What Is Sciatica and Piriformis Syndrome?
Are you suffering with sharp pain in your buttock that actually travels down your leg, and it’s really uncomfortable and bothers you? That’s called sciatica.
Guys, I’m Dr. Tyler McClimon with McClimon Chiropractic, and sciatica can come from different things. One of those things is called piriformis syndrome.
So in your buttock, there’s a muscle that goes through your buttock called the piriformis muscle. The actual sciatic nerve goes through the center of that piriformis muscle and down into your buttock and down into your leg.
How Pelvic Alignment Can Affect the Sciatic Nerve
So what happens sometimes is the pelvis actually shifts out of its normal alignment, elongates that piriformis muscle, which puts more pressure on the sciatic nerve, which causes pain into your butt and down your leg, okay?
You can have pain down your leg and sciatica from pressure on your nerve in your back, but you can also have it from pressure on the sciatic nerve actually in the buttock.
So we’re going to give you guys a tip on how to help that at home and a tip on how to help that if that doesn’t help, okay?
How to Do the Piriformis Stretch at Home
So at home, there’s something called the piriformis stretch. If you stretch that piriformis muscle and it creates more flexibility, it can take some of the pressure off of that sciatic nerve and give you some relief down into your leg.
So that stretch, that piriformis stretch, looks something like this.
You’re going to take and cross over here. You’re stretching the left one. Actually, switch around. You’re going to stretch the right one, okay?
Go through here, and then you’re going to pull up on the knee, and that’s going to stretch that piriformis muscle and help elongate it, create more flexibility, and create less pressure on the sciatic nerve and less pain down the leg.
So the piriformis stretch, that’s something you do at home. Do it for 30 seconds, three times. It’s a great stretch.
Correcting Pelvic Alignment to Help Piriformis Syndrome
If that’s not helping, guys, then we definitely recommend looking at the structure because structure dictates function.
If your pelvis is out of alignment, whether that’s from subluxation, it shifts out of alignment, we can correct that.
However, sometimes the pelvis is out of alignment not from subluxation, but because it’s actually short. You might have a short leg. We can also correct that.
So the good news is, whether it’s short from a subluxation or short anatomically, we can correct both of those.
We do X-rays to fully analyze that, and that gives us the information we need on how to treat and how to correct the pelvis.
If you improve the structure, it shortens that piriformis muscle, takes pressure off the nerve, and solves the root cause of the problem instead of just masking it with a medication or some type of therapy.
How We Help Piriformis Syndrome
So guys, that’s how we help piriformis syndrome.
Try that tip at home. If it doesn’t help, we’re here for you, and hope that helps out.
Leave a comment in the box, and we’ll look forward to seeing you on our next video.
