ITB Issues, What Worked for You?

[Redskea]

I had a lot of ITB problems a couple of years ago.
I used the foam roller a lot, carried PAT Strap things a read about in a thread here to prevent flare ups, kept the knees warm cos I had a lot more problems cold (neoprene) and got K-lazer (in France, I don't know where else has it)

[JTrue]

Went to go see a PT last week. Tested strength of glutes(mid/max), hamstrings, and quads. Hamstrings were a bit weak, had some imbalances between the glutes, stronger on the side that I'm feeling pain.

Had me walk barefoot on a treadmill and analyzed my gait. Made some notes and said my gait isn't too bad, although there are some things I can work on. Mostly the way I point my toes and length of stride. He wants me to lengthen my stride, which he says should activate my gluteus max a bit more. I feel like I'm trying to protect the knee I was feeling pain in, so that might be why my stride is short. He will continue to work with me on my gait going forward.

Gave me a couple exercises and stretches to do daily. One which I was already doing, clamshells, but instead of reps, doing an isometric hold for 1 minute on 15 sec off, repeating in succession 4 times per side. Next one is laying on my stomach bending both the knee 90 degrees, and holding one knee up and to the side for 30 secs, switching sides each time for 3 reps a side. He also has me doing a lunge stretch, where I hold a ski pole in front of me, contract my abs and stretch the hip flexors. My back feels a bit tight, but maybe it's a good tightness? No real pain just tight.

So far I've had good and bad days, again the exercises seem to help, but I had horrible tightness one night. It was actually a day after total rest, just laying around reading a book. I had adjusted the seat on my bike a bit, first I had dropped it down a cm which seemed to help, but not totally. I just moved the seat forward a little and that seems to lessen the building tightness I was feeling as I would get further into a ride. Jury is still out as I haven't gone for a hard ride yet and decreased my volume, just easy recovery rides on the road.

Feeling better than I was, not sure what's contributing the most to decrease in tightness, but I'm going to continue to follow the PTs instructions and see where I get.

[ex-powderbroker]

It's been about two weeks of rehab for me, but the advil, roller, and massage combination looks like it's put me on track to get easy hiking again this sunday. Finally managed to sleep a night without waking up in pain. I wish you guys all success, if anything this has taught me to pay a lot more attention to my body so I don't overdo it again.

[JTrue]

It's been about two weeks of rehab for me, but the advil, roller, and massage combination looks like it's put me on track to get easy hiking again this sunday. Finally managed to sleep a night without waking up in pain. I wish you guys all success, if anything this has taught me to pay a lot more attention to my body so I don't overdo it again.

Awesome, I'm seeing some improvement as well. Was able to hike 10 miles in a day on relatively flat terrain with a pack on this weekend. Still getting the tightness on and off. Have had bike fits before, but not since I changed out the spindles on my road bike to match the q-factor on my mountain bike. So I'm going in for another fit, hoping he can take a look at my pedal stroke and make some adjustments, it seems like my right foot/knee moves around more than it should.

PT noticed I have bakers cysts behind both knees, he's thinking they are probably just from overuse. I have noticed them in the past, but they've never caused any pain, maybe a little tightness though.

Exercise routine now consists of isometric clamshells, isometric butt burners, captain morgans(30 secs), (3 sets 10 reps) one leg bridges with a ball squeezed between my knees, abduct and hold exercise ball up and against wall(30 secs). Also continuing to work on my gait and recruit the glutes. I feel a stretch in my TFL when practicing my gait and pushing through with me heal.

[marshalolson]

true, you should have the PT check your pelvis rotation. I have an overly tight / shortened psoas muscle from years of skiing/biking/desking combined with a significant hip injury ~4 years ago... which rotating my pelvis, adding unneeded curvature to the lower back, and manifests as IT related knee pain.

since you spend a lot of time doing similar things thought it might be similar with you.

the same stretches above have helped me for sure, got me thru speedgoat, etc, but i think the root issue for me is the psoas creating misalignment - so i am going to get rolfed and potentially dry-needled specifically to treat that.

no idea if that is of use, but maybe!

[JTrue]

Thanks Marshal, I'll ask him about it. I'm starting to think I possibly have something going on with my back that's referring down and causing tightness. Could be exactly what you said causing a disc to get tweaked and bulge or something. My quad/it band has tightened up at night a couple times and on a whim I've put a pillow under my back to support my lumbar. This seems to relieve the tightness I feel. Just went out and bought a new bed as my current one is old and isn't too supportive. Also looking at rolfing and dry needling to get shit back in check, I feel like I need a reset. This is starting to get expensive... Let me know how those two things work out for you, and which practitioners you're going to see. I think finding the right people to help you and listen is key. My current PT at Canyon Sports is pretty awesome.

