Does anyone else suffer from IT band syndrome? What have you found that helps?
You really need a PT to help you find the cause of it, so you can work on both the cause, and the symptom at the same time. IME a lot of the time it’s caused by imbalances, weaknesses, and/or tightness in the glutes, hips, and abs (well, core in general).
Lots will say that foam rolling helps, and sometimes it does, but that’s not a fix for a lot of the things, since just working on the IT band doesn’t resolve the cause(s)
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Surgery.
Seriously, I suffered with IT Band Friction syndrome for years. I did rounds and rounds of PT with multiple experts in the field. I stretched. I strengthened. I foam rolled religiously. I had injections (which, as a horse person, was cool). I tried ART. Chiro. Sports massage. Accupuncture. All sorts of voodoo. In the end, the ONLY thing that solved it was IT band Z-lengthening surgery.
The only way I got surgery was to go to a specialized running clinic at a major university and have the doctor there proclaim that I was only the 4th patient in 27 years of treating running injuries to ever be referred for surgery by his clinic. But I had it and a year later, I’m pain free and its amazing.
All this said, my pain had arrived at the point where I had given up running a year earlier, had to give up hiking 6 months prior to surgery, and could no longer get through a normal day of walking around my small farm without intense pain. I was only 45.
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There was a recent thread on Off Topic about IT Band syndrome.
It tends to be the symptom of a larger issue - imbalance in strength or flexibility and/or overcompensating due to an imbalance or injury.
Obviously some things are also related to our own physical conformation and what we do with our bodies. E.g. repetitive stress injuries, sitting, etc.
I have been in PT for several months to proactively address IT band issues that I had during my last triathlon season. I still have issues with them to some extent but am trying to prevent them through strength/stabilization training, stretching, and some change to my running gait. Foam rolling can help relieve the pain/discomfort but it doesn’t fix the underlying cause that is creating the issue.
In my case one of the primary causes is really tight hip flexors. But also tightness in my back, both of which can be attributed to some extent to sitting for long periods of time. (Like now…gotta get up and stretch now!)
When do you suffer from IT band issues - what triggers it? How long/how severe?
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