is suffering from piriformis syndrome which is a chronic condition that you've been having for
years and despite all the stretching deep massages you still have this deep aching nagging pain and
you don't know how to really fix this problem that you've been having for months or even years
hi my name is Annie and welcome to my channel any Pilates physical therapist this is a gentle
follow along video on how to realign your pelvis if you're suffering from piriformis syndrome which
is usually caused from misalignment from your pelvis and it causes stiffness and tightness
usually in one side and it's also a deeper rooted problem from a weak core muscles which is not just
your piriformis muscles imbalance so get your map ready and join me for a love with Pilates yoga
Physical Therapy follow along video to progress if you're suffering from piriformis syndrome foreign
want to learn more about Pilates yoga and physical therapy health and wellness please subscribe to my
channel ring the bell so you won't miss anything and if you like and share this video I would
greatly appreciate it if you have good friends and loved ones who suffering from this condition I
also have a playlist you can check out the link on the description below and on the info card so you
can also add in conjunction if you're suffering from piriform syndrome so piriformis syndrome is a
condition when the muscle Belly of the piriformis muscles that attach on your pelvis all the way to
your hip joint and to your femur bone that helps external rotate your hip and usually if you have
this syndrome you can even cross leg and push your knee out because it's so tight at the same time
it's also weak and because of that tightness it pinches the nerve which is the sciatic nerve the
largest nerve of our body that passes sometimes through the muscle or sometimes behind it and
because it's diagonally placed it's a little bit elongated and it fan shape and then it inserts
on the greater trochanter of your femur bone to help open it up but no matter how much we stretch
or deep massage this area if you don't realign the pelvis that gets really tight in one side
and weakness on your pelvic form muscles at the same time your lower abdominal muscles your TVA
your transverse them down in these muscles so you will need to connect Mind Body awareness first on
this certain muscles and once you're trying to strengthen this it will help realign your pelvis
at the same time your lumbar spine so in this video we're going to start learning how to do the
pelvic clock which is a beautiful movement with breath work on how to feel the pelvic alignment
and then slowly strengthen the piriformis muscles because you just can't stretch it when it's weak
as well so we call that tight weakness together with some yoga stretches and breath work so let's
start the program by lying on your back first so when you're lying your back you want to make sure
your knees are bent so that your pelvis is not too much pressure at the same time your lumbar spine
so most patients have different kind of neutral spine some people have more arching we could hold
that anterior pelvic tooth so your pelvis is still tilt forward a little bit and some people have
flat back so when they lie down it's off they can really feel the lumbar spine touching the mat and
you want to be in the center of this not too much arching or not too much flattening so in order to
connect with that you can place one hand at the small at the back making sure you could
glide through not too much to point the forearm so that's onto your pelvic tilt so if you're in this
position you want to slowly lower it and if you are a flat back person you want to Arch it gently
and with that gentle arching and you imagine if there's a cup of coffee on top of your pelvis area
you don't want that cup of coffee spilling forward or back you want to keep it Center
now with breath work as I said and proper hand placing on your pelvis you want to feel
the alignment so if you have a lateral tilt as I said earlier if one side is higher and one
side is lower you want to try to stabilize and level your belt so you don't have just have an
interior rotation or pelvic posterior positioning of your pelvis sometimes there's a tilting in one
side you want to even It Out by gently realigning your pelvis first as a starting position so with
this cup in front of you you take a deep breath and start feeling rocking forward tilting up
arching a little bit more as you inhale and exhale flattening posterior tilt flatten your back all
the way down so this is the first exercise so from neutral position and then over Arch as you inhale
expand your belly button for breath work and as you exhale you slowly squeeze in
your core your TVA activation breathe out and spill the cup forward towards your chest
build the cup of coffee forward clock forward from so if there's a clock this is 12 6 9 and 3
you want to go to 12 o'clock as you inhale you can spill forward and your pelvic tilt belly breath
inhale and exhale spill it to 12 o'clock again to boost your tilt again until your pelvic tilt
and then push your puffy tail now we're going to add more variety with the clock
we're going to move the clock from 12 and then one to the left two three four five six packs
here in the bottom part of the clock and all the way back up to 12. so we're gonna rotate
to like a clock you're spilling the coffee from the middle from a posterior tilt you inhale go
into your tail but a little bit leaning to the left all the way back to Interior pelvic tilt
and then slowly going back to 12 o'clock and then pushing your back to the mat to 12 o'clock
to post your tilt spilling the coffee towards your chest again inhale belly breath and then
turn all the way around back to the center last one and my recommendation is to this 10 times
and after doing clockwise then you can do counterclockwise on the clock the purpose
of this is to realign your pelvis not just into your posterior tilting but also making sure one
side of your pelvis where your Ilia crust is not too high on one side and through Mind Body
awareness you might find one side a little bit stiffer and harder to connect and that's where
you can find the piriformis muscle a little bit more like tight and weak okay after doing
the beautiful clock now you're going to engage it further by doing some lovely bridging making sure
your toes are pointing out a little bit external rotated so you're not just activating your glutes
you're activating your deeper piriformis muscle so slowly Bridge it up as you bridge up with the
hip thrust you don't want to overarch your spine you want to connect with your glutes and then your
TVA the transverse abdomeness by expanding your belly to inhale and then as you exhale you're
slowly releasing air through your mouth pulling your navel to your spine and then slowly lowering
one vertebrate at a time bone to bone touching to the mat and exhale to starting again Bridge
