6 Must-Try Exercises For Piriformis Pain Relief

hey guys Dr Christy Andis if you have a deep pain in that butt and it's not related to someone in your life and you have been trying to stretch that thing and massage it and it's not getting better you are probably missing these strengthening exercises to help you get better our first exercise is going to be on our side now the pur foris oftentimes actually is overworked or overstretched and it's part of a bunch of glute muscles that have to be functioning and do some of the same actions as well so you might even hear being called Deep Glu muscle syndrome now because of all the other muscles that have to be working so one of the actions that this muscle does and some of these other hip muscles is rotate that leg outwards so we're going to start in a sideline position and what we call a neutral position so legs are not forward legs aren't back so you want to be in a nice straight line so that when you look down at your feet you can probably see your toes hello and maybe some of your leg but you don't want to see a lot of your leg so in this neutral position the pur foris rotates that leg out so I'm going to turn that foot up and I'm going to lift and as I lift I'm going to concentrate on trying to turn that even more without turning my body so that's really key one of the things that the pur foris really helps with is stabilizing the pelvis and that's where we tend to go wrong and that's why there usually are a lot of issues we're wobbly right so when you're doing this exercise it's really important that you're keeping everything sturdy and straight besides this leg that's moving so goal here would be to hold for a few seconds and then come on back down and you're going to try about 5 to 10 and this is one of the easier ones so it shouldn't cause pain if it does please do fewer repe repetitions right we want to work on strengthening it not making it hurt even more staying on our side for the second exercise we're actually going to move our hip position a little bit so I'm going to bend my knees and as I do that I'm going to actually bring my hips into what I call an L position this this time we're still working those rotators that open right we're going to lift that knee and keep those feet glued together and as I do this same idea I want to make sure that I'm not rotating backwards right we're stabilizing here so remember we're working on the pur foris but we're also working on those other muscles that help to stabilize that hip and so we want to get to that hip in other positions because different muscles do different things when the leg is in a different position so you again want to shoot for about 10 to 15 here if you want to make this one a little bit harder you can actually go ahead and put a band on and do that same motion now we also want to get another position with this exercise so I'm now going to bring keep my knees bent but I'm going to extend my legs a little bit feet are still glued together careful that you're not rolling back as you do this and then again lifting that top knee you may find that you don't lift it quite as much when you're back here and you're going to feel this in a little bit of a different position but again in that same hip butt area and 10 to 15 typically staying in that same clamshell position with the legs back a little bit we're working the rotators that do the other thing and rotate us inwards again working all those muscles so you're going to start by lifting that leg up that top leg up a little bit so we're actually kicking in some of those abductors here too this time you're going to think about bringing that foot towards the ceiling so again you want to be careful that you're not just flopping around over here it's just that really subtle lift up and I actually don't have a ton of range of motion because this is not a great side for me clearly I need to do this but you can see that I'm not getting nearly as much motion as the um exercise so pay attention to that for yourself as well and again 10 to 15 or until it feels a little tired but not sore last one on the ground you're going to use that band if you can above the knees go ahead and get your back into a comfortable position to start hands are going to come down by your side you're going to lift that butt up without arching or lifting through any part of that spine so as high as you can without doing that so now I'm engaging those glute muscles in the back and on the side and again remember what I said about that pform is helping to stable ize that pelvis so now we're going to bring our knees apart and when we do that we have to work really hard to keep everything nice and level if it's too much with the band go ahead and take the band off and I usually go about 15 or 20 here if you want to make this one a little bit harder again keep those hands down by your side for this one for sure you're going to lift one knee up just a little bit and then the other knee up this one is a lot harder actually to keep that pelvis from rocking back and forth so I usually go with about 10 for this one all right we've got two exercises standing because these muscles do act a little bit differently when we're standing and we do need to stand so if we're staying with this left leg this is the leg that's going to be doing the work this other leg you don't have to do a total balance thing so if you need to put this toe on the ground to help you you can you want to think about having a nice good grip with your feet and we're actually going to turn our body so if I'm standing on the left leg I'm going to turn keep this leg planted and open to the right so I'm actually kind of pushing this left leg out a little bit to engage right in through here and then it's nice and controlled on the way back so it's not just twist the Torso right I'm really thinking about coming from that hip like I said opening here and kind of pushing here so about 10 to 15 here as well last one is the hardest one and you definitely want something to hang on to to help because again not about balance right now so we're going to go into a single leg deadlift position my right leg's going to be on the ground I'm going to think about pushing my hips back like that little drinking bird thing and this is why you're holding on because you want to make sure that you're not rotating open here I want my hips to be pointing towards the ground and then this left leg is actually going to extend back a little bit and now I'm going to open it up so again it's not here or we're losing that stability through the pelvis we're really doing nice and steady and stable and if you're not sure think about just really push both hips down towards the ground first before you even start left leg is working that right leg though is working too to stabilize us as it is just not moving there and again probably 10 to 15 here