Hey runner, I'm Marie, @drwhittfit. Never feel like all your hard work was all for nothing ever again. I coach strength training for runners, helping YOU identify your weaknesses and fix them with strength exercises designed for runners to help you build the exact strength you need to run your best, strongest, fastest, most injury-resilient race yet. Subscribe and come join the Running Fit Fam!
No Really, It's NOT IT Band.
I actually just recently "missed" this about a month ago.I was doing an initial eval on a new patient (the first PT visit where we do all our testing)... And I had blinders on because the script from the physician said "low back pain..." and it was NOT low back pain. I kept scratching my head after that visit wondering "what did I miss?" So I went on a deep dive into continuing education... and found the answer. WHY YOU CARE AS A RUNNER:You've probably done the EXACT same thing. But instead of calling it low back pain, you probably attributed it to IT Band. Symptoms like...
Maybe you even tried all the ITBand "things"... ugh, the most notorious...foam rolling. Maybe things got better; maybe they didn't. But if you were nodding along that list up above, the label you're looking for is Gluteal Tendinopathy. Meaning...there's a tendon that plugs on your butt muscles (your glute medius) into your femur. And that tendon has had it and it's calling it quits. Which unfortunetly means for you, painful running, soon to be no running. The reason I'm hammering this home:In all my years of practice, I have RARELY had a true IT Band case. It's always been something else, a different muscle-teammate that's been on the struggle bus and dumping all the load and extra work ONTO that band of connective tissue. So really, the IT Band gets a bad rap. And with fall marathon season quickly arriving (or maybe it already has for you), you need to know... Hip pain can be sneaky. But it doesn't have to ruin your training cycle. I'm giving you all my gluteal tendinopathy tips and tricks in this week's blog post so you always have a resource you can go back to. And...this way you don't fall into the "IT Band trap" So go check out that blog post here...
(and in case you DO genuinly struggle with IT band issues....don't worry. I've got a blog post and lots of exercises coming up in the weeks again ;) Dare to Train Differently, Marie Whitt, PT, DPT //@dr.whitt.fit P.S. Your hip pain might not actually be IT band. Which means, that foam rolling isn't fixing anything. This blog post will! Looking for MORE ways to work together?
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Dr. Marie Whitt / Strength Coach and Physical Therapist for Runners
Hey runner, I'm Marie, @drwhittfit. Never feel like all your hard work was all for nothing ever again. I coach strength training for runners, helping YOU identify your weaknesses and fix them with strength exercises designed for runners to help you build the exact strength you need to run your best, strongest, fastest, most injury-resilient race yet. Subscribe and come join the Running Fit Fam!
Contrary to popular belief... stretching, foam rolling, and resting your hamstring strain is NOT your savior. Going ham and jumping immediately into RDLs: *might* not feel good either. I recently had a runner reach out who I worked with before in the past (HI HEATHER!!)...and her dumb-dumb hamstring strain is still being a butt a year-ish later. This is no shame on her. This isn't because my exercises "didn't work". This is to show you how fickle hamstrings can be. And how nuanced and...
It used to be one of the banes of my PT-existence. Elbows take the cake. I don't like elbows. Good thing we don't use those to run. But IT Band syndrome and all it's ick were sort of....nebulous, even in PT school. It's not my professors fault; it's just where the research was at the time. And unfortunately, that left YOU, the runner, with some pretty cruddy advice: "Foam roll! Stretch! Do a billion lunges. Strengthen your glutes..." Not all of that is bad advice...but can you spot the single...
I went down the IT Band rabbit hole and about threw my computer out the window. If you're new here, I'm already NOT huge into foam rolling. (no, it's not "bad"...I have complicated relationship with it.) ...I think it can be overused and seen as a quick, cure-all touted by fitness gurus. ESPECIALLY when it comes to IT Band pain. Think about it: what is foam rolling supposed to do? Pretend this is a pop quiz and you have to answer the question "how does foam rolling help and/or cure IT Band...