Back pain, sciatica, hip pain, tightness in the glute, trouble putting socks on, can’t cross my legs, painful while sitting.
These are all common descriptors of piriformis syndrome. To understand what piriformis syndrome is, let’s first discuss what the piriformis is.
The piriformis is a muscle that is deep to your large glute muscles. It attaches from the tailbone to the lateral part of the hip. Its primary function is that of an external hip rotator (think turning your knee outward away from the other knee).
Another important feature of the Piriformis muscle, is its close proximity to the sciatic nerve. In most people the sciatic nerve travels beneath the Piriformis muscle and exits below. There are normal anatomical variants that can happen however, including the sciatic nerve exiting above or right through the belly of the piriformis muscle. These variants can lead to increased risk of pirifomis syndrome and sometimes can be resistant to chiropractic care or physiotherapy.
Most of the time, the annoying glute or hip pain, is easy to resolve. However, sometimes it can be resistant to change. A common complaint that is often described is that it’s difficult to put one foot on the opposite knee while sitting, while the other leg the flexibility is there fine.
If you notice this discomfort here are three things you can do.
Knee to the opposite shoulder
Gluteal foam rolling
Pigeon stretch
Check out the video below for the demo.