Discussion: Gluteus maximus injury?

Hey guys,

Yesterday I was working out doing lunges and such and felt completely fine for a good hour or so. I was later sitting on the floor and realized my butt had gone completely numb so I got up and experienced the worst pain from what seems to be my gluteus max. I felt fine today so I went for a run and the pain reappeared, just as bad, so I stopped. Could this be a tear? I felt fine til I sat down wrong! And I was trying to gently stretch and that didn't help either. Any advice is greatly appreciated!

what a pain in the @rse!

I currently have an injury in my gluteus maximus that occured two weeks ago in a fall. I had a similar experience to yours since it didn't start to hurt a lot until after the workout. I went to a physical therapist with it and he could pretty quickly discover that my gluteus maximus (I first thought that my hip-flexor was the problem) was swollen. He said my injury was relatively common and comes from falling on the gluteus maximus... He also recommended me to rest from running (alternative training allowed) 2-3 weeks. No stretching (if only very, very gently) but icing and movement to get the swelling down.

Erik, you are the most injury prone guy I know!

Well, I don't know anything about that specific injury, but many people I know have had muscle/tendon problems in that region. And, since lunges are one of my favorite exercises, I feel for you.

Pictures might help us diagnose? :-). Sorry just being an @$$.

I'm no expert, but I have a big mouth, anyway, so I'll say it sounds like it could be a strain. Having it go numb surely didn't help your proprioception, and it seems to me that could have contributed to hurting it when you stood up. That said, muscles can hurt a lot without being severely injured, and whether or not it is, you'll want to take it easy and see how it feels as you have a chance to recover.

This is a long-term chronic injury I've had since around Dec '08. Not sure where it came from, and it has been impervious to bouts of rest and various strengthening and stretching. Much worse after a long run, though, and so less of that going on.