Your Piriformis Isn't Tight, it's WEAK! [4 Exercises to Get it Strong]

the piriformis is often seen as a muscle that's tight so people stretch it the problem is that the piriformis is often tight because it's weak in this video you're going to learn all about this and four exercises to get it stronger [Music] hey it's cochi from Precision movement and I'm here with another video to get you moving freely and without pain if you're not subscribed yet make sure you're subscribed because we're posting videos every week or so and we often include subjects that are opposite to the conventional wisdom like today's subject around the piriformis so hit that subscribe button so we can stay connected the muscle we're targeting today is the piriformis now this muscle is a deep hip muscle it runs kind of like that horizontally around the back of your hip and it has two functions depending on the position of your hip the first function is external rotation like so turning the toe out the thigh out when the hip is in neutral so my hip is in neutral or in the extended position the piriformis contributes to external rotation largely when your hip is flexed the function changes so when you're up here there are two functions one is internal rotation like so the other is horizontal extension like so so when we train it it's important to keep these different functions depending on the position of the hip in mind when it comes to the piriformis oftentimes people just think stretch so they'll be hanging out in the pigeon pose you know down here down here or during these lying on your back stretches where you're pulling it up and pressing down on the knee to Target the piriformis because again the common conventional wisdom is that when a muscle is tight we need to stretch it hold it for 30 seconds a minute to get it to release the problem here is that the muscle is tight for a reason neuromuscularly your brain is telling a muscle to tense up to increase its tone because probably something else is not working properly so it's compensating and it's working harder than it should without any relaxation and then over time it would be like doing bicep curls every day sooner or later that soreness is just gonna turn into tension and you see guys walking around you can they can barely straighten out their elbows because they've done so many bicep curls so that is why the piriformis is tight now we're not going to get into the root causes of why the piriformis might compensate I've already touched on that in another video on the SI joint and piriformis syndrome so you can check that out got a link there or down below in the description but stick with me we're going to go through exercises to get this muscle stronger because it's often weak because we don't use it and we're sitting on our butts all day so we don't need and we're not we don't use it so we lose it the muscle gets weak it's as simple as that the last thing to remember before we get into the exercises is that what is a muscle designed for it is a muscle is designed to contract to generate Force so if all we're doing to a muscle is stretching it then we're not treating a muscle for what it's designed for so in this video we're going to go through four exercises to strengthen this piriformis and to restore its function the first exercise I'd like to show you is the side lying hip external rotation when the hip is in neutral the function of the piriformis is external rotation so all we're going to do here is ensure our hips stays in neutral lie on your side and then lift the leg off the other leg just a little bit and then rotate the thigh picture the thigh rotating up like so when you get to the end range keep rotating keep trying to get deeper in the range to really activate the muscle and after about five seconds we return and release so again lift the foot off the other foot externally rotate the hip focus on the thigh don't let the pelvis open up to the ceiling keep it Square in front of you keep activating at that end range for about five seconds and slowly control it back down relax and do it again now one important cue when you do this is thinking of sucking the leg into the pelvis that's going to help to activate these deep hip muscles like the piriformis that are often inactive and weak for this technique to start off with two sets four to six reps holding for about five seconds and that's going to wake up the piriformis in a gentle way that's gentle on the hip joint but is really isolated and targeted to getting the piriformis activated the second exercise to strengthen the piriformis is the standing closed chain hip external rotation so the first one we're relying on a ground the leg was in the air and it was moving in the air now the leg that we're working is going to be stuck on the ground and we're going to activate and move the body around that leg very simple technique lift the other foot off the ground and staying tall staying aligned rotate the body around thinking of turning the foot this way so I'm generating the force of external rotation in through the hip thinking deep in the hip and then coming back to neutral again generate that force from the hip turning out you can have the other foot on the floor just for a little bit of balance it'll help you to activate a little better we don't want to turn this into a balance exercise yet and then coming back in one thing to note for the feet you want active feet talk about this in many of the videos where we're standing but we get that active Arch that's making the foot short so pulling the toes the metatarsals the forefoot towards the heel and then skinny the metatarsals which are just below the toes there pulling that area together so short and skinny foot so create the active Arch short and skinny foot rotate keep trying to get deeper into this range of motion external rotation use your foot for balance if you need it and then bring it back under control this is a closed chain exercise so it differs because it's not as targeted to the piriformis the one on the ground you're really targeting the piriformis and isolating it here we've got the feet on we've got other hip muscles on