Knee Injuries Symptoms:Do your knees sometimes give you the blues? If so, you're in good company: knee injuries are the curse of many athletes, especially runners

ITBS has been around since man (and woman) first learned to run, but it wasn't actually described in the medical literature until 1975 (Sports Injuries and Their Treatment, p. 56, J. B. Lippincott Publishers, Philadelphia, 1975). The syndrome is often labelled an 'overuse' injury, but that's a very poor way to describe the origin of the problem, since it implies that the main source of difficulty is excess mileage. The truth is that runners can be afflicted with ITBS on a regime of just five to 10 miles per week, even though such volume would hardly constitute overtraining. The key source of ITB disorders is actually a lack of strength and flexibility in the iliotibial band, sometimes combined with a perverse fondness for running either on the track or on crowned roads, as you'll see in a moment.

* Excessive friction between your Iliotibial Band and your knee (or hip) bone.
* This causes a sharp pain at either the side of your knee or the side of your hip.
* Usually caused by increasing your running or biking too fast and/or with bad form.
* But is also associated with weight-lifting (standing squats), court sports (raquetball, tennis, handball, etc) and even pregnancy.
* Most commonly occurs in one or both knees (see diagram at left), but can also appear at the hip joint. This is not uncommon at pregnancy, where the tendons loosen a bit and the weight distribution shifts. I’ve never heard of any hip-specific exercises or stretches, but think the general ones should help at the hip as well.