I believe I have traced the root of my continued ITBS problem in both legs to being bow legged. Are there any others out there that are bow legged and have had continued ITBS? If so what did you do? Can an orthotic correct this?
I think you may be on the right track. I had my first case of ITBS a few months ago. I saw four different physical therapists, did all the stretches, weight training, massage, ice, etc. I tried three different shoes. Nothing worked (at least as quickly as I wanted it to). I had been a track guy in high school, football in college, etc. so I thought my mechanics were fairly good but that was the only thing left to look at. I realized that my foot steps would come down in line with each other (like running on a tight rope) and I was landing first on the outside of my foot. This was causing my legs to try to bow out at the knee which strained my IT band.
I tried putting about 1" between my right and left foot strikes and landing more on the middle to inside of my foot. I had to do this consciously at first but it soon became normal. In less than a week my ITBS was gone. This was after fighting it for two months.
PS: I also put Icy Hot on my IT band and wore a neoprene thigh sleeve over it to keep the muscle warm when I ran. Though the pain was at the outer knee I thought it was more effective to wear the sleeve over the muscle because that is were the blood flow is.
PS: Orthodics may help. I talked to a podiatrist who said they use felt to slightly build up the inner half of the shoe insert in this case. I used tape to do the same thing. I’m not sure if it made a difference.
I’ve now been running pain free in any shoes with no orthodics for months.