hip/butt/leg discomfort with pictures

[Dan86]

Hi everyone, I'm a 23 year old male and last year around this time I sustained a lifting injury. I was curling weights roughly 60 pounds or so and trying to keep up with my much bigger roomate and was swinging my hips really bad and felt something odd happen in my right hip. Next morning I felt an achy spot and thought it would go away on its own. After about a week or so I started getting leg pain (nerve related )so I went to the PT. With my symptoms he thought it was a bulged disk so he gave me exercises to do for them (Mcenzie workouts and electronic stimulation), and it helped quite a bit. When I was hooked up to the stimulation machine I could literally feel something moving in the circled area in the picture, and it hurt quite a bit. A few months ago I finally got an MRI on my back and hip and just showed very minor disk degeneration and the doctor said it was really nothing to worry about. I've been doing quite a bit of research and have been really working on my piriformis area and it shows quite a bit of improvement. A few stretches I could feel the sore spot being pulled on but it felt wonderful. I also have been doing the self massage with the tennis ball and the first few times it hurt like HELL but the pain has gone away quite a bit. My range of motion has gotten quite a bit better and everything as well. Here were my major symptoms when I first had this

Sitting
Coughing
Laying on a very unfirm piece of furniture
Jumping
Running
Raising my right leg while sitting and bending my head down

With doing all the stretches these symptoms have gone down greatly, but am just curious to what everyone else might think. Also, my right oblique area is somewhat dented in compared to the left side, and the left side is more tight, which I never had compared to my other pictures with my shirt off. I'm thinking this muscular imbalance may be a part of my problem too.

The pictures were taken off a crappy 10 dollar camera so sorry about that, and a couple pics I took with standing in front of a mirror.

[Heidi]

Hi

It sounds like involvement of the piriformis is likely. Its good that you have felt some relief from massage and stretching exercises and suggests that you are in the right place.
Perhaps the fact that the problem is not completely solved could be do to with the cause of the injury in the first place. In order to treat a condition properly, you have to correct the cause of the injury.
In many cases with piriformis spasm, the gluteus medius is involved and this is where you have marked on your photos. It may have been damage to this muscle which weakended it, meaning piriformis had to work harder to compensate.
I would work on strengthening gluteus medius. You can do this with the side lying clam exercise:

http://www.sportsinjuryclinic.net/strengthening/body_weight/hip_abduction.php

Other things that often contribute to this are a leg length difference and groin tightness.

[Dan86]

Thank you so very much Heidi, I was thinking it could have been a glute problem as well. I will do these and will let you know how my progress is going. Take care,

Dan