what have you done so far?

Have you tried a Foam Roller?

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-Jason

I believe cars are the new second hand smoke. -Dave Zabriskie

1. Hip repositioning and focused strengthening of the right glute.

2. Nerve glides and stretches focused on piriformis and siatic nerve, as well as decompressing the lower back.

3. Running within my known limits, taking tons of naproxin and icing the crap out of it. (Managed to get up to 45 min runs but if I pushed just a little too hard, I was back to square one)

4. A strength regime focused on glutes, hip flexors and ab/adductors and core stabilization.

5. Quad, hamstring, glute, piriformis, and lower back stretches.

6. Now arch supports

At first she found my hips were not positioned correctly.. After fixing that and passing the strength tests, we moved on to suspecting a nerve issue. After batting 0 with that we moved back to weak glutes and now we're sort of punting by trying arch support.

The problem is that I cannot reproduce the issue in the office. It takes 20 min of steady running to inflame and once its inflamed, I'm done.

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sometimes you just have to eat the cake

1) stretch, glutes and lower back
2) get the really hard foam rollers (hard to find) to roll the ITB
3) cross your legs (standing up) and touch you toes
4) strengthen by doing one legged squats (3x10)
5) if you pronate make sure you are in the right shoes
6) cut down on run mileage for a while but DONT stop completely

My ITBS was caused by overstriding. Once I learned to run "under my hips" and not reach out in front of me, it went away.

Find a chiropractor that does ART(active release theraphy) or Graston therapy.

PT did nothing for me but some ART and graston did the trick. I now go in every few months for a tune up and have been ITBS free for over a year.

Sorry, for some reason the texts of my posts weren't going through. I've fixed them though.

I've used the foam roller on my quads, glutes and hamstrings, with little results. Rolling the IT band just irritates it more and when I'm at home resting, it isn't tight...it just acts up once I start moving.

I've had to stop running as the knee pain is physically crippling. When it first hit I could not walk down stairs at all for a week and just walking to my office from the parking lot was a major ordeal. I'm now at the point where if I really piss it off, it only takes half a day to a day to calm down enough that walking a few flights of stairs isn't an issue.

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sometimes you just have to eat the cake

Not sure which, if any, of these fixed my problem, but here is what I did:
1) stiff foam roller, it should make you cry when rolling
2) changed to a neutral shoe (asics cumulus)
3) raised bike seat a bit
4) stretch hamstrings, including a hamstring stretch where I turn my body outwards while stretching so pulls more on the hip
5) stretch quads, hamstrings, hips calfs after EVERY run
6) start most runs with a slow warmup, usually ~1mi or so

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some days you're the windshield some days the bug

Had similar problems for about 5 months. Really aggravating. Like you, I tried everything (exercises, foam rolling, rest, ice, NSAIDs, etc.) Once I started doing Bikram yoga, it started getting better almost immediately. (I think the stabilizing/balancing exercises are what help me most). My problem was glute medius, I think, but next time you're out running see if you don't "sink" the hip on the side that's aggravated. Might be your issue, too. So, my advice is to try yoga (my money's on Bikram). What do you have to lose at this point, right? Good luck!

I had the same problem and worked with a PT for a while with no results. I struggled with it for years. Gave ART a try and it disappeared. I can't say enough about how effective ART was for me.

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-Andrew

Sorry about your struggles, ITBS can be a real problem.

I would find s different therapist to help you, some of the suggestions already given are good.

-ART
-Yoga
-your adductors (inner thigh) are likely weak

Finding an Athletic therapist of registered massage therapist could be a good start.
Running form would be good to analyze, a lot of running thinking now is that you need less shoe support, not more and check your form.

When you said using the foam roller aggravates your ITBS that is a flag for me...you need to check range of motion and loosen that tissue so it isn't causing issue..ART or massage can help here.

Quitting isn't the answer ;-)

Andrew

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C'mon legs run faster!
Being fast on a crappy bike is cool
Fueled by Guinness, Tuborg, Anchor Steam and Creemore Springs

I am going thru this as well...as others have suggested, try ART and Graston - I have had some success. Like you, I am doing a lot of glute strengthening.

About the shoes, I am no expert but I have been running in orthodics for 3 years. My PT thinks this could be part of my problem - I have high arches. However, using the orthodics may be a factor in my ITB issues. So I have gone to a neutral cushioned shoe and am not running in the orthotics. Its been OK; I can now run aerobically, but once I had pace, it flares up.

I also notice a lack of power when I ride as well on the bad leg when I have to climb. It sucks.

This week, I actually am taking the entire week off, no running , no biking, no swimming and just doing wts and glute work. Good luck.

Had the same problem, went through all the same crap as you until I found a Dr who noticed I had a leg length discrepancy……he gave me a few heal lifts to put in my various shoes and the problem was resolved....like magic.

I had ITBS during my college years (long time ago now). I worked with a pt for 3-4 months and had very little improvement. It really never changed much. Finally, I decided to run on it with the pain. It hurt like crazy after about 3-5minutes of running but did not get worse as I went. Same thing for about 4 more days of running. After a week, I noticed it was getting better. After two weeks, it went away and has never given trouble since (28years ago now). Obviously, this is an n=1 experience and I do not necessarily recommend it as a solution. I just remember being extremely frustrated with the situation and not being able to train for the upcoming season. At the time, I was not convinced that they truly understood the problem and wanted to make it was clearly ITBS or figure out a different solution. Fortunately pushing the issue made it go away in my case. I doubt I would try that if it were to happen now. An old body doesn't handle stupid decisions as well as it used to.

