam roller (lie on side with roller on the floor)."

Can you tell more about strengthen and lengthen? For example how many lateral leg raises do you do and how many times a day? Same for squats. Also, can you comment on how long you needed to do this until you saw results? And do you still do them from a maintenance standpoint?

Thanks for your help and insights!

In addition to the other posting...

I use a TPTherapy ball, which you place on your piroformis muscle and pull your leg inwards and then extend outwards, helps tremendously.

I also reccomend the strengthening of hip adbuctor, and adductor.

Ice your hip throughout the day as well.

Lay on your back, lift one leg at a time, and try to use your leg only to do so. Then lay on your side and raise your leg toward the sky. Switch sides and repeat.

These exercises strengthen the tops and outsides of your quads, which in turn helps to stable your IT band from scratching against bone. (The cause of your pain)

Now you have to strengthen the inner parts of your quads. You can do this by sitting on the ground, lift on knee toward your chest, but about a foot away from it. The other leg extended straight out. Turn it inward and raise. (Very uncomfortable at first, and hard. It is supposed to be, you probably are very weak there.) Repeat with other leg.

All of this with the knowledge you have already been given in one leg squats, hammy, and quad extensions with low weight, will give you the adequate treatment needed.

Stretching it out helps, but do not stretch more than once a day, and forget massaging it. That only irritates tendons.

This actually works. Fixed my most recent flare up in 3 treatments. Give it a shot.

http://www.activerelease.com/

I started out with 50 lateral leg raises on each side and gradually worked up to 80-100 (ca. month). I began with 20 one-legged squats every other day and worked up to 30.

My ITB was really tender with the rolling at first. It would tighten up almost immediately after a run and I would roll them again. I gradually increased my mileage. I think that it took no less than 2 and nor more than 4 weeks. I rolled for quite a long time (ca. 6 months), but less regularly (mainly when the ITB felt tender or tight). I rarely roll now, but I still do the one-legged squats 1-4 times/week for general leg strength. I rarely do the lateral leg raises, maybe once or twice/month as maintenance.

I doubt that mine was an overuse injury. My ITB would rebel whenever I ran over about 20-25 mpw.

Everyone's different, but I'm glad to share my experience.

I'm late 40's and I run 25-40 mpw (10 week average; high of 60 in one week), depending on whether I'm in maintenance mode (summer) or race season.

I hope that helps. I was reluctant to do the leg lifts because they seemed kind of sissy (in a Jane Fonda workout tape kind of way), but they worked.

1) Foam roller

2) Adductor and abductor exercises till you burn

3) Planks

it's about strengthening the muscles that support the IT band. i'd say stretching is secondary.

The IT band is almost entirely a ligament and functions like one as well. It is not an elastic structure and I doubt anyone can actually stretch and lengthen the structure itself. The best you can do is stretch the one muscle actually attached to it

Ligaments are like steel cables for a reason.

The problem lies with the structure becoming irritated by the inflamed, damaged muscles under it.

Other IT band problems arise when a looser than normal band rubs the side of the knee. Stretching can only aggravate this.

The standard "cure" for this is the strap which holds the structure tightly in place.

Your IT band can't spasm and tighten up. That would be like getting hair cramps.

core work

if you want to keep treating symptoms, then stay with the massage, foam roller and stretching.

SMJO,

A ligament attaches a bone to another bone. ITB functions as a long tendon anchoring the TFL into the lateral knee.

It can be lengthened and it can be stretched, though not as much as people think. You are correct in saying that the focus of stretching should be on the TFL and gluts.

Both sets of answers are correct as well. Treating the ITB with foam rolling and flexibility is actually treating the symptoms. It will give you some relief (but in the case of most runners with ITB stuff, not much). You have to treat the cause which is a weak core and weak gluts. Planks are great, as well as anything done in a weight bearing position on the affected leg.

I would stay away from one leg squats. Think about it: You have a sore ITB and you're now going to put full weight on it while you lower yourself into flexion. Most friction of the ITB on the knee occurs at about 30 degrees or so of flexion. So you're going to put an inflammed tendon in the position that stresses it most and then contract your muscles and put all of your weight onto it? Its just going to inflame it more. Instead, try just standing on the affected side while not letting the pelvis on the other side droop. Trust me, stand there for a minute in good posture and you will feel that glut starting to fatigue.

Best exercises IMO are planks (front and side), plenty of hamstring strengthening and four way hip (straight leg raises in all 4 positions: flexion, extension, abduction and adduction all against gravity.

Someone mentioned stretching the adductors. Definitely do this as well. Most cases involve imbalances which in this case would be weak abductors (TFL and glut medius) and overpowering/tight adductors. Add in some adductor stretches.

Remember this though: It takes roughly 6 to 8 weaks to improve strength of a muscle by one "grade". That means that you most likely aren't going to do these exercises for 2 weeks and be suddently fit. Instead, you should feel like when you're doing them that you are getting more strong and stable standing on that affected side. At this point you should be able to start running lightly. I would start with 5 minutes and go from there. If you are truly correcting the problem, your knee should get better while you're increasing the mileage, not worse. If you corrected the problem, then the tissue just needs to keep healing, but you are no longer irritating it. Its a process, not something that improves in one week.

Your answer wrote:

"Now you have to strengthen the inner parts of your quads. You can do this by sitting on the ground, lift on knee toward your chest, but about a foot away from it. The other leg extended straight out. Turn it inward and raise. (Very uncomfortable at first, and hard. It is supposed to be, you probably are very weak there.) Repeat with other leg."

Do you turn the leg outwards like in this description?

http://www.itbs.info/html/strengthen_your_quads.html

or is that targeting another muscle? Im trying to get rid of the chronic tightness in the left inner quad.