My legs are wasting away. I haven’t been able to get a decent run in for over 2 months. HELP!
IT Band keeps on flaming up on my right leg. Stinging from outside top of butt, about the 4 o’clock position, down to just below the outside of the knee. From what I’ve read, this is a problem with my IT band.
I’ve been doing all the stretches I can find, have stopped running and biking, and have been icing it when it hurts. Not much seems to help. It’ll get better, I’ll start stretching it again (NO RUNNING), and it will start flaring up again.
I’m starting to panic here. While my swimming is getting much stronger, I’m a runner, and this is killing me.
Oh mighty SlowTwitch, any suggestions? Are there any better anti-inflammatory drugs I can take (OTC) that are better than Advil? Are there other things I can try? What will a doctor tell me, other than stay off it and ice it?
First, if your IT band is still in its acute phase, you should not be stretching it. You further aggravate it that way. Motrin 800 mg x 3 per day seems to work for me if your stomach can take it (take it with food). If you have RX coverage, my copay for that is only 5 bucks for a bottle of 100. Otherwise, bite the bullet and just take 4 200 mg tablets x 3 per day. More expensive, though.
Ice it, and use a foam roller. Deep tissue massage works wonders for the IT band. Rolfing is painful but it really works. Once it quiets down, then start stretching slowly.
Go to a doctor and PT that runs - he or she should be able to fix you up pretty quickly.
Use the foam roller, get a PAT strap for when you do start running. Be patient until you are out of the acute phase. 3 weeks off if its that bad…seriously. It sucks now, but its the only way to get over it.
What worked for me: Active Release Therapy + Physical Therapy + a graduated run/walk program + after run stretching + after run frictional icing=happy IT band. Good luck.
Tennis ball on the TFL. DO NOT PRESS ON THE ITB. This is painful and keeps the inflammation up. I’ve had a massage theRapist try to “work out my ITB” by pressing close to the knee. This is so wrong it isn’t even funny. Tightness there is controlled by the TFL near the hip and a few other rotators. Get an old tennis ball and sit on it, literally. You’ll probably find there are a couple of muscles in your butt/sciatic/tfl that are really, really tight and painful with the tennis ball. Since the pain isn’t entirely on the outside just above the knee, I’d guess you have some sciatic problems as well. Search here for that or google sciatica.
Check your running shoes and see if you’ve got the right support style for your knees/hips. I ran with moderate medial posting for a while, and then Mizuno hosed the toebox of my Mavericks. I switched to the neutral Riders on the advice of the local running store and had major hip/ITB problems after a couple hundred miles in them. After doing the tennis ball thing and switching back to the Maverick (fortunately rev4 had a good toebox design) my problems went away.
Also, your swimming kick is probably irritating it somewhat, I know it did for me a bit when I was having ITB problems a few years ago.
Oh yeah, I’ll second the new shoes advice. If your shoes are old, a new pair will work wonders too - you may not even need to switch brands or model, just get a new pair. I assume you already have a good running store where you’ve gotten fitted. If not, bring in your old pair. Triguy’s suggestion on swimming is probably spot on too. it aggravated my IT band problems as well. Good call.
The suggestions which everyone are describing are all very good if you merely have inflammation of the it band. however, from reading the symptoms which you have described it sounds like you are past the point of it band inflammation. You have ruptured something called the ‘bursa’, this is a jelly like object designed to prevent friction. this is quite a serious injury…you should consult a medical professional and continuing to train or even do friction thearpy work on it will out your entire season at risk. if you act early recovery time can range from 6-10 weeks. but medical assistance is essentail. locate a sports physical theapist close by and start working with him.
best of luck
I would tend to agree with triguy42 that you may have some sciatica going on. Though what you are describing does seem to follow the anatomical course of the ITB, the symptoms of ITB are almost always localized at the knee and are described as feeling like an icepick being jammed into the bone on the outside and just below the joint. “Stinging” makes me think nerve. If you are feeling something like an electric shock that runs from the hip down the leg that is more likely to be sciatica. Flip turns can be hard on your lower back and if you’re going way up on swim volume to rest your ITB you might be making sciatic nerve impingement worse.
Couldn’t disagree more with the poster who told you to stop stretching it. It takes longer to loosen up than muscles because it’s a mix of fascia and sinnewy material. If anything is going to reeally irritate it would the foam roller.
I pasted in some info that has worked for many: (also try the cho-pat strap that you can wear above the knee)
Here’s the full meal deal:
Shoes—I would guess that you pronate. If so, make sure your shoes have no more than 400 miles on them and are stabiltiy or motion control shoes with a good medial post. If you pronate badly get orthotics from your PT, some insurances will cover this too.
