Piriformis issues
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fitoverfortymom
Posts: 3,452 Member
Back in Feb, pre MFP, I did about 7 weeks of physical therapy to relieve severe piriformis issues. Tons of lower back pain and spasms and shooting pains from my butt to ankles.
Fast forward to now and I am down to 223 from 256 and felt good enough to start a strength training DVD. The strength training includes air squats which seems to have retriggered the issue. I took a week off from the DVD and it calmed down.
Is there anything else I can do besides more physical therapy and STILL be able to do squats? Doing squats doesn't hurt, but within hours I am in pain.
Fast forward to now and I am down to 223 from 256 and felt good enough to start a strength training DVD. The strength training includes air squats which seems to have retriggered the issue. I took a week off from the DVD and it calmed down.
Is there anything else I can do besides more physical therapy and STILL be able to do squats? Doing squats doesn't hurt, but within hours I am in pain.
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Replies
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Also I will add my hope and dream is to do Stronglifts, so squats are kind of important.2
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i don't know much about true piriformis syndrome, but i guess the first thought in my mind is: does re-doing any of the pt you learned previously help any with relieving the effects of the dvd?0
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fitoverfortymom wrote: »Is there anything else I can do besides more physical therapy and STILL be able to do squats? Doing squats doesn't hurt, but within hours I am in pain.
Try this stretch every 15-20 minutes, holding a minimum of 30 seconds:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=2qZ517Rw7ME
The effects of stretching don't last long, so it needs to be done often.
You can also try massaging the piriformis with a baseball, tennis ball, etc. You'd place the ball on the floor and roll over it. If that hurts too much, put the ball between a wall and your butt and roll over it. Don't do this in public.
By the way, unless you want to get into powerlifting competitions, a better strength program for you than Stonglifts in my opinion is New Rules of Lifting for Life. It's geared toward the over-40 crowd who often have orthopedic issues.
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Cherimoose wrote: »fitoverfortymom wrote: »Is there anything else I can do besides more physical therapy and STILL be able to do squats? Doing squats doesn't hurt, but within hours I am in pain.
Try this stretch every 15-20 minutes, holding a minimum of 30 seconds:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=2qZ517Rw7ME
The effects of stretching don't last long, so it needs to be done often.
You can also try massaging the piriformis with a baseball, tennis ball, etc. You'd place the ball on the floor and roll over it. If that hurts too much, put the ball between a wall and your butt and roll over it. Don't do this in public.
By the way, unless you want to get into powerlifting competitions, a better strength program for you than Stonglifts in my opinion is New Rules of Lifting for Life. It's geared toward the over-40 crowd who often have orthopedic issues.
Thank you! I'll give those stretches a whirl. I've been trying to remember the stretches from PT, but only know a few.
I'll check out New Rules of Lifting for Life, too. I'm not locked into anything...I just want muscles.
I'm seriously so inflexible and weak, I'm starting from baby steps. I do have an old P90x set of DVDs and did the X Stretch last night and feel a ton better (and almost could do all of the stretches). I wasn't very bendy, but I could do the mods on most of them. So, that's a start and the pain is much much much much less today.2 -
I keep a tennis ball in our car and one at home. When mine flares up, I place the tennis ball right where the pain starts, sit on it and roll around.
The first time mine acted up, we were driving for about 4 hours and I was so uncomfortable. Then I grabbed an apple out of our snack bag stuck it under one cheek.and kind of bounced and rolled around on it. My husband wondered what the heck I was doing, but that apple saved the day.0 -
Cherimoose wrote: »fitoverfortymom wrote: »Is there anything else I can do besides more physical therapy and STILL be able to do squats? Doing squats doesn't hurt, but within hours I am in pain.
Try this stretch every 15-20 minutes, holding a minimum of 30 seconds:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=2qZ517Rw7ME
The effects of stretching don't last long, so it needs to be done often.
You can also try massaging the piriformis with a baseball, tennis ball, etc. You'd place the ball on the floor and roll over it. If that hurts too much, put the ball between a wall and your butt and roll over it. Don't do this in public.
By the way, unless you want to get into powerlifting competitions, a better strength program for you than Stonglifts in my opinion is New Rules of Lifting for Life. It's geared toward the over-40 crowd who often have orthopedic issues.
I suffered from piriformis for almost a year in 2010 (misdiagnosed for much of that time). That stretch cleared it up in 2-3 days.
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Cherimoose wrote: »fitoverfortymom wrote: »Is there anything else I can do besides more physical therapy and STILL be able to do squats? Doing squats doesn't hurt, but within hours I am in pain.
