- So today Brad, we're gonna show them how to finally
get rid of their piriformis syndrome.
- Piriformis!
- Right, or, butt pain, and leg pain.
- Right, so it's this little muscle right here,
from the sacrum to the hip.
And we'll talk all about it, you know.
- Just stick around.
- Know more than you wanna know.
♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
- So with her piriformis syndrome, Brad,
generally you have trouble with the piriformis muscle.
- So this purple thing represents it?
- Right. - Yes.
- And underneath it runs the?
- Runs, the. - Sciatic nerve.
- Sciatic nerve, I knew that I really did.
- Right and so this muscle gets irritated.
- Yes.
- And it tightens up and it compresses.
- Right. - Over the.
- Yep, muscles do that.
When they get irritated, they respond
by tightening up and get those knots.
- Now we're gonna figure out why it's doing that.
- [Brad] Yeah, exactly.
- [Bob] But also Brad, they found out now,
it is just not the piriformis muscle.
- [Brad] Yeah.
- [Bob] It's also some other muscles too.
- It's a result of other things.
- Right, so they call it deep gluteal syndrome.
- Right, the poor gluteals,
they really get blamed for a lot.
- Right.
- But they got, their getting it figured out.
- Gemelli, how do I.
- Oh the old gemelli,
I haven't heard of that one for a long time
- So we'll show you the first short term solution.
- Okay. - And then long term solution.
- Excellent, let's go.
- Okay, the first thing we'll do is,
calm that muscle down Brad.
- Right.
- It's tight, it's irritated.
It's like my wife, when she sees me come home.
- Yeah I hope she doesn't watch this video.
- Right, so we have a massage gun.
- Right.
- And we actually have a air filled attachment.
- Right, so it's got air in it literally
and it's softer and it works well for this.
'cause if you get close to a bone it doesn't hurt
- Right - A round head,
if you don't have the airhead 'cause a lot of them don't
probably the round head,
would be my second choice.
- I don't think you can do this very,
with your hands very well.
- It is hard to massage it.
It's awkward. - It's a big,
muscle on top of it and so.
- Let's get on with it Bob,
people are gonna see we're babbling again,
when we're trying to eliminate that from our repertoire.
So you turn the, the massage gun on.
It's nice to have one with at
least eight millimeters of travel, which this one does.
And so I like, if I'm doing this one, I may put my leg here
over here. I may put a, if Bob will get a pillow for me.
- Sure.
- I'll show you where you can put a pillow to
let it relax.
And again, it's from here to that bone right there
which is your,
greater trochanter.
Let's just get these in there.
Whatever's comfortable for your legs.
- [Bob] Get nice and relaxed.
- There we go.
Yeah, alright so.
- [Bob] On the bootay.
- [Brad] Yeah or the glute.
Now you can say buttocks, but one of our viewers said
don't use that word.
I didn't quite get that.
- [Bob] Oh, was that.
- [Brad] We don't worry about, so from the,
from here, we're talking about that greater trochanter
I'm right on it, it's a bony thing.
I'm not gonna go on that bone.
I'm gonna go this direction
and you may work up and down and you.
- [Bob] Might work around it to start.
- [Brad] Yeah, you'll probably feel like one area,
the size of a quarter.
That's very tender and you can work on that.
But if it doesn't release
or feel better within 20 to 30 seconds
don't continue to beat it up, work around it.
- [Bob] Right, or if it causes pain down your leg, stop.
- [Brad] Good point, Bob.
Yeah, We do not wanna make the pain peripheralize.
- [Bob] We're not gonna make it worse right.
- So you may spend a minute or two on this.
If it's going well, you could spend more time on this.
I know I use this for my SI joint, up in this area.
- [Bob] I use this a lot on patients, so.
- It works.
They're very handy.
- [Bob] Good for short term relief.
- Alright, well they don't need to look at.
- Number two. - Backend anymore.
- Right.
So why is that piriformis muscle
even getting irritated, Brad?
- Because it's mad?
- Right.
No, I'm just joking.