[kingdom-tele]

not to sound presumptuous, but, its not a disc issue J, the pillow merely is giving your tissues the slack they need so they stop reporting how hyper-toned they are

you sound like you have some good local joint exercises going. Can you feel any differences in how you do them from the affected leg vs the unaffected leg? Pay attention to your whole self, use a mirror if you have to, your trunk, spine, shoulder height, pelvic control will be cues into where your body is having to compensate.

we can learn a lot from the unaffected side, beyond the local deficiency. As marshal stated, we are all asymmetrical, its minimizing this asymmetry that is the key.

[JTrue]

not to sound presumptuous, but, its not a disc issue J, the pillow merely is giving your tissues the slack they need so they stop reporting how hyper-toned they are

you sound like you have some good local joint exercises going. Can you feel any differences in how you do them from the affected leg vs the unaffected leg? Pay attention to your whole self, use a mirror if you have to, your trunk, spine, shoulder height, pelvic control will be cues into where your body is having to compensate.

we can learn a lot from the unaffected side, beyond the local deficiency. As marshal stated, we are all asymmetrical, its minimizing this asymmetry that is the key.

Cool, I'm probably just over thinking it, as I have a lot of time to do that lately. I am much better than I was a couple weeks ago, which I am thankful for. I notice that while doing the butt burners it's much harder for me to keep my pelvis down, on the affected side, against the ground vs the other side. So there are probably some structures that are tighter on the affected side. I also notice recruitment of the hamstrings a bit more while doing one leg bridges on the affected side vs the unaffected side. I'll try to pay more attention to the differences going forward and work on symmetry throughout the movement.

[Gcooker]

Lacrosse ball is a good option, my physio got me using one these things... cool because you can freeze it/nuke it. Works well.
http://www.trs-products.com

[JTrue]

Quick update. It was 2 weeks between my PT appointments, I continued to do my strengthening and stretching routine. Felt like something was still missing in my program. Still had random tightness occurring, especially at night. Putting a pillow under my pelvis and lumbar seemed to help alleviate this. I had brought it up previously with my PT, but brought it up again today and asked if he could take a closer look at my pelvis. Upon doing some more tests he noticed that my right side was posteriorly rotated a bit. After some deep tissue work on my glute med and piriformis he adjusted me and put me back into alignment. He thinks that this issue was contributing to an already tight tfl and creating tension that I felt in the it band and thigh. Verdict is still out, but hopefully this helps, now to make sure it stays that way...

[jma233]

Someone mentioned this earlier but has your PT mobilized your psoas and/or iliacus? Most PT's know to address this muscle but some don't for whatever reason. The stretch you listed on the front page (pigeon stretch) is designed to stretch the psoas/iliacus but sometimes due to adhesions or other reasons mobilization is much more effective. A tonic posas/iliacus could explain the pelvis obliquity and need to support the low back at night.

[JTrue]

Someone mentioned this earlier but has your PT mobilized your psoas and/or iliacus? Most PT's know to address this muscle but some don't for whatever reason. The stretch you listed on the front page (pigeon stretch) is designed to stretch the psoas/iliacus but sometimes due to adhesions or other reasons mobilization is much more effective. A tonic posas/iliacus could explain the pelvis obliquity and need to support the low back at night.

No work on the psoas/illacus. I believe he did the Thomas test, would that provide information about whether or not mobilization could help? I'll ask about it.

Edit: Would self myofascial release with a theracane or something similar be advised?

[jma233]

I wouldn’t use a theracane to work on the psoas/iliacus unless you’ve had some specific training in soft tissue work. There is a real possibility of causing some damage to internal organs when working on this muscle if you don’t know what you’re doing. Also, the Thomas test has extremely poor evidence in regards to it’s efficacy. The bottom line is that if you’re benefiting from soft tissue work on other muscles surrounding the hip (tfl, gluts, piriformis) then you really should find someone who knows what they’re doing to take a close look at the psoas. Also, the rectus femoris should be closely looked at too. You can do a quick google search for ‘psoas release’ or ‘psoas mobilization’ and hear what other people have to say about the topic. I’ll write a quick synopsis of my experiences below and let you decide how to proceed for yourself:

