Effects of running biomechanics on the occurrence of iliotibial band syndrome in male runners during an eight-week running programme—a prospective study

ABSTRACT

Iliotibial band syndrome (ITBS) is a common injury that is related to running biomechanics. This study aimed to determine the gait characteristics that easily induce ITBS and explore the gait changes after the occurrence of ITBS. Thirty healthy male recreational runners participated in our study. Amongst them, 15 developed ITBS and comprised the ITBS group; the other 15 were healthy and comprised the control group. All participants underwent two gait trials, namely, before the first day of their running and after eight weeks, during which a force platform and a motion capture system collected biomechanical data. After running, the ITBS group exhibited greater anterior pelvic tilt and hip flexion angle than the control group. The ITBS group showed increased trunk inclination angle, whereas the control group demonstrated lower hip flexion, hip adduction angle and hip abductor moment than those at the beginning of running. Decreasing hip flexion, adduction angle and abductor moment may be a reasonable strategy to avoid the occurrence of ITBS. The occurrence of ITBS may be due to the lack of timely gait adjustment. Excessive trunk inclination and anterior pelvic tilt angle may be risks factor in the development of ITBS during running.

KEYWORDS:

• Running injury
• iliotibial band
• hip kinematics
• pelvic tilt
• sports medicine

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Haoming Jiang, Haiyi Chen, Gang Ma, Chuanbao Cao, Shuo Zhao and Chen Zhong, as well as the graduate students of Shandong Sport University, for conducting experiments or data acquisition for this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Key Research and Development Plan of Chinese Shandong Province under Grant [2017G006043].