In this episode of the Ask Coach Parry Podcast we chat about an ITB release. Leon TeBurgh submitted a question. Leon said he has been struggling with a knee problem for about 3 years now, after a long time of being lazy and hardly doing any exercise at all. He has been to 2 physio’s, 2 biokineticists, 2 surgeons as well as a podiatrist. All of them told him that the problem is iliotibial band syndrome or ITB, with the exception of the podiatrist, who told me to get new shoes, gave him a long list of exercises to do to strengthen the muscles.

Brad Brown: In this episode of the Ask Coach Parry Podcast we chat about an ITB release. Leon TeBurgh submitted a question. Leon said he has been struggling with a knee problem for about 3 years now, after a long time of being lazy and hardly doing any exercise at all. He has been to 2 physio’s, 2 biokineticists, 2 surgeons as well as a podiatrist. All of them told him that the problem is iliotibial band syndrome or ITB, with the exception of the podiatrist, who told me to get new shoes, gave him a long list of exercises to do to strengthen the muscles.

Unfortunately it has not worked. He has since come up with his own plan. He has Googled the issue and found more strengthening and stretching exercises and added those to the list from the professionals.

Leon decided not to run for about 2 months and rather focused on the exercises. When he eventually did get back to running he found a couch to 5km training programme online that was aimed at beginners. He only runs on a treadmill so that he can control the pace and to ensure that he runs on a level surface.

About 5 weeks into the plan the pain started again, from there things went downhill. One of the surgeons suggested an ITB release if the strengthening and stretching exercises don’t work. What is your take on getting an ITB release done?

How successful is an ITB release?

Lindsey Parry: An ITB release is one of those operations that has had moderate success. I know people that have had to have it more than once. It is difficult for me to say yes go for it. I do know that there are people that have had an ITB release done and it has worked for them, then there are people that have had to have it done more than once.

I think the reason is in some cases enough rest and building up slowly will take care of the problem. In other cases, unless the actual biomechanical issue itself is taken care of, even once you heal it and stop the band from rubbing the way that a normal band does, there is still some catching of the band.

This is a tough question because obviously he has seen a lot of people and done a lot of research. But it is also difficult to know because firstly I’m not entirely sure the ITB diagnosis is right only because I haven’t seen him and the description of the knee pain isn’t enough – I’m not saying it isn’t, I just can’t say for sure that it is.

And then secondly as to what particularly is causing it and what exercises he was given. Depending on whether it’s weak glutes or tight glutes or tight hip flexors – whichever one it is, some of those exercises contradict each other. If he is doing a whole long list of exercises trying to cover all his bases, in some ways he may not be sorting out the issue. Particularly in a situation like this, it could well be that he is making the actual cause of it worse.

This is probably one of the hardest questions I have had to answer on this kind of forum. I need so much more information before I can say to him yes go have the ITB release surgery, but certainly if I weigh up everything that he has done it sort of feels like surgery is not the worst option. It is a very simple procedure and you can start running quite soon after. But without any more information that is the best answer I can give.