I’ve been suffering from partial denervation (partial paralysis) of my glut max on the right side since 2008 due to a back injury. I was hurt while in P.T. school so I have a lot a book smarts (I guess you could say) but less practical experience as a P.T. I get increased tone in my tfl, rectus femoris, psoas/iliacus, and vastus lateralis as a result. I guess you could describe ‘increased tone’ as a ‘low grade muscle spasm’; ie: the affected muscles are slightly contracted at all times which I feel as pain and tightness. I’ve found that dry needling has been the most effective treatment for all of the muscles I’ve listed except for the psoas/iliacus. For this muscle, I’ve found that hands-on mobilization is the most effective but it’s somewhat difficult to find practitioners who are skillful in doing this. Out of the 8 or so people I’ve had work on my psoas, one was excellent (he was a Rolfer) and maybe 3 were adequate (mix of P.T.’s and chiros) and the rest were horrible. I think that a P.T. certified by the Institute for Physical Art in Steamboat would probably be adequate. BTW, I’m not affiliated with any program but am simply stating my experiences.

Obviously my injury is not the same as yours, but some of the characteristics of our injuries are similar. For instance, I start getting extensor mechanism injuries like patella femoral pain syndrome/plantar fasciitis/achilles tendonitis if I do too much walking. If you read the current literature, it is believed that the extensor mechanism injuries (of which ITB syndrome is included) share a common pathology. Your current exercise routine which is based mainly on glut strengthening is based on this research. Also, when my denervation was more severe I experienced quite pronounced pelvic obliquity and I was unable to pronate during gait like I should. I’m now better due mainly to restoring normal tone to the muscles I’ve already listed.

Well, I hope to help as much as I can. Keep us up to date with your progress.

[JTrue]

I wouldn’t use a theracane to work on the psoas/iliacus unless you’ve had some specific training in soft tissue work. There is a real possibility of causing some damage to internal organs when working on this muscle if you don’t know what you’re doing. Also, the Thomas test has extremely poor evidence in regards to it’s efficacy. The bottom line is that if you’re benefiting from soft tissue work on other muscles surrounding the hip (tfl, gluts, piriformis) then you really should find someone who knows what they’re doing to take a close look at the psoas. Also, the rectus femoris should be closely looked at too. You can do a quick google search for ‘psoas release’ or ‘psoas mobilization’ and hear what other people have to say about the topic. I’ll write a quick synopsis of my experiences below and let you decide how to proceed for yourself:

I’ve been suffering from partial denervation (partial paralysis) of my glut max on the right side since 2008 due to a back injury. I was hurt while in P.T. school so I have a lot a book smarts (I guess you could say) but less practical experience as a P.T. I get increased tone in my tfl, rectus femoris, psoas/iliacus, and vastus lateralis as a result. I guess you could describe ‘increased tone’ as a ‘low grade muscle spasm’; ie: the affected muscles are slightly contracted at all times which I feel as pain and tightness. I’ve found that dry needling has been the most effective treatment for all of the muscles I’ve listed except for the psoas/iliacus. For this muscle, I’ve found that hands-on mobilization is the most effective but it’s somewhat difficult to find practitioners who are skillful in doing this. Out of the 8 or so people I’ve had work on my psoas, one was excellent (he was a Rolfer) and maybe 3 were adequate (mix of P.T.’s and chiros) and the rest were horrible. I think that a P.T. certified by the Institute for Physical Art in Steamboat would probably be adequate. BTW, I’m not affiliated with any program but am simply stating my experiences.

Obviously my injury is not the same as yours, but some of the characteristics of our injuries are similar. For instance, I start getting extensor mechanism injuries like patella femoral pain syndrome/plantar fasciitis/achilles tendonitis if I do too much walking. If you read the current literature, it is believed that the extensor mechanism injuries (of which ITB syndrome is included) share a common pathology. Your current exercise routine which is based mainly on glut strengthening is based on this research. Also, when my denervation was more severe I experienced quite pronounced pelvic obliquity and I was unable to pronate during gait like I should. I’m now better due mainly to restoring normal tone to the muscles I’ve already listed.

Well, I hope to help as much as I can. Keep us up to date with your progress.

Thanks for sharing, pretty similar symptoms. Guess a back story of my "injury" might provide a better look at what I've been dealing with. When I first started having knee issues a couple years back it seemed to be set off by a road bike, it was originally a medial knee irritation in my left knee. I continued to ride the road bike not realizing that it was probably exacerbating the issue I was having. After a while I had unbearable tightness in glutes, quads and continuous muscle spasms in those muscles. No real pain to speak of, just that medial knee irritation, tightness, and spasms. The irritation was a really weird sensation that I first thought was plica, still not sure what it was to this day. Went to a PT as well and they didn't know what it was, they prescribed some exercises to target my VMO, as we were seeing some lateral tracking of the patella. That didn't help at all.

