Sciatica pain is the worst! It shoots down both legs and up your back, and makes you wish you were dead. Okay, not really, but it does really hurt.
You have a lumbar nerve root and when something puts pressure on it, it can result in all sorts of pain. Any kind of vertebrae injury can put mass amounts of pressure on your nerve root. Sciatica is characterized by numbness, tingling, and pain in the legs. It can cause you to lose sleep for days too. It just isn’t very fun at all, and pain medication is not the route to go.
Pigeon Pose – the pigeon pose works by broadly opening the hips. While there are many different versions of the pose, they should all work pretty well. It releases the stress on the lower nerve roots and alleviates all of the sciatica pain almost immediately. However, you should always stretch well before doing it.
Reclining Pose – While on the back, bring your right leg up to a right angle and grasp it with both hands behind the thigh, locking your fingers. Take your left leg and place your ankle against the knee. Hold the position for a moment before changing legs. This helps stretch the tiny piriformis muscle, which sometimes becomes inflamed and presses against the sciatic nerve causing pain. Repeat by switching sides and doing the same exercise with the other leg
Hamstring Stretching – hamstring stretching is a great exercise to reduce sciatica pain. The hamstring muscles are located on the back of the thighs. Overly tight hamstrings will cause you to have increased back and sciatica pain!
Low Lunge – like a runner’s lunge, put your right leg forward with the knee over the ankle and the left knee on the ground. Then place your feet flat on the mat. This exercise stretches the left hip flexor.
Standing Piriformis Stretch- check out this video for the standing stretch.
Outer Hip Stretch-
Long Groin Stretch-
Short Muscle Stretch-
- Sit on the floor and put the soles of your feet together.
- Use your elbows to apply a gentle downward pressure to your knees to increase the stretch.
- You should feel a stretch on the inside of the thigh. For a deeper stretch, lean forward, keeping your back straight.
- Hold this position for 30 seconds. Release and flutter your legs for 30 seconds.
- Repeat 3-5 times in a row and stretch 3 times a day.
Muscle Energy Technique-
- Lie on your front belly and bend one leg.
- The doctor will rotate the bent leg outwards as far as it will comfortably go.
- He’ll then apply gentle pressure to the piriformis as the athlete moves his/her foot from side to side for about 30 seconds.
Resistance Band Abduction-
- Stand with one end of the band tied around the right ankle and the other end attached to a fixed object, close to the floor.
- Move the right leg out to the side, away from the body, keeping the knee straight.
- Once you get as far as is comfortable, slowly return the leg back to the center.
- Repeat 15 times and gradually build this up to 2 sets of 20 reps.
Side Lying Clam Exercise-
Sciatica pain is something that nobody wants to experience. One pinched nerve can cause a world of pain in so many different places! If you do have it, it is always best to treat it naturally as opposed to pain medications and other pharmaceuticals!