Glute Pain

Medical Q&A [Moderated]
1

Good morning Doctors,

3 months ago I felt like I pulled something in the right side of my lower back/glute whilst deadlifting, (more tightness/discomfort than pain). Completed the workout fine with no loss of strength. For this workout and the few previous weeks I had been trying to pull with my hips in a higher starting posistion.

Since then, I have been experiencing discomfort in my right hamstring when sitting for more than a few minutes which turns into a sharp stabbing feeling in my right glute when transitioning from sitting to standing, then completely disappears after standing/walking for a few seconds.

No pain when squatting or deadlifting once warmed up, but the shooting pain happens when I try to brace into a belt (bracing without a belt is fine). Some minor pain when arching on bench.

The day after squatting/deadlifting the pain seem worse than normal even though there is no pain when completing the exercises, should I keep training as normal? Also, is there any thing I can do to help this heal? I have tried taking ibiprofen for a week which makes the pain the pain completly disappear, but once stopping it goes to back to square one. I have also attempted stretching my glute yesterday for the first time which gave pretty instant relief (can go from sitting to standing almost pain free), but back to normal 20-30 minutes later.

Info:
28 years old. 6 foot. 190lbs, fairly lean, non novice.
I have a fairly obvious anterior and lateral pelvic tilt (this has always been present yet never caused an issue so possibly not relevant)

Thank you for your time, not just for reading this but in general for all you both and Leah do, my whole training/nutrion has improved since coming across Barbell Medicine.

2

Sounds like you may have some sort of ischiogluteal bursitis or a local tendinopathy somewhere in the gluteal / hamstring musculature.

This has been for 3 months straight, with neither improvement nor worsening during that time?

I’d continue training if it remains pain-free, obviously, and that’s a good sign.

I’m not entirely surprised it came back after the NSAID course. If the stretching provided you instant relief, perhaps try doing that a bit more frequently for a couple weeks and see how it goes.

3

Thank you Austin. Yes, a little over 3 months straight, the pain has been the same since the beginning. I will attempt to keep doing the stretches more frequently. If it makes a difference, they are glute stretches I’ve found from reading about piriformis syndrome.