ITB Pain

[Apemanscolony]

Looking for help or any info.

 

Im having incredibly bad pain on my left ITB. It started suddenly.

 

What exercises can i do, must i strap it, setup......?

[pauloc]

It helps to stretch the ITB out before exercise. I found that doing stretches a few times a day sorted out my ITB permanently. Only got a bout again recently, mostly due to a long time off the bike.

 

The stretch makes you look like a bit of a spaz but it works. From a standing position, lift one of your feet and cross it over the knee on the other leg (imagine a figure of 4) and then lower your butt down to the ground like you're going to go down into a sitting position. You'll feel the ITB stretch out. Hold the position for a few seconds and then do the other leg. Repeat a few times.

[carbon29er]

Physio or massage will get rid of ITB. Or just work through it with stretching. http://www.mayoclini...sm00043&slide=6 and http://www.itbs.info/html/stretches.html

 

Have you changed your set up at all? Seat position or cleats?

 

I moved my saddle back by 2 centimetres and started with seriously tight ITB after a few long rides. Moved it back to original position and it's gone.

 

Edit added links

Edited October 2, 2012 by CarbonDual29er

[Falco]

Looking for help or any info.

 

Im having incredibly bad pain on my left ITB. It started suddenly.

 

What exercises can i do, must i strap it, setup......?

 

Do yourself a favour and get proper professional help immediately.

 

This is not something you play with or try to self-treat.

[tombeej]

First - find out the cause (stretching and physio will help with recovery but you won't go anywhere if you don't figure out why it happened in the first place).

 

Second - make sure it's ITBS and not something other pain on the outside of the knee (a number of other possibilities). Too many people make that mistake (I was one of them) and that includes physios. I had 2 years of frustration and disappointment because I thought I had ITBS. Turns out I didn't at all. Now I'm free to ride as much as I like.

 

If the pain comes on suddenly when you ride and is painful enough to force you to stop and want to push your bike home to avoid another pedal stroke, then I'd agree it's probably ITBS. If it's pain that might sit in the background when you ride and only really comes on after the ride's over and you've cooled down, then you've got something else.

 

Finally, get yourself a roller and use it regularly at home. Besides yoga, the roller is what keeps me on the road (I gave up on physios long time ago).

 

(Edited grammar)

Edited October 2, 2012 by tombeej

[Agteros]

Do yourself a favour and get proper professional help immediately.

 

This is not something you play with or try to self-treat.

And go to somebody whose solution does not involve knives scalpels!

[tombeej]

If you're going to a physio, only go to someone who works a lot on other cyclists and knows exactly what they're talking about. Don't just look up the closest one in the phone book. The only thing that saved me was to finally go to the sports doctors at the medical centre at Kings Park stadium in DBN. When they told me I didn't have ITBS, that it was something else, I was so pissed off at them that I left after the first consultation and didn't go back for a few months - because I'd been told for so long from so-called specialists that I had ITBS that I thought these doctors didn't know what they were talking about. Of course they were 100% correct and at that point I was back on track.

 

(Edited grammar)

Edited October 2, 2012 by tombeej

[Cuppa Bru]

If you're going to a physio, only go to someone who works a lot on other cyclists and knows exactly what they're talking about. Don't just look up the closest one in the phone book. The only thing that saved me was to finally go to the sports doctors at the medical centre at Kings Park stadium in DBN. When they told me I didn't have ITB, that it was something else, I was so pissed off at them that I left after the first consultation and didn't go back for a few months - because I'd been told for so long from so-called specialists that I had ITB that I thought these doctors didn't know what they were talking about. Of course they were 100% correct and at that point I was back on track.

 

(Edited grammar)

 

So what was wrong with your knee?

[SwissVan]

Looking for help or any info.

 

Im having incredibly bad pain on my left ITB. It started suddenly.

 

What exercises can i do, must i strap it, setup......?

 

 

ITB is generally an overuse injury, and can be a very debilitating injury if not treated, by treatment I mean find the cause and correct it. Have you drastically increased your training in some way over the last few months?

