The pain began about a week ago after a really hard paced half marathon. I had pain after the race but I figured it was just from the effort. I took it easy the following week and went long the following weekend with minimal pain. However, the next week of running was miserable. The pain in my lower right buttocks was brutal. Every time my right forefoot struck the ground it was like someone was stabbing me in the ass. I ignored it at first and ran through it. It hurt to the point where I had to do something. I am seeing a PT and have had 2 ART treatments and my third is tomorrow. I am not seeing any improvements. I have been on the trainer for about 90 minutes a day in an effort to maintain fitness.
Despite the cross training, I haven’t been running for 6 days. I ran a 1:20 half just before this happened and was hoping to run 2:50 in Boston. Now I just want to be able to run it, period. If I don’t go long this weekend it will be my second consecutive missed long run.
What do you all recommend that have had a similar pain? I have been rolling on a tennis ball, taking motrin, and icing. Any help or input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading about my pity party…
You need to find a massage therapist who knows how to deal with this problem— You can make big improvements with the right manipulations. I had mine fixed basically overnight. If you’re in the San Diego area I can PM you the name of the therapist who fixed me up.
The TP massage ball is great, but I have used a raquetball or a really firm (brand new, not broken in) hacky sack to accomplish 95% of the same effect. As noted, a good massage therapist that knows how to deal with this will help. Also, pay attention to your sitting surfaces. Long stretches of driving in the car especially will aggravate it and should be avoided if possible. Finally, ditch the motrin. You are masking the symptoms and helping with the pain but slowing the actual healing process.
I had the same before ST George this year. ART was ehh. at first than after about 2 weeks and a few sessions it started to work, and the ART guy was like go RUN, even a little. I ran a ton in the pool and though I felt like crap after 15/16 miles I still qualified again for Boston. Now I sit on the stupid TP ball and i have no worries. Relax! Also space the ART to every 4 days, no less so your body can recover from the intense workout that ART is!
Marc:
Thanks for the advice. Im in SE wisco otherwise I would totally ask for your therapist.
Jhud:
I will give a raquetball a try,thanks. Funny thing about sitting surfaces: This flared up after a long flight home. Maybe sitting on the plane in the same awkward position tweaked something.
definitely the trigger point ball. If you are in Hawaii we’ve got them in stock at our shop/office.
lots of stretching too including the hip flexor (the TP ball and quadballer are both great for this) and glute areas as well as of course the piriformis.
Friction massage can work well too. I’m not an ART specialist but I almost wonder if it would work all that well for a muscle that deep… I do love ART btw, just not sure if it would be best in that situation.
I had this happen after a long run about 3 months ago. Went to the doc and he told me to take Celebrex and get PT massage therapy. Said it would take 3-6 weeks to subside. On week 3.5 it was 85% gone, week 6 completely gone. Finally, I realized that I needed to work on my form, since then, no issues.
I am seeing a PT and have had 2 ART treatments and my third is tomorrow. I am not seeing any improvements.
Well of course not. You’re not giving yourself enough recovery time, and you’re not allowing the time for the PT/ART treatments to break up & disperse the adhesions in your hip.
RELAX. Don’t do it. When ya gonna get… oops. Sorry, just happen to have that song stuck in my head.
Seriously: RELAX. Give your body a chance to heal. I suffer from a horribly tight piriformis that no amount of massage, yoga, stretching or anything else seems to be able to loosen up, YET I’ve found that periodic ART treatments get me and keep me going. But when I torque my hip, I’ve just got to back it off until my ART PT says I can start pushing the volume again.
Stick with the PT/ART treatments for 6 to 8 sessions, SHORT runs until they say otherwise, and chances are you’ll be like new & more than capable to run Boston well.
When I had it bad to the point where each foot strike elicited pain, I had an MRI and it turned out I had bursitis of both ischial tuberosities, and it sounds like you may have this. When piriformis is so messed up that the bursa end up inflamed, you’ve got it bad. I didn’t run for 4 weeks to let the inflammation settle and then gradually reintroduced stretching of the hamstrings, glutes, etc., and running back into my program.
If it’s hurting you right at the top of the hammies, it could be the bursa, so you might want to have it checked out. If it’s not, then yeah, all the other things people have said about TP massage balls, stretching of hips and strengthening of piriformis and TFL applies.
Thing is if you are hurting really badly, stretching and rolling around on a ball or ART can actually make things worse if the bursa are involved.
Right now I am sitting on a tennis ball. No one has mentioned the foam roller. This can’t get at the deep spot like the ball or a therapist can, but I am finding that rolling the hips and hamstrings around it is really making a difference. Stay on top of it or else it will start afftecting your gait and then more problems will surface.
You may be dealing with upper hamstring neuropathy. Search it on this forum and elsewhere. I am just recovered after five months. TP ball and stretching aggravated it more. Deep massage was helpful, but core strength excercises like squats, dead lifts with light weights, and lunges seemed to play a key role in full recovery. I injured them (both sides!) training aggressively for a marathon. The last eight miles of the race in Ocotber was pure torture and I was too dumb to take it seriously.
I have been “managing this issue” for the last 2 1/2 years. The tennis ball and other hard objects were too painful for me. I found great success with the foam roller, but I think I have finally made enough progress to move onto something more aggressive.
My tennis ball has for the most part replaced my massage therapist. By the way, there aren’t many massage therapists that will really apply the pressure and break up the adhesions in the pirformis. Finding a good one is very important and may take a few shots to find one. As said earlier, you are getting close enough to Boston give yourself a couple days after the massage. Good luck
