Hi There -

I suffered from a piriformis/glute injury April 2003 to August 2003. I was able to shake it through ART - painful, but it worked.

Good luck with it!

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Tri Hard !

I recommend seeing a P.T. I worked thru this injury a few years ago but still see P.T. when I get out of wack. Mine was caused from pelvis getting out of joint. Biking, not running as you would think, was the main culprit.

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Ken St. Pe'

"Mine was caused from pelvis getting out of joint."

Most likely it was your sacro-iliac joint giving you the problem. Often with piriformis syndrome you will get a sacro-iliac joint "locking" on the same side. I've seen numerous cases of this as a chiropractor. Treating it with manipulation directed at the SI joint and soft tissue techniques on the piriformis muscle usually works quite well along with some stretch exercises..

You've mentioned stretching has been tried already. There are two ways of isolating and stretching piriformis that I'm aware of, one sitting and the other laying on your back. Both are pictured here. If this doesn't work I'd suggest seeing a chiro to also check sacro-iliac joint, pelvic torsion, leg lengths.

http://www.drbackman.com/...s-muscle-stretch.htm

What helped me was laying on my back, knees bend and rolling on a base ball. Right in the buttock area where the pain occurs. Hurts a lot but the pain gets better after a minute or so. Repeat and repeat. A softer version is the TP Ball. Then do the stretches.
It was much better after 2 weeks.

Good luck.

Stefan

I have inflamed piriformis and compressed nerve in my lower back, of course right in the middle of training for my "A" half iron race in October. I feel suidical when I read about "five months" or "a year" of recovery.

I have been to my PT for what they call therapy, I call torture as in "can't I have a stick to bite while you do that?".

I do believe it is helping, he's working on my hamstrings, piriformis, all of my lower back and legs as well as jamming his edlbow into my glute to get some pressure on the muscle. I can at least walk across a room, up from half a room a week ago. I am on my feet a lot in my restaurant and by the time I'm at the end of a 14 hour day it's pretty damm sore. I try top stretch during the day too.

I hope that the PT, ice, vitamin "I" (ibuprofen) and stratching will loosen up everything soon. I did like the stretches in the website another poster mentioned.

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don't just do something..... sit there

See a massage therapist, chiro, or pt that is familiar with this issue. I have been fighting through the same injury. Chiro was the one who got it under control for me. Get a referral & dont wait any longer.

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Jim