Hey everybody it's Doctor Jo, and today
I'm going to show you some stretches and
exercises for sciatic pain. So let's get
started. You guys ready? Yeah!
So the space kitty scared off
pups, and we'll start off lying down on
the ground.
The first exercise is just going to be
the pelvic tilt, so propping your knees
up. With the pelvic tilt you want to
actually rotate your hips almost like
you're trying to flatten out your back
on the ground. So just going this way.
Almost like you're pushing your belly
button down to the ground and flattening
it out. So if i had my hand here I try to
be squishing it like that. Tightening up
those core muscles. So just a pelvic tilt
flatten it out to the ground, hold it for
about three to five seconds,
relax, and do 10 of those. And you should
really be tightening up those muscles. I
call it almost like you're fake laughing
"hahaha," it tightens up those core muscles.
So holding it there, three seconds do
about ten. tThen you're going to go up
into a bridge, so lifting the bottom up
off the ground and trying to get your
body in a pretty straight line. So coming
up here, pretty straight doesn't have to
be super straight, but you don't want to
try and go past it. And then slowly come
down one segment at a time. So you're not
just plopping back down,
it's a really controlled coming back
down. So again doing about 10 of those as
well,
nice and slow. Then you're going to go
into a piriformis stretch to stretch
out that piriformis muscle down here,
which is where the sciatic nerve goes
underneath that muscle and sometimes
when it's really tight it pushes on that
sciatic nerve. So the next one is just a
figure 4 stretch. Take the leg that you
want to stretch and cross it over where
your ankle is just on top of your thigh.
Then take your hands and grab the other
leg and pull up towards you, holding a
stretch. And you should feel that stretch
right through there.
Now sometimes people might not be quite
flexible enough to grab right here, so if
you have a belt or strap, you can wrap it
around your leg and then pull it up as
well. And so you're going to hold that
stretch for 30 seconds and do it three
times. And make sure you do both sides
even if the other side is not really
bothering you, if you have some back
issues going on, you want to keep each
side pretty equal to each other so make
sure you're stretching both sides. So 30
seconds, three times and you can
alternate back and forth to give each
one a break. Then you're going to go into
a sciatic kind of stretch / glide, some
people will call it that you're just
stretching the nerve. Some people say
that you're gliding, it it doesn't matter
what you call it, it's the same movement. So
now grab underneath the leg that you
want to stretch, pull your toes up
towards you, tighten it up and you're
just going to raise your leg until it
gets tight and then slowly come back
down. So this is going to be a continuous
movement. So see I'm stretching out that
nerve and coming back down, or some
people might say it's gliding a little
bit. You want to go til you feel some
discomfort, but you don't want it to be
pain. You don't want it to be shooting
stabbing pain because if you're
stretching that nerve, those nerves are
pretty fragile vessels, so you don't want
to over stretch them, or you're just
going to irritate them a little bit more.
So just do about 10 of those and then
that's it. And then i'm going to show you
some stuff sitting down in a chair. The
next one is neural flossing of the
sciatic nerve, so again this one you're
really kind of trying to move that
sciatic nerve, so you don't want to over
stretch it. You don't want to be to
where it's pain, you just want it to be
kind of flossing back and forth. So what
you're going to do, is you're going to
extend your head back and kick out at
the same time, and then flex your head
forward and bring your knee back down. So
it's going to be a kick-out, look up and
forward back in. Up. Forward. So you're just
kind of taking that nerve and flossing
it back and forth. It doesn't have to be a
super fast
movement, just nice and controlled and
again not to the point of pain. You might
feel a little bit stretch, you might feel
a little bit of tingling if it's really
irritated, but you don't want to be pain.
So just do about 10 of those. Now the
last exercise is one where you don't
want to do a lot again, but you want to
make sure you're doing it right. So
you're going to take a stool, something
that you can prop the side that you
want to work up on the side, so just prop
it up. Now the key to this is to make
sure that your leg doesn't roll in
because if you have a sciatic nerve
issue, when you're doing the exercise, if
you roll your leg in, you're taking the
slack off of that nerve, so then you're
not actually really getting the movement
that you want to. Try and keep your leg
straight forward and try and keep your
neck in a neutral position without going
back or without going forward because again,
it's all connected so that affects the
sciatic nerve as well. So keep your upper
body nice and upright, like pretty
straightforward, arms down by the side,
and then you're going to side bend or
lean to the opposite side of your leg,
but again try not to make your head or
neck going in a different position. Not your
leg and different position. So just kind
of going over this way. Now this is one
that you really want to make sure that
you're doing that good technique where
you want to make sure your physical
therapist sees it first, and even when
you do at home you might want to do it
in front of a mirror the first time
to make sure you're doing that movement
correctly. I'm gonna do the other side so
you can see it. So leg straight out, foot
forward, head up, and just side bend to
the other side, so opposite side. You
don't have to go very far because again
if that nerve's irritated or pinched
somewhere, you're going to feel it
maybe even just propping your leg up, so
just start off with about 10 of those,
and then that's it for the day. So there
you have it, those were your stretches
and exercises for sciatic pain. If you have
any questions, leave them in the comments
section. If you'd like to check out some other videos,
go to askdoctorjo.com.
And remember be safe, dont let Remy bite your fingers
off,
have fun, and I hope you feel better soon.