My piriformis et al are tight as hell. In addition to stretching teh beJesus out of them, My thoughts were that strengthening the opposing action would be beneficial. At 90 hip flexion, the piriformis and its pals are abductors, so my thinking is that I should do adduction at 90 degree hip flexion. Thighmaster from walmart??What could be done for pure internal rotation?
Worth a try but you really dont need to waste your money on the thigh master gimick B.s… Lay on the ground with leg bent. Place a plate on your knee area and raise/rotate your hip.
Just trying to help.
Phill
you can do plate slides as well. They (T- mag) described them in one of there past exercises you’ve tried before issues. Standing or lying slide a plate accross the ground. In their description, they explain that this is a great exercise because there is no eccentric, so it can be performed many times throughout the week.
Good luck
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Contracting the piriformis, ironically, will help it to relax. I have had piriformis completely in spasm (miserable!!!) and completely resistant to stretching. I finally got the bright idea to work it instead of trying to stretch it. The reason: a “tight” muscle isn’t structurally different from a “flexible” one, but the “tight” muscle is receiving instructions from the brain to contract at a certain joint position. In some cases, the only way to influence this instruction is by fatiguing the muscle to sort of trick it into relaxing.
I didn’t need much resistance at all for this, body weight only, as many reps as I could possibly do. In fact, I find light weight/high reps to work better for this purpose, because with a lifting-type rep scheme, I get rebound tightness a few hours later. The purpose of the movement isn’t to build strength or muscle, but to improve flexibility, function, and joint position.