with belly breath inhale and then exhale squeeze your core in bone to bone as you go
down to the mat so if you notice you're doing some anterior and posterior tilting again Bridge up
belly breath squeeze your glutes trying to really imagine you're squeezing something
between your butt crack like a penny and you don't want the penny to fall
belly breath I know that's a funny reminder that you won't forget exhale
and um last one Bridge up belly breath squeeze your glutes and then breach out
now we are progressing by doing some pulses so as you bridge belly breath Mind Body awareness
you're gonna pulse up and now squeeze your glutes pulse up and down ten nine
eight seven six five squeezing coin three two and one and then roll down after activating
and making the glute start and your piriformness we're gonna challenge one more movement with the
piriform so you bridge and as you this time as you pulse you're gonna push your knee out like
a small butterfly it's a ten nine keeping that bridge up eight seven six five squeezing hole in
for the two and one and down so with your toes external rotated it helps activate your
piriformis a little bit much more not just your glutes muscles beautiful work now with your toes
pointing out again at the side of the mat place your hands to the side now we're going to do some
gentle stretches side to side so as you lower both knees to one side your belly breath inhale
and then exhale back Center squeezing your core in and then you switch the other side it's nice
to keep the hips on both sides stable and stretch belly breath inhale and then exhale back Center
switch the other side belly breath and then Center inhale belly breath and then Center
two more you can place your hands on your side and then the other side inhale
belly breath exhale as you squeeze last one belly breath exhale and last one to the left
email and access so this is a good way to do a gentle exercises if you're really sore and you
work out in the gym or you'll be sitting a lot this is a great way when you're short in time
and you need to connect again with your core well done so after doing those lovely stretches
now we're going to activate your piriformis by doing a figure four stretch so when you're doing
this movement you're already isolating your piriforms a little bit so this is one of the
special tests we do actually if you're positive or performance syndrome so most patients will be
having difficulty just placing their ankle on top of their thigh and this time you're going to press
your knee out first activate the piriformis inhale belly breath expand your abdominal muscles through
your breath belly breath as I said exhale squeeze your core in and then pull your knee to your chest
and then inhale open again as much as you can exhale Pull It in as much as you can you can
feel that beautiful stretch here inhale belly breath feels so good pushing out feels different
from pulling in it's like a different kind of ache on that muscle inhale push out with
your belly up exhale pull your belly in and pulling your knee in last one belly breath
exhale in now let's switch the other side now my other side could be a little bit easier or you'll
be surprised it could be tighter because it's really some different compensation
one side could be tighter because I've come over leaning or pressure on one side usually the other
side the good side feels a little bit tighter exhale in inhale so it's best to do both sides
exhale in belly breath in inhales push out make your belly bigger
to get those air in your diaphragm getting lower so you get more oxygen in exhale in now we're
progressing the left side again so figure four and then hugging your knees to your chest you're going
to feel a beautiful stretch deeper stretch on your piriformis muscle and hug in inhale it down hug
and then down so Dynamic stretching is so important you're not just doing passive stretch
that is not as effective as you gently go contract and then you relax last one hold that stretch
now Place one right hand on my behind my right thigh and you extend to stretch your hamstrings
so as you stretch your hamstrings you're going to feel a different kind of stretch on your piriforms
if you can if you're a little bit buckled that's fine so this is a progression inhale and then
exhale all the way down bend your knee as you lower down and then extend the opposite leg
and then down hug your knees again extend and then down last one hug your knees and the next
step and now from this position you can rock side to side if you can't keep your knees straight you
can lock it and bend it and rock side to side and then progress to Circle and I like to challenge
myself so I love to have deeper stretch so I'm doing leg Circle in the figure four position
clockwise and then counterclockwise the same way we did with the pelvic clock
earlier with the breath work so this is the beautiful progression to mobilize your
pelvis now let's switch to the other side now my right ankle on top of my left thigh
hug my knee to chest and then down let's warm up first like what we did earlier it's nice to
progress slow and steady so you're not gonna hurt your spine or your joints you know exhale two more
and you might find this side oh this usually my good side but how come it's Tighter and you'll
be surprised and now let's progress by extending the opposite leg and then bend your knee as you
lower all the way down inhale Bend extend Bend and then down two more feels so good to stretch
your hamstrings last one lock your knee if you can and if you like and then Rock side to side
as I said you can do this with your knee straight or bend as you rock side to side I would like to
challenge myself so I'll do circles in this area like a pelvic clock with my breath work
and then reverse clockwise counterclockwise and that's it I hope you enjoyed my lovely piriformis
syndrome progression and if you want to do more videos about piriformis syndrome you can check
out this description below or at the end of the playlist and if you want my guidance a special
support I have my back Master Class coaching that you can join and for those who need as fast as
and and it's a nice program for those with back pain with big core and poor posture
if you wanted to gain life without back pain to have a stronger core and improve posture and if
you love this kind of video want to do more of this kind of follow along leave a comment down
below and I try my best to make videos just like this one I would greatly appreciate and
really like and share my video and if you want to learn more about Pilates children Physical
Therapy health and wellness please subscribe to my channel ring the bell so you won't miss
anything as I said watch my next video see you in the next class about the piriformis
syndrome and there's more variety you can do to further progress and strengthen your overall
core back and hip strength always remember be safe be well and help through you bye