I have a student who has sciatic pain on her left side occasionally. When I performed a glut isolation test it causes her sharp pain. She can do ardha salabasana on her left side a bit without pain. Her hamstrings are weak but not dead. My ? is how does she work on developing glut strength. I get the feeling that her hamstrings are doing the work in salabasana and the glute is not participating.
? 2
supine int rotation is 32
prone is 46
what does this indicate?’
thanks
It sounds like piriformis syndrome from your descritpion of her pain. In this case that assessment would be verified by having a piriformis release from a competent chiropractor or massage therapists.
For yoga i would recommend that she do gluteal strengthening from sunbird pose (JFS #7) bend the knee and straighten it with breath rhythm. fine the number of repetitaions possible without compensating to using other muscles. Also do the dog peeing at the hydrant maneuver. do not try to get her knee and foot up to hip height at first as that should be a gradual goal indicative of optimal tone.
Also doing exaggerated mula bandha can help this tone. by this i mean tense the entire pelvic region = pelvic floor, lower abdominals and gluteals. Do this with sufficient force that her body lifts on contractions and sinks on relaxation. this can also relieve symptoms and increase tone. Should avoid cross legged sitting and do this from a chair.
The dramatic difference in your internal hip rotator measurements is most likely due to weakness in the internal hip rotation movement. Check that with isolated muscle test and see how well her form is in JFS #5. namaste