Back in Action » piriformis syndrome

How can shoes can worsen piriformis syndrome?

Back in Action Institute — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 07:24:00 +0000

Several of my friends had some and said good things. So I thought, “why not, I’ll treat myself, it’s time for new shoes anyway.” So later that day, I went searching for my first pair of Nike Shox.

As someone who had an engineering background, I was impressed by the story of Nike Shox. Apparently it took 16 years of development, prototypes, changes, improvements, failures, restarts, and eventually success to launch the first pair of Nike Shox in 2000. The material to use in the “shock” was one of the biggest questions. They had a hard time finding a material that was both light and durable, and also provided the user with a spring-like experience. Nike claims that the Shox actually help propel the user forward.

After going to a couple stores at the mall, and finding a combination of colors that I like, I invested in a (too expensive) pair of Nike Shox. I was also hoping that the extra cushioning in the heel of the Shox would also lessen my piriformis muscle pain.

Now I will say, almost everytime I get a new pair of shoes, my sciatic nerve pain seems to flare up. So I expected a little pain as my body became accustomed to the new shoe.

However, I did not expect the longevity of pain and worsening of my piriformis pain that the Nike Shox caused. After just a few months of light use, I had enough. I put them up on ebay and found a giddy buyer happy to invest in his first pair of Nike Shox.

So why did they make my piriformis syndrome worse? I later learned that wearing heels tends to make you rotate your pelvis downward, sticking your butt out more, and compressing your lower back. If you have Downward Poniting Pelvis, the most common of our structural disorders that cause sciatic nerve pain, then heels are your enemy. They make your disorder worse, tightening up the piriformis muscle even more, which leads to more and more pain.

So since those shoes, I’ve made a point to buy shoes that are as flat as possible, absolutely no heels. I’m considering trying some of those MBT shoes where the heel is actually lower than the toe (not the vertical training shoes for those of you who know what I’m talking about). By having the heel lower than the toe, it causes your pelvis to point upward and use your lower abs more. So I’m curious to hear if anyone of you have experiences with MBT shoes.

- Bryan

Founder of the Back in Action Institute and 10-Minute Sciatica Relief Program

Piriformis Pain Journal – Document Your Journey to Become Pain Free

admin — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 22:22:00 +0000

So after trying everything – doctors, chiropractors, physical therapy, OTC painkillers, prescription painkillers (Vioxx), spine surgeons (but not surgery thank goodness), yoga, and pilates – I knew that my pain would come and go, but I didn’t know why. So I decided to start keeping a pain journal to help me figure out what activities were causing the pain.

You can hear about some of my pain journal findings in our bonus audio course, Sciatica Pain Tips & Strategies. Because everyone has a slightly different cause of their pain, it might help if you start keeping your own. Find out what activities cause more pain, which ones don’t cause any, and which ones are questionable.

I discovered that sleeping on soft mattresses made my lower back tight. I found out that shoes with heels (i.e. work shoes or Nike Shox) made my pain worse. I also found out certain activities didn’t cause pain – sand volleyball, freestyle swimming – but others did – breaststroke swimming, tennis. Walking didn’t hurt, but running did. Of course this was before I created the 10-Minute Sciatica Program, where I’ve now been able to return to most activities.

But give the pain journal a try. See if it helps you learn more about your pain and what’s causing it. It did for me.

- Bryan

Founder of the Back in Action Institute and 10-Minute Sciatica Relief Program

Why I Tried Chiropractors for my Sciatic Nerve Pain

admin — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 23:17:00 +0000

So back in 2003, I had a coworker that rode in a charity bike ride event called the MS150 from Houston to Austin. Although that year I found out too late to begin training, I told him I would do it in 2004.

So when the time came to start training for the 180 mile April ride, I figured I better get to the bottom of my pinched nerve pain. So based on a family member’s recommendation, I went to a chiropractor in the hopes THEY could get rid of my pain FOREVER.
(keep in mind this is before I had discovered the 10-Minute Sciatica Program)

So when I first went into see the chiropractor about my piriformis syndrome, or whatever I had, she first took some x-rays. The x-rays clearly showed that my pelvis was WAAAAY out of whack. It was tilted up on the left side and rotated. So she consoled me in the fact that if I did 6 weeks of adjustments with her, and several months of follow up, she could straighten out my spine, and relieve my sciatic nerve pain for good. I can’t tell you how excited I was. By that point I had lived with sciatica for 3 years, so I was desperate to get back to my normal active lifestyle.