- It's upset.
- Yeah, so the glute muscle.
- The big muscle.
- The large Gluteus Maximus, it's big, Maximus.
- Right.
That one is not firing.
It's not doing the work it should.
And the gluteal, or the piriformis, tries to compensate.
- Overcompensate right.
So I think a lot of time it's called gluteal amnesia.
- Yeah, exactly.
- It's actually very common.
- Right, it has other effects too.
- Yeah, cause you hip, knee pain.
So we gotta get that glutes firing.
- Right, and we've got some exercises for that.
- We'll do that next.
Alright let's get that Glute Maximus firing Brad.
- Yes.
- So this is for beginners,
and if the glute is not working at all.
You know, why don't you first start
by tightening up your butt on both sides.
- Just squeeze your butt cheeks together and hold them for
you know, three to four seconds and relax, you know,
and if you put your hand on and, you wanna feel.
- [Bob] Yeah exactly, feedback.
- And you might find that one side,
tightens better than the other.
So you wanna. - [Bob] Yeah exactly.
- Focus on both sides that they're really working together.
This is, well, go ahead Bob.
- [Bob] Well, Once that's doing fine, you could then go on,
try one side Brad.
- Yep.
So I'm just gonna work my left leg.
- [Bob] Right.
- You don't have to bring your leg up
but it's easier for to see I'm gonna tighten that up.
Now when I tighten that muscle up
this leg inherently kind of rolls in.
You can see that foot go towards the other leg.
- [Bob] Yeah, it's an external rotator.
- Yeah.
- [Bob] Then the final step is actually,
lift up tighten up and then lift it.
- Yeah, that's definitely works it more.
This would be really good.
This is good for that hip flexor too.
- And once you can do 10 of those,
we'll proceed to the next one.
- 9, 10, okay.
- Okay we're good.
Okay, Brad and I gonna show you two advanced options.
One is standing, so you are gonna lean on
a couch or a bed or something.
- Cupboard.
- A cupboard, and you're gonna bring your leg up,
and you're gonna bring up to level.
5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.
- I'm gonna bring it up here.
- [Bob] And Brad is showing the kneeling way.
- Yep so you could do this on a stool, on an Ottoman.
You know, if you're gonna do it,
and actually laying on on a bed or a piece of furniture,
you could do this,
and bring it up,
and swing that leg this way.
So the foot goes over the other leg a little bit.
And that isolates that Glute Maximus.
- And makes sure you do both sides.
- Yeah both sides, 10 repetitions I'm assuming Bob.
- And then next we're gonna show you how to
make sure it's working when your walking.
- Right, okay, good job.
- So quite often it stops working when you're walking.
And so you actually, you're gonna have you walk Brad.
- Yep.
- With your hands on your butt.
- Yeah.
Bob walks like this. - Just don't do it in public.
- Around his neighborhood. - Yeah I do.
One more thing to talk about me.
- Yeah.
- And you walk and you actually, if you walk on your toes.
- Tippy Toes?
- Yep.
It actually fires the quads.
I mean the, the glutes more.
- So you're suggesting we start walking like this all over
or just 10 feet at a time?
- Just you know. - Yeah.
Yeah you could feel those glutes kicking in.
It does help when you go up on your toes
versus doing your standard.
- You can also walk Brad, bending your knees.
- Alright, so slight.
- Try that once.
- So like this.
- Yeah, exactly.
- And on the toes at the same time?
- No, just.
- Just reflection.
- Right - Okay yeah.
Now for me, I feel like I'm getting.
- You want the toes?
- A little more like this yeah.
- And you want it to happen automatically.
You don't wanna have to think about it.
- Right and that takes some time.
- Oh practice, right.
- If you do it once, it's probably not gonna.
- But you think about how much you walk during the day.
So you gotta get this down.
- Sure.
- You gotta get that glute firing.
- Yeah.
- Otherwise the piriformis isn't gonna fire.
- Sure.
- So those three things,
it will take away your pain forever.
- Say no more Bob. - Say goodbye to pain.
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