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Old 08-16-16, 07:23 AM  
macska
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Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: NJ
piriformis help

Can anyone recommend a good workout/routoine for piriformis release? I ran this very hilly half marathon last weekend, and it turned out a big pain in the ar*se. Chiropractor, stretches?
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Old 08-16-16, 07:56 AM  
Rhonda
 
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: MI
I usually roll it out and keep doing pigeon pose or laying on my back with my foot on the other knee and pulling it towards you (like figure 4) and stretching the butt/hip area.

Rolling has helped me the most.
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Old 08-16-16, 08:27 AM  
Cecelia
 
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Like Rhonda, I like doing the stretch where you cross your legs and draw them in towards your chest to stretch it out. I also use a foam roller, but prefer to use a tennis ball. Just place it under your piriformis and lay on it. This will work out a trigger point, or a knot within the muscle.
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Old 08-16-16, 08:34 AM  
Eibhinn
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
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I have issues with my piriformis and trigger point work combined with some limbering/joint mobility are the only thing that work for me. Stretching never cuts it - if I do yoga the problem will calm down a bit for a little while, but always comes back fairly quickly. I discovered the solution for me when my piriformis on one side got so tight and sore I could barely walk/it started to feel like sciatica. I went to a massage therapist who used a very eclectic blend of Thai massage, Shiatsu, and regular therapeutic massage and the debilitating problem went away after one short session. It took about a year for any further flare ups, and those have been fairly minor and easily dealt with. After seeing the massage therapist I realized she'd mainly done trigger point work (the shiatsu) and joint mobility (the Thai massage - moving my leg around to free up the hip). I've been able to reproduce the effect using Jill Miller's Quick Fix Hip practices and the hip/legs joint mobility work on Scott Sonnon's IntuFlow or Lee Holden's Qi Gong for Joints or whatever it's called. I would go back to the massage therapist, but I no longer live in the city where she works, and unfortunately don't think I'll find another massage therapist using her pretty idiosyncratic approach (she was also a trained Iyengar and Kundalini teacher and studying to be a TCM doctor - she was drawing from a ridiculously large pool of knowledge).
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Old 08-16-16, 08:57 AM  
zellybelly
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: South Carolina
After I went to a PT and they did electronic stimulation to break it up, the hips and hamstring stretch has helped it never return... good luck

Hips and Hamstrings- 25 minutes: A classic Essentrics hip stretch. This workout begins with stretching and strengthening of the feet, the foundation of all movement, and then using a chair helps to work deep into the hips, psoas and hamstrings, to give you flexibility in your lower body, pain relief, and improved range of motion.

http://www.essentrics.com/page/produ...motion_DVD.htm
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Old 08-16-16, 09:12 AM  
JackieB
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I was also going to suggest the Essentrics/CS chair work hip and hamstrings stretch.
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Old 08-16-16, 09:13 AM  
desderata
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
I went to PT and did a bunch of piriformis exercises/stretches on YouTube and nothing helped. I finally pulled out my Yin Yoga dvd and did the leg section every other day for a week - it helped tremendously.
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Old 08-16-16, 04:14 PM  
videofit
 
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I wasn't sure what piriformis was so googled it. I think that is my problem! My butt feels sore and my hamstrings tight and when I do the bent leg foot to knee hip stretch I can feel it in that spot. So I guess I'll have to stretch more often and longer.
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Old 08-16-16, 04:24 PM  
beyond.omega
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I do that stretch Rhonda described to get the piriformis, the lying on your back version. Wouldn't be a bad idea to do a quick hamstring stretch first.

If I needed extra help for that area (or anything below the waist and above the mid-thigh) I would do Barbara Benagh YfSR - the SI Joint routine.
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Old 08-16-16, 05:37 PM  
cherimac
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Georgia
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cecelia View Post
Like Rhonda, I like doing the stretch where you cross your legs and draw them in towards your chest to stretch it out. I also use a foam roller, but prefer to use a tennis ball. Just place it under your piriformis and lay on it. This will work out a trigger point, or a knot within the muscle.
That helped mine tremendously when I had that issue. I quit doing impact cardio and switched to Pilates and barre for strength work, rather than traditional lower body strength training. After that, it left completely.

Oh-I also got a new mattress. I had no idea how much that would help, but mine was 20 years old!
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