How to Release Your Piriformis and Relieve Lower Back Pain

TL;DR: The piriformis is a small muscle in your upper outer glute that causes knee, hip, and lower back pain when it's tight. It can also cause sciatica-like symptoms, that shooting nerve-type pain. To release it, use a trigger point ball or foam roller on that area while moving your leg in different directions. This works because our tissue runs in multiple directions like fabric on a shirt, so we need to hit it from different angles.

Today I'm going to show you how to trigger point your piriformis muscle. It's a small muscle in your upper outer glute region, responsible for external rotation of the thigh among other things.

What can a tight piriformis cause?

SymptomDescriptionKnee painReferred pain from tight piriformisHip painDirect result of muscle tightnessLower back painCommon complaintSciatica-type symptomsShooting, nerve-type pain

If there's any tightness there, it can cause pain in your knees, your hips, and especially your lower back. It can also cause sciatica-type symptoms, that shooting, nerve-type pain.

If you're feeling anything like that and haven't tried this yet, this could be a great fit to help relieve some of the pain you're having in those areas.

It's also a great thing to do if you're not dealing with any of those issues: on leg days as part of your movement prep. Great way to get the hips opened up pre-performance for those lifts.

How to find your piriformis

Start by grabbing a trigger point ball. We want to find the piriformis. It's a really small little muscle, so an easy way to find it is crossing one leg over the other, having one foot flat on the floor. That's going to help pop that muscle out so you can get to it.

Then take the ball and set it in that upper outer glute region. Roll around till you find it.

The trigger point technique

Once you get to this position, relax your leg on the floor, and raise the leg four times. Keep the toes towards the sky, make sure you're breathing during this.

Then bring that leg in. Let the knee where the ball is under fall to the ground, nice and slow, and back up. Four times.

Once again, then pivot into the ball.

Why we move in different directions

The point of all these different movements is that our tissue, like the fabrics on a shirt, runs in every which direction. We want to be going different directions, doing different movements, so we're hitting all those different directions of the tissue and getting as much release as possible.

This increases blood flow and all the other benefits of a massage, or in this case, trigger pointing.

If the ball is too intense

If the ball is a little too aggressive and painful, you can do the same thing with a foam roller. It's a way to ease into it until your piriformis is feeling a little better, and then you can use the ball.

Grab the roller, have a seat on it, cross one leg over the other, bring that foot flat on the floor. This time lean to the side and just roll up and down on it.

It should still feel a bit uncomfortable, which it should, but it shouldn't be painful. You should definitely feel a little bit, just like you would a stretch. Roll up and down, rock side to side. That's it.

Make it a habit

Try one or two of those, or both, and commit them into your warm-ups if you're just trying to improve any kind of exercises. Or if you're dealing with daily pain in your back, hips, and knees, give this a try and see if it helps.

Further reading:

• Cleveland Clinic: Piriformis Syndrome