Nigel said:
			
		
	
	
		
		
			Anyone with IT band recovery success stories? What did you do to get rid of it?
The root of mine is no doubt trying to do too much after a long time of doing nothing. Also wearing the wrong shoe, not stretching, and ignoring pain until it was too late. I took a couple of weeks off of running, foam rolled it a couple of times a day, iced, stretched and got to a point where I felt I could test it. Then I ran a mile yesterday and am back to having acute pain today, limping around like a *******. Very frustrating. I've been using the stationary bike the whole time I've not been running which causes no problems at all - pain free and seems to loosen it up. I was hoping to avoid a doctor visit since I know what it is but I need to do something...maybe I need physical therapy?
Been lurking in here since I posted about my "comeback" from heart trouble - can't post at current job like I used to but read on my phone regularly. Some great race reports, especially from the Boston crew - very inspiring. I actually gave Steve a shout as he cruised by in Brookline on race day...what a machine.  
 
		 
Thanks, the crowd was ridiculously loud at that point and probably had a huge part in my being able to mount a rally of sorts over the last 5K, so the cheering at that point is very much appreciated.
Now, on the ITBS thing, I had a hell of a time with it last year. (starting from my first run back a week after Boston up until about late July). The one thing I learned from my research (and experienced) is that it's not one of those injuries that goes away with just rest. You have to rehab and strengthen whatever weaknesses in your legs that led to the problem, and then stay on top of it even after you start back up again.
Here is a self treatment guide that has gotten some results for some cases I have heard of:
http://www.active.com/running/articles/how-to-aggressively-treat-it-band-syndrome
http://strengthrunning.com/2011/02/the-itb-rehab-routine-video-demonstration/
But to be perfectly honest, I didn't see a whole lot of results until I went to physical therapy. My physical therapist had me do a lot of drills and strengthening stuff, diagnosed me with weak hamstrings (relative to my quads). However, I think the one thing that really made a difference was the Graston technique treatment he did on my IT area to break up the scar tissues. That's what allowed me to start running again and build up my mileage. I do hit th gym 1-2 times a week and do some hamstring work to address the quadriceps/hamstring imbalance issue and I also foam roll regularly (usually at least once a day) to make sure my IT/quads/hamstrings are loosened.
Another thing I will point out is that ITBS can be caused by quite a few different things. One of the more common causes is weak hips, and if you follow the rehab routine link above you'll see that a lot / most of the exercises work your hips/glutes. It didn't really help me that much because my issue was my hamstrings. So if you have decent insurance, I would recommend going the physical therapy route as a competent PT can diagnose these things much faster and get to the issue than you can through weeks/months of trial-and-error.