Why does my bodyworker care so much about the piriformis muscle?

The piriformis muscle lies beneath your gluteus maximus (yes, that's the big buttock muscle), connects your sacrum to your femur, and has two essential functions:

1. It helps stabilize your leg relative to your hips and upper body, and conversely your hip and upper body relative to your leg.

2. It rotates your leg outward - so for example if you stand duck-footed* with your toes pointed away from one another your piriformis is shortened/contracted.

In order to function efficiently and effectively, we need our piriformis to have some suppleness and some ability to shorten and lengthen. Otherwise it cannot perform its stabilization and rotational roles appropriately, which can lead to stiffness, pain, and poor posture and performance.

You might notice (or at least I do) that a lot of people tend to rotate their legs outward when they stand and when they lie down. Often that suggests a chronically shortened piriformis muscle.  

Another important fact about the piriformis muscle is that it lies close to and sometimes intertwines with the sciatic nerve. So, you can imagine when the piriformis muscle is too tight or aligned improperly that it can cause sciatic nerve issues. This is one source, but not the only source, of sciatica.A few ideas about how to ensure that your piriformis is functioning properly: 

1. When you sit, stand, walk or run, notice whether one or both of your hips are rotated outward. As I mentioned, a good indicator of this when standing up is that your knees and feet will be pointed outward. When sitting, your knees will be splayed outward. Having this posture isn't necessarily a problem, but it can be a problem if it is chronic. 

2. Sitting or reclining on the floor with your legs straight out in front of you and feet separated by about 12 inches, see if you can easily waggle your feet left to right (as though your feet were waving to someone). Do one or both of your feet tend to rotate outward? Can they "wave" easily or are they stuck in place? 

3. If you notice that one or both of your hips tend to rotate outward and that they seem somewhat stuck in that position, you might experiment with holding your hips straight when you sit, stand, or walk. You might incorporate waggling of your hips (as described above) into your daily routine to allow your piriformis to relax. 

4. Massage and other forms of bodywork can be a great way to assess and address piriformis issues.

5. Keep in mind that there may be reasons other than your piriformis for laterally rotated hips. For example, the cause may be the structure of your hips, your hip sockets, or your femurs.

Photo credit: Alexas Fotos

* Note: Ducks must be getting a bad rap because all the photos I found of ducks show their feet straight or mostly straight.

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