| If it hurts to touch a point that's in the middle of one | | | | Repeatedly squeezing and relaxing the piriformis |
| side of your buttocks, you probably have piriformis | | | | muscle can damage the sciatic nerve and cause pain. |
| syndrome. This chronic condition is very difficult to | | | | This injury is thought to be caused by an innate |
| diagnose, because other injuries may produce exactly | | | | tightness of the piriformis muscle or a structural |
| the same symptoms. Similar pain may be the result of | | | | abnormality in the path of the sciatic nerve. It can't be |
| an injury to bones, muscles, tendons, bursae (pads | | | | attributed to a specific error in training.Treatment: |
| between the tendons and bones), the hip joint, or the | | | | Priformis syndrome won't ease until you stop running. |
| sciatic nerve, but there are ways to determine from | | | | Don't run again until you can run without feeling pain in |
| which condition you might be suffering.If you feel most | | | | your buttocks. If it hurts to touch, it hasn't healed.In most |
| pain when you land after hopping on one leg, you might | | | | cases, pedaling a bicycle will also be painful. You |
| have an injured hip joint or a stress fracture in your | | | | probably shouldn't do any exercise that causes you to |
| pelvis or upper leg bones. An x-ray will usually reveal a | | | | bend at the hip while keeping your knees straight, |
| joint injury, but only a bone scan will reveal a stress | | | | because this will stretch the sciatic nerve. You might |
| fracture.If you feel pain in your buttocks, particularly | | | | be able to swim, if it isn't painful. Medication doesn't |
| when you touch your toes while keeping your knees | | | | usually alleviate the pain, and even if it does, the pain |
| straight, you might have a tear in the large muscles or | | | | will return as soon as you stop taking it.Sometimes, the |
| tendons that run down the back of your hips.If you feel | | | | pain will disappear after a rest of a few days to |
| pain when you touch a spot that's either on the lowest | | | | several months; frequently it does not. In this case your |
| point of your pelvis (the part that touches a chair when | | | | doctor will be able to make an accurate diagnosis by |
| you sit) or at the top of your femur (thigh), you might | | | | injecting a mixture of xylocaine and corticosteroid |
| have injured your bursae (bursitis) or torn the tendons | | | | drugs directly into the piriformis muscle where it |
| that are attached to bones at these sites.If your back | | | | passes over the sciatic nerve. If the pain disappears, |
| hurts, particularly when you bend backwards, and the | | | | you may resume running only after a few weeks, but |
| pain goes down the back of your leg to below your | | | | remember that this injury tends to recur. If you feel |
| knees, your sciatic nerve is probably being pinched in | | | | pain in that area, stop running immediately, and don't |
| your back.Cause: The sciatic nerve is the longest | | | | attempt to run again until you can do so without pain.Dr. |
| nerve in your body. It starts on the lower part of your | | | | Gabe Mirkin has been a radio talk show host for 25 |
| spine, [passes through a hole between the piriformis | | | | years and practicing physician for more than 40 years; |
| muscle above it and several other muscles beneath it, | | | | he is board certified in four specialties, including sports |
| and goes down the back of your leg to below the | | | | medicine. Read or listen to hundreds of his fitness and |
| knee. When you run, the piriformis muscle contracts | | | | health reports at weekly newsletter on fitness, health, |
| and squeezes the sciatic nerve underneath it. | | | | and nutrition. |