After my run on Saturday (10.6 miles), I developed a pain right on my iliac crest of my left leg. Pain is sharpest during ambulation and palpation. Also If I am seated and twist at the core to the unaffected side, etc. At rest it fades to a dull ache. A couple days of rest, stretching, and ice have not helped. There has been no real change in my training–I am ramping up, but slowly. I am not a new runner, my shoes are newish, I do core/hip/glute/ab work. Etc etc. The pain came on suddenly, and had I suffered any kind of blow, I’d swear it was a hip pointer.
I’ve never had troubles with ITBS–and I know it’s less common to manifest in the hip, but is that a possibility? Can that come on suddenly? Glute or TFL strain? SHould I just let it rest for a few days? Grr. I am headed to FL and was really looking forward to getting in some nice runs in warm weather.
I have had the same thing for about a 6 weeks now! Pain is not in the hip but on the superior part of the iliac crest . Kind of where the adomimals attach. It has gotten better but I can not shake it entirely. No pain while running but is sore afterwards. I do have a history of ITB but believe I am ok now. (I think)
I actually think I may have strained it while trying to roll my shins on the foam roller. I was kind of hyper-extended. Any chance you overdid it while streching ? Ice seems to help alot.
aleve for a short period of time only. I would run if not painful while running but I would ask someone with a medical degree. I only do teeth
SI Joint disfunction is quite common…but it’s very hard to differentiate from discogenic back pain. You could either have pressure on a spinal nerve or an inflamation of the SI joint.
A few things that should help a lot (or rather avoid worsening it) are to avoid running down hills. If/when you come to a down hill of notable slope, turn around backwards and run down that way. Also, shorten your stride.
There are probably a lot of good strengthening/stretching things you can do too, but you will need to have a differential diagnosis first because you don’t know if it’s lumbar or SI related.
Being a serious athlete who would rather not simply rest. Go in and have your Dr. treat it aggressively. That may mean starting with an MRI to look for a cause. There are a variety of diagnostic tests (move and bend stuff) that help make a tentative diagnosis. If the Dr. suspects SI joint disfunction then a guided injection of cortisone in to the SI joint is a wonderful treatment.
Not really in the right location for SI joint, at least I don’t think so–not lower back, no groin or thigh pain. It’s definitely right on the crest of the ilium. Very pinpoint.
It probably is a hip pointer. I did it about 10 years ago. N=1 and all that, but I could not run for about 6 weeks to get rid of it. It is a very small area that takes a lot of stress from running. You need to get a MT to loosen things up to prevent it from happening again. Best.
Not really in the right location for SI joint, at least I don’t think so–not lower back, no groin or thigh pain. It’s definitely right on the crest of the ilium. Very pinpoint.
It probably is a hip pointer. I did it about 10 years ago. N=1 and all that, but I could not run for about 6 weeks to get rid of it. It is a very small area that takes a lot of stress from running. You need to get a MT to loosen things up to prevent it from happening again. Best.
I guess I didn’t realize you could get a hip pointer injury w/out trauma. It sure FEELS like that’s what it is. What areas do you have the MT work on?
I just ran over to see my PT guy who fixed my ITB six months ago. He said the transverse adominals attach to the superior iliac crest and that it was nothing too serious and that I could keep running and not do too much damage. He said it was not a hip pointer, nor hip bursitis, those are usually in a different location. So as long as your pain is where you say it is you should be ok. I would let it heal a bit before you stretch it .
I suffer from the same type of pain and thought it was ITBS but went to a sports medicine doc who said that it was the hip aBductor muscle tendonitis at the insertion point on the ileac crest. He prescribed some side leg lifts (think 80’s fitness video stuff) and ice massage. I was trying like hell to cure it with treatment for ITBS, but a few days of the leg lifts and ice massage has made it all but gone away. I would definitely check with a sports medicine doc because when I went to my family doc and told her what I thought it was she said felt around for a couple of minutes and said “yeah your probably right”. Hope this helps, good luck with the pain.
Not to piss in your beer, but… I’ve had this same thing for 6 months now. I went to PT, got a steroid shot, stretched, you name it. It’s finally going away, but it took 6 frigging months. The only thing that made it better was not running. Ugh!
