I've posted a few times in the past about my IT band struggles and am actually headed to see the orthopedic surgeon tomorrow to see if he has any thoughts. I've tried just about everything I can think of over the past 2.5 years with no luck (off the top of my head; 3 rounds of physical therapy, sports chiropractor, massage, graston, ART, rest, shots, stretching, strength training, bike fit, gait analysis, shoe inserts, etc). I think I've made a lot of progress and thought I had it licked last year with a combination of PT/strength training and shoe inserts, only to have it come back at around mile 70 or 80 of Mont-Tremblant... I ended up walking the entire marathon. I waited a few months and went for a run and wasn't even able to make it a mile. I've decided to focus on cycling this year and have pretty much given up on running, but now I'm starting to feel it on the bike, which is pretty damn frustrating. I have a buddy who is a PT and he wanted to take a look at it before I potentially talked surgery, unfortunately he came to the same conclusion as the others I've talked to... strength in the hips/glutes are good and nothing jumps out as being an obvious cause. I jokingly mentioned that the only thing I haven't tried short of surgery is dry needling. Much to my surprise, he didn't laugh at it and said he actually knows a guy who does it and he's seen some promising/surprising results. I've done a bit of research on ST and Dr. Google, but most of the threads here are older and most of the discussion I can find is anecdotal (which is still helpful).
My question to Dr. Slowtwitch is, does anyone have any experience with dry needling? How about specifically with a tough case of ITBS? Does anyone know of any scientific studies into the effectiveness of it as a treatment?
I'm going to give it a shot this afternoon as the guy can work me in and I figure this way I can tell my wife I have tried literally every alternative to surgery. The worst case scenario is that I'm out a few bucks I probably would have spent on something stupid bike related anyways. I look forward to hearing any feedback on dry needling, positive or negative, IT band related or elsewhere.
Thanks!
My question to Dr. Slowtwitch is, does anyone have any experience with dry needling? How about specifically with a tough case of ITBS? Does anyone know of any scientific studies into the effectiveness of it as a treatment?
I'm going to give it a shot this afternoon as the guy can work me in and I figure this way I can tell my wife I have tried literally every alternative to surgery. The worst case scenario is that I'm out a few bucks I probably would have spent on something stupid bike related anyways. I look forward to hearing any feedback on dry needling, positive or negative, IT band related or elsewhere.
Thanks!