Piriformis Syndrome: My struggles and what works for me

Monday night. Rather, Tuesday morning. 3AM. Tuesday Morning. No longer Monday night. I'm awake, and I'm in pain.

I suffer from piriformis syndrome. The piriformis is a muscle the human butt that does a lot of helpful things. It connects your lower spine to each of your thigh bones, and helps with hip rotation.

I toss and turns so much in my sleep that I may be mistaken for having a seizure in my sleep.

Piriformis pain is hard to describe. It's caused by over-activity of the piriformis muscle, and feels a bit like a cramp. The result of that cramp, when you're mobile, you're in pain.

Rotations of the hip are the worst, and anything that involves the lower back also triggers waves of pain.

This is something that I have been dealing with for years. Bouts of physical therapy, dry needling, massage, and exercise help.

It doesn't stop it from being frustrating when it flares up. Treatment for piriformis syndrome which works for me includes:

• Stretching

Specific stretches. The easiest, and most versatile one, is while lying on the back, placing the affected leg over the opposite knee. The good leg creates a triangle with the floor, and you can push your bad knee away from your body with your hands.

You can lower the knee for a deeper stretch.

• Exercise

The best exercise tends to be bridges. This strengthens all the muscles around the piriformis and helps guard against it being over acitve.

Another effective exercise is standing in profile to a door frame. Plant the good leg, and bend the knee of the bad leg. Place that knee against the door frame and push outward, engaging your hip and glute in order to do so.

• Physiotherapy

A deep, physiotherapist led massage helps to activate the other muscles around the piriformis to do what they're meant to do.

This is the sort of massage that leaves you sweating and aching. It is deep tissue massage, and not the most comfortable.

My regular physiotherapist is also trained in dry needling, and using this technique also helps. Dry needling is the insertion of thin needles into the muscle tissue. The muscle tissue wraps around the needle, and the therapist then jiggles the needle.

Eventually, the muscles relax, and let go of the needle. Some minor inflammation is caused, red blood cells and endorphins rush to the site, and promote release of the muscle.

So, for the next few days and nights, I will suffer, probably not get a lot of sleep, and await for the muscle to let itself relax.

A shame, as I have been walking a lot more than usual recently. That is meant to prevent the incidence of the piriformis going into spasm.

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