Try this stretch every 15-20 minutes, holding a minimum of 30 seconds:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=2qZ517Rw7ME
The effects of stretching don't last long, so it needs to be done often.
You can also try massaging the piriformis with a baseball, tennis ball, etc. You'd place the ball on the floor and roll over it. If that hurts too much, put the ball between a wall and your butt and roll over it. Don't do this in public.
By the way, unless you want to get into powerlifting competitions, a better strength program for you than Stonglifts in my opinion is New Rules of Lifting for Life. It's geared toward the over-40 crowd who often have orthopedic issues.
Thanks for that link, @Cherimoose . I sent it to my mother. She's been having what she calls sciatica pain, for months. Chiropractor isn't helping. She sits a lot, too much.0 -
As someone who has suffered from sciatic and piriformis issues in my leg for years, some days it is so hard to exercise, run, walk. Find I get some good relief from the tennis ball, but what I find helps a lot if you use it everyday is something called Sacrowedgy you can get it on amazon and they have a website, may help your mum.
Fear my nerve pain is permanent, but would be interested to hear what anyone else has done or what is helping them.1 -
fitoverfortymom wrote: »Back in Feb, pre MFP, I did about 7 weeks of physical therapy to relieve severe piriformis issues. Tons of lower back pain and spasms and shooting pains from my butt to ankles.
Fast forward to now and I am down to 223 from 256 and felt good enough to start a strength training DVD. The strength training includes air squats which seems to have retriggered the issue. I took a week off from the DVD and it calmed down.
Is there anything else I can do besides more physical therapy and STILL be able to do squats? Doing squats doesn't hurt, but within hours I am in pain.
Um sounds more like sciatica to me. The Piriformis muscle sometimes gets blamed for the sciatic nerve impingement (because the nerve can run through that area), but unless you've had MRI's confirming that's the issue and not a bulging disc I'd be VERY careful. If you have not had your lumbar spine imaged by a Orthopedic surgeon you may want to consider it.
A short version of my story.. a dozen years ago I lifted something I should not have and managed to crush a disc in my lumbar spine (L4/L5) causing it to bulge severely into my sciatic nerves. The pain shot down my left butt through the back of my leg all the way down to my ankle. The pain was so severe it took morphine to even dull it, and within a week or so the nerve was so pinched off I lost the feeling below my waist and had to have emergency surgery (because with that feeling went bladder control). Fast forward to 2015 when I started my weight loss journey. I weighed 305 lbs and knew I could not lift much (because of the previous surgery) and probably could not run or do things like jumping jacks, etc., so I walked. I worked my way up to walking 4 miles a day as fast as I could. I burned tons of calories, set my goals at 2lbs a week and lost weight quickly. 40 or so pounds into my loss I ended up with pain on the right side butt which I figured was a piriformis issue. Even my GP said that's probably what it was and that I should stretch more before walking and possibly do some PT. I skipped the PT and stretched more and kept walking. Within 2 weeks I was in severe pain like before, and went back to see my ortho guy who did my previous surgery. I had managed to herniate my L3/L4 and the L5/S1 discs. I was down again in excruciating pain. Luckily, taking it easy (and the use of some heavy pain killers for a couple of weeks) along with some steroid shots, I was back at it again walking 4 miles a day. Bam.. did it again. Down for two weeks. This time I got the shots again, twice, was down for almost 3 weeks in terrible pain, and when I finally got on my feet had to stop walking for exercise for almost a month. I kept up with the yoga (message me if you want to know which yoga stretches helped) and still do to this day. Yes, this is the short version, I left out the stuff like crawling to the bathroom for weeks and sleeping on my living room floor because it was the most comfortable position.
My point is be very careful, and if you have not had your spine looked at, and you can afford it, do so.2 -
Thank you, have been doing yoga for 25 years so it helps, sorry to hear your stories, sounds like you have really been suffering.0
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slimstrauss wrote: »Thank you, have been doing yoga for 25 years so it helps, sorry to hear your stories, sounds like you have really been suffering.
