Which side is really tighter? (piriformis stretch)

[undulating_fish]

Hi,

I've been doing the floor piriformis stretch from the daily 5 as detailed in

, and unsurprisingly one side is much more flexible than the other.

However, I'm confused over which side of my body is the real culprit and hence which side to repeat twice. When I stretch my right hip, I'm able to put my left leg flat on the floor as in the video and place my right ankle on my thigh while keeping both sit bones on the floor. I can't do the same with the opposite side without putting my right foot way out in front of me with its knee off the floor, or alternatively having the right leg fully straight in front of me flat on the ground.

Is this a restriction in something to do with getting my right leg on the floor (maybe even nothing to do with the piriformis), or is it as simple as repeating the difficult side ('left hip') twice?

The more I think about it, the more confused I get!

[Kit_L]

Hello UF,

The leg that's underneath on the side that you can't put both bottom bones on the floor with is the tighter of the two (just to be able to get the bottom leg into the position shown requires external rotation of that hip, like when you do the tailor pose). The anatomy of piriformis is confusing, because its function changes as the remus-hip angle changes.

And there's a further confounding factor ( ): sometime the problem-creating p. is the looser of the two. Back story: p. syndrome (where a nerves passes though p.) is determined at birth; a leg length difference (if you have one; I do) manifests during teenage years—meaning that use patterns and p. tightness might not be related at all. My problem p. was the looser of the two, for example. No matter, on a problem side, do more work for it (no matter how loose on an absolute scale, to relieve nerve impingement, will need to be made more flexible). hth, kl

[undulating_fish]

Thanks very much, Kit - that makes a lot of sense. It seems to also tie in with the 'intuitive' answer that for every exercise where I've noticed a discrepancy, it's always on the same side (my dominant side).

[Kit_L]

Few people are aware of this but (for example) at workshops when we do the shoulder flexibility module everyone is tighter in all planes of movement on their dominant arm side. This comes as quite a shock, usually. Dominance means more strength but (in the absence of compensating work) but less flexibility. It is one of the keys to grace and ease in the body.