Have someone check your leg length, if one leg is shorter or longer that could be the cause as it may mean that your pelvis is twisted a little which makes the IT band tighter. If that’s the case you will also need to go to a sports chiropracter and get adjusted.
You need to stretch the living shit out of your IT band and the insertion points. Obsessively. Many times a day. Google stretches and IT band syndrome---- it’s too hard to explain it here.
You need to strengthen your gluteal medius. Put a theraband around legs below knees and move one leg apart at a time. 15-30 reps x 2-3 sets for each leg.
As you are getting back think frequency and short runs. Don’t do anything long for at least a month.
ICE the bursa on the side of your knee after every run and then several times a day. Watch out for frostbite.
I would tend to agree with triguy42 that you may have some sciatica going on. Though what you are describing does seem to follow the anatomical course of the ITB, the symptoms of ITB are almost always localized at the knee and are described as feeling like an icepick being jammed into the bone on the outside and just below the joint. “Stinging” makes me think nerve. If you are feeling something like an electric shock that runs from the hip down the leg that is more likely to be sciatica. Flip turns can be hard on your lower back and if you’re going way up on swim volume to rest your ITB you might be making sciatic nerve impingement worse.
Hmm… The stinging is on the outside/back of my hip. I did start off with knee pain, but I’ve been letting that rest and have been stretching and rolling it. I did do a very long swim yesterday, and the hip pain is more than I’ve ever felt today. I’ve ever felt pain as bad as an icepick in my knee, it just started to get really tight on the outside of the knee. I figured this all started when I took a digger last fall on my mtn bike, putting a nice knot on the outside of my upper thigh. That’s gone (rolling it really helped), but the pain is now in my hip, and I feel the muscle all the way from the hip to the outside of the knee.
"Couldn’t disagree more with the poster who told you to stop stretching it. It takes longer to loosen up than muscles because it’s a mix of fascia and sinnewy material. If anything is going to reeally irritate it would the foam roller. "
I think you’re wrong. The pain from the IT is where it attaches to hip and at the patella (and in more severe case in the band itself) - there is an inflamed bursa that rubs on the patella and at the hip. It’s painful there because its swollen because the fascia, which is very high tensile, is all “tightened up,” and you’re getting rubbing of the bursa. Stretching is only going to place additional strain on the attachment points where rolling with a roller is going to break up the adhesions. So - no - strecthing is not good during the acute phase while rolling it out may help.
once you’ve loosened the main part of the IT band up and it’s no longer an acute injury absolutely “stretching the shit out of it” is going to play a role. Let things at the insertion points calm down first.
Take all this free advice from a message board and you get what you pay for - go to a physiatrist who specializes in sports injuries (agan, one who runs) he or she will set you up.
Take all this free advice from a message board and you get what you pay for - go to a physiatrist who specializes in sports injuries (agan, one who runs) he or she will set you up.
Yeah, that… Getting old sucks, btw. I turned 34 and started falling apart.
Thanks for the suggestions.
Your definitly stretching it too much and like Gromit said you shouldn’t stretch it in it’s acute stage.
I had ITB syndrome for a year or more. Finaly with much patience and ART ( Active release therapy ) I got back to running healthy. I thought I’d never run again. Be patient and try some natural anti inflamatories like hawthorn and horsetail. Also , try massaging warm sesame or olive oil right on the injury at least once a day. I do this every time I come home from a cold and damp run and my ITB is tight. It loosens it right up …
Go to the doctor and then Physical Therapy. I had IT problems for 17 years, couldn’t run more than 4-5 miles. 2-3 months of PT followed by regular foam rolling and proper stretches, the last 2 years 3 marathons, 2 HIMs and working towards my first IM this summer. I couldn’t have done it without PT.
Name those appropriate stretches that are not going to pull on the attachment points. The poster should go to a doctor. But, I still think - I repeat think (because I’m not a doctor) - you’re wrong. Either way, I think we both have the poster’s best interest at heart.
One of these days I will get a picture of the stretch to post. It’s too difficult to explain. It healed my ITBS and other teamates and training partners of mine.
I still do this stretch several times a day. It does pull on the insertion points but doesn’t seem to irritate the bursa. The irritation you may be talking about in the meat of IT band is necessary to go through—it’s the result of it loosening up—in my experience. I would say when it is irritated like this to back off the foam roller and deep tissue on the band itself. Deep tisse at the TFL insertion area seems to be good. My original post to stretch it obessively was in the context of the band itself not being that irritated but rather the bursa at the side of the knee being irritated. Stretching loosens the band and the insertion points resulting in less rubbing on the bursa.