My ITB Is A B*TCH

I am about halfway through my scheduled physical therapy for my ITB/piriformis/SI issue and my condition is improving.  With each visit, my physical therapist finds less and less to work on–although I don’t mind when she finds a tight spot in my back because then I get a mini-massage. 🙂

I have been working hard on my recovery. I stopped running for two weeks. (My beach run was after I took two full weeks off, although it was before I was officially cleared to run again.) I’ve done all of my physical therapy exercises every day – even though that means 45 minutes of core work. I’ve been focusing on tightening my core throughout my daily activities, sitting up straight, and standing evenly on both feet instead of putting all of my weight on one leg like I tend to do.

On Tuesday, my physical therapist thought I was ready to start running again. She watched me run on the treadmill for a few minutes, and confirmed that my gait and motion looked good. We agreed on a 4 mile test run, which I did today. All in all, it was a great run. The weather was amazing for late June (in the upper 60s with low humidity and a nice breeze!) and Tiger Lilly was a good companion–until she nearly dragged me into a water sprinkler that was too tempting for her to resist at the top of a hill!

I started off slowly (at a 10+ min/mile pace) and didn’t notice any twinges until about one mile into my route. It was then that my ITB spoke up, with the same nagging that has been plaguing me for months now. 🙁 It never hurt and it may have gotten better as I continued, but it never completely went away. The good news is that the pain is gone now, but that’s how it was before I started physical therapy–my ITB would ache during a run, but not otherwise. Hopefully my physical therapist will let me keep running, and will have some suggestions for my ITB.

In the meantime, I will continue plugging away with my exercises. My current routine includes:

fitball glute bridges (3 sets of 10)
fitball roll-outs (3 sets of 15)
front planks on elbows ( 3 sets of 8)
prone heel/glute squeezes (3 sets of 8)
side planks with feet elevated (3 sets of 8)

I hold each rep for 10 seconds, so each set of 8 takes about 2 minutes, while each set of 10 takes about 2.5 minutes. Adding a bit of rest between sets and exercises, it all adds up to about 45 minutes. 

Tonight I was jealous of Linsey when I saw this tweet:

Hopefully I will be saying that soon.

Have you ever had problems with your ITB?

What worked for you?