Piriformis pain

Thank you so much for your wonderful article on back pain. I have been doing yoga now for 8 years, but about 3 months ago, after not walking for two years, I went back to power walking for only two days when I injured my periformis muscle. I found after an MRI my 4 & 5 disc had a slight tear which probably was there before the walks, but nevertheless I was in awful pain.

I started my yoga again about 3 weeks ago, but I am no longer as flexible as I was plus my leg muscles are so sore as well as my right & left groin. This all started after that 2 day walk. I have been doing some bikram poses and a lot of the poses who recommended for the lower back that I had remembered from all the years that I have practiced yoga, but I am still tight and uncomfortable. I guess I have to give time, time.
That periformis muscle takes so much time to heal.

I’m afraid to start walking again. I guess the problem was starting off with power walking.

Thank you so much for sending me the issue on lower back pain.
Posted by JENNIFER on 01/19 at 12:02 PM

I answered this one in the blog and am transferring it here so that we can get further comment:

Hello Jennifer

Thanks very much for your comments.

Did you know that the people most at risk of getting problems with their piriformis muscles are walkers or runners? This is due to the way the piriformis muscles are used to tighten in producing a forward propulsion of the body. Their contraction can cause irritation to the sciatic nerve.

It seems that you may have hit the nail on the head – your problem is the power walking.

I would recommend a gently, gently approach! If you really enjoy the walking then some more preparatory work may be needed.

Try stepping up the Hot Yoga for a while – get some heat and stretch into those muscles. Please take a look at the answer to Johnny’s question for some assistance. There are some neat ways to enhance your stretches in some key poses.

You could try some yin yoga classes, which focus on long languid stretches.

A final point about Standing Separate Leg Stretching pose. This is the pose I talk about (and there are photos too) in Opening up your hamstrings with hot yoga.

Please Jennifer make sure you DO NOT pigeon toe your feet. Neither a turned in or out position of the feet will benefit you, in fact it could worsen your condition. Please make sure that your feet remain parallel.

Get yourself to a properly heated studio and wait for some improvement. Try to practice the whole series rather than making a selection. The series works well as a whole.

Let me know how you go…

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂
Posted by Gabrielle on 01/20 at 12:46 AM in the blog