I went to a fitter, paid a bunch of cash and still couldn't get any relief. After a bit I decided to see if a wider q-factor would help, after all the mtn bike with a wider q-factor didn't seem to bother me all that much. Bought some custom longer spindles and saw immediate relief from that medial niggle. Still had issues with overall tightness but started to increase volume and manage the tightness with a foam roller and stretching. No gym time or strengthening going on as I increased volume on the bike. Had a pretty good season of racing mountain bikes and put in the most amount of vert I ever have ski touring, average of 10k ft a week, with some weeks as high as 25k ft. While ski touring didn't bother me, the motion of skate skiing seemed to tighten up the IT Band. While ski touring my IT Band would get tight, but I had to do a lot less maintenance then when riding a lot. To this point I had never had pain caused by the IT Band tightness.

Fast forward to April. Headed to the Winds in Wyoming to try to summit and ski Gannett peak in a day, 36 miles and about 7,000 vert. Most of the approach was hiking or jogging with skis on our packs. Started to feel some tightness 12 miles in, but ignored it and kept going. I started lagging behind, but finally caught up with my two buddies 16 miles in. They were gassed and we decided as a group to turn around. We descended what we could on skis and then hiked down a ridiculously steep talus field. This is when I started actually having pain on the lateral side of both knees. Got down to the flatter section of trail and peg legged it out for the next 12 miles.

Now I'm here, overall tightness is greatly reduced but I have near constant tension running down the vastus lateralis and it band insertion at the knee. It's gotten better since I started doing a hip strengthening routine. A couple light spasms every now and then, but not anything like I originally had. Since he adjusted me on Friday I haven't had anywhere the amount of tightness I usually have in the right(worse) leg. Left leg is only tight every so often, seems like I notice it more when there isn't any tightness in the right.

[jma233]

Walking and/or running downhill or down stairs are known to exacerbate extension mechanism disorders and I could see how a wider spindle could help with ITBS. What is interesting is the fact that skate skiing aggregates your symptoms. Of all the sports I'm familiar with, skate skiing or simply skating places the biggest demand on GMAX. One would think that if anything, skating would strengthen GMAX and help alleviate symptoms. If you feel like experimenting further you might try adjusting your bike saddle far forward which would take emphasis off GMAX and then compare it to far back which would put more emphasis on GMAX. When adjusting forward it's important to raise the saddle slightly to maintain the same distance to the pedals.

[JTrue]

Walking and/or running downhill or down stairs are known to exacerbate extension mechanism disorders and I could see how a wider spindle could help with ITBS. What is interesting is the fact that skate skiing aggregates your symptoms. Of all the sports I'm familiar with, skate skiing or simply skating places the biggest demand on GMAX. One would think that if anything, skating would strengthen GMAX and help alleviate symptoms. If you feel like experimenting further you might try adjusting your bike saddle far forward which would take emphasis off GMAX and then compare it to far back which would put more emphasis on GMAX. When adjusting forward it's important to raise the saddle slightly to maintain the same distance to the pedals.

I'm wondering if the posterior tilt was limiting gmax recruitment, creating additional tension on the tfl as well as causing it to compensate? I'm going in for a bike fit with the owner of the PT place a I go, I'll ask him what he thinks. He has a degree in lower body bio-mechanics, so hopefully he has some good ideas.

[kingdom-tele]

Thanks for sharing, pretty similar symptoms. Guess a back story of my "injury" might provide a better look at what I've been dealing with. When I first started having knee issues a couple years back it seemed to be set off by a road bike, it was originally a medial knee irritation in my left knee. I continued to ride the road bike not realizing that it was probably exacerbating the issue I was having. After a while I had unbearable tightness in glutes, quads and continuous muscle spasms in those muscles. No real pain to speak of, just that medial knee irritation, tightness, and spasms. The irritation was a really weird sensation that I first thought was plica, still not sure what it was to this day. Went to a PT as well and they didn't know what it was, they prescribed some exercises to target my VMO, as we were seeing some lateral tracking of the patella. That didn't help at all.

