I.T. band and running

Don't over train - you need to build up to high miles so you don't stress your band. Also, stretch it out well after you run so it doesn't get tight. You can google ways to stretch it. I use "the stick" and I love love love it. Also, have you been fitted for running shoes? Having the right shoes could make a huge difference for knee pain

Ouch IT Bands can be nasty injuries and can take a long time to properly heal. Especially if you keep working thru the injury. I've had it before. Usually bad form and overtraining are the cause but shoes are often overlooked as a culprit. Your legs are all interconnected from the soles of your feet right up to the hips. Poor support in one area or over correction in another can lead to injuries.

Are you wearing the right type of shoes for you? Have you gone to a reputable running store and had them assess your gait? This is suggested as our strides and our feet all different. The wrong type of shoes or badly worn ones can create a host of problems including shin splints, plantar fascitis, patellar tendonitis and illiotibial band syndrome. It's probably worth checking into.

For treatment, use a foam roller. It will help. So will deep tissue massage and stretching throughout the day.

Take a break from running and ease back into it slowly once the injury is healed up.

Good luck!

I have fairly regular IT band issues...the two things that work best for me: Foam Roller and THIS stretch (http://youtu.be/mlYM3KWwrGY)

Have you seen a physical therapist? Chiropractors are great at aligning and providing treatments for problems, but if you want to really fix yourself and prevent the problem from reoccurring, my advice is to see a PT. They'll look at your tight and weak muscles, joint alignment, gait patterns running as well as walking and might give you a better idea of what's going on (they're also qualified to provide ART and a host of other soft tissue techniques, if indicated). If you see a PT who specializes in runners, even better!

The folks at a running store have been trained to look for certain gait deviations and are good at what they do, but they haven't had the schooling or experience a PT has to be able to pick out specific gait impairments, relate them to musculoskeletal malfunctions, then develop a treatment plan to get rid of whatever is causing the deviations-- that's something only a PT can do.

About the stick and foam roller--- those are excellent and many of my patients have seen good results with those. However, you mentioned that manually working your IT band was worse than childbearing (yikes!!), so I'm not sure if you'll tolerate the stick or foam roller (if you were my patient, I wouldn't recommend it, if manual techniques were painful). Also, the ITB can be the culmination of a chain of impairments that a PT is most qualified to detect.

Do consider a PT, they're the musculoskeletal experts! Hope you get better soon!

...Trust me, I'm a Doctor of Physical Therapy :flowerforyou:

I like the foam roller too...Do it before you run!