OWWWW! IT band snapping syndrome

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sak20011
sak20011 Posts: 94 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
For the past month, I've started ramping up strength training to help strengthen my relatively weak quads, glutes (all 3 muscles), and esp my weak hamstrings (one esp since part of it was used to reconstruct my knee a couple years ago). I don't think I'm overdoing it but have been progressively adding weight while focusing on form and stability. my goal is not building up muscle right now but functional fitness and especially knee stability. Though I haven't seen a PT in a long time I am doing a lot of the stability exercises I was prescribed, along with more I found on youtube.

However, my IT bands are quite tight and sore (and while I do stairs, fast walking on an incline and elliptical, I do not run which is the normal culprit). Last night I did a weird reaching movement in bed with my leg at such an angle that the IT band 'caught' over the side of my knee. I was in excruciating, almost pass out pain until it popped back into place but it then swelled up and feels painful and tender today. This has happened to me before, as well, though usually on the other (Surgery) side and seems to always get worse the more I exercise--which is frustrating since I am doing things to strengthen my legs and try to increase stability to prevent this including the hip exercises, foam rolling, etc.

Has anyone dealt with IT band syndrome successfully? tried to cortisone or other PT ? any advice to prevent the excruciating popping? I'm super careful getting up from seated floor positions, etc and in yoga not to strain my knees but it still happens.

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  • Djproulx
    Djproulx Posts: 3,084 Member
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    I've suffered with IT band pain, most recently during a marathon in March. While you are doing many of the things that my PT prescribes, one additional focus area for me is the adductors. ( muscle that runs along the inside of your quads from knee to groin). By massaging and/or foam rolling this muscle, you may get some easing of tension in the IT band. No silver bullet, but worth a try. It helped me. The other thing I do is to roll the IT and quads with "The Stick". It is a straight rolling pin that is covered with 2" hard plastic barrel shaped sections that can roll independent of the roller shaft. There are a number of similar devices out there and I find they help with chronic tightness brought on by repetitive bike/run sessions during my training. Finally, my coach has suggested that I consider wearing IT band support "bands". They provide support when a runner's form starts to break down and the IT band is taxed, leading to inflammation. I haven't tried them yet, but I may. Good luck, hope you find relief!
  • sak20011
    sak20011 Posts: 94 Member
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    Thanks! I just ordered the stick and a band from.amazon. but now I'm freaked out that it will snap again. It was excruciating!
  • canadianlbs
    canadianlbs Posts: 5,199 Member
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    don't think i can claim i.t. syndrome since it rarely bothers my knee. but i have been battling with one of those frustrating 'non-specific itis' things, a sort of generalized cloud of severe craziness all clustered into that zone that can be covered by one half of a stout pair of granny panties. and just recently i've had the most success from blaming it all on my i.t. so here are my thoughts:

    - i'm of the school who believe you don't work on the i.t. itself, because a) it's not a muscle and b) it's attached to your femur for most of its length. instead, you work on the muscles that border on the i.t. that's your tensor fascia latae right at the top in behind the ridge of your hip on that side, the vastus lateralis ( i think - your outermost quad), and whichever one of hte hamstrings is on the outside of your leg at the back.
    - i used to have an ex-rmt as a fellow lifter. he told me that if you want to properly release something, you always start by releasing both ends of it, in the zone where muscle tissue starts blending into the tendon that ties it into the bone. then when that's softened up, you work into the belly itself and release that. works for me.

    what i've been doing is this:

    - foam roller to pin and stretch, on the bottom edge of my v.m in particular.
    - i don't actually like tools much for the rest of the job. i use fingertips and deep, short little strokes all along the border of the muscle, away from the i.t. kind of like teasing one strand at a time off those twizzler ropes that are made up of littler ropes, if all you had to do it with was your fingertips.
    - i work all down the muscle/band on one side, sweep up and do it again. once the borders are softened, i like to do what massage people call 'compression' all down the middle of the muscle with the heel of my hand.

    it's not actually that hard to find your own muscles and figure out how they're put together and what to do, once you tune into what you're feeling for.

    idk if that helps, but good luck.
  • sak20011
    sak20011 Posts: 94 Member
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    I got a roller thing and two IT band supports and iced it and its better, but I am also going to do a few PT sessions to figure out how to strengthen my knees/around the knee joints.....evidently i have weak adductors compared to my abductors, and when I was doing a lot of leg work, the abductors were essentiallly 'taking over' and they actually pull the IT band tight/backward. So muscle balancing is also key.

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