I know this is a topic that is beat to death on the internet… but, I am specifically looking for outcomes, and forum threads always lack OP follow-up. How bad was yours? How long did it take to go away? My experience with running injuries is so varied so I am looking for advice. Sometimes I’ll be sure I have hip bursitis or plantar fasciitis from a run only to wake up and have it be 100% fine. I am hoping I can get over my IT pain quickly, but it has that sort of “this is a big deal” feeling about it.
I have been running about 60mpw for the past month or two, getting ready for a Dec marathon. That’s a lot for me, so I do feel that I was pushing it. Last week I did a tempo run, then the day after was supposed to be an easy 8 but I felt good and also happened upon a guy running my same route, got competitive, and it turned into basically a marathon-pace run. The next morning I was sore but went out for an easy 4mi recovery anyway and felt the IT band. I chalked it up to soreness for another day or two, still running, before I finally realized this is ITBS and running through it is no longer the course of action.
My game plan now is: foam roll, stretch, strengthen hip/glutes, ice, NSAIDs, bike, swim. Since I feel no pain at rest or walking, I have been going out every other day to run with no goal except “stop as soon as it hurts”. This has been between 1-4 miles, getting better lately I think. Is this a good idea? Should I bite the bullet and go for total rest? Or is this a good way to gauge recovery?
you are doing all the right things except running, i have had ITBS and it goes away a lot faster if you stop the aggravating activity ( running )
If you keep on running before it is completely healed it may take months to go away.
Foam roller and massage work best for this injury.
good luck
A good start place for your questions (free & online) is sportsinjuryclinic dot net. Lots of websites out there. However use common sense & caution when pulling rehab stuff off the net as you never know who wrote what or check out the credentials of the authors.
you are doing all the right things except running, i have had ITBS and it goes away a lot faster if you stop the aggravating activity ( running )
**If you keep on running before it is completely healed it may take months to go away. **
Foam roller and massage work best for this injury.
good luck
^^^^This.
Stop running (swimming and biking are OK) for at least two weeks. Every time you run on it before it’s healed, you just aggravate it and set yourself back.
I’ll do my first post here, since I quite recently had IT Band.
Trained really hard for Stockholm marathon 6 month and 2 weeks before I couldn’t run due to IT band.
I have had it twice, first lasted 1 month the second 2 month different knees.
My tip is no run, I went out every week desperately to try and got only around 2km.
Just got home frustrated and made it worse.
Foam roller and stretching. Doing alternative training, is what I believe worked for me, tons of stretching advice on the internet.
A good thing could also be to visit a sports naprapath (think its the right word) and see what could
cause the IT band. In my case I had one weak hip and my back muscles weren’t working correct
so it made my calf take more of the work and make my knee turn inwards on impact while running.
I trained my weak points and when i got better i actually did my personal best Marathon.
When I had ITBS in the winter I had to take a couple weeks off while I foamed rolled and did some strength exercises.
I came back doing 3 min run 1 min walk and built up to 2x10min run 1 min walk before I really tried any running. One thing I had to do was avoid uphill and downhilll sections because this seemed to aggravate it.
Do not try to “run through” the injury and don’t keep going out to “test” your leg to see if it is better.
There is a treatment called “cold laser therapy” that I got from both a PT and a chiropractor that helped tremendously. It promotes healing at the cellular level for soft-tissue injuries. Prior to that, I thought I might never run again (the ITBS was so bad). I have written about that a lot on this forum so do a search or message me if you want to know more.
Also, get the “roller” from TriggerPoint. I tried a foam roller, PVC pipe, rolling pin, etc., because I was too cheap to buy the one from TriggerPoint. I finally broke down and got it and it is well worth the price… http://tptherapy.com/shop/all-tppt-products/the-grid.html
I would suggest not running for at least a month, biking is probably ok. Also, whatever stetching/strengthing/foam rolling you are doing to the leg w/ ITBS I would do to the other leg as well. It took me ~4 months to fully recover from ITBS, I was stubborn and tried to run through it quite a few times and ended up with ITBS in both legs. I don’t know if it is coincidence or what but when I returned to running I converted from a heel strike to a midfoot strike and have had no issues with ITBS since then (even with mileage over 100 mpw).
I’ve had recurring ITBS issues in the past… 6 months of recovery the first time (2 doctors and PT), and smaller recurring bouts up until about 1.5 years ago.
Like others above, I’d also recommend that you stave off all running until you’re completely pain-free. I tried running occasionally to test it out while recovering from my first bout, which probably resulted in a longer recovery time than necessary. I had better success once I took a more conservative approach, and didn’t try to force my way to recovery.
After the doctor visits and PT, I rode a stationary bike and strength trained for about 2 months. Once I felt strong and ready to start running again, I built up from 10 minutes, to 15 minutes, to 20 minutes, etc. of running with absolutely no pain (during or afterward). And when I’ve felt it flare up from time to time, I cut out running completely for a few days to a week or so, and again focus on strength until it completely dissipates. Obviously, your timelines may vary depending on the severity. But for me, “running until it hurt” seemed to lead nowhere.
