Some of you will know I have been struggling with a niggly piriformis for several months now since hiking up the distance in HM training. I have tried every exercise under the sun to ease it, including tennis ball self-massaging (ouch!), but nothing gave more than temporary relief from that dull, nagging ache deep in the buttock. I went to see a sports therapist and she got her elbows right in there and even inserted a needle in it and passed an electric current through it - all to no avail. I eventually booked an appointment to see a physiotherapist, but had to wait 3 weeks for the next appointment (a very popular guy!) so I stopped running in that time to see if rest would help - it eased it a little but it was still there.
So the appointment came along at long last... I thought the physio seemed a bit odd at first as he didn't seem to meet my eye when talking to me. Then he showed me into his room and introduced me to his guide dog, and I clicked! (Doh!) At least I didn't need to feel embarrassed standing around in my underwear! He gave me a really detailed assessment about all my daily activities and then asked me to move into several positions, and felt my hips/back as I moved. It turns out my habit of sitting sideways on the settee with my legs tucked up under me has made my pelvis all wonky and has caused the piriformis to tighten, which has caused the pain. Apparently piriformis syndrome in itself is not a diagnosis, and it's important to find out the cause of it. That's why all the exercises and massage I was doing were not resolving the issue as I wasn't tackling the underlying cause.
Anyway he has given me some really simple exercises to do every day - only on the one side! - to correct the position of my pelvis. And obviously no more sitting scrunched up sideways!! Silly me. Hopefully it should all resolve in 6-8 weeks, and if not I need to go back. I can run again - yippee!- but need to keep the distances low to avoid aggravating it. So I feel a lot happier now I know the cause, and that there is a good chance of putting it right. I did a very slow jog/walk at Parkrun this morning, to ease myself back in gently. The hip felt a bit tight and I could feel the piriformis but it didn't make it any worse.
So glad to be back out there, even if I have to take it easy for a while. I have ordered the Jeff Galloway book "Run walk run", thought I'd try a bit of Jeffing to keep me on the straight and narrow! Can't wait to go trail running again, will have day off tomorrow then I'll be skipping through the bluebells!
Written by
MutleyShuffle
Half Marathon
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Thanks JoJo 😊 The one-sided exercise is simply laying on my back with right leg out straight and hugging the left knee to the chest for 30 seconds (10 times a day)- it's more to realign the pelvis than to stretch out the piriformis. The other exercise is for strengthening the lower abdominals which will also help stabilise the pelvis. The best exercise I have found for stretching the piriformis is the yoga Pigeon pose (you can Google it) - a very strong stretch indeed!
Cool. I might do that too, both sides mind! Driving jobs can be hard on the pelvis. Yea... I do a fair amount of pigeon... doesn't always do it though.
Great to hear you've got some answers and solutions (as I sit up better 😆). I'm so bad for sitting sideways and found when my buttock was tight, I tended to do it more, making it worse 🙄. My issue was weak glute medius muscles so more lunges, clamshells, leg lifts for me. I haven't been as consistent as I should be, but before when I would gloss over the exercises I didn't like, I realized it was because I found them hard due to weak muscles so I do them now but realize I can't do as big of movements as you see on YouTube or Pinterest.....yet.
Thanks Sask 😊 Glad you've found the route of your problems too. Good luck with your exercises! You will soon notice you can stretch further I'm sure. The physio got me to bend over to reach for my toes at the start - a good 6 inches gap there! - and after doing the exercises, and I swear I was a couple of inches nearer to my feet!
Yes you're right - the physio said if it wasn't for my running it could've been several years before I noticed anything was wrong! Hope you are well Whatsapp x
I'm so glad that you found such an excellent physio Mutley. And that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Yikes! Posture... I will try to be aware of mine. I'm a bit of a sloucher.
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