After last week’s 5 mile run on Sunday I finally admitted to myself that my piriformis is once again bothering me. I decided to take it easy during the week, so I played tennis on Tuesday (in my vibram’s, which was great by the way), ran an easy 2 barefoot miles on Wednesday and walked on Thursday. I went for another easy 2 miles on Friday. I’ve also been stretching religiously, doing some targeted strength training every other day, and icing whenever I can. Unfortunately, none of this has really helped and I still feel quick twinges of pain when I get up from sitting, and while I’m walking around. The strange part is that it never really hurts during the run, only after, which makes it hard to tell if I’m overdoing it. I finally caved and booked an appointment with a sports massage therapist. I’ve heard that like IT band issues, piriformis syndrome is really difficult to get rid of, and that deep tissue/sports massage may help in some cases. After dealing with this for almost 3 years, I know I can still keep running 3 or 4 miles a few times a week and not have have major problems, but whenever I increase my mileage up to about 5-6 miles it definitely starts to hurt more. And I really, really want to increase my mileage. Every other part of me feels great and wants to keep going. ugh. From what I understand, barefoot running won’t make this injury any worse than running in shoes because it’s not casused by impact, but by repetitive forward motion. I was just hoping that my new, improved barefoot running form would change the way I run so much that it would also help with the piriformis syndrome. It seemed to work at first and I was feeling better until I got up to about 4 miles or so. No long run for me this weekend. Hoping a little more rest and some massage therapy will help… Has any out there ever actually gotten over piriformis syndrome completely???
If it’s the repetitive forward motion that is causing the issue, maybe trail running is in your near future
You can start working the side-to-side muscles and tendons as you dodge trees, rocks and jump streams. Good luck battling that injury though. I have issues with my PT tendon in my right foot and like you, I don’t notice the injury as much while I’m running. I actually don’t usually even notice it that much the next entire day! It’s the second day where the soreness sneaks up on me and then I am forced to deal with it.
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I have had piriformis syndrome for over 2 years and have worked on it constantly with stretches and chiropractic care. I have had very little improvement.
I even tried massage therapy which really aggravated the muscle and was very painful.
Ice is a good treatment and light massage.
I hope you find the answer – I am still looking for it. Dana