to maintain balance core lots of stuff going on so the pattern is a little more complex it's not better or worse but you might find waking up the muscle first with the first exercise then coming here is really beneficial again do two sets four to six reps holding for five seconds to wake this muscle up and strengthen it the third exercise is the four point hip abduction for this technique go into the four point position that's hands right under the shoulders knees right under the hips maintain a neutral spine so a little bit of Lumbar extension neutral through the t-spine or a little curve and then head in line like you're standing straight and from here start off with a little bit of pelvic floor activation a little bit of deep core activation and slowly raise your knee out to the side try not to move the spine don't move the hips the pelvis sorry you're moving the hip hold it for five and bring it down under control again you out to the side holding for about five seconds breathing naturally and bring it back down now some people might feel a lot of cramping when they do this exercise and it's very normal and often it's another bustle the tfl that's trying to get in there and work or it could be the piriformis itself when you get up to the top it's not used to working in this range of motion so it's weak it'll cramp basically doesn't know what to do so by training it and holding the activations even a little bit longer you'll teach it what it's supposed to do and it'll stop cramping another little Point here is when you lift out to the side if you find that cramping is just way too much and you're just not going to do the exercise bring your knee down a little bit and lift it out to the side from there that will help you to get a little bit less hip flexion and activate the muscle in a Range it's a little more comfortable with so try that out for two sets again four to six reps five seconds it's a good Baseline to start with when you're strengthening a muscle that hasn't been working for a while so you want to hold it really develop that kinesthetic awareness and then you'll be able to use that in movement patterns and it'll be just contributing to movement patterns like squats and lunges and things like that the last exercise I'd like to show you is the standing hip opener and this exercise is working that Hip Flex position again so what the piriformis does in this position is horizontal extension bringing the knee out to the side also known as horizontal abduction here we're going to add a little more psoas activation to the mix so now we're working this pattern that helps you to work the hip joint in this other range of motion and strengthens two muscles that need it the piriformis and the psoas so for this technique you can use a wall for balance again we don't want to turn this into a balance exercise so use a wall for balance if you need Flex the hip and make sure that you're not hiking the hip sideways like that using the obliques the ql those muscles but Hike The Hip or Flex the hip then drop the pelvis the sit bone down towards the floor from here just get to about 90 degrees if you can less if you if you need to from here come out to the side make sure your pelvis stays Square to the front stay tall keep dry trying to drive the knee out to the side hold for about five seconds keep the knee relaxed bring it in and then down again get a little bit of active Arch on that foot on the support foot flex the hip drop that sit bone down towards the floor suck the leg into the pelvis and then out to the side keep trying to go farther out you can even press your hand against the knee to add a little bit of activation make sure your pelvis is square bring it back in nice and slow and controlled keep the muscles tight as you lower down to the floor so you're working through that full range of motion so there you have four exercises to strengthen the piriformis that last one again do two sets four to six Reps for five seconds start there and then you can work your way up to your build further endurance and strength when you're doing these exercises I suggest pick one one from each group one from the neutral hip one from the flex tip and then do that for two to four weeks and then progress to the other two exercises for two to four weeks that way we're not going to overload this muscle we want to wake it up we would we don't want to contribute to that overload where again it can just feel tight because it's getting overworked let's give it some rest do this two to three days a week you'll find that this muscle will get stronger you might find you have more better balance more stability in your pelvis and your hips when you're standing on one leg and you can find that muscle just release without any stretching and without the pitfalls that come along with stretching which could be instability of a joint in this case the SI joint so that was the video hope you liked it if you liked it let me know by leaving us a thumbs up or a comment below if you have any questions or comments I'd love to hear from you soon definitely comment on the video and finally got a couple resources check out this one I mentioned earlier on the SI joint and pure form syndrome we've got this one on snapping hip that's really going to Target the iliopsoas muscle and finally check out the hip pain solution if you've got hip pain because this is a comprehensive program that's going to get to the root causes to get you pain free for the long term thanks again for watching see you next time

Channel: Precision Movement

Views: 1,013,595

Keywords: piriformis, tight piriformis, piriformis stretch, piriformis exercises, tight piriformis exercises, hip internal rotation, femoroacetabular impingement, FAI exercises, femoroacetabular impingement exercises, hip external rotation, horizontal extension, piriformis release, hip, hip pain, back pain, knee pain, stretch, exercises, exercise, piriformis strengthening, piriformis strength, piriformis syndrome, piriformis syndrome exercises, piriformis syndrome stretches

Id: yBRSQB0Xyb0

Length: 12min 41sec (761 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 01 2022