Before you chase pain, it’s extremely helpful to know that the piriformis (pi-ri-FOR-mis) is rarely tight.
Instead, the piriformis muscle is not fully capable of playing its role to the best of its ability.
How your piriformis muscle responds to the amount of force delivered by a practitioner’s elbow or a lacrosse ball may surprise you.
When force is applied to layers upon layers of muscles, you and the practitioner do not have a complete understanding of which muscles are tight. Then you run the risk of increasing instability.
As counterintuitive as this may seem, what you feel during a deep tissue massage does not equate to the best outcome. You can address your piriformis with a lacrosse ball or receive a deep tissue massage from a licensed practitioner. Either way, your muscles will tighten again (and again).The rub: a deep massage that is delivered by a massage practitioner’s elbow and a self-massage with a lacrosse ball take more than they give. Along the same line, as therapeutic as stretching your piriformis feels at the time, often, it is increasing instability and muscle tightness.
When force is applied to layers upon layers of muscles without a complete understanding of which muscles are tight, you run the risk of increasing instability.
You (and the practitioner), are gambling and your function is what’s on the line.
And whether you know it or not, it requires you to invest time and resources into approaches that will not get you to where you are functioning to the best of your ability.
When the desired outcome is to release a piriformis muscle that’s more than likely not tight there is only so much luck to go around.
While you are taking time to piece together what you have tried, consider embracing the fact that you don’t know what you don’t know.
In most cases, the piriformis muscle isn’t tight.
Instead, the piriformis is underperforming.Because the piriformis is rarely tight, there’s a strong possibility that elbows and lacrosse balls are actually making your condition worse.
The reality is practitioners regularly stretch and apply hands-on massage techniques to address muscle tightness. What you may not realize is they are doing these things to muscles that may or may not be tight. (?)As an example, you could feel like you have a knot in your shoulder, and most practitioners would jump to the conclusion that a muscle is tight.
They are assuming a lot. Unbeknown to you, practitioners collect muscles that are fully capable of performing their role. In doing so, they increase instability, which increases tightness.
This is the vicious cycle you may find yourself in.
[ Worth noting: A muscle’s primary role is to provide stability. When a muscle isn’t capable of pulling its weight, you will have muscles that are tight. ]
(Principles)
Although this scenario is extremely rare, let’s pretend that all the muscles that get collected in the blasting of your piriformis are capable of performing their role. But, your piriformis has shown to be underperforming.
What happens then?
Answer: How muscles that surround your piriformis respond to the amount of force is left to chance.
Since we are talking about not relying on luck and instead, asking questions that provoke thought.
Six Questions Worth Asking
1/ How many muscles that get caught up in the pressure that’s applied to your piriformis are capable of playing their role?
2/ When rolling around on a lacrosse ball, is your hip joint unstable from the start?
3/ How did your piriformis muscle respond to being blasted in a position where there tends to be instability?
4/ A question worth repeating, how did the surrounding muscles respond when the piriformis was the target?
5/ Besides feeling good at the time, is there any indication that there was a positive outcome?
6/ If there was a positive outcome, how long did the result last? (“Success leaves clues.” – Jim Rohn)
When there is no clear way of measuring whether a muscle is tight or underperforming, your best bet is to avoid elbows, lacrosse balls, and foam rollers.
There are bad results. There are also bad decisions.
When it comes to muscles, going by feel is always going to end badly.
Most of what we do daily exists in automatic processing. We have habits and defaults that we rarely examine, from gripping a pencil to swerving to avoid an auto accident. The challenge is not to change the way our brains operate but to figure out how to work within the limitations of the brains we already have.
— Annie Duke, Author of Thinking In Bets (affiliate)
For the person who already has plenty of mobility, there’s just something about releasing a muscle that doesn’t make sense. 🤔
After many days of dealing with pain, it is possible for all the stuff that’s thrown against the wall to “work”.
In this case, suggesting something ‘worked’ means the person no longer feels pain.
While exercise is promoted as “healthy,” the truth is that the repetitive nature of exercise encourages more compensation.
Given enough time, your body will figure out a different workaround.