It sounds like you’re on the right track for rehab. If you haven’t already, spend some time trying to understand the root cause of your problem. Short-term rehab (rest & strength training) will get you back to running, but unless you fix the functional cause, it will likely resurface. Pay attention to your gait, footstrike, knee tracking, hip-drop, etc… and if you have the opportunity, have a professional take a look. In my case, I had a bit of a heelstrike, and a leg-length discrepancy that lead to a favored leg. To this day, I’m still working toward a more symmetrical and balanced stride. But by consciously working on proper form, and strength to support it, I’ve been able to keep the injuries at bay.
I know the frustration, best of luck with your recovery!
I had it last year and I don’t think rest fixes it. I hit all the typical spots daily from the glutes to the calves with exercises, stretches, roller, etc. I still ran and stopped once I felt anything (usually around 30-45 minutes), way before the pain threshold. I really think the bands between the legs doing shuttle work, the foam roller, and certain stretches (pigeon pose, etc) did it for me. Gone in 5-6 weeks. Was able to still do around 20 miles a week during treatment. Lots of 2-5 milers.
The trick is to stop BEFORE it hurts. Really, before you feel anything weird at all. That usually means that your first run is maybe 3 minutes long (after a walking warmup), and your second one isn’t much longer than that.
As others have pointed out, at this point you need to stop running completely for a little while. Then when you start back, go very VERY short. And then stop. It’s tough to gauge how far you can go each time, it’s like trying to prove a negative in an argument, you can’t really know. So you have to be frustratingly conservative. But it’s really the only option, because as soon as it hurts at all, you’re more or less back to the start.
OK thanks for the advice everyone. I think I’ll force myself to lay off for a little while. Funny how the mind adjusts expectations and realities. A few days ago I was bummed I was only going to get in 50 miles that week. Now I am at relative peace with slowly building back up after a few weeks. And it may even degrade from there, haha. All I can do is all I can do…
It took over 2 months to get rid of my ITBS finally. I probably wasn’t as rigorous with the ice/foam rolling/strengthening exercises as I should have been, and I tried to keep up some level of training, which was a mistake.
Not trying to scare you…Mine was bad, and I tried it all, including every hotshot ART, chiropractor, and PT guy in the tri state area. Ultimately I had surgery after about a year–an ITB “release” procedure, they called it. That didn’t fix it. I finally quit running altogether. Now, several years later, I am back running with only other injuries plaguing me (fingers crossed).
My advice would be to lay off for a few weeks. If you resume and it’s gone after that, consider yourself lucky.
I had an IT band injury bad that I tried to run through and ignore, etc., for about three years (summer of 2007 through summer of 2010). I could barely sit in a restaurant with my legs under the table because when I had my knee bent, my leg and knee would start to burn.
As much as I hated doing it at the time, I wound up taking about four or five months off of no running whatsoever. During that time, I did a lot of foam rolling and stretching. When I made my “comeback” as it were in spring 2011, I added quite a bit of cycling to my routine, which also really seemed to help. I still foam roll a ton, try to stretch a lot, and am back up to my “pre-break” running volume and it’s been okay for the most part. I still get a little twinge every now and then, but I just foam roll a little and it goes away.
Like other posters have said, I found the two most important things for me were; (1) real, actual rest; and (2) foam rolling/stretching. Probably equally important, but the foam rolling and stretching alone did nothing for me until I took the rest.
I’ve posted a lot about this, but here is what I’ve found with my own IT Band struggles in the past, and how I eventually kicked it for good. A local pro coach/athlete gave me these tips.
Do not run if it hurts. For me, this was about 1/2 of a block before I started feeling it beside my knee.
Start strengthening your hips. I use the side-steps exercise with the black mini-bands from Perform Better.
Start strengthening your butt. I use the hip ups exercise (google this if you’re not sure).
Concentrate on your running form. Particularly cadence. ~180 steps per minute
Here is an explanation of the above:
Every time you piss off your IT band, it takes time for the inflammation to go down. Don’t do this. Stop before you irritate things further.
The root cause of your IT band issues is weak hips. I’ll bet you have a desk job.
The root cause of your IT band issues is weak butt. I’ll bet you have a desk job.
Being easy on your legs is a HUGE benefit to recovering, and staying recovered. Use good running form to aid recovery.
I had ITBS bad. Hurt going down stairs. Hurt getting in the car. Definitely hurt trying to run. I was very diligent in doing the hip/butt exercises 3x/day. I believe it took about 4-6 weeks to fully kick it. I also biked and swam during the recovery process. The foam roller is good, but studies have shown it to not have much impact for IT Band related injuries. It will definitely toughen you up, and help your muscles at the same time. I still do 1-4 above to keep things running smoothly. Good luck! You can kick this with the right effort.