Sounds like a deep external rotator. Have you had it massaged/professionally fucked with?
Member
Glute injury
Hello,
Age: 25
Gender: Male
Current Training Status: Intermediate
Chief Complaint: My right glute, specifically my piriformis and external rotators, cause pain during hip extension of the deadlift and squat.
Narrative Describing Mechanism of Injury: This injury first occurred over three months ago. It was my TX method intensity day and I had just squatted 330x1x5, I began warming up for my deadlifts when I pulled the bar recklessly and felt a sharp pain in my right glute. I shrugged it off and continued to deadlift 365x1x5. The gym was relatively cold that day as well.
Pain: At the beginning I rated it as an 8 or 9 out of 10. Currently it's 4-5.
Pain Description: Dull aching and diffused pain during hip extension or glute stretches. No sharp pain.
Makes it better: Warmth, cold jacuzzi and glute stetches
Makes it worse: Whenever the right glute is stretched I can feel that the piriformis is tight to the extent of being painful. During hard external rotation of the knees I feel shooting pain from the external rotators.
Symptoms throughout the day: dull ache and general tightness at the right glute, including tightness to the extent of slight pain during movements that stretch the glutes.
Sign and symptoms: the area appears normal from plain sight. I can still squat and deadlift, just not heavy.
My thread in the recovery forum: http://startingstrength.com/resource...ad.php?t=30414
What I've done to combat said pain since it's inception:
. Ibuprofen 400mg. Up to seven tablets a day
. Cold Jacuzzi/stretches/(tennis)ball rolling the muscle
. Various and multiple deep heat liniments - these didn't do anything
. Cold/heat packs
. reset my squat and deadlift by more than 50% and reverted back to SS programming. This helped tons, but the pain is still felt and present three months later.
If you have any questions, please ask. I want to deal with this in the best way possible and continue training towards my goal of squatting 400lb for reps and deadlifting 500lb. I've put off making this thread for so long in hopes of the pain resolving by itself, it hasn't and I'm looking for guidance.
Thank you for your time. Any input is highly appreciated.
TMPHBITEU
Sounds like a deep external rotator. Have you had it massaged/professionally fucked with?
Starting Strength Coach
A good way to rule in piriformis involvement is to find the midpoint between your greater trochanter and your ischial tuberosity (do this by feeling for the large bony prominence at the point of your hip, and then flex your hip past 90 degrees and feel for the large bone in your butt that you sit on). Take a thumb and press into the midpoint of these two points, and if you get immediate recreation of your symptoms, or if you are exquisitely point tender, you can assume this is causing the problem.
If this test recreates your pain, there are two things you can do yourself that should help. 1) carry a tennis ball with you and place it in a chair. Sit down on the tennis ball (on the point you pushed on between the greater trochanter and the ischial tuberosity) with just enough pressure to bring on mild discomfort. Wait until the pain dulls and then put a little more pressure until it gets u comfortable, wait until it dulls, etc...do this until you are sitting with your full weight on the ball. This is the same thing as a therapist doing an active trigger point release. 2) you have to stretch it.
Member
No, sir, I have not. I'm currently living in the middle east, locating a professional massage therapist will be extremely hard.
Do these types of injuries/knots only resolve by deep massages? Is there anything else I could attempt?
Starting Strength Coach
Do they have tennis balls in the Middle East?Originally Posted by Immortal_k
Member
Today I had volume squats, I'm using Bill Starr's 5x5 intermediate. My sets were 45x1x12 140x1x5 170x1x5 205x1x5 240x1x5 280x1x5, the fourth and fifth rep of the last workset were torture. The pain from my right external rotators was on the scale of 8-9/10 but I pushed through it. In your experience, Coach, should I keep pushing through pain like this or should I stop? I can take a heap of pain and push through, but I wouldn't want this to plague me long-term because I pushed through a heavy set.
I just got the Kelly Starrett mobility pack from Rogue Fitness, hope this can help unfuck my external rotators.
Thank you.
TMPHBITEU
I guess Kelly Starrett reaches the Middle East. And you did not train through 8-9 level pain. 10 makes you pass out. Get somebody to work on it. Someone with elbows and ears is all you need.
Member
If you don't mind me tagging along, I have a similar injury (painful right piriformis) and when I do this kind of foam roll:
http://www.crossfitinvictus.com/wp-c...8/IMG_7653.JPG
I feel the pain there. Training is going OK as I roll and stretch the piriformis before every workout, but what exactly can I do to it to stop it from bothering me outside of training? Get it massaged with an elbow? Roll it with lacrosse balls?
Starting Strength Coach
Doing a heavy set of 5 squats with 9/10 pain would be like doing squats while a homeless man was eating your face off.....
Seriously though, sit on the fucking tennis ball!
Member
It is my experience that 8-9 on the pain scale starts giving you tunnel vision, you start wishing for death, and then about the time you get to ten, your brain says "Well, that's enough of that" and shuts off for a while. I've only been there once, and I don't care to go there again.
It is also my experience that having someone put their elbow into the indicated muscle and putting on the pressure may cause you to reassess how much it hurts during training.
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