IT Band?

[Deborajen]

IT band syndrome is very treatable when diagnoses properly. What that means is finding the cause of the syndrome not just giving it a title. There are multiple causes of ITBS, so you have to find the cause and treat appropriately. For eg, if the cause is faulty foot mechanics, treating just at the knee isn't going to do the trick, if the root cause is an irritated nerve in the back causing hip tightness, giving the person shoe inserts isn't likely to work.

ITBS symptoms:
- pain on the lateral aspect of the thigh to the knee, especially at the knee
- increased pain with activity
- *usually* stairs are very painful with going downstairs being worse that going up, runnign downhill is also typically very painful.

If there is numbness or tingling there is nerve involvement and the problem is not a simple case of ITBS. There is likely also a problem with nerve inpingement in the back or buttock areas.

In treatment you need to address foot mechanics (maybe Knottedyet will comment further on this), and stretching of the hip is very important. Often there are weak abdomenals and hip muslces that need strengthening as well.

I just found this thread and am interested, too. About two months ago, my right knee swelled up the day after running on an indoor track for the first time. It was painful for about two weeks after that. I started doing some stretches I found on the Rice University website and they help, but I still get some knee pain after about a mile of running.

The information on this thread and several others on this forum has been very helpful, but how do you pin down the cause of the ITBS? The doctors around here can find fractures, torn ligaments - the more visible pathology - but resources for sports health questions are a little harder to come by.

I'm curious about the foot mechanics, too - ? I've been told that since I have high arches I can "pretty much wear whatever shoe I want" - not quite! But shoes/feet never seemed to be a big problem for me - maybe I need to look into that a little bit, too - ?

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Deb

[flash]

The foam roller works wonders for tight IT bands. Just google IT band and foam roller & you will find some very nice websites demonstrating how to use the roller.

Long term, though, in order to keep IT pain/tightness at bay, we need to keep our muscle groups balanced. For me, that means constantly doing glute work prescribed by a PT, in order to balance dominant hamstrings. For others, dominant hamstrings or quads may be the culprits.

In my view, it's completely worth a visit to PT / sports med to sort out the cause of the IT problems. Ice, Ibuprofen, and rest are only a quick fix & they don't prevent relapses!

[flash]

And to answer another thread, YES - you can feel IT band in your hip. Since the IT band runs from hip to knee, along outer edge of your leg, you may feel the pain in either place (and, hopefully NOT in both.)