Piriformis Injury

[Maurine Lee]

I believe I have a piriformis injury and am looking for advice on successful recovery options.

History:
Last summer I kind of 'fell off the wagon' from my previous weight training after having abdominal surgery and have not worked on my core as much as I would like.  Over the winter I successfully built my mileage in preparation for a 50 mile race, but a month or more before the race I started experiencing abdominal pain that was diagnosed as a incisional hernia or tear - which also limited my ability to do core workouts.

I ended up DNF'ing in my 50 mile race from IT Band issues (possibly caused by compression shorts used to keep the hernia/tear pain down) and my recovery from that actually seems to have allowed the tear to heal because I no longer have pain there.

About 6 weeks ago I also started to feel some pain/discomfort in the middle of the right hip, but it was only a 1 or 2 on a 10 scale when I ran.  I did get back into weight training and have been training for about 4 weeks with no problems.  This is a program designed by my personal trainer for the entire body - but geared towards running specific strengthening. 

Last Friday I was out trail running and about 6 miles in my foot caught a rock and I did a face plant - major impact on my left elbow and hand and my right hip and knee.  I got up and continued running another 3 miles, mainly stinging from pain.  Saturday morning I did the same run again (plus another mile) and felt no pain from the fall, but twisted my right ankle at mile one and had to work out that for a mile or so.  Finished the run, felt great. Went home and had to sit through a condo association meeting for 2+ hours without time to stretch or ice.

Saturday night I was walking through the store and suddenly got a pain in my left buttock through knee that was so achy/painful that I couldn't stand on it easily or walk without limping.  Rested that night and the next day and found the same thing occurring on a short walk with my dog. 

Treatment so far:
This week I have not done any running.  Monday - long visit to a chiropractor and got aligned and pulse therapy.  Long full-body massage that evening - focusing on rehabilitating the legs.  Both experiences about sent me through the roof when the piriformis was touched.

Tuesday - another visit to the chiropractor.  Piriformis definitely tender from the previous day.  However, the pain when walking was going away. 

Wednesday - chiropractor and a half hour massage on the lower body with stretching.

From the research I have done - it would appear to be a weakness in the hip area that the fall aggravated. 

I am pulling out of the Ogden Marathon on Saturday - but looking at the best recovery I can to be able to run Utah Valley next month.

Can anyone provide me some successful training/rehab ideas that has worked for them?

Thanks!

[Josse]

It sounds like you are doing good things.  Just stick with it, this injury is a bugger and can take a while to heal.  Lifting and stretching is a good idea, but I would get professional help to make sure you are targeting the right muscles.

[Michelle Lowry]

Well, that's where my pain is and my advice to you is to not trust your initial diagnosis.  If it is still painful after two weeks, I'd do an MRI just to KNOW what you are dealing with so you can do the right thing.  There are so many things going on around the piriformis that diagnosis is a mystic guess.

I would stick to your guns about pulling out of Ogden.  It just doesn't make sense to run a 26.2 training run injured.

I hope it turns out to be minor and goes down for you.  If it's not one thing it's another, eh?

[Cal Stauffer]

I had the lower ab pains for several months and just ran thru it.  Then I had an accute piriformis type injury, that took me out of commission for about 10 weeks.  (My Doctor's opinion was that there was no correlation between the two injuries but i'm not convinced.  I'm also not convinced that his diagnosis was 100% accurate either)

I did icing, stretches, Prednisone and some chiropractic adjustments.  None of those were magic cure-alls to get me back running again.  But the combination along with sufficient time-off has gotten me back to some running again.  (I'm still feeling the occasional twinges, aches, and pains.   In retrospect more time off probably would have been even better, but who knows)

What i do know is that my minor symptoms became major because i didn't back-off at the early warning signs.

I hope your symptoms go away quickly!