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Piriformis Syndrome
The piriformis muscle helps you run and rotate your hip. The syndrome occurs when an injury or muscle spasm compresses and irritates the sciatic nerve (that runs next to, or some times within the piriformis muscle), causing pain, weakness, or both in the lower back, buttock, or posterior hamstring muscle.
Signs & Symptoms
Piriformis is a tough injury to diagnose. Often you'll need your doctor's help. You'll feel a deep, dull ache on the side where your sciatic nerve enters the thigh from the pelvis, or where your hip and buttock meet.
- Pain in and around the outer hip bone
- Pain directly in the center of the buttocks
- A sciatic neuralgia, or pain from the buttocks down the back of the leg and sometimes into different portions of the lower leg.
Injuries to the Piriformis
This muscle is a prime candidate for repetitive motion injury (RMI). RMI occurs when a muscle is asked to perform beyond its level of capability, not given enough time to recover, and asked to perform again.
Causes:
Muscle Spasms:
Tight or overworked muscles can spasm and irritate the sciatic nerve. Even just forcibly rotating the torso during a tennis serve can cause the muscle to spasm.Overtraining:
Going to far, too fast, too soon can overwork a muscle and cause it to spasm.Biomechanics:
Leg-length differences can put too much pressure on the piriformis muscle and cause it too spasm.Muscle Imbalances:
If your abdomen and quadriceps aren't strong enough to work with equally with your hamstrings and lower back muscles.Prolonged Sitting:
Sitting can put too much pressure on the piriformis muscle, which in turns irritates the sciatic nerve.Poor Stretching:
Tight hip flexors can put too much pressure on the piriformis muscle, which in turns irritates the sciatic nerve.
Recovery:
Every injury requires time to heal, and this injury is no different. The injured muscle needs to relax and have increased blood flow encouraged to it for more rapid healing. This tightness that exists also reduces the normal blood flow going to the muscle reducing the speed with which the muscle can recover.