Piriformis Syndrome

Hey everybody, I was just diagnosed with piriformis syndrome and started physical therapy last week for it. I was wondering if anybody here has gone through physical therapy for this before and had any success with it? I appreciate any answers from you guys.

so not one person here has

Hello sir,

Mine flares up from time to time due to disc herniations at L3-4-5. I found a
PT that performs trigger point dry needle therapy. It has helped tremendously.

foam rolling, pigeon pose, lax ball pressure point work.

thanks guys, ive never heard of the trigger point dry needle therapy ill have to look into that, and I did the foam rolling and lax ball pressure work and it didnt seem to help that much unfortunately

[quote]arh09 wrote:
thanks guys, ive never heard of the trigger point dry needle therapy ill have to look into that, and I did the foam rolling and lax ball pressure work and it didnt seem to help that much unfortunately [/quote]

Did it hurt? Because if it hurt to roll, you’re getting at the right spot. You can’t just do it a couple times.

I just rehabbed a client of mine from it, and it took twice daily work EVERY DAY for a couple weeks before it got better. Now it’s better though.

Youtube videos for foam rolling the piriformis and also stretches for the piriformis. Foam roll first, stretch after. Do this AT LEAST 2x a day. Ideally you would do it every spare moment. Pigeon pose can help.

The piriformis is something that doesn’t easily get fixed, it is very stubborn. So you have to make sure you’re on top of it.

@Aragorn, yeah its a very stubborn thing to get fixed, would you suggest twice a day maybe before and after workouts? and do you have any suggestions for certain stretches or exercises I should include for the twice daily routines?

I appreciate the help everybody

Im a practising ND. I treat Piriformis syndrome with Neural therapy (trigger point needling), Trigenics and also prolotherapy if there is any hip or SI joint Instability. It should get better quite quickly if you use these treatments.

[quote]Jamie133 wrote:
Im a practising ND. I treat Piriformis syndrome with Neural therapy (trigger point needling), Trigenics and also prolotherapy if there is any hip or SI joint Instability. It should get better quite quickly if you use these treatments.[/quote]

I’ve had pretty bad SI and posterior hip issues in the past. It still flares up every once in a while. I was wondering for someone who can’t afford any medical procedures if crossfrictioning would have a similar effect as prolotherapy?

[quote]Fletch1986 wrote:

I’ve had pretty bad SI and posterior hip issues in the past. It still flares up every once in a while. I was wondering for someone who can’t afford any medical procedures if crossfrictioning would have a similar effect as prolotherapy?[/quote]

Not sure what you mean by crossfrictioning–do you mean cross friction massage?

Here are a few exercises that have worked for a few of my patients. No guarantee it will work for you but it is worth a try. Lots of technical info in there that you might not be interested in…just scroll down to the corrective exercises heading.

I’ve been dealing with this myself. I would advise you to also foam roll and stretch the ADDuctors and strengthen the gluteal medius region (x band walks, band abductions, squat wide stance) as well as the Gluteus maximus (hip thrusts)

[quote]smallmike wrote:

[quote]Fletch1986 wrote:

I’ve had pretty bad SI and posterior hip issues in the past. It still flares up every once in a while. I was wondering for someone who can’t afford any medical procedures if crossfrictioning would have a similar effect as prolotherapy?[/quote]

Not sure what you mean by crossfrictioning–do you mean cross friction massage?

Here are a few exercises that have worked for a few of my patients. No guarantee it will work for you but it is worth a try. Lots of technical info in there that you might not be interested in…just scroll down to the corrective exercises heading.

Like using a thumb and basically pushing it hard into a knotty tight spot and holding it there for a minute or two. I heard basically reinflames the spot giving it a chance to heal the way it should or something like that.

Piriformis syndrome can actually be caused from weak muscles not tight muscles. They are tight because they are weak and therefore causing the problem. Sometimes triggerpointing/massage can actually aggravate the condition as this causes the muscles to relax thereby allowing the femur to rotate more putting more pressure on the sciatic nerve and causing greater sciatic symptoms.

If you are weak through the glutes, then you need to strengthen them.

I agree with Mr Stern after all the mobility drills, stretches and myofascial release I have done none of it seems to be of any value compared to the most important rule: STRENGTHEN THE WEAK MUSCLES this is key to fixing your problem you should focus more on fixing your weak spots and use stretching and foam rolling as something like a ‘sub-assistance’ the main thing that will help you is strengthening weak muscles.

I suggest looking into ‘Dry Needle Therapy’ as other members have mentioned before but the most important thing is that you gain knowledge about your condition not piriformis syndrome but YOUR condition you need to know what is wrong with you specifically and how you can fix it, do all of the reading you can and learn as much as you possibly can.

I can’t say for certain what you should do and how I could help you because you haven’t given out enough information for me to help you. Tell us about your weak muscles, tell us about your overly tight muscles, tell us about your pained areas or better yet post up some pictures so we can see what we are dealing with.