Piriformis?
 

Recently I've developed a pain in the left glute, near the hamstring. Possible causes are "sitting" in the bottom of the lifts, losing tension in the legs and/or a tendency for my left foot to be slightly behind the right in the receiving stance.

I found that using a wider stance and pushing my knees out a lot harder seems to help a little, but not entirely.

So pretty much - how do I fix it and keep it from happening again (preferably fixed very soon since there's a meet in the middle of August)?

stretch it out....along with your hamstrings...they are too tight and you are slightly tearing it or the tendon.

Those seem to stretch the outside of my hip more - the pain is nowhere near there. It's closer to the groin.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...mis_muscle.PNG wfs (or do we have to do that here?)

Okay, see the belly of the piriformis? Now see the white thing below it (tendon?)? It's more around there. I'm inept when it comes to computer image technology, so that's about the best description I can give.

Hamstring origin. Foam roll on it (or you may even have to sit on a tennis ball to really get to it) and do bent-knee hamstring stretches.

Then it's not the pirformis, most likely a hamstring issue....unless the pain comes around front...those are groin issues (I know that well from experience).

Unless I'm very much mistaken, the piriformis is an external rotator of the hip. So why do we recommend flexing and externally rotating the hip as a stretch for the piriformis? I see this stretch everywhere, and while it is a nice feeling stretch which I do often myself, surely it can't be putting the piriformis in a stretched position?

hip mobility rules.
 

piriformis is a deep muscle that is closely integrated with several other extensors and external rotators. what makes it tricky is that it often refers pain down the leg, you can feel it all the way don the leg to the hamstring insertion at the tib.

I don't personally get much from chiropractic but you might try having a really expert massage or chiro look at your sacrum alignment. a slight tweak to this joint can hold one side of the pelvis in a rotated position slightly forward or back of the other side resulting in pain exactly where you describe. pain referred to hams, and glute medius.

just recovered from a similar tweak

Not quite sure, but it does seem to help a lot of people. I think it's mostly cause everything's tight in there so doing it will stretch a lot of things.

Stretching the LIMIT of external rotation and internal rotation are both good though. Much like you would do for a baseball pitcher with internal and external rotation to maintain mobility. Regardless, I'd say do both (internal and external of hip).

Internal rotation stretch (courtesy of I think one of Cressey's articles):



But yeah, it does seem hamstring in origin not piriformis like people have said. I'd work it all though: internal/external rotation and strengthening, Massage (tennis ball) everything in the hip, maybe some heat.

to open up my hips for grappling i like to do the joint mobility drill called the egyptian or whatever, but i'll do it with my legs instead of my arms. i'll do it in a seated straddle and then get into plow pose, spread my legs, and rotate them in that positions as well, both with the feet on the floor and hanging in the air wide.

i feel that there's a different effect between rotating the hip around with a bent knee verses straight. i fee like both help, but with a bent leg its harder to actively rotate it without the help of the floor or gravity.

if one leg is tighter, i'll get into the seated hamstring stretch where one leg is extended and the other one is butterfly. i'll then rotate the extended leg in the same egyptian manner, such that my big toe touches the floor by rotating in, and then i reverse the rotation outwards so that the outer blade of the foot lays on the floor. i feel that it works better if you don't let your calf touch the ground so that your heel only touches. it then controls and pull your extended leg. when i put my big toe to the floor and focus on opening up the space in my hamstring/groind area, i can dig out a lot of tension.

If it is piriformis, then try sitting on the tennis ball as mentioned before. Your leg needs to be bent to allow access. Another plug for the Trigger Point Workbook. If you get it right you'll know instantly.