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

As a retired PT, I agree with everything presented, especially the point that muscles get tight for a reason.

I have struggled with pain for the last 5 years and I’m not sure if it is sciatica or piriformis syndrome. Because they mimic each other quite a lot, and I’ve had diagnoses of both from different doctors and chiropractors. One day I woke up with excruciating pain in my right butt cheek, deep under a muscle, and I could not even walk. I had to crawl down the stairs, to the drive way, and to my car, and to the ER. And then get out of my car and crawl to the ER. I was only 25 years old at the time, so ofcourse the ER doctors thought I was exaggerating or drug seeking. But it was the worst pain I have ever felt in my life. I was prescribed something to help me calm down because I was just hysterical and in the worst pain of my life, and also some muscle relaxants. They diagnosed me with sciatica & sent me home with the muscle relaxants. It seemed as though the muscle relaxants, which were very strong I might add, only made things worse. I feel like they may have a part to play in why I’ve never healed. I can’t describe the feeling. It is a constant & chronic dull ache and it almost feels like something is caught deeeep down. I’ve tried chiropractor after chiropractor, stretch after stretch.. day after day. And don’t get me wrong, the chiropractor I’ve recently been going to is wonderful and he helps in so many ways, but unfortunately, the relief is and was always only temporary and I’ve had to keep going back, which gets very expensive at $52 dollars a visit. Same with stretches, only temporary relief. And it seems like from this video, i needed more than stretches.. although stretches are great and make me feel good and limber.. it just wasn’t helping in the long run. It also needed strengthened. I’ve also done some yoga, and I loved it. Absolutely loved it. But again.. temporary. This entire time I was thinking I had bad sciatica and that if I can’t get the pain to stop, I was thinking surgery as my last resort. So maybe it’s been piriformis syndrome this whole time like the chiropractor said. This pain has taken so much away from me for the last 5-6 years with no relief. I can’t sleep, I can’t sit long without pain, I can’t stand for long without pain. All day every day horrible, miserable pain. So I tried these exercises, and after the first exercise I SH*T you not, I started BAWLING. I just started crying because of the relief.. I’ve not felt that relief in such a long time. It felt like it took away so much tension. I’m going to keep trying this. I hope it works long term. Thank you so much for this video and for sharing this with all of us who suffer from this pain.

I had piriformis pain for several weeks. I regularly stretched my piriformis muscles and hamstrings to no avail. After watching your video on strengthening instead of stretching, I've noticed a fabulous improvement. Thank you so much for putting me on the right track. Absolutely amazing results

I just wanted to let ppl know. If you have hip pain, and it feels like it's your joint and you are losing the will because of the constant discomfort. Well I've had a bad hip for about 4 months, resting and stretching did nothing. I'm only on my 2nd week, I just went straight to doing all 4 every other day, I'm now on 20seconds per rep. Today is my first day with no hip pain. I literally can't believe it. I thought I'd give it ago before I go to a physio but I'm not going to bother I'm just going to continue this and slowly introducing riding, swimming and running again. Thank you 👌

This is the only channel addressing hip issues that give the crucial tips of activating deeper pelvic muscles as you do exercises. I cannot believe the difference. I've given birth to two big babies, and even though I've stayed quite active ever since, I just was not recruiting these muscles and finally ended up with SI joint pain that was exacerbated by doing pigeon pose etc in yoga. I dropped the yoga and have suffered for about a year. Doing these just a few reps with you just now has totally eliminated the SI pain. THANK YOU!!

I have had one sided deep butt pain for over 15 years. I have watched hundreds of videos on different pirformis exercises. This one has to be the best one that has ever actually targeted that specific muscle. And the weird thing is it's not even these big movements or anything. Which is very impressive. Thank you so much.

After just two days of your routine the pain around my hip / femur has lessened and am feeling more stability and ease when I walk. None of the PT's I've worked with gave me such targeted support. Thanks for sharing your skills!

I wish I could like this video more than once! This is the second day I'm doing this exercise (alongside your lower back video) just to feel some relief from excruciating pain on these areas in my body. I've done seeing PT for months, Chiro, Osteo, and the pain keeps coming back. It reduced me to tears thinking surgery is the only way. I know it's early days, but I was actually smiling after doing the exercises as I can feel some form of ease. Thank you so much. May you be blessed.

I've been through physical therapy, chiropractor visits and a nerve block and this has been the only thing that Gave me relief. Thanks so much for sharing. We need to cline you and put you in every city.

I am so appreciative to have people like yourself to assist with certain muscle movements that don't necessarily get hit in normal physical gestures. Thank you!

After months of stretching and it getting worse and worse I've been doing this for about a week and already feeling much better. Thanks!

I think your comments at the end are really important. Only doing the first two exercises for a couple of weeks and then the second two. I was in PT for this and the exercises put me in so much pain that I would be up all night because of it and I think it was just simply overdoing it because they had me doing maybe six exercises everyday. I finally quit PT because I couldn't face the pain it was causing. Thank you so much for this video!

Thank you and please don’t ever stop, the fact that you do this shows what kind of person you are and it spreads because you become the people you surround yourself with and same goes with the content you watch, thank you again

Exactly what I needed. Not flexibility but strength. Perfect. Thank you!

After just one session I am finding some relief I’m 42 and very fit, train hard, bodybuilder, and an avid mtb enduro bike rider. I squat heavy, leg press, etc, but my my periformis is crippling (despite being very flexible and active.. and I do sit a bit at work but now have a walking desk). I’ve tried everything, now I go to physiotherapy weekly for needling. It just keeps coming back. Following my body I was starting to engage my glute with similar movements.. but this is SO targeted. One day and I’m already feeling some relief! Thank you so much.

I knew I also needed to strengthen along with stretching, but I didn’t know how. Thanks for the video with specific exercises. This channel is game changing. Your knowledge has been helping me.

Great video. Simple, easy to understand and straight to the point without all the fillers. Awesome job!

Dude you have the best movement/physical therapy channel on YT!!! Thanks for everything you do

I've been watching a variety of videos on improving my hips to help with foot pain. I love how simple your suggested exercises are, and, that you don't expct us to exercise for hours a day... at times it seems impossible to do all what a fitness buff promotes. You've put me on the right track.

I love the focus on quality movement vs static stretching. I have a hockey background and am working on dealing with some nagging issues in my 30s from just sitting way too much, and this mindset reminds me a lot of how we used to train for hockey. I've been on Rom Coach for a couple weeks now and it's awesome!