I've been dealing with ITBS for the past 8 months. I've tried everything. It only gets bad for me on downhill portiions of runs. My PT first said it was my hips, then it was my glutes, then it was my stride, then it was my hips again....I still have it.

I have the full vineman coming up, full knowing my ITBS will start to flare on the downhill portion of the rollers. My actual longest run in the past 8 months has only been 8 miles. I have found that running slower and shortening your stride works to hold of the pain. I plan to ice & not run for the next 10 days prior to the race.

Good luck, ITBS sucks.

Hi. Sorry to hear about your ITBS. I had it in one leg for 8 months, the other (managed) for 1 1/2 years. After a while I knew my onions.

Lots of the suggestions are great. The variance you hear is likely down to the fact that there are different causes of your ITBS. That said it is nearly always a glute / hip issue.

Do Not Run. Every minute you spend running on it whilst painful and inflamed is another 2 days to recover.

Understand the inflammation process. Unfortunately inflammation feeds on itself. The more inflamed something is, the more it swells, the more it swells the greater the resulting friction when used, the greater the friction the more it swells. Sods law.

You need to reduce the inflamation. Rest. Ice works with some, seems to make it worse with others - including me. Whether the ice makes surrounding areas contract and cause friction I don't know. Rest. Ibuprofen, take the max 600mg every 8 hours. Rest. Drop into your doctor, explain the situation and ask for Diclofenac gel / ointment made to 10% strength. You can use this in conjuction with Ibuprofen. Just rub it on the bursa area.

Roll and massage. Tight glutes (piriformis, glute med and glute min) are probably the cause. They are likely overworked due to being weak and have tightened. This is quite often the cause. Lacrosse ball rolling is really good. If you foam roll do 45 degrees either side of your ITB. Rolling your ITB, especially near the bursa, can create more friction and do more damage.

The biggest thing if you want to race in a few weeks is that you must find the cause. This is where the PT comes in. You need a PT .... not a chiro. Look at run gait, look at increases in distance / intensity, do you sit a lot at work? Tight hip flexors, shortened hamstrings.

If you can rest the leg, find the cause, reduce tightness in the glute / hips through massage and SLOWLY increase strength in those weak stabilising muscles you might well be good to go. (I say slowly because I went at it hammer and tongs and made it worse, they are only small muscles after all so don't thrash them every day)

After a couple of weeks build slowly, avoid hills at all costs.

You mentioned feeling a bit better faster than slower? This is probably to do with run form. Try not to 'bounce' lift your knee, pull through with your glute and reduce your stride so you don't land heavy on your heels. It is the impact shock that causes the ITB to fire to take up stabilisation of the leg. Stronger glute muscles take the work away from the ITB, weaker glute muscles give it back. if you can reduce the shock, reduce the up and down motion, then there is less for both the glute and ITB to do.

If it flares up in your race early on then bail. I would rather DNF that do considerable damage that will take months and months (maybe longer) to heal. If you are in the last few km's then walk.

Sorry for the long post. I just had a hideous time with ITBS and was told to give up triathlon by one sports doc. Now I know what it is that causes it I can always catch it in time. If I knew then what I knew now my ordeal would have been weeks not years. For me it was poor run form, too much bounce, and hip drop.

Get strong and good luck.

Power13 wrote:

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The only thing I would disagree with is that I don't think you can do "considerable" damage with ITBS. It is an irritation (and a very painful one at that), but you aren't really doing any structural damage. If the pain level is tolerable, I don't think you risk any long-term damage. But you may well be increasing the length you are dealing with the symptoms.
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Disagree. You can weaken the attachment site on the tibia and thusly the ITB will always be prone to irritation. My PT told me that, basically, this is something that I will never completely get over/past. You live with it.