What's interesting about the whole thing is that I ran for years in "neutral stability" shoes due to a funny toe off issue with my right foot. I finally switched to a full neutral shoe and ran for about a year in them, including a marathon. During that time, I developed a strain in my left arch from the sudden drop in support and high miles that forced me to use mild supports for the race. I took 4 weeks off after that race and the very next time I tried to run, my right knee locked up. I had no previous symptoms at all.

After going to the PT, we figured out the hip position thing which fixed the origonal toe off issue on my right foot and I began running in full neutral shoes again (worn out saucony tangents that have zero support anymore). What I find really odd is once we got my hips straightened back out and I started bulding up some miles, I started feeling lots of fatigue in my left glute and started getting symptoms down my left knee too (but not nearly as bad). That's the first time I had any issues on that side. That was before I started working on the glute exercises, but I do notice when I overdo them, it does make either/both knees start hurting.

In terms of adductors....I have had issues with my left adductor for a long time. There's what feels like a band of tissue or a tendon that runs through my left inner thigh that gets very irritated and sore from time to time, but it doesn't seem to correlate to the knee pain.

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sometimes you just have to eat the cake

In order of importance.
1. Stop running
2. Stop running
3. Yoga
4. ART
5. Wait until it feels like new and wait another month.
6. Start very slowly, 10 mi week.
Gradually build up and enjoy it.

Worked for me.
Also, strengthen adductors. I got large rubber bands from some exercise site and put my legs through them and did side steps.

I didnt run for 4 months. just xskies, biked and swam. When i was better, i had no pain and within a few months i was at a much higher run level than i was trying to tough out the injury and get "what i could do" miles.

Stop being dumb and just stop running and let the body heal. Even if it takes a year that is not that bad. You won't die.

Have you done any exercises like this?

http://www.youtube.com/...&feature=channel

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Running is a gift.

Matt, I'm with you. My IT issues have effectively negated my ability to run since last November. Next week I try a new PT but at this point I'm beyond frustrated.

Yes. Right now I do 5 main exercises.

1. Monster walk (similar to the video)
2. Stretch band around one ankle, other end tied to table....pull leg straight back balancing on other leg
3. Same setup but rotated 90*, Abduct leg against band tension, balancing on other foot.
4. Clamshells with and without red band for resistance
5. Reverse clam shell, squeezing fit ball between knees.

According to my PT, my glute strength tests fine and MUCH better then it did, and I do notice a big difference when climbing on the bike.

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sometimes you just have to eat the cake

Have you done any stretches using a rope?

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Running is a gift.

You might want to try a self-test -- take off your shoes and stand straight with your feet together. Then balance on one foot for, like, 30 seconds. Then the other. If it's easier on one than the other, that should tell you something. If you drop your hip when you do it, that tells you something too about a potential weakness on that side. If you wobble, or if you can't keep your leg straight, that tells you something even more telling about your stabilizing muscles. The way I heard it, running is basically balancing on each foot (well, a little different, but you know what I mean) and you need to strengthen all your stabilizing muscles if you can't balance well. You'd get the same thoughts from many folks that like barefoot running, who recommend not running barefoot until you can balance on one foot comfortably. I tend to believe it's a telling test because working on stuff like balancing is the only thing that helped me -- and like you, I monster-walked, and did the clam, and assorted other exercises with assorted types and colors of exercise bands. They didn't do squat for my IT band, but they sure as hell entertained my cat.

The worst part is, all of the stuff I'm doing with the PT is fixing issues and making me stronger. When I can run, it feels much more powerful and efficient and I seem to be running faster then I should on this mich detraining. But right when I think I'm doing good, I have a major setback and am back to square one.

Jiowa,
I do a hamstring stretch where I loop a stretch band over my toe and use it lengthen my leg. I've had good luck with contract-relax stretching on my calfs....how could I go about doing this on my hamstrings?

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sometimes you just have to eat the cake

This is a little complicated.
First get a rope that's about 5' long.
Lie on your back and keep your left leg flat and bring your right leg up, keep it straight and don't hyper-extend it.
Hold the two ends of the rope and put the middle of the rope over your right midfoot
Pull your right leg up towards yourself but don't get a good stretch yet
Put the two ends of the rope in your left hand and have your left hand pull your right leg to the left
If your hips are flat you should feel a good stretch near what will feel like your right hip/butt

Once you hold that for 10 seconds and repeat 3x do it on the other side.

This would be a good stretch to do in the morning.

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Running is a gift.

The onset of the injury and the way it is responding to your various efforts to help it heal make me suspicious that it is not IBS. Get to your doctor and get an MRI. Check for torn meniscus and cartilage defect in your patellar femoral area. I've been through the same thing where all symptoms point to IBS but nothing helps. Twice. I've spent a lot of money on ART, masssage, PT, yoga classes, to no avail before finally discovering IBS wasn't the problem.