My good friend just started to get involved in the Tri world, and seems to have ITBS symptoms all the times in both legs. He sits in a chair at his day job for eight hours a day, and he says this aggravates the problems. I guess he has always had this problem. My question is can the sitting a big portion of the day be hard on the IT bands? He has not done any other activity for two months other than walking.
I’d like to hear some opinions on this myself.
I have a theory, but only as a long time ITBS sufferer, not a doctor.
Looking back at my worst bouts of ITBS, they’ve usually occured after I’ve returned to work for a week or two following a vacation where I’ve done some consistant training (which is about every vacation I take). I don’t think its the sitting that aggrivates the ITB, but all the sitting tightens up the hips and creates loss of muscle in the glutes and abdominals which throw of the alignment of the hips creating greater strain on the ITB when training or in every day activities.
Thats my theory. Rest, ART, Accupuncture and a stretching/strengthening program have helped me tremendously this year but it is something that I still struggle with each season and I think it has a lot to do with sitting in my chair all day long at work.
Would love to hear other thoughts from someone more experienced though.
Mark
Don’t know about ITBS, but my piriformis acts up when I sit for long periods of time. I am constantly fidgeting in chairs and move around so much, people probably think I have some type of urinary disorder. Airplane seats are the worst - not enough room to move around. By the time I get off any plane ride 2.5 hours plus, I am in serious pain from sitting still so long.
My piriformis first showed up when training for my first IM due to my long training days on the bike. It has never gone completely away.
I have horrible ITBS, and sitting for long periods, i.e. my weekends of 10+ hours a day in grad school, absolutely fucking kill. I usually foam roll/ice/stretch for 30 minutes or so when i get home.
ITBS friggin sucks.
My ITBS (in both legs) has gotten so bad over the past year that I can do nothing but lift weights with my upper body. As it has been months since I did any meaningful swim, bike, run I can only attribute it to sitting in a chair for 60+ hours a week. And often long commutes for work in the car. I recently sold my stick shift and got an automatic as that was aggravating it as well.
Glad to hear this isn’t a figment of my imagination as some of my friends seem to think it is. I have had one major shoulder surgery and countless other injuries. I would go through all of them again to be rid of ITBS. I’m starting to think its just genetic.
Don’t know about ITBS, but my piriformis acts up when I sit for long periods of time.<<
Exactly!! Sitting is evil, especially on planes. Stretching and ART when it flares up seem to help.
clm
I have had the same problem and believe it stems from sitting at my desk at work for 9 hours a day. I am at the point that I ahve just lifted weights with my upper body for the past three months also. I really have no reason to have ITBS symtoms in both legs as all I have done for months is walk. I know sitting for these long periods of times has been much of the problem. I have to admit I thought I was crazy to feel this way until I saw this post. It would be interesting to hear an experts advice on this.
Doesn’t ITBS come from repetitive (and abrasive) motion?
I would think that chondamalacia (however it is spelled) would be something more likely to be worsened by sitting (legs bent).
I’m at my desk for long periods each day so I sit on a swiss ball instead of a chair.
It makes you move in small amounts all the time so would probably help with this.
I don’t see how it could because the inflammation on the bursa at the knee or at the hip (trochanteric bursa) are from repetitive friction by the band over those areas, a repetitive brushing over it, which could only come from constant movement. (Restless legs…I’m not going to go there)
Having said that, I bet sitting a lot may make the glutes or band or TFL tighter itself I guess which could LEAD TO a tighter ITB band, but I would think that if all you did was sit, you probably wouldn’t have ITBS. Same for cold weather, I tend to come down with it and others at the beginning of fall or winter. The band gets tighter on me when its cold outside. Or, as the guy down there points out, after you stop for a few week and start again in running.
But I’m out there of course running a lot when it is tight. So you have to have tightness PLUS a lot of overuse to get that. I would not think just sitting itself causes it.
I found that the more I focused on my core training the less problems I have with either my ITB or Piriformis issues.
Pilates is said to also help, but you need to really work with someone one-on-one, or at least a very small group to make sure you do movements correctly.
Interesting. I really have been going insane over this. I also have done nothing but walk, minus a 2 mile jog every couple of weeks to avoid losing my mind, and it feels like things are getting worse instead of better. I have seen a few sports doc’s, a podiatrist who is a multiple time finisher of Western States, an acupunturist, and multiple PT’s to no avail. Everyone does agrees this is ITBS though, and not one of the other knee ailments.
Has anyone had ITBS to this level of severity and gotten back to regular running?
My hypothesis is that sitting in a desk all day tightens the hips and lower back which translates to tighter IT bands making recovery from an already aggravated IT band very difficult. That and the genetic’s thing I already mentioned.
Sitting puts the hip flexors (iliopsoas and rectus femoris) in a state of tension, and can also aggravate hip rotators (piriformis).