I went to a fitter, paid a bunch of cash and still couldn't get any relief. After a bit I decided to see if a wider q-factor would help, after all the mtn bike with a wider q-factor didn't seem to bother me all that much. Bought some custom longer spindles and saw immediate relief from that medial niggle. Still had issues with overall tightness but started to increase volume and manage the tightness with a foam roller and stretching. No gym time or strengthening going on as I increased volume on the bike. Had a pretty good season of racing mountain bikes and put in the most amount of vert I ever have ski touring, average of 10k ft a week, with some weeks as high as 25k ft. While ski touring didn't bother me, the motion of skate skiing seemed to tighten up the IT Band. While ski touring my IT Band would get tight, but I had to do a lot less maintenance then when riding a lot. To this point I had never had pain caused by the IT Band tightness.

Fast forward to April. Headed to the Winds in Wyoming to try to summit and ski Gannett peak in a day, 36 miles and about 7,000 vert. Most of the approach was hiking or jogging with skis on our packs. Started to feel some tightness 12 miles in, but ignored it and kept going. I started lagging behind, but finally caught up with my two buddies 16 miles in. They were gassed and we decided as a group to turn around. We descended what we could on skis and then hiked down a ridiculously steep talus field. This is when I started actually having pain on the lateral side of both knees. Got down to the flatter section of trail and peg legged it out for the next 12 miles.

Now I'm here, overall tightness is greatly reduced but I have near constant tension running down the vastus lateralis and it band insertion at the knee. It's gotten better since I started doing a hip strengthening routine. A couple light spasms every now and then, but not anything like I originally had. Since he adjusted me on Friday I haven't had anywhere the amount of tightness I usually have in the right(worse) leg. Left leg is only tight every so often, seems like I notice it more when there isn't any tightness in the right.

this should be where some self corrective/pelvic mobility exercise would be helpful. sounds like your getting closer, don't stop at the pelvis J, how mobile your thoracic spine and ribs are will also effect how mobile your pelvis can be, your pelvis is a big bowl, if one side is off, so is the other (pending the person didn't blow up their SI joint), your seeing how the soft tissue restrictions are effecting the whole chain, keep working with the PT to see the broader picture.

Walking and/or running downhill or down stairs are known to exacerbate extension mechanism disorders and I could see how a wider spindle could help with ITBS. What is interesting is the fact that skate skiing aggregates your symptoms. Of all the sports I'm familiar with, skate skiing or simply skating places the biggest demand on GMAX. One would think that if anything, skating would strengthen GMAX and help alleviate symptoms. If you feel like experimenting further you might try adjusting your bike saddle far forward which would take emphasis off GMAX and then compare it to far back which would put more emphasis on GMAX. When adjusting forward it's important to raise the saddle slightly to maintain the same distance to the pedals.

I'm wondering if the posterior tilt was limiting gmax recruitment, creating additional tension on the tfl as well as causing it to compensate? I'm going in for a bike fit with the owner of the PT place a I go, I'll ask him what he thinks. He has a degree in lower body bio-mechanics, so hopefully he has some good ideas.

which is why we can't rely on reductionism to address movement related issues. Its is nice to tease out local imbalances and structural issues, but the nervous system is way ahead, it already has known and has used our gift of redundancy to keep us mobile, the glut or any other muscle never works independent of any other structure. Isolating a muscle for re training is great, but it is useless if the person can't feel in their movement where they have developed whole body patterns that make the use of that muscle less efficient.

self psoas releases can be done lying on your stomach with a 4" inflatable ball, working from the bellybutton out to the pelvic bone and then down toward the pubic bone, once you light up a tender point just hang out, 2-5 min, use your diaphragm to pull on the psoas, its not as good a manip but still works well.

[JTrue]

this should be where some self corrective/pelvic mobility exercise would be helpful. sounds like your getting closer, don't stop at the pelvis J, how mobile your thoracic spine and ribs are will also effect how mobile your pelvis can be, your pelvis is a big bowl, if one side is off, so is the other (pending the person didn't blow up their SI joint), your seeing how the soft tissue restrictions are effecting the whole chain, keep working with the PT to see the broader picture.





which is why we can't rely on reductionism to address movement related issues. Its is nice to tease out local imbalances and structural issues, but the nervous system is way ahead, it already has known and has used our gift of redundancy to keep us mobile, the glut or any other muscle never works independent of any other structure. Isolating a muscle for re training is great, but it is useless if the person can't feel in their movement where they have developed whole body patterns that make the use of that muscle less efficient.

self psoas releases can be done lying on your stomach with a 4" inflatable ball, working from the bellybutton out to the pelvic bone and then down toward the pubic bone, once you light up a tender point just hang out, 2-5 min, use your diaphragm to pull on the psoas, its not as good a manip but still works well.

