IT band syndrome

[malcolm]

I've got a friend with IT band syndrome and was wondering if anyone knows of a fitter in the southeast that might be worth visiting to help resolve this issue. Other suggestions beyond moving the saddle forward and down a bit and moving the cleats outboard with less toe in. She is on speedplay pedals, which I have no experience with, would something else be better?

Actually I meant feet outboard which would be cleats inboard, I think

[Climb01742]

rolling on a foam roller helps a lot with the symptoms. stretching too.

any idea what caused the IT band to flair up? did she switch shoes or up mileage/intensity? tweaking position may or may not help, depending on the cause.

[malcolm]

Thanks climb, foam rollers are great. This is a friends wife and I think she has been a runner in the past and had some trouble then. She is relatively new to the bike, just a couple of years and has done a couple of metric centuries and had to abandon a mile century last month at about 70miles due to IT pain, so I suspect it was increased mileage. She is also a bit bowlegged and I think that predisposes one to ITBS.

[Volant]

ITBS can be resolved through proper stretching. The key is to find out what caused it in the first place and fix that. If it's running and she's now riding but still running and aggravating it; a new fit won't do anything to help.

[malcolm]

No longer running. I agree stretching is primary but unless I'm mistaken some people especially bowlegged folks are predisposed to this and they may require a slightly different position to effectively shorten/relieve tension on the IT band beyond stretching.

[Volant]

A good collection of info on it here: http://www.itbs.info/

I suffered with it during my racing years. I eventually created my own stretch to cure it. But, I still had to identify what caused it and eliminate it.

If she's no longer running and that's what caused it, I'd give it time and let it heal before going for a fitting. A fitting with an overly tight ITB will cause a fitter to try to work around the problem/symptoms of an injury. If a poor fit is an issue, or leg-length discrepancy, or ???, than, again, that needs to be identified. Has she seen a good PT or ortho doc?

[malcolm]

I don't think it has ever been evaluated professionally. She hasn't run for a long while. We are trying to get her an apt with a local orthopedist that does sports med and also cycles. I know who fit her initially and I suspect it is the standard knees over pedal spindle, slight bend in knee and elbow fit. Thanks for the input.

[Pete Serotta]

Do not know what you mean by SOUTH EAST but here are some fitters that I have first hand experience with...

SMILEY _ DC area
Mike GROTZ - NJ
Paul Levine - NY


There are none better....good luck. At worse case go up for a weekend of fun and also get fitted.... :D

[malcolm]

Southeast, Louisiana, Mississippi,Alabama, Georgia and North Florida. I don't think they would be able to travel terribly far.

[JoeP]

I ride with a Dr. and he tells me that it actually stems from the muscles in your hips. Trust me when I tell you, YOGA! My instructor gave me a stretch call "piegon" every since then the problem has disappeared.

If your friend can find a Yoga class near by she will be amazed at how well it works.

[Johnny P]

I agree that stretching and in particular yoga would be very helpful.

JP