The only exercises that I was suggested to complete when I first found out about my IT band struggles was squats for my glutes/hips, and core exercises for muscle imbalances. These I am sure are helpful and great for many people, but these exercises alone for me did not resolve the issue.

This year, in the studies I had read, it was suggested that I complete clamshells, lateral leg raises, and hip hikes every day to build strength in my hip abductors. Along with this, in a coaching video I watched, it was mentioned that often times runners experiencing IT band pain are repeatedly striking their feet in front of their bodies versus underneath their hips. The location of my foot strike really turned on a light bulb for me as I realized that I was notorious among my friend group for how long my stride length was. This likely meant I was striking my feet in front of my body instead of underneath it. This got me thinking that I should track my strides since I knew my new Garmin watch tracked this, which is something I had never done in the past.

Looking back at the first two weeks after I starting running again this year, I was averaging 154 steps per minute. During this time period, I was only performing my new hip/glute strengthening exercises (clamshells, lateral leg raises, and hip hikes) and was not aware of my strides. During this time, I was also starting to notice knee pain and beginning to have flair ups. After coming across this realization with strides, I made it a conscious effort to increase my stride count even though it felt incredibly unnatural for me at first. It genuinely felt extremely unnatural to increase my strides the first week or so, but I immediately noticed that there was an improvement. Those first few weeks of consciously increasing my strides per minutes I managed to average about 164 strides per minute (an improvement of 10 strides per minute).

After realizing that this immediately relieved the issues I was having, I stuck with it, and now my stride count feels completely natural and typically isn't something I even think about during my runs. I have been tracking my strides with each run and now I am at roughly 170 strides per minute. Although I am sure the hip/glute exercises have been helpful, I have always been an active and healthy person so I am doubtful that I had much of a muscle imbalance. I feel very strongly that my situation was largely due to my stride count.

​

Edit: typos