Deep Hip Rotators: Active Piriformis Stretch for Runners

I’ve had a couple of days this week with a lot of time spent in the car, and my hips really suffer for it! Like many runners, I tend to get particularly tight through Piriformis, deep rotator muscles of the hips.

I recorded the video above while having lunch in the park with Holly today, to demonstrate a dynamic variation of the Pigeon Pose. This is a stretch which will be familiar to many of those who have practised yoga. Simple yet effective, it has proven to work wonders for my own hips and is great for targeting those often troublesome Piriformis muscles.

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Last updated on March 7th, 2021.

4 Comments

  1. I have been diagnosed with pisiform is syndrome. I am 60 and a desk job has left my gluteus and hams to be strengthened. PT was ordered along with pool workouts, walking in the pool etc.
    I have constant burning in the buttocks. Doc seems to think 6 months of stretching and strengthing will solve. The problem. Any exercise or suggestions. I try to stretch my hams and they just don’t seem to loosen. I use an incline stretch board for those stretches.

  2. I think I am suffering from piriformis syndrome, I feel tightness and pain in my right hip and butt, which then follows down the leg causing tightness in my hamstring, and calf muscle, (of which I have pulled). any help?

  3. Looks useful for any desk worker…What about the dynamic part of the movement, though? Could this be dangerous for the lumbar spine? Should the “pilates box” be kept tight and the sideways movement happen in the thoracic spine, or are you suggesting for the movement to occur in the lower back? Clarification would be beneficial. Thanks.

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