hey everybody it's doctor Jo, and today I'm going to show you my top 5 sciatica
exercises for a herniated disc. so let's get started.
so if you haven't already clicked the
subscribe button, make sure you click it down there. so again these exercises are
for a herniated disc type of sciatica, so if it's the piriformis syndrome they're
a little bit different and you can check that video out. so the first one we're
gonna do is just lying down on your back with your knees propped up, and we're
just going to start off with a pelvic tilt.
so pelvic tilts are a nice way to kind of get everything loosened up, work those
core muscles, and just to start strengthening that area in general
because if you have that sciatic nerve pain, that sciatica, you want to get your
core nice and strong. that's what's going to help keep it safe and protect it. so
with the pelvic tilt, all you're doing is using those core muscles to tilt your
pelvis back. so as you can see here, you want that little curve that you have
here back to flatten out. but you're not pushing with your legs you're actually
using those core muscles to tilt back and hold it. so if you feel like you're
pushing on your legs, like if you can't kind of lift them up a little bit
because you're pushing so hard, you're not quite doing that tilt right. so you
just want to rotate it back and be able to breathe normally while you're doing
it. if you have to hold your breath you're not quite doing it right again. so
just tilt it back and hold it for about three to five seconds, and then come back
up. so just start off with about ten of these. you don't need to overdo it. you're
just kind of getting those muscles working. start getting those core muscles
activated about five seconds and then relax. so after you kind of get those
worked a little bit, then you're going to go into a bridge. so bridging then you're
starting to activate those glute muscles those hamstring muscles again to get
that area strong again. so with a bridge, imagine that you're kind of going up one
segment at a time with your spine and then slowly coming
back down. but make it a smooth movement. so you're kind of coming up. so you get
to a straight line here just about and then nice and slow coming back down.
really trying to do a smooth controlled motion. not going fast just using
momentum, but really coming up and then nice and slow coming back down. now with
bridging, you want instead of just trying to lift straight up by going one segment
at a time, it should help you're almost bringing those knees that
way and then coming back down. so really activating those gluts and those
hamstrings while you're doing it. A little pause at the top, and then nice and slow
coming back down. so same thing just start off with ten, then you can do two
sets of ten, and two sets of fifteen. if you get to 20-25 and that's pretty
easy, then you can kind of move on to something a little bit harder. so now the
next one is going to be a clamshell exercise. clam shells are a lot harder
than they look and sound, but it's really gonna again get those glutes firing, get
those muscles stronger to help protect that area in the core and the trunk. so
the key to a clam shell is you want to keep your hips perpendicular to the
floor or the bed, whatever you're lying on, but if you feel like once you start
to do the exercise you're rolling your hips back, you're not quite doing it
right. and if you need to lean back against the wall the first couple times
you do, it that's fine because if you're rolling back like this, you're not really
doing the right exercise to get the correct muscles activated. so your feet
stay together and then all you're gonna do is lift the top knee up. so it doesn't
have to be really high because again if you're rolling like that you're not
getting that exercise. so you're just coming up this way and then nice and
slow coming back down. so really that movement is in the hip and the glute
area. so nice and controlled. nice and slow. again just starting off
with ten, working your way up. If these
get super easy, you can put a band around your thigh, a resistive band, to make it
harder. or if you have an ankle cuff weight you can put it around the top. I
would recommend then flipping over and doing the other side as well just to
kind of keep things even for you. so then the next exercise is going to be a
bridge again but this time we're gonna do a squeeze with it. so if you happen to
have a basketball, a soccer ball, if you have a yoga block, just something kind of
solid and firm. if you have a foam roller, just something to be able to
squeeze in to. if you don't have anything like that you can just take a big pillow
and fold it up, but you want your knees to still kind of be at about hip width
apart. so if you have a smaller ball, that's probably not going to work
because then your knees are going to be kind of leaning in towards each other,
and you don't really want that. you want it to still be in a fairly neutral
position. so this time with the bridging you're going to add a movement where
you're squeezing into the ball. you want to hold that squeeze the whole time and
then come up into the bridge. so make sure you're squeezing all the way
through. a lot of times people will want, they'll squeeze, and then they'll let go
of the squeeze, and come up into the bridge, but make sure you're squeezing
into the ball the whole time. squeezing squeezing, squeezing, and then going all
the way through that movement before you let go. if you can keep the squeeze the
whole time and do it continuously, that's great, but if you have to reset each time
that's fine too. so again just starting off with ten and then working your way
up from there. so the last one is going to be rolling over onto our stomachs. so
with this exercise, again we're kind of activating the glute area because that
one's really important to keep our trunk and our spine nice and strong. so what
you want to do is bend your knee and have your foot facing up towards the
ceiling, and all you're going to do is just push up like you're taking your
foot towards the ceiling. now keep your hips on the floor or on
the bed wherever you're doing that exercise. try not to
lift everything up like that because then again you're not activating the
muscles you want to. so it doesn't have to be a big push up, but you're just
pushing up through that area activating all those muscles doing that heel lift
towards the ceiling. so again you don't have to do a whole lot. just start off
with ten, switch do the other side, ten on that side. If that's too much, you can just
do five on each side. so those are my top five sciatica exercises for a
herniated disk. if you'd like to help support my channel, click on the link
over here to find out how, and don't forget to subscribe by clicking down
there. and remember, be safe, have fun, and I hope you feel better soon.