Do You Have Piriformis Syndrome Or Sciatica?

If you have piriformis syndrome or sciatica... you may wonder which piriformis syndrome exercises are good, and which piriformis syndrome exercises you should avoid.

What will be answered for you in this video?

Piriformis Syndrome vs. Sciatica and how are they related to each other?
Are piriformis syndrome stretches good to do?
If indicated, how do you stretch your piriformis?
When should you AVOID stretching your piriformis?

Watch the video below to learn when and when not to do piriformis syndrome exercises...

Sometimes Stretching Can Make Sciatica Worse!

The piriformis is 1 of 6 muscles that helps turn your hip outwards. Before doing piriformis syndrome exercises, you want to make sure the muscle is short or stiff and actually needs to be stretched.

Just because your piriformis muscle hurts, doesn't mean doing piriformis syndrome exercises is a good thing! If the muscle is already overstretched, then doing piriformis syndrome exercises just puts more pressure on your sciatic nerve.

How to determine if you need to do piriformis muscle exercises? By performing the two tests below, you can determine piriformis movements are restricted and where you actually need stretching.

Piriformis Muscle Test #1:

Cross one leg over the other
Let the crossed leg drop down. You should be able to get your knee parallel to the ground.
Test the opposite leg and compare the results
If either knee isn't parallel, that means it's tight and needs to be stretched!

Piriformis Muscle Test #2:

Cross one leg over the other
Try to pull your knee across your body and towards the opposite shoulder.
Check the opposite side and compare results
If you can't get your knee to your mid-line or slightly past your mid-line, then you need to do this piriformis muscle exercise on that hip.

Piriformis muscle exercises are the same as the muscle tests.

Whichever test you had tightness on, is the piriformis syndrome exercise you will be performing. (Sidenote: you could be doing different piriformis syndrome exercises on each leg, depending on which test showed tightness in your piriformis muscle.)