Advice on coming back from IT band injury

How did you achieve recovery, just by time alone?? Have you been actively stretching?? If not you need to to prevent further problems and to get full recovery. Make sure you do not have tight hamstrings as it can lead to ITB probs. Get new shoes. do this exercise: lie on the floor on one side. rest your head on your elbow. lift your leg up to the ceiling like a scissors-type action. start with 10 lifts on each side and do this every day. work up to 200 per side. this is an incredible strenghtening move for the ITB that I learned about on this site and my chronic ITB probs have all but dissappeared in spite of my weekly running mileage being 25% higher than normal for me. there are lots of websites devoted to ITB probs; try www.itbs.info/ and it will show you the stretches. go under google search engine and type in iliotibial band syndrome and you will find even more. once you ever get ITBS you are predisposed to having it forever. not trying to scare you but I what you heard is true: once it becomes chronic you will basically just deal with it when it exacerbates because it will not go away. it is one of the most frustrating running injuries too because it will allow you to run thru it to a certain extent like you are doing now. Get over the acute phase you are in now and then spend time keeping it at bay with the leg lifts and faithful stretching. Best of luck.

Thanks,

I've already bookmarked a number of ITBS sites and looked at the stretching and strengthening exercises. I've never been into stretching, and unfortunately old habits die very hard. I like to get out and run, without killing time doing something that is not running.

Recovery has come pretty much by time only, because I have a hard time making myself stretch, ice, or do exercises on a regular basis. I've done plenty of low impact cardio cross training (bike, elliptical trainer), but that's a poor substitute for running.

I've traditionally had a hard time getting good shoes that work for me, particularly lately. I wore out a pair of Nike Kantaras in the marathon (less than 250 miles on them, but they're shot). I've got NB 703s (found in a sale bin - had an old pair that worked great for me) and recently bought Saucony Grid something or other. These are new, post-injury. The jury's still out until I get some miles on them.

You are scaring me by telling me I'm now predisposed to ITBS problems, but I guess that's what I've heard elsewhere. I will try the strengthening exercise you've suggested.

Cheers

Pete, My top runner from my High school team got IT band problems in the midle of this cross Country season.I send him to Physio therapy, and the problem was his pelvis was twisted and he was out of balance.Ones we got him back in balance he recovered very Quickly and is running at full speed right now .He should run well this week in the footlocker West regionals.

You may check out your aligment at a physio therapy place and start from there.

Good luck,

Eddy

Eddy,

I was thinking about visiting a sports physiotherapist who works at the local university, and also happens to be an assistant coach/trainer on my son's hockey team. I spoke to him a little over a week ago, but haven't made an appointment because I started seeing signs of recovery. Maybe I'll put that appointment back on the to do list.

Appreciate the advice.

i had the same type of problem this summer. it turned out to be tendonitis of the it band. i went to the physical therapist and they did this wierd scraping over the band and in a few days it was almost good as new.

Never heard of that. I'll ask when I see the physiotherapist.

Thanks, Pete