First off, I really appreciate all the feed back from everyone in this thread, I'm really glad I posted. It's given me a lot to think about and act on. I probably wouldn't have went to a see a PT and kept trying to work on it myself if it hadn't been suggested.

I plan on continuing working on the bigger picture. Went for a medium length/light intensity ride on the road bike yesterday. Slight tightness, but didn't get the lateral pulling sensation on the patella I've had in the past. Psoas seems like the next logical thing to check. I'm wondering if the tightness I feel since changing my gait, striding through with my heel on the ground, is actually a shortened psoas. Originally I thought it was my TFL, guess it could be all the structures in the hip.

My PT said he wanted to see how the adjustment went and then he would add some exercises to my regimen. He moved me back to all doubled legged exercises. I think it was to try to put less direct stress on the side he adjusted? He did add sqauts with a band under my knees, and mentioned adding deadlifts next time if I was progressing. I'll ask about other mobility work that I can be doing to tie things together.

[JTrue]

Update, was feeling good. Tightness of ITB is 90% better since adjustment. Went back to PT this Friday and he checked me to make sure my pelvis was staying aligned, it was. Added a couple new exercises or variations to help strengthen the trunk/core. Added deadlifts, starting from a bench about knee height. Added a band around the foot on the outside leg pulling up with outside arm while doing captain morgans. And had me start adding a side plank to my isometric clamshell holds. Since I had good luck with staying in alignment he moved me back to single leg bridges. I asked about the Psoas, he palpated around in my abdominal region and didn't find anything of concern. Still have an appt to see a rolfer next week.

That same night I was walking in from outside and my dog was chasing my roommates dog, ran into the back of me and almost took me out. I landed on one foot(the side that was out) and felt a pop. I was pretty sure I was back out of alignment so I went in to see my PT on Saturday. He adjusted me back, but still feeling sore in the SI joint area. Pretty frustrating...

Back to doing my exercises, from what both PTs have said I have a lot going on that I need to work on. I guess neglecting the core for a long time is probably what most of my issues stem from.

I also had a bike fit on my road bike last week by the owner of the PT place I go. He changed saddle tilt so that I was putting a little less pressure on my hands and tried to move my cleats in. Everything else looked good. I was worried that the medial knee irritation I have had previously might come back from moving the cleats in and it did after a day, so he recommended moving the cleats back for a wider q-factor. This medial knee irritation has stumped a number of docs/pts/fitters. I might have some imaging done of my medial knee, but for now moving the pedals back out to a mountain bike q-factor width seems to totally alleviate the issue. If it's not a structural issue in the knee they think it might just be a weakness in my hamstrings that could be contributing. The spot I feel the irritation is near the pes anserine bursa, but I've never felt any swelling, ice doesn't seem to really help once it's flared up. The only thing that seems to give relief is kt tape wrapped like a horse shoe around the bottom of my knee and up around the outside of the patella. It feels like it pulls the skin up a bit and lessens the irritation I feel.

[ex-powderbroker]

Umm.... 36 mile day???

[JTrue]

Figured I should write an update, feeling about 90%. The pelvic adjustment by the PT and continuing to progress with exercises has helped immensely. I'm now doing deadlifts, squats, isometric side planks, isometric hold of a ball against the wall with the back of my heel in a sidelying position(targets the glute med), and lat pulldowns. I feel like strengthening my hamstrings with the deadlifts has helped a lot. If I miss the gym for too many consecutive days I start feeling a little tightness build, but nothing like what I was previously experiencing. Every week I feel better. I've been riding my bike relatively hard, but not racing. Limiting the hiking for now, but want to start increasing that a bit to get in shape for ski touring. Maybe hike uphill and take the tram down...

[deeppo]

Been dealing with IT band issue the past 6 weeks. Seems fine hiking(nothing to long) and went for a short ski tour a couple of days ago and no issues. Running still seems like an issue. Im really hoping that skate skiing and touring do not bother it. I skate almost daily in the winter to get my dog exercise so it would be a bummer. Been doing some hip strength exercises which will hopefully help.

[splat]

Any of you guys have any digestive issues? It refers to the colon in some naturopathic therapies.

[deeppo]

Any of you guys have any digestive issues? It refers to the colon in some naturopathic therapies.

Very interesting I have been dealing with UC for the past 18 months. Not fun to say the least.

[splat]

Something to consider. My wheat allergy kicks it off in me. Eat wheat, I get a tight itb.