ITB Update

It has been several months since I last blogged about my physical situation.

It's been nice, right? No complaining about aches and pains or whining about frustration over reduced performance.

That means it is time for an update.

The update is positive. I write this even as I knock on the real wood tabletop; I would hate to jinx my 10K on Sunday.

With that ~ knock, knock, knock ~ I happily report that I have conquered my ITB issue. For the better part of this year, and since I started researching ways to reduce or eliminate it short of surgery, I have been ITB-pain free.

How did I do it? I truly believe it is the result of only two factors: change in gait and running form, and regular Bikram hot yoga.

Through my research I learned that the ITB pain was caused by friction of the muscle at the knee and at the hip. The friction is always going to be there but how you run can greatly reduce how much friction is created. Less friction means less tightness and less tightness means less pain. It was a simple matter of using more of my upper leg muscles to take the stress off the knee and lengthening my stride to reduce the number of times the ITB has to come in contact with the knee joint. Lots of strength and weight training focused on my quads, gluts, and hamstrings.

The downside is that I have to think more when I run and I have to run slower so I can concentrate on my form. Not too much of a sacrifice in my book.

The Bikram hot yoga was the sleeper solution. From everything I read posted by other runners dealing with the same issue, it appeared to be a questionable solution at best. But it has worked for me even though I am still working on completing some of the poses, like toe stand and fixed firm, because of how the ITB has affected my left knee.

Now, however, I have a new problem. Not quite as debilitating as the ITB, but just as annoying.

This time it is my right upper hamstring. To date, the pain is only at about a 2 out of 10.

But, that is how the ITB started too.

If it's not one thing, it's another.