Yup, been there. Yoga save me, I have no doubt about that. I do it before and after every workout now. As far as the back and the nerve pain the next thing that helped was building a very strong core. This means for the last year I've done as many planks, crunches, sit-ups, hanging leg raises, pull ups, push ups, you name it, as I can physically handle. I probably work on my core 50% of my daily workout. It's helped tremendously and although I also have fear of the nerve pain coming back, I fear it a little less now. The doctors tell me I'm on a permanent 25lb weight restriction for the rest of my life. They are probably right, any time I lift something more than 25 lbs I usually am sore the next few days in my lower back. It's bad usually because I am 6'2" tall and when people need something moved or lifted they look through a room, see me, and say "hey you I need a strong back". I have to tell them I'm sorry but I cannot help much and then have to explain why. Even though I'm starting to look muscular to an extent being in recomp for the last six months, I still have to turn them down unless there is sufficient help not to hurt myself.1 -
I've been dealing with the same thing since early feb. It is such a bummer!! Mind you I've managed to lose 45 pounds and have gone from little to no movement (without debilitating pain) to jump squats/lunges.. you name it. I still suffer a fair amount after workouts and especially in the morning but stretching relieves enough of the pain to make it tolerable. I did 7 months of physio/deep tissue massage/chiropractic work, and exhausted all of my work benefits for mayyybe a 10% reduction in pain. It was a waste of time and energy in my opinion... I've also had a couple injections, tests for arthritis, MRI's, among other things and all they've done is resulted in more disappointing results because ultimately the DR's can do NOTHING to help it. I've done a lot (like, A LOT) of research and it is likely triggered/re-triggered from underdeveloped glutes or muscular imbalances in the butt/lumbar region, so your piriformis ends up overworked and injured. I've been slowly working on developing stronger glutes and back muscles and that, along with frequent stretching has brought the pain from a constant 9-10 to a steady 3. It's still a nuisance but isn't nearly as debilitating anymore. SO, long story short don't stop your squatting, don't stop working out, as it won't help the problem in the long run, just modify as necessary and STRETCH, Stretch, and when in doubt stretch some more (sorry for that answer too, I know when DR's tell me to stretch I want to rip their throats out because I've been listening to it for the better part of a year, but its really the only thing that will do the trick)0
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P.s. Sorry for the novel I just really feel your pain!
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I'm 5 months post op for sciatic nerve decompression / piriformis syndrome surgery.
1- A good physical therapist needs to work on it and the surrounding tissue and help fire those sleepy muscle. I have no idea how others have solved this issue without surgery. I was lucky I guess. Personally, my hips constantly torqued, my psoas were tight, IT band tight, abs tight and my back was pissed. It got ugly.
2- nerve glides, gentle piriformis stretching, some yoga. Over stretching will irritate it. Be careful. Nerves love heat.
3- A hip surgeon, or someone that has experience with this. It's "new" so beware. There are only a handful of surgeons in the world. A surgeon can offer steroid shots and specialized pt. The ones that want to do surgery right off, run from. A good surgeon will also do a few tests to make sure it's not back pain-MRI, EMG. I had a back surgeon tell me i needed a double fusion. I have no back issues.
Lastly, surgery if all else fails. I had tethered nerves cut. The sciatic ran through the piriformis. Scaring inside the nerve. I suffered for near 4 years before a proper diagnosis. Then went another 10 months with proper conservative care.
I'm biased, Hal Martin has some publications worth reading. And some you tube videos.
Good luck.1 -
Thank you for the outpouring. I will definitely consider seeing a doctor about some imaging to know for sure the cause. I have had disc issues in the past, plus an MCL tear that had me walking funny for two years.1
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Spliner1969 wrote: »fitoverfortymom wrote: »Back in Feb, pre MFP, I did about 7 weeks of physical therapy to relieve severe piriformis issues. Tons of lower back pain and spasms and shooting pains from my butt to ankles.
Fast forward to now and I am down to 223 from 256 and felt good enough to start a strength training DVD. The strength training includes air squats which seems to have retriggered the issue. I took a week off from the DVD and it calmed down.
Is there anything else I can do besides more physical therapy and STILL be able to do squats? Doing squats doesn't hurt, but within hours I am in pain.
Um sounds more like sciatica to me. The Piriformis muscle sometimes gets blamed for the sciatic nerve impingement (because the nerve can run through that area), but unless you've had MRI's confirming that's the issue and not a bulging disc I'd be VERY careful. If you have not had your lumbar spine imaged by a Orthopedic surgeon you may want to consider it.
