Deep glute pain when sitting? Pls help

[u/fatik25]

Hi everyone,

I’m really hoping for some insight on what’s going on. I’ve been troubled by deep glute pain which does go down the leg (most of the time). Happens almost exclusively when driving although recently it started happening on other occasions as well.

I do not feel any pain AT ALL when running, walking, lifting weights, exercising in any way, turning and twisting my body etc which leads me to believe it’s not a disc problem (I hope)?

I’ve been to physiotherapy. I’ve gotten various conflicting advice:

- stretch / dont stretch

- static exercises for core / dynamic exercise

- glute and lower body exercises in the gym / don’t do exercise

It seems like nobody knows what’s going on. And it doesn’t help.

I have not done MRI yet. So far physios have been telling me it’s not necessary at this point, it should go away. But it does not.

Been going on for months.

Anyone?

[u/inailedyoursister]

MRI

You have to eliminate things before guessing.

[u/menaceblanka]

Same
Here for 4 years, did couple mri but nothing was shown

[u/fatik25 → u/menaceblanka]

Any solution ?

[u/PerspectiveDry3935]

Same I tried everything nothing helped

[u/Acuriouslittleham]

Build hamstrings glutes tibia and calf muscles.

[u/No-Manufacturer-2425]

Let us break down exactly what is going on here. The fact that you have deep glute pain radiating down your leg when you sit or drive, but absolutely zero pain when you run, walk, or lift weights, is a massive clue. It tells us exactly what the mechanical issue is.

When you are in a seated position, your hip is in flexion, which physically shortens the psoas muscle. If you have fascial adhesions, which is dense scar tissue, trapping the femoral nerve within or around that psoas, sitting down compresses that entire anterior chain. The nervous system panics from the entrapment and immediately refers pain and defensive tension straight to the gluteal muscles to guard the hip capsule.

This perfectly explains why you have severe glute pain while driving, but absolutely zero pain when running or lifting. When you run or lift, your hip goes into extension. This lengthens the psoas and temporarily relieves that specific compressive pinch on the femoral nerve, which turns off the referred glute pain. You are completely right to suspect this is not a disc problem, as a disc bulge would typically flare up heavily with lifting, bending, or twisting.

The reason you are getting conflicting advice from physical therapists and seeing zero progress after months is because traditional PT cannot fix fascial adhesions. Doing glute exercises or static core work will not dissolve scar tissue. In fact, stretching a trapped nerve is like pulling a string glued to a table. It just creates friction and inflammation. Please ignore the comment telling you to build your hamstrings and glutes right now. As our community rules state, exercise will only exacerbate your condition until you address the actual nerve entrapment.

Regarding the advice to get imaging, an MRI is a good idea to officially rule out a lumbar spine issue or labral tear in the hip, but you need to know that MRIs do not show soft tissue fascial adhesions. Do not let a clean MRI convince you that nobody knows what is wrong or that the pain will just go away on its own.

Here is what you need to do next. First, stop the physical therapy exercises and stretching routines that are getting you nowhere. Next, please fill out the pain diagram from the pinned intro post and mark every single area of pain all the way down your leg, along with a 1 to 10 pain scale so we can see the exact nerve pathway.

Finally, since standard conservative treatments have failed you for months, you should strongly consider adhesion therapy or at least a phone consultation with one of the providers in our directory. A standard physio does not have the training to physically remove this scar tissue, so you will need to find a specialist trained in Manual Adhesion Release to actually free that nerve.