Stretches

Piriformis Stretches

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The piriformis is a small muscle deep in the buttock that rotates the hip outward. The page has filmed moves that stretch or roll it, including pigeon pose and the standing piriformis stretch, with a sequence and guided routines. If you have pain running down the leg, see the sciatica page first.

Piriformis stretches with video

These are the 6 movements from the MoveWell library for this area. Each page has a demo, numbered steps, the muscles worked and common mistakes.

Glute Smash demonstrationGlute Smash60 to 90 seconds per side. Knee to Opposite Shoulder demonstrationKnee to Opposite Shoulder30 seconds per side. Pigeon Pose demonstrationPigeon Pose45 to 90 seconds per side. Reverse Pigeon demonstrationReverse Pigeon30 to 60 seconds per side. Seated Pigeon Pose demonstrationSeated Pigeon Pose30 to 60 seconds per side. Standing Piriformis Stretch demonstrationStanding Piriformis Stretch30 to 45 seconds per side.

A simple piriformis sequence

Do these in order: warm-up drills first, then any rolling, then the longer holds. Move slowly and stop if anything is sharp or numb.

#MovementHold or repsSides
1Glute Smash90 s/sideEach side
2Knee to Opposite Shoulder30 s/sideEach side
3Pigeon Pose60 s/sideEach side
4Reverse Pigeon45 s/sideEach side
5Seated Pigeon Pose45 s/sideEach side
6Standing Piriformis Stretch30 s/sideEach side
JR

Joel is the founder of MoveWell and IMPOSSIBLE. He became the youngest person to run an ultra marathon on every continent, and created MoveWell to make recovery easy with routines he would actually do.

More stretches

Runner's Lunge demonstrationPsoas StretchesDeep hip flexor stretches for the psoas.8 movements Glute Smash demonstrationGlute StretchesPigeon variations and rolling for the glutes.6 movements Butterfly Pose demonstrationGroin StretchesStretches and rolling for the inner thighs.8 movements
View all stretches →