The Hot Yoga Doctor – Free Bikram and Hot Yoga Resources › Hot Yoga Doctor Forum › Injuries, Restrictions, Ailments, Pose Modifications › Injuries › Glute strain/tightness
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I have recently been experiencing glute pain in my left glute muscle. Last summer, I did a lot of weight training and running, and I first experienced glute pain with sciatica on my left leg, and a chiropractor diagnosed me with “piriformis syndrome.” I stopped weights and running, and when i was fully recovered, I started Bikram yoga (this past October).
Recently, since practicing Bikram about 4-5 days a week, my left glute strain/pain has started to bother me again. I don’t have sciatic pain, and my massage therapist says my glutes are just “tight.” I have backed off on doing Bikram, but I am wondering if I’d be ok to start up again? I’m just wondering if it may be too much strain on my glute muscle. I am a waitress, so I am on my feet for about 8 hours each day…
Thanks for your response!!
LIsa
Hi Lisa
Just wondering if you have performed a search on the word ‘piriformis’ top right in the little white box. You may find what you’re looking for there.
I would certainly recommend some good hip and piriformis stretches. After a hot class is idea.
Still, you may find it too uncomfortable to go to a class. So can you tell us more specifics about the where, when and how your butt hurts and in which poses? Or is it only after class and while you’re working that you feel the pain. It would help to know just a bit more.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Hi Gabrielle,
Thank you for your comments. In answer to your questions, I did a search on ‘piriformis’ in the white box, and found some good tips. My problem is different from a lot of other people’s piriformis pain, because I believe that much of my strain comes from being on my feet all day, working in a busy restaurant…
So in answer to your questions about where, when and how the pain exists, I can say that the pain is mostly in my middle of my left glute muscle, and also the bottom of the left glute muscle. sometimes i feel pain twinges in my lower calf and my foot, although I experienced HORRIBLE sciatic pain due to this injury last year, and I am not experiencing that right now.
I don’t notice the pain in the yoga room (although I only took a few classes when the pain began recently, and I’ve been staying away from Bikram for a week). I did experience pain after taking the class (but maybe that was just because my injury was settling in, and not solely because of the asanas). I do get the pain at work and after work. I work about 5 shifts a week (sometimes more), and I haven’t taken a vacation in 3 years. I think this repetitive strain might be due to work, but I will be a student in the fall so I’m hoping this will take the pressure off my body in some ways.
I really want to go back to Bikram, but I’m wondering if the 90 minute class plus my work will overstrain the muscle more? It is hard on me emotionally to stay out of the yoga room (I find it very cathartic and love the class and the energy), so I am hoping I will be healed soon. Do you think Bikram classes will further aggravate my glute pain with my work schedule the way it is?
Just a little sharing of personal experience … glute/piriformis pain can be caused by muscle tension. Find trigger points … poke at the glute until you find a really painful place, then hold … several minutes if you can … then move pressure slightly in case the trigger point has shifted. Hold again. The trigger point pain (knot) will “dissolve” if you keep with this.
Keep a couple of tennis balls on hand in the car, near chairs, etc. and pop them under the trigger point while you’re sitting.
Gabrielle has a lovely video somewhere on the site that shows lying flat with a small balance ball under the sacrum … you will find that doing this for 10-15 minutes or so results in even breathing, and a huge relaxing of all the muscles around and especially on either side of the sacrum.
Finally, I have found great, great help from shoes of the type with a “curved” sole (MBT brand, or Skechers) that eliminates heel strike and forces you to use the glutes/calf muscles instead of banging down on the heel as you walk. These might help you at work, and are great for longer walks. Our glutes and big leg muscles ARE big because they are supposed to take most of the strain of walking and standing OFF the spine, but our modern culture tends to produce sitting and standing and walking habits (slouching, hunching, and slamming) that COMPRESS the spine and cause all kinds of muscle tension throughout the lower body.
Just from my experience; not an expert. But I know what the pain is like you’re describing, and hey, I found some stuff that helps it.
Hi Lisa and Rebecca
I can vouch for the MBTs. I had a pair. In fact Robert and I both had a pair and we wore through them completely (they perished after about 3-4 years). Not the prettiest sandals I ever owned (hmmm) but oh so comfortable. Thanks for the recommendations for the Core Strength Video (How to Flatten Your Tummy and Strengthen Your Back). The other video that’s related to walking is Great Posture From The Ground Up which also has a section about (re-)learning how to walk effectively using the right areas of your foot to contact and how to use the whole foot rather than just a heel-toe experience.
Come to think of it Lisa, these shoes could be great for working on your feet. They have styles for hospitality rather than just looking like runners!
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂 -
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