Hey y'all, it's Doctor Jo and my assistant with me today is Bailey again. And today I'm
going to be talking about your piriformis. So lots of times I hear people say they've
got that sciatic nerve, well actually everybody has a sciatic nerve, but you can have pain
coming from that nerve, and a lot of times that piriformis muscle is causing the pain.
So we're gonna show you some stretches to stretch out your piriformis and hopefully
get rid of that sciatic nerve pain. Alright let's go on to our backs. Here we go. I think
we're gonna maybe move Bailey out of the way. In the first stretch for your piriformis is
a pretty simple one. A lot of pictures you may get from your therapist will actually
show one leg down, I actually like for you to have it staying up so you can prop your
foot over it. So your gonna make almost like a figure 4 with your legs and then what you're
gonna do, the side that's hurting, so my left side is hurting, I'm gonna cross that leg
over. And what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna bring my knee with my opposite hand towards my shoulder
over here. So I'm pulling this leg up and across my body. And what you wanna do same kind of
thing with all the stretches, you wanna pull and you wanna feel a stretch under there.
Soon as you feel a really good stretch you wanna hold it for 30 seconds. So remember
up and across the body. Just coming up is not gonna get that piriformis stretch. But
coming up and across the body like I'm trying to bring that knee towards my shoulder. Holding
it there for about 30 seconds--a real 30 seconds. And then coming back down and you wanna do
that 3 times. Now the next one to do, sometimes this is a little harder for people, but what
your gonna do is your gonna keep that same figure 4, and what your gonna do is your gonna
take your hands and on the opposite side that it's hurting, so the hurting side is still
up crossed over it's still my left side. I'm gonna take my hands and put them underneath
my thigh, and I'm gonna bring my leg up, and I'm gonna pull until I feel that stretch underneath
there. Now some people might have a hard time grabbing on to their leg here, so again you
can use your belt, or your dog leash and put it under, around your leg, and pull up towards
you like this. Same kind of thing, you want to hold that stretch for 30 seconds--bye Bailey,
we'll see you later --and then 3 times each. Alright, so now you're gonna bring that down
getting it nice and stretched. For those of you that need a stronger stretch, those might
not be stretching it out quite as much, what I'm gonna have you do is I'm gonna have you
turn over. And what your gonna do is the side that's hurt again, my left side, I'm gonna
bring my leg up across. Now as you can see, this is something you have to be pretty high
level, pretty flexible to do, but it's gonna get a fantastic stretch. So your gonna put
your knee over across your body, and bring your body down. So it's almost that same concept,
you're bringing that knee towards the opposite shoulder, but what you're doing now, is you're
using your body weight to bring it down. You can stretch that back leg as far as you can.
You can bring your arms down, but that knee is essentially going towards that opposite
shoulder. 30 second stretch, 3 times each. Alright and there you have it. Those were
your piriformis stretches. So if you had some pressure on that sciatic nerve, hopefully
that will loosen it up a little bit. So if you like my hair, or if you like the stretches,
please click "like" and leave me a comment. And if you'd like to see some more stretch
videos, or if you'd like to go see some educational videos, please go to AskDoctorJo.com. And
remember, Be Safe. Have Fun. And I hope you get to feeling better y'all!