ITB Pain - what have I missed?

[morwenna]

My husband was having lateral knee pain which we decided was ITB pain too.

His responded very well to stretches and doing clam-shell exercises etc, plus I did some deep massage to the whole length of the ITB .... he didn't like that!

We (a colleague and I) also decided his main provoker appeared to be over-pronation of his foot, so he's now wearing medial arch supports. He is 58 years of age and has been able to return to running and playing field hockey painfree after 3-4 weeks of this, whereas before this he was having pain and limping even when walking.

[Sports_Rx]

I've suffered ITBS also and as a runner I can sympathise. I've been self-treating with deep tissue massage, foam roller, strengthening glute med, Ab, Ad, VMO and ITB stretching (this made it more painful at the knee even when I wasn't running). I have seen a physio colleague for acupuncture and another podiatrist colleague for prescription orthotics. NONE of that helped!

The only thing that's helped is changing my running style. I researched Dr Romanov's POSE method (google it) and since running this way I've had no ITBS problems. I'm now up to 40mins pain-free running, all be it after a slow build up. I adapted easily to Pose however I'm trained in biomechanics; it can require perseverance.

ITBS is so multifactorial - you need to address the friction point to start with though. If there's pain there, stop. Then look at the mechanics side of things, gait etc. As Alophysio said, strong muscles doesn't necessarily equate to correct function. Screening for Lx, SIJ and hip rotators - assuming your physio's done this. Find the cause then you can treat it - easier said than done though...