Running through piriformis syndrome

Hi,

I had this exact same problem once and I stopped running completely (wasn't serious about running then) till it went away. Since then I've been running mostly on trails/grass and it hasn't come back.

take it easy till it goes away if you can. run on grass as much as possible and for me the number one thing to avoid was running downhill, in fact sometimes when I run downhill I feel a slight tensing in my ass just where I had the injury but luckily it's never come back.

I had piriformis syndrome pretty bad several years ago. Seeing a physical therapist helped the most. I received a couple ultrasound treatments and the PT gave me 3 stretches to do a couple times a day. I also used a heating pad each day to relax the piriformis muscle. Within a month I was able to run fairly comfortably and within 3-4 months it was totally healed. Occasionally, if I think it is coming back, I'll revert back to the stretches since they seemed to break up the scar tissue.

Does stretching seem to aggravate anyone else's piriformis? I had taken some time off and it was almost gone, but then I started stretching when I started running, and that brought it back. Seems to be the best when I take NSAIDs and massage the hell out of it. Anyone else?

if you flunk figure 4 here...do all of the exercises in the article faithfully. i've been getting better slowly but surely.

http://www.physsportsmed.com/issues/2005/0505/fredericson.htm

Yup, I flunk Fig 4. Have been doing excersises with no pain, its just the stretching that hurts!