IT Band

Have you tried, you know, strengthening the muscles around it?

My PT recommends getting rid of the inflammation first.

Have you tried not running?

Yes i've taking a lot more time off... Took a wk straight off... I try to run here and there and stop immediatley when things flare up..

Been reading that taking time off doesn't necessarily help either... I'm running outta ideas here.. :(

Try 1 1/2 feet mummy tape from the outside/back of the knee right up the IT and see if you take some of the pressure off.

If you're not running the inflammation will go down.

Because there's inflammation, you must still be running while seeing this PT person.

It's good to keep in mind that PT people make money off of you coming back to them.

In any case, if what you're doing hasn't been working, try something new. Like not simply trusting your PT guy/girl. Also, stretching doesn't always help.

Do these things:

-MAYBE try ART. IT works for some.

-Balance on each leg (one at a time) for 5 minutes 3 x per day

-clam shells

-mule kicks

-fire hydrants

-one-legged glute bridges

-side leg raises

painsuck2015 wrote:

My PT recommends getting rid of the inflammation first.

I'm no PT and don't play one on TV, but the advice I have received from PT's and other runners is that glute strength plays a huge role. There were a number of exercises I did that didn't aggravate the ITB at all. My daughter dealt with it too. She stopped running, and did strengthening exercises, rolling and stretches. That and ease back into it. She wasn't able to run through it, but was back running fast again before too long.

Stretching the muscles around it helps. Foam rolling and strengthening of the glutes and muscles around the hips is very helpful too. I took over a year off and it never really goes away. Just something you have to deal with

I battled ITBS for multiple years and finally found the very OCD cure.

First, a foam roller isn't enough to break down the fissures and relax the right spots. Invest in a lacrosse ball and 6" diameter pvc pipe. These will be your at home "ART" tools.

The gluteus medius seems to be the key to my ITBS. Both strengthening and loosening. Stretching the muscles of the glute post exercise help keep everything loose.

I roll prior to and after ALL runs. Daily. I spend about 60 minutes every day working on my glutes, hips, quads, and hamstrings.

Strengthen with body weight squats, one leg squats, side squats, lateral band exercises 3 times a week.

You never know the debilitating affects of ITBS until you have it. Good luck

This might be a dumb question, but have you tried running in different shoes? I had a horrible IT flare up last winter, could barely walk down stairs. I kept waiting for it to subside, then running again. Kept coming back over and over.

Then I tried different shoes, and it was fine. I felt sort of dumb.

Didn't suspect the shoes at first because I had been running in them (not the same pair) for several months with no issue.

Yea I actually bought new shoes helped for a while but i guess it was jus my imagination cuz I started getting the pain right back again.. It has gotten better but still creeps up on me here and there and hits me like a ton of bricks.. I guess i'll jus keep the stretching and slowly working into things..

Did you even read my post?

Another great exercise is glute bridge with a band around your thighs. Helps strengthen the gluteus medius which will help with tracking issues.

And work on ART way more than stretching. I would say 80% ART, 20% stretching. Religiously.

No offense to PT's, but I'll never go to one again. Anything they say or do I can easily find online and do myself.

If you actually want to get rid of this issue (and not have it lingering LIKE WHAT YOU'RE EXPERIENCING RIGHT NOW) you'll do everything I posted. Every day.

IT bands issues have no insta-fixes. There is no amount of stretching that will fix the imbalances and weaknesses in the muscles causing the problem.

Most importantly, once it goes away, you gotta keep on doing those things.

You're going about it wrong wrote:

Do these things:

-MAYBE try ART. IT works for some.

-Balance on each leg (one at a time) for 5 minutes 3 x per day

-clam shells

-mule kicks

-fire hydrants

-one-legged glute bridges

-side leg raises

I assume that with the one-legged glute bridges you want to keep the injured leg on the ground, right?

cafe bustelo wrote:

I assume that with the one-legged glute bridges you want to keep the injured leg on the ground, right?

You should really do all of these things on both sides because you don't want to risk creating imbalances. If one side ends up a lot stronger than the other you could end up with a whole new set of issues.

Besides, why not do it on both sides? Doing them with the uninjured leg (assuming the're not both injured) just reduces risk of IT issues on the other side.

Anyways, here's a video that has some of these exercises explained. I'll link right to the time with the glute-raise things.

You're going about it wrong wrote:

cafe bustelo wrote:

I assume that with the one-legged glute bridges you want to keep the injured leg on the ground, right?

You should really do all of these things on both sides because you don't want to risk creating imbalances. If one side ends up a lot stronger than the other you could end up with a whole new set of issues.

Besides, why not do it on both sides? Doing them with the uninjured leg (assuming the're not both injured) just reduces risk of IT issues on the other side.

Anyways, here's a video that has some of these exercises explained. I'll link right to the time with the glute-raise things.

http://youtu.be/ydcy3dPf__M?t=3m4s

Thanks. The problem is--and I'm not the OP, btw, just someone else in a similar position--that I've had this injury for a long time and my healthy leg is already way stronger than my injured one. It's like, bionic at this point. So I need to get the bad leg back up to speed. Anyway, I just wanted to confirm that with the single-leg glute bridges, the anchoring leg is doing the most work.

cafe bustelo wrote:

Thanks. The problem is--and I'm not the OP, btw, just someone else in a similar position--that I've had this injury for a long time and my healthy leg is already way stronger than my injured one. It's like, bionic at this point. So I need to get the bad leg back up to speed. Anyway, I just wanted to confirm that with the single-leg glute bridges, the anchoring leg is doing the most work.

Yeah, I could tell by the way you write.

The glute on the leg on the ground should be doing the work on that exercise. The video explains it better than I can in text, so I'm sorry if it sounds confusing.

Get better, man!

I see a lot of these threads - people with IT band syndrome who stretch, roll, see docs and PTs, take time off, and wonder why they don't get better. I thought that the whole hip strength thing had pretty good penetration in medical circles, but now I'm not so sure anymore.

This article should address what's missing:

http://www.runningwritings.com/2012/02/injury-series-biomechanical-solutions.html

Basically IT band syndrome is a biomechanical problem. In all likelihood you lack adequate hip abductor and external rotator strength. As a result, your knee mechanics are messed up. Your hip adducts and your knee internally rotates, which puts abnormal compressive forces on your IT band near your knee. This problem does not go away until hip strength and coordination are addressed. That's why time off doesn't help much.