Haven’t ran in seven days since onset of ITBS. I have Followed to the letter all NSAID, icing, massage, stretching protocols given by PT and doctor.
Those of you who have had this injury, how long until you can run without pain again? I know this is a highly individual question but I need some sort of hope/expectation for progress based on others experience.
Today I ran easy on the treadmill (per PT recommendation) and had to step off after 15 minutes due to onset of discomfort/pain. Immediately stopped, iced and took some NSAIDs which I had discontinued yesterday in order not to mask any signs of pain etc.
I have a marathon on schedule in two weeks. It’s obvious to me this ain’t happening. Now I’m wondering about the half, the five miler, the kid’s 1 mile trot?
I’ve been dealing with itbs since February/March. I took a whole month off of running and the problem still persists. I am limited to about an 11:30/mile pace over a 5k. That is the pace just before the “twinge” starts to happen on the side of my right knee I used to run about 8:00/mile. I have been massaging my hip, I got superfeet orthotics, and I have been doing leg abduction exercises. (I believe that taking running time off just weakens the leg abductors more and can just contribute to the downward spiral.) ITBS is a PITA. I have yet to see a doctor because I have a feeling they will just tell me, rest, ice, nsaids, and what not. Have you tried reading up at http://www.itbs.info ? it is a discussion group dedicated to this problem. Most people will tell you that surgery is the last option. One thing I have learned is Pain = Inflammation = more time off. Don’t run to the point of pain. Try to run before you get there, and once it starts hurting, stop. Good luck to you!
T-Man: Sorry you’re going though it. ITB BLOWS. I had my first (known) flare-up 2 years ago. I didn’t know what it was, so I continued to “run through the pain” for several weeks until I could barely even walk.
My orthopedist (also a runner) said, “take 30 days off and you’ll be fine.” 30 days! No friggin way. I had a half IM “A” race 60 days out, so I wanted results NOW. So I underwent A.R.T. therapy (2x/week) stretching, ice, “ball-on-the-butt” exercise, water running, anti-inflammatories, rolling pin, elliptical trainer, etc… Every week, I would go out to a soft track and run really easy until I felt any sign of pain. Like you, I couldn’t make it more than a mile or so before the onset of pain. I was very discouraged.
After 30 days (almost to the day) I made it 5 miles. I might have gone farther, but I didn’t want to push my luck. So maybe my orthopedist was right all along. Now I do ITB stretching exercises before every long run or hill repeats. I still have pain from time to time, but I always stop immediately and stretch and that usually does the trick. I have also found that I am less likely to have ITB flare up during a long brick run than during stand-alone long run of the same distance.
BTW, I finished the half just fine (no ITB pain at all). Although I was a little slower than I had planned, I was excited to be able to run hard for 13 miles 60 days after an ITB flare-up, especially after taking a month off of running.
I hate to tell you this, but the pain in your knee (or the hip sometimes) is not where the problem is. You have an imbalance somewhere. Mine was in the glutes . . . and also required some biomechical corrections to my gait.
I’ve been dealing with this on and off since October of 2003. The only things that have really helped me are custom orthodics (superfeet weren’t enough), doing all my training on dirt, and the foam roller. Othodics got me right back running when the ITB was most acute, so that is something to consider. Really, I was back running 10 miles at training pace within a week and before I couldn’t last 10 minutes. I know a few others who were “saved” by orthodics and some who they didn’t help at all. Worth a shot IMO. Good luck!
Thank you for sharing your experience and insight with this. Your answer was to the “T” what I was hoping to hear in that we sometimes share similar outlooks and attitudes toward healing the body and that we’re individuals, we can often learn from the journey of others.
Curious what your opinion of ART was in contributing to recovery? I’ve never done this. I am seeing a Hellerwork massage practicioner now (Rolfing).
I fought it for 2 months. I saw four PT’s and did everything they asked including stretching, ice, massage, strength exercises, rest, ect. Nothing worked very well. I finally started thinking of my mechanics and realized that I landed on the outside of my feet with each step almost directly in line with the previous one (probably a result of running a lot of sprint turns in high school track). This put a side load on my legs making them want to “bow out” more than usual at the knee over stressing the IT band.
I forced myself to land more on the inside of my foot and moved my right and left footstrikes slightly farther apart. I had to concentrate on it the first few runs but it soon became automatic. This solved the problem in a matter of days and it hasn’t been back since.
I also kept my IT band warm when running by using sports cream and wearing a Neoprene upper thigh sleeve for a month.
Mine must be a fairly isolated case because I haven’t read of a similar situation of immediate improvement on here.
TMAN: its, obviously, hard to say which of the myriad remedies that I threw at the problem were most helpful, but if I was a betting man, I would put my money on the A.R.T. therapy as the most beneficial remedy for me. It is quite painful, but I found it to be effective. If I had another serious bout with ITB, my first visit would be to my A.R.T. guy.
I would also put big money on the “ball-on-the-butt” exercise as the most beneficial (for me) maintenance and injuryprevention tool. If you are not familiar with this one, let me know and I will explain it to you.
