Since Bolder and a few others of you have been struggling with Iliotibial Band Syndrome (ITBS), I thought I’d share what I’ve done for the past two years to shake mine when it’s reared its ugly head. This builds off of what I wrote to Trimama not too long ago in hopes to help out Tridaddy. I’m not sure she actually got my e-mail since I apparantly send her to many soliciations for Viagra and home mortgages and my emails to her end up in her junk box. ;) Anyway, here is my regimine and some of rationale behind it:

1. At the onset of ITB pain, STOP ALL ACTIVITY that causes that pain. Don’t struggle through it as it’ll only make it worse and stick around for longer.
2. Do standing ITB stretches multiple times a day. Cross your injured leg behind your other leg, and lean away from your injured leg side jutting out your hip on your injured side. The is probably the classic ITB stretch that most folks know. If done correctly, you should feel the stretch in your upper leg and in your hip. Maybe even a little in your glute. I usually stretch each side two to three times, two to three times daily.
3. Do sitting ITB stretches. Sit with your feet on the floor with your knees at a 90 degree angle. Take your affected leg and place your foot/ankle on top of your other leg just above the knee. Then with your crossed over leg at parallel to the floor as possible, lean forward bringing your chest as close to your crossed leg as possible. You should feel a stretch again in your upper leg/glute area. Do this two to three times each side a few times daily.
4. From physsportsmed.com:
   

   Severe lateral knee pain associated with ITBS may be intensified by myofascial restrictions that are not directly associated with the friction of the ITB sliding over the lateral femoral epicondyle. Myofascial restrictions include central and attachment trigger points (17), muscle contractures, and fascial adhesions. These restrictions may also contribute to excessive tension on the ITB, which underlies the friction syndrome, and may precede and accompany the condition or linger after the primary friction syndrome has subsided. We have found that myofascial restrictions vary from a minor complication to the primary cause of the lateral knee pain.

   To help breakup these myofascial restrictions, I usually do deep self-massage along the entire ITB area. I’d pay for an actual massage therapist to do this, but that gets expensive and this has seemed to work well enough. :P I usually take something hard and with a rounded end (a remote control, a screw driver, etc.) and start slowly digging that into my leg at the knee region and moving up along the ITB. When you find a place that causes you particular pain, try and spend more time there and work out the adhesions. This hurts quite a bit and will likely have you sore for days afterward. But doing this every other day will help break up these adhesions and should hopefully keep the band loose.

5. Also from physsportsmed.com:
   

   Researchers at our institution (14) recently compared 24 distance runners (14 women, 10 men) who had ITBS with noninjured controls and found that runners with ITBS had significant weakness in the hip abductors of their affected limb. After 6 weeks of rehabilitation directed at strengthening the gluteus medius, 92% of the runners were pain free.

   Electromyographic studies of joggers (15) have shown that to control coronal plane motion during the stance phase, the gluteus medius—and to a lesser extent the tensor fascia lata—must exert a continuous hip abductor moment. The pattern of muscle action stays constant as gait speed increases. At foot contact, the femur adducts relative to the pelvis. The involved muscles contract eccentrically, then concentrically through the support phase and into the propulsive phase as the hip abducts. Though the gluteus medius and tensor fascia lata are both hip abductors, the gluteus medius (especially the posterior aspect) externally rotates the hip, whereas the tensor fascia lata internally rotates the hip (16). Consequently, fatigued runners or those who have a weak gluteus medius are prone to increased thigh adduction and internal rotation at midstance, leading to an increased valgus vector at the knee. We postulate (14) that this increases tension on the ITB, making it more prone to impingement on the lateral epicondyle of the femur, especially during the early stance phase of gait (foot contact), when maximal deceleration absorbs ground reaction forces.

   Strengthen those hip abductors. To do this, I usually lay on my side and do slow leg raises. Keep your toe pointed forward and slightly down. The lift your leg up until you feel the contraction mostly in your glute. When I first started out, it was pretty hard to just do 3 sets of 15. Build up to doing 3 sets of 15 and then add resistance with ankle weights or stretch cords.

That’s the regimine that I use and that’s worked for me the past couple of years. The site that I linked to above and http://www.itbs.info both have some good information. Read up on ITBS and don’t push through the pain. Instead, take that training time and do any number of things to rehab yourself. Best of luck!