So just like she asked, I went several times per week to get adjustments in my lower back. I wasn’t a big fan of her twisting my neck, so I asked her not to do those, and just focus on the low back. Although I noticed my pain would go down, it would come right back.

I would say that I enjoyed visiting the chiropractor’s office. It was relaxing when they would give me massages. Even the adjustments felt good, lick scratching an itch.

So to make a long story short, I kept going to this chiropractor in the hopes that something miraculous would happen, and my pain would magically go away. As you can imagine, it never fully went away. In fact, my back started popping like it hadn’t before.

I actually didn’t stop because it wasn’t helping, but because I was moving for work.

But just like some of my other stories with doctors, prescription drugs, and physical therapists, chirpractors didn’t solve my piriformis syndrome in the long term. It didn’t get to the root of my pain, which was caused by years of physical activities that were building up muscle imbalances.

I’ve spoken to hundreds of people, and most have same response. Going to the chiropractor felt good, but the pain always returned, sometimes worse than before. But if you’ve gone to the chiropractor, I understand what you’re going through. You’ll do anything to get rid of that pain!

- Bryan

Founder of the Back in Action Institute and 10-Minute Sciatica Relief Program

Why Generic Physical Therapy Doesn’t Work for Piriformis Syndrome?

admin — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 19:57:00 +0000

“Physical therapy is more a pain in the butt than sciatica.” Author Unknown

Okay, so I did make up that quote above. But it truly tells of my experience with physical therapy and sciatic nerve pain.

So one particular doctor thought physical therapy would help me kick this pain in the sciatica. And although I appreciated his forethought in that physical therapy is better than medication, surgery, chiropractors, and most other stuff doctors prescribe, but it still wasn’t quite what I needed.

When I walked into meet the physical therapist, he noticed right off that I had a limp to my walk due to the sciatica pain. He then examined my posture, flexibility, and then determined I had a leg length discrepancy. So he thought this was the primary reason for my sciatic pain and decided to send me home with a bunch of exercises to do for 45 minutes per day.

I wanted the pain gone, and if it required 45 minutes per day, then so be it. So I did the stretches – a combination of hamstring, glute, groin, and quadricep stretches. And guess what, after a few weeks of this rigorous regimen (that was eating into my social life) the stretches really did work, at least for a while. I was able to return to running and basketball and ultimate, or whatever I played, with relatively little or no nerve pain.

So for the longest time, I thought these stretches were the prescription for my sciatica. Anytime I would feel pain I would do hamstring stretches, because he had told me I had tight hamstrings.

However, I later started questioning, if I had a leg length discrepancy, why didn’t I stretch one side more than the other? And then, although my sciatic nerve stopped hurting for a few months, my groin muscle starting hurting. Not like I had pulled it, but a more dull pain like it was tired.

When I discovered the 10-Minute Sciatica Relief Program, I realized why the generic set of stretches that the physical therapist had prescribed me only worked temporarily, and later caused the pain to come back worse than before. The physical therapist was going in the right direction with his prescription of stretches, but he wasn’t quite there yet. Two things were wrong with the physical therapy he had me doing:

I was only doing stretches. Now I’ll be the first to say, stretching is definitely good. In fact, I don’t think the general population stretches enough after sitting for long periods of time. We need to do more stretching. However, for people like you and I, who have a muscle imbalance that is causing a structural condition leading our piriformis muscle to tighten and and pinch the sciatic nerve, stretching CANNOT be the only solution. You need to combine stretching with STRENGTH BUILDING. Think about it this way, if you stretch all your muscles day after day, yes you will feel better. However, your muscle imbalances aren’t going away in the meantime. So after you do those stretches, your imbalanced muscles are pulling your pelvis out of line again, and negating all the stretching you did. So stretching is great for quick, temporary relief. But in the long term you need to combine stretches with resistance exercises that build muscle to correct the root of the cause of your sciatica pain – muscle imbalances.
I was doing the wrong stretches. Although I did have tight hamstrings, they were tight because of my structurally incorrect pelvis, what we call Downward Pointing Pelvis. So in fact, in doing hamstring stretches, I was making my condition worse. Instead of stretching my hamstrings, I needed to be stretching my quadriceps/hip flexors and STRENGTHENING my hamstrings. That’s why I never felt full relief, because I was getting short term pain relief by stretching my hamstrings, but making my Downward Pointing Pelvis condition worse in the long run. Doh!

Again, I wish I knew then what I know now. But c’est la vie!

- Bryan

Founder of the Back in Action Institute and 10-Minute Sciatica Relief Program