New to RA - need ITB pain info (Read 752 times)

See if you can get in to see Dale Smith at Southwest PT (Greenville Ave near Walnut Hill). He is Michael Johnson's PT and is the best in town, but may not be taking new patients. You need a referral from an orthopedist. Otherwise, ITB is tough to overcome. Use foam roller and/or nalgene bottles to stretch it out. You also need hip stability exercises. There is a lot of info on the internet that shows what exercises to do. Supposedly, running fast helps as opposed to trudging along. Good luck and keep us posted.

I like to think of ITBS as simply a condition to be managed. I did a BUNCH of things to heal up in time for my first half marathon. My injury was about 4 mo out...scared me silly. 1. Run fast right up to the point of pain and QUIT for the day. Stop before you make it flare up. I remember the first time I hit 1 mi again, I cried. But, I'm so glad for the injury, because I no longer take 2 mi. to get in the groove. I'm in the groove and enjoying my run from the first few steps. And, I'm much faster! 2. Foam roller and hard ball for trigger point massage. Read The Trigger Point Massage Therapy Workbook. You can do a lot of things yourself to help ease your pain, and not just ITB-related. 3. Myofascial release massage by a professional. 4. PT by someone who wants to get you back on the road. I did about 4-5 exercises regularly to help stabilize and strengthen my whole hip area. 5. Acupuncture. My MD is a trained in China acupuncturist. He did about 3-4 sessions on me to help me to start healing, and then told me to keep up with the myofascial release to get to the root of the problem. 6. Stretching regimen, and not just to ITB. PT and massage therapist agreed on a series of 6-8 that I should do to help balance my whole body. I still do these on my off days from running. 7. Get to the root cause. Mine was probably started by my scoliosis. My shorter leg wasn't the one affected. My longer one was. We realized a heel lift was of no use for a mid-foot lander, so I now customize the left shoe of each pair of running shoes to build up my 7 mm differential. Another thing I do is take a lot of fish oil now. Since it is an anti-inflamatory, I figured it just might be what I need as a little extra bonus to keep me running. So far, so good. Since ITB flare up in early Sept. 2006, I have had no further serious problems with it. Today, I felt it - not where it was irritated when injured, just felt it. Tonight, I roll on the foam roller. That should do it.

All is good advice, I just have one to add. You can buy an IT Band online (google it). It is rather inexpensive and worked wonders for me.

OH! I forgot another thing that helped VERY much during the acute phase -- walk down the stairs backwards. It really helped to keep from adding stress to the inflamation. HTH