A short version of my story.. a dozen years ago I lifted something I should not have and managed to crush a disc in my lumbar spine (L4/L5) causing it to bulge severely into my sciatic nerves. The pain shot down my left butt through the back of my leg all the way down to my ankle. The pain was so severe it took morphine to even dull it, and within a week or so the nerve was so pinched off I lost the feeling below my waist and had to have emergency surgery (because with that feeling went bladder control). Fast forward to 2015 when I started my weight loss journey. I weighed 305 lbs and knew I could not lift much (because of the previous surgery) and probably could not run or do things like jumping jacks, etc., so I walked. I worked my way up to walking 4 miles a day as fast as I could. I burned tons of calories, set my goals at 2lbs a week and lost weight quickly. 40 or so pounds into my loss I ended up with pain on the right side butt which I figured was a piriformis issue. Even my GP said that's probably what it was and that I should stretch more before walking and possibly do some PT. I skipped the PT and stretched more and kept walking. Within 2 weeks I was in severe pain like before, and went back to see my ortho guy who did my previous surgery. I had managed to herniate my L3/L4 and the L5/S1 discs. I was down again in excruciating pain. Luckily, taking it easy (and the use of some heavy pain killers for a couple of weeks) along with some steroid shots, I was back at it again walking 4 miles a day. Bam.. did it again. Down for two weeks. This time I got the shots again, twice, was down for almost 3 weeks in terrible pain, and when I finally got on my feet had to stop walking for exercise for almost a month. I kept up with the yoga (message me if you want to know which yoga stretches helped) and still do to this day. Yes, this is the short version, I left out the stuff like crawling to the bathroom for weeks and sleeping on my living room floor because it was the most comfortable position.
My point is be very careful, and if you have not had your spine looked at, and you can afford it, do so.
"Sciatica (pronounced sigh-at-ih-kah) is not a medical diagnosis in and of itself—it is a symptom of an underlying medical condition, such as a lumbar herniated disc, degenerative disc disease, or spinal stenosis."0 -
This has been my life for the last year. Multiple steroid packs, chiropractor visits (that was a joke), months of physical therapy, and I'm going to see an orthopedic surgeon next week because my primary is out of ideas. I'm better than I was, but every day is a crap shoot. My primary issue was weak glutes, which I have been working on strengthening, but there seems to be a chain reaction kind of effect...fix one thing, break something else.
Thanks for that video @Cherimoose ...it is helpful!1 -
ticiaelizabeth wrote: »I've been dealing with the same thing since early feb. It is such a bummer!! Mind you I've managed to lose 45 pounds and have gone from little to no movement (without debilitating pain) to jump squats/lunges.. you name it. I still suffer a fair amount after workouts and especially in the morning but stretching relieves enough of the pain to make it tolerable. I did 7 months of physio/deep tissue massage/chiropractic work, and exhausted all of my work benefits for mayyybe a 10% reduction in pain. It was a waste of time and energy in my opinion... I've also had a couple injections, tests for arthritis, MRI's, among other things and all they've done is resulted in more disappointing results because ultimately the DR's can do NOTHING to help it. I've done a lot (like, A LOT) of research and it is likely triggered/re-triggered from underdeveloped glutes or muscular imbalances in the butt/lumbar region, so your piriformis ends up overworked and injured. I've been slowly working on developing stronger glutes and back muscles and that, along with frequent stretching has brought the pain from a constant 9-10 to a steady 3. It's still a nuisance but isn't nearly as debilitating anymore. SO, long story short don't stop your squatting, don't stop working out, as it won't help the problem in the long run, just modify as necessary and STRETCH, Stretch, and when in doubt stretch some more (sorry for that answer too, I know when DR's tell me to stretch I want to rip their throats out because I've been listening to it for the better part of a year, but its really the only thing that will do the trick)
The last time I herniated a disc (last year) I was in the doctors office laying on the damn floor (wasn't pleasant) because I couldn't sit in the waiting chairs, and talked to someone who had their spine fused. It was something I was told I should avoid because I'd lose mobility and it would put strain on the discs that were not fused even more than normal, but they told me they felt great after it all healed. This person said they had no more pain on a daily basis, and other than not being quite as limber as before could even lift much more weight than in the past. Kinda made me want to go back to see the Ortho surgeon again. For a minute or so, then I decided against it since the last back surgery put me down for almost 8 weeks and reduced activity for months afterward. I'll just have to work with what I have. It means being stiff in the mornings until I do some yoga/stretch but for the most part building a stronger core has helped 1000%.0 -
Packerjohn wrote: »"Sciatica (pronounced sigh-at-ih-kah) is not a medical diagnosis in and of itself—it is a symptom of an underlying medical condition, such as a lumbar herniated disc, degenerative disc disease, or spinal stenosis."
Sciatica is the pain you feel (yes it's a symptom) that travels down one of your legs into your feet caused by impingement of the sciatic nerve. Generally caused by a disc issue of some sort, as you have pointed out, not necessarily a muscle issue like the piriformis. That's why I mention the OP may want to seek the advice of an Orthopedic Surgeon who specializes in the back/spine.
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