Fellowship of the ITBS

I picked this at total random cuz I like the name. I know you are all Gluteal Goddesses. ;)
 
Can we start a fellowship of the ITBS? I know a few people here are battling this right now.

Mine flared up again during a marathon last week. The Sedona marathon was beautiful. I had a great first half of the race, but started feeling knee pain at mile 10. At the turnaround I knew I was in trouble and at mile 14 I was walking. Walked/shuffled the rest of the way and tried to enjoy the scenery.

So why the knee pain? I do have a history of knee pain, but thought I had it solved. I had several good long runs (20+ miles) and a barefoot 13.1 before the marathon with no pain. It could have been the hilly course, but I have been running hills. Blame it on the Merrell Trail Gloves? Maybe, I have been mostly running barefoot and with huaraches.

My recovery plan: Research. Read through the older posts and articles about ITBS. Use rolling techniques and work on getting my hips more flexible. Strength training on my weaker muscles. Back off my mileage and no more races for a while. Barefoot as much as possible (I was going to do this regardless of how the marathon turned out). Just did 5k barefoot with no pain.

So who is in the club with me?

Rick W.
Im in Rick
 
after almost a whole month off and feeling completely fine, I went on an easy 3mi run and around mile 3 my ITband flared up! This is really frustrating, I thought I was doing everything right to beat this thing.
Looks like the marathon this fall will not be happening =(
 
Sorry for your troubles Zetti. The other thing I did to help with that was a lot of rolling when things were bad. I used a rolling pin and a new soft-ball (so it wasn't soft). Rolling pin for calves, bottom of feet, and quads and softball for butt. It hurts like hell but makes a huge difference. I did it 3 times a day and spent about 15min each session while I was having trouble. Now I do once a day for maint.

You're lucky enough to live in Michigan where Scott Hadley practices (Grand Rapids). He is a PT that is also a barefooter and is amazing. You should look him up. If GR isn't convenient he does virtual PT as well and can help you through video and skype chat.

He's a great resource. Good luck and hope you can get back up!
Johnny
 
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Thanks for the ideas 7ships!!
I have been rolling, but not that vigorously.
I would love to do some PT but am insurance-less at the moment, but when I get insurance it will be one of the first things I do =)
 
Roll vigorously. If it hurts you're doing it right :).
Not to speak for Scott but I went to a free clinic he was holding, he worked on my legs and gave me great advice. Since then I've referred everyone I could to him to repay the favor.
Contact him, he's an amazing guy and will find a way to work with you.
 
checking back in. I am still having trouble with the injury...it's been almost 9 months now. Althought i have taken breaks of more than a couple months from running here and there, I haven't really put in complete rest time. Among other activities I should have stayed away from...I still...
- trained Jiu Jitsu twice a week
- mountain biked once a week
- worked out, including squats
- daily stair climb

I have some work and vacation travel comming up, and am going to force myself to take 3 weeks off from anything involving the IT band. then, will return to activities slowwwly.
- Planning on cutting out stretching the IT band and foam rolling until it feels normal again.
- for cardio, will swim with a bouy between my legs
- will continue to work on calf raises for my weak calf; from a achillies rupture (this should be ok?)
- will continue to work on hip abductor muscles (should be ok?)
I went and got my gait analysis at a running store...texas running company. i told the guy working at the store about my injury, and he suggested trying some shoes with guidance (brooks pure cadence), as the analysis showed I am running with some pronation. more so on the leg that has the IT band injury as well as the achillies rupture (from a few years ago). I want to give the shoes a shot after my rest period, what do you think?
 
I went and got my gait analysis at a running store...texas running company. i told the guy working at the store about my injury, and he suggested trying some shoes with guidance (brooks pure cadence), as the analysis showed I am running with some pronation. more so on the leg that has the IT band injury as well as the achillies rupture (from a few years ago). I want to give the shoes a shot after my rest period, what do you think?

What kind of advice do you anticipate receiving from a barefoot running society about motion control shoes?
 
Scott just announced a free clinic called "pain free minimalist running", on his Facebook page.
Will check this out!
 
hah, it honestly didn't occur to me my question was from the opposite end of the forum spectrum until you pointed it out.
I guess it's like asking about glock problems in a 1911 forum.
The irony is somewhat thick :barefoot:
In any case, what I am about to say is unsubstantiated (at least I didn't actually do any research about it), but some of the comments I have read suggest that footwear seems to aggravate or at times even "cause" ITBS. Not that it actually causes it, but I have heard of people developing IT Band inflammation when running in minimalist footwear....just a thought (also recognizing my bias).
 
The irony is somewhat thick :barefoot:
In any case, what I am about to say is unsubstantiated (at least I didn't actually do any research about it), but some of the comments I have read suggest that footwear seems to aggravate or at times even "cause" ITBS. Not that it actually causes it, but I have heard of people developing IT Band inflammation when running in minimalist footwear....just a thought (also recognizing my bias).
Zetti, my ITB flares up in certain shoes. Trail gloves cause it to flare up, but my NB 1400's do not. My old Saucony Omni 8's from pre-minimalist running makes it flare up horribly bad. It really does depend on the shoe.
 
It's going to be an individual choice with shoes. In your case, Unicron, they might help, but shoes are an expensive experiment. In my case, I have found that barefoot is best. Even my most minimal sandals change something in my form. I am starting to suspect that having something on my feet, I tend to push the pace a little. This causes too many problems from knee, hip, and calf soreness, to extra stress on my feet. So I'm keeping it slow and it seems to be working. I have been avoiding pavement for quite a while, but decided to just go for it and ran 15 miles. Other than slightly sore feet, no knee or muscle soreness. Just kept the pace extremely slow.

Unicron also brings up other activities that stress the IT band. For me, mountain biking is a killer. I am also having problems at work, running equipment. Trucker's knee or clutch knee. http://www.blog-leavensvw.com/?p=85
 
I guess I'm in this club too... my ITBS has been under control for quite a while now but I got it from doing too much too soon. I had to stop running and heal. When I started running again I had to back off of the mileage and pretty much start over. Now at about 7 miles I start to feel a slight twinge of pain in my glutes. I've come to recognize that if I don't stop when I feel that pain, it will quickly get out of control and flare up my IT band.
 
I might have accidentally joined the club.

5 weeks ago I was hiking. 3/4 of the way through, weird pain showed up in the knee, lower outside right where it wants to join with the calf muscles. I took two weeks off of anything and it was fine. Upon returning to running, I would get that pain on the outside of the knee, very low, on the outside, still almost where the calf joins up to the knee.

A couple of months ago, a PT said my ITB and hamstrings were tight. That was preventing a quad injury from healing. That thing is fine now, just waiting on this knee to get better.

I'm trying to get ahead of it with foam rolling and laying on a softball and strengthening the hips. Squats and KB swings on it are fine (I don't know why). I've never had ITBS, don't know why it showed up (other than weak hips I suppose).
 
Hopefully, Zap can find this thread and tell you of her experiences. She beat this thing after a long fight with it.