ITBS is usually caused by a tight or weak TFL (tensor fasciae latae), which is an AB-ductor, so in theory, ITBS shouldn’t be aggravated by sitting unless you sit sort of knock-kneed, but…
TFL can play a role in a chain of postural issues that may include: QL, glute medius, piriformis, iliopsoas, TFL.
In my experience, tight or weak iliopsoas just sets up your entire low back and hip food chain for problems. The cure is lots of iliopsoas stretching (and entire hip/glute complex) and serious core work.
But sitting still sucks. Your friend needs to come up with a way to get up every hour for a few minutes, even if just to stretch. But that is something anyone with a desk job should do; not just a person who is experiencing muscle tightness.
Thank you for your suggestions. I know that I need to strengthen my core. I will take your advice on core work and stretching. I appreciate it…
PM me and I’ll send you a dynamite set of stretches I used to fix piriformis syndrome, but there are really good illustrated iliopsoas stretches included (which like I said, are famous, at least on MY body, for kicking off a series of problems).
Sitting in bucket seats in cars also aggravates your low back and hip areas. I have added a standard chair pillow to my driver’s seat, otherwise I am very uncomfortable driving for > 1 hour.
Another thing that helps anyone who sits a lot is to add a lumbar support. To my office chair, I bought another smaller chair cushion and it sits behind my back. It makes a TON of difference in my sitting comfort. Thing is, even a chair that claims to have lumbar support probably won’t work for people of every height. I am short (5’3"), and I can’t make any chair fit me right, so the cushion behind my back helps.
Also, office chairs need to be the exact right height so that when you are sitting, your feet are flat on the floor and your knees make a nice 90-degree angle. Anything different (like feet up on a box or whatever) is no good.
And yes, I have also occasionally sat on my Stability Ball. It’s a nice idea, but it’s possible to sit with bad posture on it once you get used to it, so I am better off with my rigid office chair with an added cushion for lumbar support, and the height is perfectly adjusted to me so that my feet are flat on the floor with knees at 90-degrees.
Before I used to work at home, I was up and moving around a lot more in the office environment. It was very noticeable that once I started working at home almost full time I began to notice more issues in my low back/hips. It took awhile to identify and correct the ergonomic issues, with a ton of help from this book: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1572243759/sr=1-1/qid=1138279090/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-7702890-7667232?_encoding=UTF8
Again, sitting for long periods of time is bad, but if you MUST do it, you need to have great posture, which is facilitated by a strong core and proper sitting equipment!
Thanks for the info on the book - it looks interesting.
If you don’t mind, I would also like a copy of the stretches you have for piriformis - I’ll PM you.
I tend to come down with it and others at the beginning of fall or winter. The band gets tighter on me when its cold outside.
I had not thought of this, but I have a flare-up right now and the same thing happened at the same time last year. Of course there are other possible contributing factors, but I really never thought the colder weather was a cause. Has anyone else experienced this?
Also, what is the best case scenario if it’s caught early? How much down time from running would anyone think? I had been planning to do a half marathon in 5 weeks, but I just stopped running the past 2 days. Is it possible to arrest it with stretching, ice, ibuprofen, rest and massage?
My recipe on this is kind of like Dan’s old article on his struggles with ITBS.
I don’t stretch it or ice that area at all when I get it. I think that aggravates the problem—for me it does. Mine actually feels better from heat or from, actually a whirlpool. Although you would think ice would be good to reduce inflammation, I can’t explain it, but really really hot heat for 20-30 minutes works better for me, immediately, I mean immediately after that. Also, Naproxen works better on it for me than Advil or ibuprofen. Naproxen however doesn’t do shit for me for anything else for some reason.
I wait for about five days, and don’t run.
Then run on absolutely flat ground, no hills, planning a 2-3 mile run or until you feel any impingement on the knee or hip or where it was bothering you. It will probably still be there. The question on when you need to stop is a hard one, but i would say on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being absolute ever present on push off ITBS, I would say stop when its a 2 or 3. Just walk back home or to the car.
Run slow. Stride short. No hills. If it starts feeling just a little pulling like its going to hurt. Stop and walk. If you were able to run 2-3 miles, take the next day off. Run again after that day off, run one or two more miles, until you feel any irritation coming. Keep doing that. Run. Day off. Run further. Day off.
You can get your miles back up. And mine dissapears in this procedure, until I get it again a year later or whenever it comes back again, because I stopped doing hip flexor strengthening exercises during the summer—and cold weather in the fall.
Well that is interesting. So different from all the other recommended therapies. I have been doing the stretches and rolling it out, and took 3 days off. Today I in-line skated. I figure it is good cross-training; it doesn’t seem to hurt the knee, and it should stregthen the muscles that are said to be weak in the IT band sufferers. Later today I am seeing a chiropractor/kinesiologist. I’m pretty sure my hips are wacky, and that could be the root cause.