Piriformis Syndrome **PLEASE HELP***

tdf9905

Hi guys,

Please read on!

After years and years, approx 6 of back pain, pain in my LEFT hip, tight leg, pain in my groin at times, whilst riding my bike I have now come to the conclusion that I may have piriformis syndrome.

I have made countless trips to the hospital who just used to say its the posture/position on a road bike and thats why you are getting the pain (which I never used to believe and their attitude was simply 'WE ARENT MEANT TO RIDE BIKES'), countless trips to an oesteopath, countless trips to the British Cyling Federation injury specilaists, countless trips to a chiroprator, and countless trips to a sports masseur who has out of the lot brought it to my attention that it could be the piriformis muscle over the last month or so.

PLEASE READ ON!

Here are the symptoms I get in general life:

Putting my socks on for example I get a click fom my groin (left only) which is clearly noticeable by ear.

I get a bruised type feeling on the sitting bone (left only) when sat for long periods, driving is when it is at its worst. Especially the longer I sit the worse it gets.

My leg (left only) gets really tight/heavy/aches when stood for long periods


Here are some of the symptoms I get when I ride my bike:

Firstly it sometimes starts off as an ache in my groin (left only), say after 20mins.

Then my back starts to stiffen/ache up, on the sacroiliac joint

Then the left side in my hip starts to really hurt, ie a sharp shooting pain, debilitating at times appears just to the left of my sacroiliac joint. Id say about an inch to the left. This pain feels very DEEP into the muscle. This can be all within an hour, sometimes 2 hours if I am lucky.

The my left leg becomes really heavy and tight, feels as though it has less power than my right and I SOMETIMES get very light pins and needles accross the bottom of my foot. Along the bones below my toes.

The pain gets worse for the longer I ride, even worse the harder I go. The harder I go then the pain becomes unbearable.

The unusal thing to me, this may be common, is that these symptoms are only in the left side of my leg/hip. I DO NOT get it in my right. My right is percfectly fine. PERFECT!

Therefore I am 110% sure it isnt my position/way I ride or anything like that. In fact I know it isnt this! It is some imbalance in my left side.

I used to race for a british based proffessional team but had to quit because the pain was just debilatating in races and no-one was sure as to what it was to help me.

It seems to me that there is a connection here with sitting if you read my symptoms and obviously that is what you do 99% of the time when riding a bike?

Can anyone give any diagnosis here/Info?

A reply/suggestion would mean the world to me because as a cyclist there is nothing more that I enjoy than riding a bike! Its the best sport in the world!

Thanks
Leigh

dkrenik

How can you so confidently rule out positioning/fit?

DennistheMennis

Yes. I had pretty sore hamstrings (and piriformis), but much worse on the right side, that went almost completely away when I raised my saddle just 1/4 inch. It may just be that your left is hurting sooner than the right, and your compensation for the pain prevents the symptom from manifesting itself on the right.

Assuming you have already had your bike fitted by an expert, tried different saddles, etc., then you may need to see a better doctor who can locate your imbalance.

Do you workout in a gym? I found that leg curls helped some. Make sure to do a set for each leg separately (don't lift with both legs at the same time, otherwise you may just heighten the imbalance). I also found that some yoga postures and basic stretches helped. But raising the saddle helped a lot more than all those other things combined.

JEBooker

Greetings from Wisconsin...I too have suffered with what I myself diagnosed as "piriformis syndrome". I say this because in the medical field, there is much debate as to the actual existance of this.

This is because it is very hard to prove the Piriformis is responsible for the strangulation of the sciatic nerve. It is a very small muscle, in a region of numerous criss crossing muscles and tendons.

Mine started about 6 yrs ago. At first I thought I had a disk, or lower back injury, and went to my Dr. to get some relief. The first diagnosis was a lower back strain. But, I had sciatica symptoms that affected only my left leg. So, off to the specialist I went.

After MRI, and CT scans revealed no "hard" or visible damage to my back, I then suffered through two EMG's. I finally convinced my Dr to try cortisone injections directly into my piriformis region. RELIEF!! Only temporary, but this in my mind was the final factor in diagnosis. Although I still have the nagging ache, I have minimized it through stretching, and also take Bromelain, MSM/Glucosimine as part of my daily regimin of supplements.

The so called"piformis stretch" is an excellent way to isolate and stretch this muscle. I do it while sitting, and before excercise. Since I fly, I am seated for hours, and this has been a Godsend.

The internet has some fine articles, I believe there is one from Rice university that is particularly helpful. I actually printed some of these and tactfully gave them to my physician to read. She was happy I did this, as they don't know everthing!

Good luck, and let me know how it goes for you! JEBooker

tdf9905

Firstly thanks for your replies.

I can absolutely gurantee 100% that it isnt my position. I have worked in a bike shop for years. I have changed my position so many times, been fitted out by a measurer, etc,etc.

There are just too many symptoms that happen in every day life for it to be my position in my opinion.

I have been to the hospital and they did the decent thing of doing an mri scan on my lower back as they though I might have a bulging disc but it is confirmed that I havent from that scan. They couldnt help me anymore after that.

The reason that it has been brought to my attention as possible piriformis syndrome is the masseur I have been going to see has been working with me for a month or 2 now. She is a really keen runner and this problem is also a very common problem in runners. She has noted that from what I tell her, symptoms etc and from massaging that the problem is around the piriformis area. She spends around 20mins massaging the piriformis area. The relief is noticeable straight away. However it is only temporary, say a few hours.

I actually went for a ride last night for around 2 hours. I spent 20mins directly before the ride rolling the tennis ball under my hip and buttock whilst led down and sat up. The results on the ride were a noticeable prolonged stiffening up of my lower back/buttocks. I also didnt get the sharp stabbing pain in my buttock. The sacroiliac joint starten to stiffen up towards the end of the ride. I would say that there may have been a noticeable improvement.

Lastly, the pain was worst whilst doing time trials if I was racing, much more painful than road racing. The longer the tt the worse the pain got!

Thanks guys
Leigh

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chele

I am not a doctor. But I can no longer ride a bicycle because of the pain I have which sounds exactly like yours, but in my right hip. For myself I suspect Sacroiliac damage. It seems to me I have too much movement in my SI joint, and the saddle seems to cause it to spread or move or something which results in a ton of pain. I even bought a Sacrowedgy, hoping to find relief, and it did help some, but one day when I went to roll off of it my hip just kind of "clunked" and that was that, I wasn't about to use it again! Scared something would fall apart in there! I am wondering if you can find a saddle that gives your more support in the SI joint region or possibly even change to a recumbent? I ride a Rhoades Car, which I realize is not for the true cyclist, but I just can't sit the bike saddle anymore. And here's a suggestion that will really floor you, but do you have a good hard mattress? I had a Tempurpedic mattress. Swore by it. Most comfortable danged thing I ever slept on! But my hip was getting worse and worse. Some days I could not easily get out of bed! At times I could hardly get out of my chair at work. Lots of things caused pain and it was getting to be a real nuisance. We bought a new rock hard mattress with minimal topper to it and it's truly amazing the night and day difference! I have used a combination of Chiropractics and Physical Therapy which has really helped. There are many stretches you can find online that will help a lot too. Good luck to you!