Have a look here, maybe see if you can find a Lyno practitioner in your area

 

http://www.lynosport...my-painful-itb/

 

http://www.lynosport.co.za/

 

http://www.lynosport...yno-therapists/

[SwissVan]

 

 

Second - make sure it's ITB and not something other pain on the outside of the knee (a number of other possibilities).

 

 

Good point

 

I get an exact replica of ITB on my right knee, MRI scan confirmed it's not ITB but a cyst.

I've had ITB before and it's uncanny how this feels exactly like ITB

[tombeej]

So what was wrong with your knee?

 

OK I'll try...

 

1. I did have a very tight ITB - but only because it was trying to take on all the leg stabilising by itself because of the other problems below. Physios were picking this up and trying to treat it in isolation, when the problem was elsewhere. And it wasn't ITBS.

 

2. I had mildly strained LCL - the top insertion point for the LCL is very very close to the epicondyle that gets inflammed from ITBS. The bottom insertion point is about 4-5cm down the outside of the leg. So if you've got pain on the outside of the knee but also at a point slightly down from there, might be LCL issues (often old rugby issues). Also happens when the LCL becomes overloaded from trying to stabilise the knee when muscle imbalances are causing stabilisation issues (below).

 

3. I had tight hamstrings, specifically the bicep femoris. Again, the insertion point for the bicep femoris tendon into the lower leg inserts on the outside of the knee, but just behind.

 

4. Further up, very tight TFL in the hip area. My right hip was so tight it was pulling my pelvis out of alignment and causing me to sit skew on the saddle.

 

And the source of all the problems above: muscle imbalances in my leg - an over-developed vastus lateralis (due to cycling) combined with under-developed VMO and glutes.

 

Remedy:

- I made sure of bike fit.

- I didn't cycle for a few months, went to gym and built up the VMO and glutes.

- Started yoga. My hamstrings - and all other leg muscles are much longer & more elastic than they were before. And my hamstrings love me for it.

- Got a foam roller. Incredibly painful initially when getting all the knots/trigger points out, but after that it's fine. Amazing little tool - saved me lots of money in physio bills.

 

Other possibilities for outside knee pain could be cartilage issues, or a torn lateral meniscus (thankfully not on my long list).

 

Disclaimer: I'm not an expert. All I'm doing is write about what worked for me. Find the right specialist, get to the truth about what's happening in your legs, and then go from there.

Edited October 2, 2012 by tombeej

[Dusty]

My advice would be to start with a good bike setup. The solution for ITBS in cyclists is most often found in the cause.

[taito]

Do not take injection into the knee--short term fix- find the real problem

 

stretch-put your left foot over the right then flex your hip out to the right side, now take your left arm and reach down past your left knee this will stretch the iband switch for left side

Edited October 3, 2012 by taito

[Saudiq]

as previous hubbers stated you need to have this assessed by a proper specialist. I started DC training last year and I had excruciating pain doing some of my rides; I then rested and went to a physio all of which just costed me 3 weeks of training. I then went to see Dr Jeroen Swart and he did an assessment and it turned out to be a number of things, the main one being that the person who did my initial ergofit had my measurements wrong. The other issues were things like muscle imbalances, weak hip abductors, differences in my femur etc.

 

After he did the setup again about 90% of the pain was eliminated. I still get a bit of pain but that's my own fault for not stretching the muscle and continuing with my muscle strengthening exercises.

[Spinnekop]

 

- Got a foam roller. Incredibly painful initially when getting all the knots/trigger points out, but after that it's fine. Amazing little tool - saved me lots of money in physio bills.

 

 

Helped me lots and lots and lots.

R135 at Dischem.

[Apemanscolony]

It helps to stretch the ITB out before exercise. I found that doing stretches a few times a day sorted out my ITB permanently. Only got a bout again recently, mostly due to a long time off the bike.

 

The stretch makes you look like a bit of a spaz but it works. From a standing position, lift one of your feet and cross it over the knee on the other leg (imagine a figure of 4) and then lower your butt down to the ground like you're going to go down into a sitting position. You'll feel the ITB stretch out. Hold the position for a few seconds and then do the other leg. Repeat a few times.

Thanx man, doing that strecth everyday now, will c how it goes.