June 20th, 2009
I’ve finally seen the light on the injury front. While looking at all those IT Band websites, I was spending all my attention on the rolling/stretching portion, and completely ignoring the part that would say “leg strengthening exercises”. Because who wants to add more mundane exercise into their daily routine?
Then it hit me. Stretching and rolling are a superficial fix, they help the injury calm down but they don’t give insurance against a reappearance. When I looked at the anatomy pictures and saw what the exercises target (upper butt and muscle around the IT band) and how little time they take to do, I was like…why wouldn’t I do these? Strengthen the surrounding area and get a better butt in the meantime? Win win.
I only picked two because I know I’ll stick with them if I don’t inundate myself. One is balancing on one leg while standing on an air cushion from this excellent blog. 
It’s especially good because it’ll also strengthen my weaker ankle (last year’s bursitis adventure).
You don’t need the cushion for that one, several sites mentioned simply balancing on one leg for 3-5 minutes, playing catch with a ball while balancing is another variation, but the cushion adds a good amount of difficulty. Plus I already own one from when I bought those stupid posture-fixing items last year which, btw, is yet another testimony to exercise – I improved my lifelong sucky posture in a few months just by doing some pushups and chinups…what further proof do I need?
The other exercise is a variation on side leg-lifts. I settled on this one over the oft-recommended “clamshell” because I could feel it working more. Just nevermind that my resistance band says Jazzercise on the handles.
As for running, after my day off, yesterday was a brisk 7-miler. For the first time in 3 weeks, I had total peace about me because I knew that even if the IT band gave me trouble on this run, I’m on the road to fixing it for good. The rest day mixed with 3 days of exercises brought a great run, the IT band was silent.
I’m about to go for 8 or 9 on this wet Saturday. Hopefully it’ll be another uneventful journey, but if it isn’t, that’s cool – I’ve turned in my victim card for good. This injury no longer rules me, I am going to rule it. Proactive, that’s the word of the day.
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YES YES YES YES YES YES
can I say that again
YES
this is the kind of stuff PT Pete has me doing and it makes a HUGE difference.
HUGE.
I know, you and all the smarties who commented in my last post and the previous ones have been saying “do the leg exercises” but all I could wrap my head around was stretching and rolling, thinking that was the easiest way out. When in fact, the easy way out is doing the damn exercises so stretching and rolling are less of a necessary lifesaver.
I’m old, it takes me a while to catch on to these things.
As I posted before, I’m really lazy about non-running running stuff. But if there is one thing I would do, it is the Tree Pose, i.e., standing on one leg. As I mentioned in one of my posts, thinking of — visualizing — my leg as a tree trunk seems to help my form and mechanics, especially in the even distribution of the force of my foot hitting the ground.
As to stretching, the jury’s still out on that. The USATF is conducting a study to determine whether there’s any benefit to it.
Yay, Pro-Active Flo Takes Control!
I’ve heard the wobbly one-leg pose called “Drunken Flamingo”. Love that name.
As a side note: Brad Hudson has his more injury-prone runners include hill sprints in their weekly routines. More as a preventative than a cure. I’m kinda fascinated by that, so I’ve started doing it.
Hills help strengthen the quads and fine-tune form. Using stairs whenever possible is useful as well, or so I think.
Joe, that’s a good one, tree pose. Yeah, about stretching, I’m not on comfortable terms with it still. It was in a stretch that my heel went wonky last year so I fear it a bit. Stretches have been helping me get through this, but I’m hoping that strengthening will lighten the need to depend on it.
Jim, hill sprints are great! I resisted them at first but got to enjoy them, plus they’re over really quickly, so good bang for your buck. I had to stop doing them because downhills are impossible with IT crap, but I’m looking forward to resuming. Drunking Flamingo…cool name. :-)
Flo, thanks for those photos – I’ll recall them if I ever have ITB problems, or if other runners I know do.
The cushion one reminds me of a couple of other strengthening exercise that might be useful – “slow walking lunges” and “squats”. With the squats, you have legs apart, and arms ahead for balance, neutral spine, and don’t go too low! With the lunges, bring the opposite arm forward (running action), do them slow, but don’t do too many (you can be sore the next day).
Agree with Jim about the short hills – short and not too many, with full recovery.
Once you start doing the exercises on a regular basis, it will be easier for you to not skip them. I thought that stuff was a huge waste of time at first, but soon it was part of my rountine. Good luck with it all!
Yeah. You’re spot on with rolling being the band-aid. Good stuff! I like the rope/band thing. The half ball is similar to this thing they had me do (not for ITB, but for strenghtening hip flexors/back) where you stand on this little disk with one foot (and the other knee bent behind you) and throw a 4 pound little ball sideways at a trampoline and catch the ball.
I like that band exercise that you have, too. My pt has me doing something similar to that using the total gym on an incline….I have been racking my little brain to think of a subtitute to use at home….lo and behold, you have it pictured here. He has me do the clamshell and the total gym/band thingie that you have pictured. Thanks for the great idea!!
Thanks, too, for the update to your Gifted Runner site!! I (and my son) appreciate it!
We’ll be checking it out to place an order!!
Matt Fitzgerald has a couple of good exercises in Performance Nutrition for Runners that hit these trouble spots also. If you have that book you may want to check it out. I have also invested in ankle weights and started doing leg lifts (as in lying on your side and lifting the top leg up and slightly behind you). Once you start doing that with ankle weights that will tweak those hippy muscles for sure.
Here’s a great link to the exercises (with video instruction too) I do regularly throughout the week… to strengthen and loosen the hip girdle & core (where so many of our running injuries originate from). Add it to your repertoire!
http://runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=16625
Glad you’re on the right track! That second one is pretty much exactly the same as one of the exercises my PT gave me last year when I was having problems. It was a great strengthening exercise!
I am so looking forward to the point when I can similarly assert my dominance over this stupid IT Band injury. Thank you for posting the exercises. I’ll give the balancing thing a start and then see if I can track down one of those resistance bands. Oh, and one of those funky air cushion things. You know, my apartment is going to look like a physical therapist’s office soon with all this new equipment…
I hate doing non-running running stuff but have been forced to due to an injury. I really like the standing on one foot exercise. Hopefully it will increase my overall balance too which is not one of my strong points.
You can join me on building up the push ups! We’re starting a Julyathon, 100 pushups by the end of July: http://runningbetty.com/pushing-the-limits-709
I just found this…. Phew! I have this band and I can do these, and I think I can find something like an air cushion around here.