I have had IT Band problems for about 7 months and still cannot shake it. I have rested, stretched, foam rolled with out any luck. Has anyone tried the straps around the knees? Any recommendations if so? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
They did nothing for my ITBS, but helped with another injury. KT Tape worked wonders for me, but it just let me race through the problem. Read up on strengthening your glutes and hips. I did the rest, stretching, rolling too and nothing worked untill I took about 3 months off and strengthened my glutes/hips. I still do the exercises a few days a week and have had almost no problems for me.
Had the same issue for about a year or longer. Strap didn’t do shit, I tried a few. I finally resolved my it band issues by changing a few things up, so its hard to contribute the cure to anything in particular.
I attribute the most to foam rolling (which I had been doing the entire time) but rolled literally everything from my waist down. I tried this one day out of frustration and found my hips and glutes were extremely painful\sensitive to rolling. They eventually loosened up and resolved the issue. If you can’t hit it with a foam roller get a ‘stick’. This includes my groin. I will occasionally find something very tight in my legs that throws off the entire balance and causes issues, whether it be my it band or another area of the knee or ankle. Keep it loose. Calves, groin, glutes, hips, hamstrings, quads, and everything in between. Everything.
I stopped running on the side of the road and moved to the sidewalk. Slightly more hazardous here due to crap maintenance but the ground is much more level. My left side hurt the worst that I attribute to always running against traffic and running on that slight decline towards the gutter.
If you’ve got weight to lose, lose it. The less lard you have to stabilize the less strain.
good luck, annoying chronic injury I know
No. Rest, yoga and roller is what helped me.
It really depends on why you have ITBS, as it is a symptom of another problem. For me it was a twisting ankle. Until that was addressed all the stretches and exercises in the world wouldn’t stop the ITBS from coming back.
I was assessed by a Chiro Sport Doc, then he did ART and finally gave me the exercises I needed to keep the ITBS away. It was well worth the work for sure.
thanks for the advice, do you have any recommended exercises or websites to visit?
Yep, strap about 2-3 inches above the knee can work wonders. There was one study where they actually had participants keep their legs straight all night (by wearing a knee brace while sleeping) and that helped too - based on similar logic as strap: reduced rubbing friction on tibial attachment of IT band.
Ben Greenfield
http://www.bulletproofknee.com
strap doesnt work, foam roller is pure placebo. look at the studies: hip abductor strengthening works.
i got a shot of cortizone to the fat pad on the knee cap and that stoped all pain instantly i just
had to lay off heavy training for a week
.
Cortisone shot for me into the band on lateral side of the knee. Then PT 2x per week to stretch hamstrings, quads, glutes and hips and strengthen hips and legs. Also did trigger point therapy in hip. All of the above for a month have really helped.
Could you explain more about your ankle and how it affected your itbs? I just got some IT issues and remembered that two weeks before the flare up i rolled my ankle and continued to run on it even though it was fairly painful. Thanks,
I actually have my wife roll my legs out with a rolling pin. I don’t care if it is a placebo or not, it makes me stop hurting.
When I went in to see my Chiro / ART guy he video taped me running on a treadmill. This showed that my one ankle was twisting in (under pronation) when it hit. This wasn’t an issue when I was doing short fast runs, but when I increased my distances it meant I didn’t have enough time to heal up. This was tightening up my fascia / calf muscle which twisted my knee, this led to hip and of course ITBS.
So for me this was a chronic issue, but not something I could figure out on my own. I did all the ITBS stretches and rolling stuff, but as I wasn’t dealing with the actual issue so the ITBS just kept coming back.
Thanks for the reply, this is something for me to consider as i have had an ankle issue that i know has altered my running gait slightly over the last few weeks. Once agin this shows how complex ITBS can be when trying to determine the primary cause.
Not a doc, but . . .
The first and last thing you need to know about ITB issues is the point where the pain is, *is not where the problem is. *The root of ITB issues is in the deep gluteal muscles at the point of insertion of the ITB fascia.
Hey Steve - seems you have not had enough coffee this morning – y’all are missing a few “o’s” 
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It helped but will not solve the underlying problem, which I have learnt is almost always down to glute strength (glute min and med). See a physio. The longer you leave it the longer it takes to heal. Whatever is going out og whack from the hip down is likely affected by your glute. Ankle, pronation, whetever. Don’t waste time with bands and rolling. Both help but see a physio and get working on that weak ass.
You’re probably not foam rolling enough or as aggressively as you need to be. Don’t be afraid to cry.
You also need to figure out the muscle imbalance, or foot strike, or whatever issue is causing it and address that. That pain means that something is either too too tight or too weak. The straps are pointless. It’s like putting a dora the explorer band aid on a gangrenous infection.
I had tremendous success with the ITB strap. BUT - you gotta get the right one, and you gotta put it in the right place.
The band goes above the kneecap, about 3 inches, and the “bump” goes on the outside where the strap it. Find the strap with your fingers, with your leg extended, it will be sort of “sharp” feeling, and put the bump there.
The bump creates a sort of “virtual anchor point” for the lower end of the band, basically eliminating the rubbing across the outside of the kneecap.
I went from trying to run and failing at 3 miles without the strap, to IM, a marathon and other races with the strap. Fixed it. Whatever imbalances I have in my biomechanics are NOT fixed, but the rubbing is gone and I can run again.
My wife fought ITB stuff for ages, and mine occasionally screw up patellar tracking. The only way to fix the structural problem is strength (and you need not only to do both sides, ad- and abductors, because often the root cause is weakness on the opposite side, but also think about whether it is calf, or hamstring, or glute weakness - only the rare, very good, athlete’s PT will be able to tell you that and describe the right routine); and flexibility (the foam roller is not placebo, it is massaging out an overly taught muscle). Also get some deep body work - we have a cycling-specific Rolfer around there, that sort of person would help a lot.
But mainly don’t listen to bulletin boards. Chronic ITB put my wife under the knife after training thru it for a marathon - go to a really good surgeon, get a really good PT, dudes (chicks) who understand your demands as an athlete. Don’t listen to us.