I just read the posts in March about iliac crest pain and wondered if anyone had been successful, other than waiting it out. I stopped running for 3mos., was able to bike and swim, but as soon as I started to jog again, it returned. Having to pull out of doing an IM and any other racing this entire year. Will it ever end? I’ve done the sports medicine doc and he did any x-ray and anti-inflammatories. Have also tried icing, chiropractic, acupuncture, massage, ART… I ice and ice, and ice.
I’m wondering what the results were for anyone who may have posted in this thread (I know it was a long time ago).
I’ve had the same issue, have been in PT for 3 weeks and they don’t know what it is and are ‘just trying things out to see what sticks’. There are no real weaknesses or imbalances they can seem to find.
At first I saw an ortho - an X-ray revealed some slight inflammation where abs attach to my iliac crest and he just put me on an NSAID for a month and stop running for a month, which was ineffective.
Now I’m in PT - and they tell me I can run a little bit so I am - only 1.5-3 miles at a time.
It is such a strange thing - I go run, and there’s no problem, and a few hours after I run I feel like someone knocked me with a wrench and bruised the very top part of my iliac crest along the posterior portion.
PT says I have tightest IT bands he’s ever felt, but I foam roll 4-5 times a week and have for like 4-5 years now, and only ever had ITBS in my right (opposite) leg.
This issue for me has been ongoing for about 6 months or more, and may or may not have started when I ramped up mileage a little bit in the winter. I don’t tend to run all that far (my mileage went from 3-4 miles to 5-7 miles) but I do try to run fairly hard - anywhere from 5:45-7:00/mi pace depending on distance. I have tried just not running for up to 6 weeks a few times, and then go run to see if it will flare up again, it inevitably does, but I keep running since I’m frustrated that nothing is helping and the resulting pain is tolerable. The ortho and PT seem to think that running will not result in any long term damage and the x-ray didn’t show any problems or weaknesses with bones and tissue and whatever else they look for.
I feel like I’m just tossing money out the window doing PT but no one seems to know what the appropriate next step would be.
I can ride my bike with no problem, but my first passion is running, so I’m going crazy with this not healing. Usually I can stretch and ice my way out of any problem I’ve ever had. Not this one.
The internet doesn’t seem to have a whole lot of useful stuff I can find, which I guess is illustrated by google leading me to a 6 yr old thread in the first few pages of search.
Any thoughts by anyone who’s experienced this or has any ideas would be great.
That sounds like your iliacus, a muscle that ties into your psoas, which is one of the hip flexors. Sometimes, they’re referred to jointly as the iliopsoas. Google them.
See a massage therapist to have it worked on properly. Or you can try some self-massage followed by light stretching. Look online for recommended stretches and massages. But beware of self-massage because your intestines and – if you’re a dude – your spermatic cord and inguinal ligament are close enough that you might not want to be blindly mashing stuff in that area. It hurts to massage the area even if you’re doing it properly.
We’ve tried that massage in PT - even though I was skeptical because it was away from the affected area. It didn’t do anything unfortunately.
This is right towards the top of my iliac crest and feels like a bruise on the ridge of bone. I feel like my symptoms pretty accurately mirror the original posters’ - the pain is very limited - it is a tender area that is probably like 2-3" in diameter right along the edge of the crest.
I have total and painless range of motion through all hip movements and have been tested for any hernia but was negative in all of the movements
The pain is most apparent when there is applied pressure to the irritated area that it hurts, or occasionally if I am sedentary after running it will hurt when I stand up to start walking again.
It feels very much like an impact injury as opposed to muscle tightness/soreness.
PT says I have tightest IT bands he’s ever felt, but I foam roll 4-5 times a week and have for like 4-5 years now, and only ever had ITBS in my right (opposite) leg.
Opposite leg or not, everything’s connected. Strengthen your glutes - that will take some of the pressure off the ITB. Also, do you heelstrike? That is bad for the ITB.
MRI? Maybe there is an inflamed tendon that could be settled down with a cortisone shot?
See a massage therapist to have it worked on properly. Or you can try some self-massage followed by light stretching. Look online for recommended stretches and massages. But beware of self-massage because your intestines and – if you’re a dude – your spermatic cord and inguinal ligament are close enough that you might not want to be blindly mashing stuff in that area. It hurts to massage the area even if you’re doing it properly.
That dig-into-the-psoas might help; I had a PT do that for me when I had psoas tendonitis. Hurt like hell.