A workaround that doesn’t include you feeling pain. 🧐
Before you read any further, remember, muscle tightness is due to your brain not recognizing stability.
Those tight muscles everyone and their uncle want to release are doing their best to make up for what your piriformis isn’t capable of providing.
Meanwhile, stability and strength are what are missing.
Your piriformis is only one player out of a close-knit group of muscles that work together. In more ways than one, what your piriformis muscle brings to the field of play is unique.
Since there’s a chance an expert will recommend surgery to remove your piriformis – make that unique and indispensable.
No matter how many muscles give it their best shot, no other muscle can play the role of your piriformis.
Piriformis Muscle Actions, Axes, and Planes of Motion at Hip Joint
Releasing a muscle isn’t going to improve your piriformis muscle’s ability to pull (read: generate tension).
Remember what you just read, and you’ll stay ahead of the curve.
Because no amount of pressure with an elbow, lacrosse ball, or foam roller is going to be capable of improving the communication between your brain and the piriformis muscle that you’re trying to address.
So while a muscle’s primary role is to pull, no amount of pressure with any one of those tools is going to increase your piriformis muscle’s ability to generate tension at the right time. (emphasis added)
You want a piriformis muscle that’s fully capable of playing its role in any position you find yourself in.I Stopped Releasing Piriformis with Deep Massage (This is What I Do Now)
What you watched in the video would fall under the category of deep tissue massage. What sets what you watched apart forms all other forms of deep tissue is the overall outcome.
In other words, the intention is not to stretch or release a muscle. Both of which allow for an increase in mobility without stability. Instead, the approach you just saw allows for an increase in stability, which allows for more mobility.
For many years, I have addressed muscles in a way that allows for an increase in stability.
When you are left with more mobility without stability, it’s impossible to have a level of function that would make it possible for you to fire a cannon from a canoe. Not that you want to fire a cannon from a canoe. But even still, doing what allows for more stability, also allows for an increase in mobility. Not the other way around. Nonetheless, when you increase stability throughout your spine and pelvis, there will be a noticeable increase in stability, mobility, and flexibility that sticks around for far longer than 24 hours. Not only locally, but globally. The stability is as far-reaching as your feet. This is why it’s important to prioritize who you trust your brain and body to.
Improving one muscle’s ability to provide stability knocks out pain and improves function.
Then it’s just a matter of addressing more muscles that are unable to pull their weight.
Along with a few other muscles, your piriformis attaches to the ligament I mentioned in the above video.
To pull with authority, your piriformis muscle relies on those same muscles to provide stability.
Instead of releasing the surrounding muscles, you want your piriformis to have a stable environment to pull from. Having a stable environment to anchor off allows for more mobility and flexibility.
(Leverage)
When your piriformis is pulling optimally, your femur and pelvis will be capable of moving at the right time.
From there, it’s a matter of increasing strength with isometric exercise.
Then the tight muscles will be free to relax into the new available range of motion.
The media is primarily responsible for glamorizing deep tissue massage, rolling around on a lacrosse ball, and foam rolling. Continuing to gift wrap and tie a bow around those approaches is not going to change the outcome.
Be careful who you trust your brain to.
Can’t get to Dallas? Get details on how you can work with me from home.
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Book Mentioned
Thinking In Bets by Annie Duke (affiliate)
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I have held a license to practice massage therapy for over 29 years. Early in my career, I was a nationally certified personal trainer for 18 years. During that time, I completed thousands of one-on-one private training sessions. I went on to teach biomechanics to personal trainers, group exercise instructors, and physical therapists throughout New England.
I worked as a sports massage therapist at ESPN.
Over the last few years, I have been quoted in Runner’s World UK, Massage Therapy & Bodywork, Massage Magazine, IDEA Fitness Journal, Massage & Fitness Magazine, and The Guardian Liberty Voice. I have also served as an applied biomechanics consultant for the fitness staff at Canyon Ranch, The Greenbrier, and ESPN.
From 2009 to 2018, I immensely enjoyed teaching applied anatomy & kinesiology at Parker University.
I offer the best deep tissue and sports massage at Engaging Muscles Massage in Dallas, Texas.
Very interesting article. Regards from Belfast 🙂