Fixing Your Fanny Pain

Piriformis plays a very important role for protecting the hip, sacroiliac joint, and the pelvic floor. The muscle is often seen as the "guilty party" when it comes to blaming that "pain in the rear." Sometimes this is reality and sometimes piriformis is falsely accused, but either way it is indeed a very active muscle in your toosh.

Dysfunction of Piriformis Encourages

Poor rotational stability of the hip joint

Sacroiliac joint instability

Pelvic floor instability (through connective tissue connections to the pelvic floor)

Stiffness of the hip joint which can affect your ability to squat, lunge, or simply walk

Is Piriformis My Problem?

The first step to improving piriformis pain is correctly identifying whether piriformis is indeed at fault. The video below is a treatment option for a trigger point release of the muscle but it is also an opportunity to identify if piriformis is culprit. Place a ball in an area of soreness, attempt to rotate your thigh to the outside while applying resistance. If this hurts it is an elementary sign that piriformis might be involved. Carryout this treatment technique to help reduce tension in the muscle belly.

Gaining Mobility in Piriformis

Once we can calm tension in piriformis then it is time to gain some mobility of piriformis. You can specifically isolate a stretch to piriformis in a number of ways but we like to attempt the following stretches. These stretches are for "patterns" of movement rather than for single tissues. We find these approaches often alleviate "tightness" quicker than with isolated piriformis stretches. However, if these a