I tell you the reason why. In the past I dealt with hip/glute(piriformis)and IT band pain and stiffness for about 6-8mths. After I took off for a couple of mths the pain subisided only to return when I resumed training. I tried every freakin remedy out there. Then a friend told me about the tpmassage ball. I started using this and the other products from this company, and was running the next day, no bull! While using these products I discovered that most of the common over use problems are connected. What happens is the quads become overworked and lose their elasticity causing strain on the TFL. The tfl loses its elasticity and forces the psoas to become overworked. The psoas connects the femur to the spine and is responsible for raising your leg, when it becomes overworked, it causes lower back pain, and causes a pelvic tilt. This pelvic tilt causes both the IT band and hamstrings to lengthen leading to pain and its own unique problem. Also over time scar tissue and adhesions occure in these areas. The tp ball works by getting deep into the belly of the muscle to relieve trigger points, relieve pain, and allows your pelvis to seat properly on your hips. That is a mouthful but check out the site www.tpmasssageball.com to see for yourselves. I’m not a doctor, but I rep for this company and have personally treated runners and triathletes who suffered from this and other over use injuries with success. You can email me tribmac@netscape.com.
This won’t go away in 2 weeks if that is getting painful after a mile of running. That area on the condyle is so inflamed right now, it is occuring pain in 15 minutes.
4-6 weeks of no running is the best thing. The things you are reading from posters here about biomechanics, stregthening exercises, massage, stretching and so on, aren’t going to make that go away in 2 weeks. Those are for non-inflamed ITB sufferers. These are things many of us who have this have to do to fight that shit off because we’ve had it.
The way to cure this is to fight it before you get it. It’s like the flu. When you get it, you got it. There’s nothing you can do to make it go away except ride it out. The best way of not getting the flu is to prevent getting it.
Correct your gait, find out what’s causing it. Is one thing. Making it go away right now ain’t in the cards. And, unfortunately, unless you’ve had it before, we don’t fight ITBS, until after you get it.
Sorry to say this as well but it took 2 months for me, but it could have been about a month if I had found my cure sooner. I went to a PT and an ART practitioner to still have pain, found on my own that I had weak hip abductors. Two weeks of laying on my side doing leg lifts, now with additional weight, has seemed to fix it up. I am still very cautious though.
The first PT said leg length! you need orthotics, I thought to myself, you have no idea what you are talking about. Went to the ART guy, he did a great job freeing up the IT (hurt like hell), now that leg was longer.
Now it is a steady diet of ice, foam roller, side leg lifts, and stretching, but I think I am going to make it.
Like others have said it is definitely caused by something other than the ordinary, you just have to investigate the possible causes.
Interesting aside is now on my tri-bike I feel my gleuts fatigue when I am pushing hard, I had never felt this before.
Good luck, hope you find your cure. This link might help, they have good articles on stretches and excercise.
I’ve had this bummer. For the past two years I had this problem, each year on a different knee. Both cases took about 8-10 weeks to heal. The good news is when the ITB healed I loved running like I had never before. This injury is about prevention. I had to learn to start the season with low levels of frequency, duration, and intensity. Best of luck.
First, you need a ball. A tennis ball works, but is not ideal. A baseball would be better. There is some company that makes a ball specifically for this purpose. I have one, but I can’t remember the name of the company. I’m sure someone here will post the name. They have a booth at most major tris.
Place the ball on the ground. Position your body like you are going to “crab walk” (on your hands a feet, butt-down). Ease your glute (on whichever side the offending ITB is on) down onto the ball gently until you have 25% of your weight on it. Roll around until you find a tight spot (you’ll know when you’ve found it because it will hurt). When you find a tight spot, stop and put more weight on the ball, as much as you can stand. Try to relax and release the tension in your glutes. You’ll want to tighten up in response to the pain, but think happy thoughts and relax. You will feel the pain subside as the muscle relaxes (think “melting”). Try gently rolling or rocking to “massage” away the tension. It takes me about a minute to work out a knot. Then roll around until you find another tight spot and repeat. It is a little painful, but well worth it.
The link above to the foam roller exercise is also good. I use a wooden rolling pin for the same thing.
Just a word of support. I have been off for over 4 weeks. I have got 4 PT sessions in so far and I tried to run just 30 minutes ago. No dice. The pain started again at 6 minutes. I can ride easy but no hills.
10k into any training run and I could barely walk at all. I was out for 4 months. Went to see a sports therapist and she discovered one leg was about 1/2 inch longer than the other. Custom orthotics with a lift in one to correct for length discrepancy and lots of hip abduction work, icing and Advil has fixed me up. She told me to ice twice a day during training to keep it under control.
Re Advil, I have been told it doesn’t just mask the pain but actually helps fix the problem, ie reduce inflamation, hence it is highly recommended.
tp massage ball. Yes, they do have a booth at all IM events and most major marathons. I am a rep fro this company, and have treated many runners personally at the Boston Marathon in April. There are other products called the quadballer for treating IT band and the footballer for treating plantar fasciitis and shin splints. Simply put these products work because they treat the problem that cause these injuries. Many top triathletes endorse the tpmassage ball. A lot of us stop training because of injuries, only to return a few weeks later and have the same injuries reoccur. Aren’t you guys tired of this vicious cycle? If you are training 6 days a week shouldn’t you be doing therapy 6 days a week? You can email me tribmac@netscape.com for more info or check out www.tpmassageball.com.
My experience with the IT band a few years back taught me that time off alone did not help. You have to loosen it up through massage, stretching, the ball therapy people here have mentioned, or a combination. My ITB was always just as sore after a week off as it was the week previous. Then my friend identified it–I thought it was a knee issue because that’s where it hurt-and showed me how to stretch. Eventually (like a year) I didn’t think about it anymore, but even now if I neglect stretching I’ll feel a little twinge and it acts as a reminder to get my act together and stretch.