This entry was posted on Monday, February 12th, 2007 at 10:14 am and is filed under Bad Backs, Stretching. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Part 5 of 10 
Now this is a stretch that can leave you in a human knot - a bit like an advanced game of Twister. Before we get into the finer details of the stretch I should explain whereabouts in the body this piriformis muscle is located. We have two of these muscles and they attach to the very upper part of the thigh bone from the sacrum (the large bony area at the base of your spine). The muscle travels through our pelvis and is in very close proximity to our sciatic nerve, which it is thought to agitate when it becomes too tight. This in turn can lead to radiating pain down the leg also known as sciatica. Very painful and creates a weakness in the leg affected. Its main jobs are to rotate your leg out (turning the knee away from your other leg) and to take your leg out away from the other leg when your hip is flexed (your knee is raised).
You can usually tell if someone’s piriformis may be tight just by looking at the way they stand when relaxed. Their knees should point outwards and so should their feet. The cause of this tightening is generally a sedentary lifestyle combined with a lot of sitting, also bad habits of allowing the knees to point out will add to the shortening process. Another cause is playing sport and not stretching properly after. Amateur athletes who play sport very irregularly tend to cause added stress on this muscle causing it to tighten further. The result is pain located deep within the buttock. As the piriformis attaches directly into the back it is a very important stretch for the back stretch series. As always the solution is to keep mobile and not to sit for long periods. Also with this muscle it is important to watch your posture and not let your knees point out too much.
The following stretch should also be performed as much as possible but once in the morning and once in the evening will suffice along with your other stretches in this series. As always read the following tips on stretching before performing any of these or your other stretches.
1. Pain should never be part of stretching.
2. Use a scale of 1-10; 1 being nothing and 10 being agony. You need to stretch to a 6 or 7. This should feel as if it is pulling right in the middle of the muscle and nowhere near your bones. It should feel like a strong pull and not painful or sharp.
3. When taking your body into any stretch, once you have done it, just hold it there. Do not force it any further and definitely don’t bounce ( By “bounce” I mean short regular movements trying to force your muscle to stretch further than it wants to. You can damage the muscle by doing this.).
4. Breathe! Your muscles won’t be able to relax properly if you are holding your breath. Use nice deep yoga-style breathing, take in a lung-full and let the air out nice and slowly right to the end.
5. It is better to get the technique correct than concerning yourself about how far you stretch. Bad technique could result in you receiving no benefits from the stretching or worse still an injury. And that is the kind of irony we don’t like.
6. Try and do stretches first thing in the morning and last thing at night. The more you can do the better, but morning and evening is fine as a minimum.
Stretch 5
For this stretch you will need yourself and a towel, the latter is optional depending on how flexible you are. Start by lying on the floor on your back. On this stretch you will be working one leg at a time so pick your left leg and cross it over your right leg (see fig. 1). Position it so that your left ankle just passes your right knee and the left leg is below your right knee. Now comes the part where you could be in knots. Pass your left arm through the gap created by your legs and your right arm around the outside of your right leg. Now with both arms grab the area behind the knee of your right leg as in fig 2. (relax your right leg at the knee), then slowly pull your right leg towards your head, this in turn will bring your left leg closer as well. You should, if you are doing it correctly, feel the stretch in your left buttock. Hold this stretch for 45 seconds to 1 minute and repeat on the other leg by repeating the instructions above but using the right leg to cross over and the left leg to pull towards you. Now I had difficulty enough explaining that so I hope you can see what I mean. Some of you may not be very flexible and will have problems reaching behind your legs to pull them towards you. Don’t worry though, as this will show how important this stretch is. To help, use a towel to wrap behind the leg and pull on that instead.
Stretches for Your Back – A Summary
So now you have all 5 stretches for a healthier back. To look at all of them either go to the stretches category on the left hand side of the screen, or click on the title of this post and navigate your way back to previous posts. Keep these stretches up especially if you know that your life is particularly sedentary. Even if your back is okay these stretches are good preventative stretches. If you need some more help or guidance for the stretches please leave a comment by clicking on the “read comments” section and I will do my best to help. The next post will be part 6 of 10 and start explaining the exercises you will need to do to help keep your back healthy.
Sphere: Related Content
August 29th, 2007 at 9:45 pm
back pain remedy…
I do think you are right on the spot with this post, I could use a lot of stuff for my new study, thank you very much….
October 21st, 2008 at 10:22 am
Thanks so much for this piriformis stretch. I’ve been on painkillers for nearly 18 months now because of pain in my legs which could not be diagnosed. I had to quit college and could barely even shop for my family due to the pain. My doctor just this month realized that the problem is the piriformis muscle. Your stretch is practically magical! Thank you again for taking the time to post the information and diagram of the stretch.