This is a long rant but there really is a question at the end.
Ever since I first started training for the sprints I have had some pain in the area indicated by the red arrow in the picture down below.
In the beginning I would feel it during early warm-up, but it would always disappear in time for higher intensity work. Then one day about a year ago, when doing a block-start, I got what felt like a pull in my right buttock and had to ease back on the intensity for about a week.
Thats when I started using the stretch depicted in the following link and after a while I felt no more pain during warm-ups. http://www.exrx.net/Stretches/GluteusMaximus/Seated.html
When looking back now I have a feeling that this was not all though, because neither before or after the injury would I experience any real opening up of the stride. During late acceleration I would instead experience a disruption of rythm and this was always felt like the right leg “holding back” and refusing to cooperate. The result of this was that I changed my natural running style into all sorts of unnatural ones - save the one where you run backwards.
The reason I am writing this now is twofold:
Firstly, some weeks ago I got the same injury again. This happened after not having done the aformentioned stretch for several months. Don’t ask why.
Secondly, after having rested for a couple of weeks and done lots of stretching, there it was! A completely natural opening up of the stride. This was the first time I could just continue to run past the 40-meter mark.
My question is this: Could there be some sort of trauma even though no pain is felt? And could this be so severe so as to cause what I have described?
Sounds like a piriformis-muscle problem. I believe that if you had injured your gluteus maximus you would have felt it more clearly and definitely not continued training. The reason I take my guess on the piriformis is that the sciatic nerve that runs either under/over/through the piriformis is usually the one giving you problems when trying to run. Your stretches in combination with rest must have given the sciatic nerve more room for maneuvering due to muscle relaxation and mobility in the surrounding area. Stretching alone (without rest) might just have been a temporary solution because the muscles would not have had time to release the pressure on the nerve due to continuous training.
Thank you for your response. I have slowly come to believe that what you describe is the case myself.
Since I got a little carried away with running feeling so easy I overdid it and aggravated the injury a bit, so now I’m going to rest as long as needed and see a sports injury professional.
I have the ****ing piriformis syndrome, have had it for 17 months now. Do you have other symptoms consistent with sciatica as well?
What is your strategy now? From what I have read the answer is to improve flexibility around the hip and thigh. My main method now is stretching/yoga, as I have very tight hamstrings and adductors on that side. Frequency twice a day, intense stretches (past the initial point of pain), but no stretches that aggravate the nerve.
I don’t think I have the actual piriformis-syndrome even though I have some of the symptoms and it seems the piriformis is affected. For instance I have no pain in the back.
What I know is that both times I have been injured the glutes have been very tight (and inbetween quite supple) and that continued stretching (and rest) has relieved the pain.
The two stretches i do for the glutes are “the seated leg cross-over” and “lying on the back bringing a knee to the chest”. Any stretches targeting the piriformis gives pain.
I do these 2-5 times a day, depending on what training I will do that day. The lower the intensity the more I stretch.
The duration is 3x1 minutes on each side and the intensity is such that I can tolerate it for the whole time. It is hard to say exactly what intensity that is because it varies troughout the day, and from day to day also, but I have learnt what works. It is not low intensity though.
In addition to this I do stretches for the rest of the body twice a day. Some hours before and after practice.
I usually only experience pain when running at close to full-speed or when doing certain violent movements. Only occasionaly do I feel a little pain in the buttock when sitting for a long time. I never have any pain in the morning.
It’s bad enough at the moment that trying to sprint or even do tempo would be agony.
When it wasn’t too bad a few months ago I tried some tempo, and the day after had a constant nagging ache in my back (due to tighter than normal piriformis). While sitting the pain is easily produced if I slump, and not so easily produced if I arch lordosis style.
I have only just decided to get my… ass in gear and do something about it, before I have just moaned a lot and not believed that I could do something about it.
One more last question, do any stretches aggravate the nerve, and do you do them as part of the stretching program?
Some stretches do aggravate it for me, such as straight legged hamstring stretch (bent leg one is ok), and I don’t know whether to include them or not.
I never continue doing stretches that causes any pain and have dropped one such stretch from the program. As mentioned I can’t do any stretches that directly targets the piriformis, but it is not in the buttock (or the back) the pain is felt, but in the area of the greater trochanter.
Your condition sounds much worse than mine. Have you consulted a sports injury professional?
First my physio that I had for my knee post-op rehab. She advised to warm the area with water bottle, and gave me some exercises which cause pain - and didn’t help.
Second, physiotherapy department on the NHS, have given me a sheet of exercises, which again hurt.
From a web search I found a range of contradictory recommendations from articles by MDs.
Same applies to a search of medical texts I did in March.
I’m going to give it a go for myself! I will follow the same sort of stretch routine you did. By the way you might want to try an exercise I have in a yoga book, which is recommended for back/sciatica sufferers. I will post a link if I find it on the web.