hi I'm Coby, I'm an osteopath and I would like to try and help you discover if we
can help to ease your sciatica a little bit with some very basic simple
exercises so you've got sciatica and you would like to try some exercises to help
you relieve that pain the first thing the very first thing that you need to
understand is that sciatica is not a diagnosis. it's a symptom.
it basically means pain down the sciatic nerve. you need to find out what is
causing that pain. that's what we call a diagnosis. what is pressing on that
sciatic nerve causing it to hurt? is it arthritis? do you have a bony spur
irritating that nerve? do you have a disc bulge hitting the nerve? or do you have
one of the more common causes which is piriformis syndrome which is where in 5%
of the population the sciatic nerve actually passes right through the middle
of this tiny little muscle called the piriformis muscle which sits in the
middle of the buttock that can cause excruciating amount of pain or sometimes
just and this is the two conditions that I can help you with now sometimes just
having really tight gluteal muscles can just irritate the sciatic nerve so
piriformis syndrome and very tight gluteal muscles are the two conditions
that I am going to address now because they are the ones that will respond very
very quickly to these exercises if you have other causes of sciatica you need
to take other courses of action and there will be exercises that will help
you but they will be different and very specific to your condition so first of
all please don't do these exercises until you have an absolute diagnosis
from an osteopath or a physio or a GP for your sciatica so the exercises that
I'm going to teach you in this video are basically going to stretch out the
gluteal muscles (Maximus and Medius) and the piriformis muscle so that's my
entire goal for these exercises and that should
give you some really great fast pain relief okay so let's start off in
this position on your knees if you can and then just reach forward if you can
bring your weight over your wrists and I'd like you to just bring that right knee
forward between your hands and shuffle that back leg back slightly now you can
bring if possible just bring that right foot in and drop over to sit on that
right hip that's fantastic so in this position you're getting a lovely stretch
to the piriformis muscle through the gluteal muscle and also through the
hamstring a little bit if you want to increase the stretch you can just come
forward onto your elbows here and just rest there and that's great just really
enjoy that stretch rest your chest on your thigh well done if you can't if you
can't rock on to your hip like this you can just stay here with your heel under
your thigh and just rock forward there even that is a very strong stretch and
it will get very good results for you when you're done with that just bring
your hands under your shoulders and carry the whole of your weight with your
arms and hands and then just bring that right knee back to meet the
left dropping back into a child's posture that's lovely
just relax deep breath in deep breath out just relax okay bring the weight
forward again over the wrists and we're just gonna do that to the opposite
direction so just bring that left knee forward if you can only manage this keep
the heel where it is under the thigh otherwise just drop the foot to the
right slightly and drop your weight over to that left hip that's great and
you can just rock around there releasing the glute muscles and the
piriformis muscles if you want to extend it again just come forward onto your
forearms onto your elbows and just rest there just rest there for a few breaths
as long as it's comfortable
if you know that your diagnosis is definitely piriformis syndrome or tight
gluteal muscles then don't be scared of any pain that you might experience while
you're doing this movement because it's just the muscles complaining a little
bit and starting to release but they really really need to move and they need
to lengthen okay bring your hands onto the floor and gently walk yourself up to
a sitting position and bring that knee back to meet the right knee as you drop
the hips back onto the heels rest the head on to the floor take a couple of
deep breaths as you continue just to relax the whole body and when you're
ready just taking your weight through your hands bring yourself back up to a
seated position. this next exercise is a very commonly known
exercise but hopefully because it's coming from me as an osteopath to you
with a diagnosis of piriformis syndrome you will trust it and feel safe enough
to do this exercise it's fantastic for stretching out the piriformis muscle
so starting lying on your back keep your weight evenly distributed on your pelvis
just raise that left foot from the floor place that ankle on the right knee pass
your hands underneath that left leg and take hold of the right thigh and just
draw that right knee towards you... aaah... I can hear you screaming already yes this
is a very very sore exercise but very very effective and well worth doing so
just gently continue to breathe naturally and gently with ease and calm
you may find that a few deep breaths will help you so deep breath in and as
you exhale just gently draw that right knee towards your chest
that's lovely. you'll feel the pain down the back of the leg here of this bent
leg and down into the gluteal and into the piriformis that's fantastic okay
when you're ready just release those legs and switch them over so take hold
of that left thigh underneath the right leg and draw that left knee towards your
chest no need to overdo this just do it gently with within your own limits if
you want to increase the neural stretch you can just raise your head a little
bit towards your knee as well. that will increase the stretch through the spinal
cord and the sciatic nerve. that might be a bit too strong for your neck so really
to get into piriformis just this position is very strong in itself and
will be very good at releasing when you're ready just release those feet
back to the floor just release one leg flat onto the floor keep the opposite
leg bent I'm going to keep my right leg bent and then take hold of that right
knee and I want you to draw that right knee up towards the left shoulder so you
just draw it up there you're gonna get right down into the glute and the
piriformis here so you just hold that as long as you can again inhale and on the
exhalation you draw that knee down towards the shoulder. try to keep the
whole of your upper back relaxed. keep your legs relaxed and your low
back relaxed it's very easy when you're doing an exercise like this and you're
in a lot of pain to lock up and tighten the whole body and you don't even
realize that you're doing it but it can greatly inhibit the stretch effect that
we're trying to have through that one little muscle so just try to make sure
that with each exhalation you really become aware of your whole body and just
relax your whole body okay and just release there just switch those legs
over to take hold of that left knee and draw that left knee up towards the right
shoulder that's on the exhalation
be kind to your body, work with it, understand that it's taken many years to
get your piriformis and your gluteals this tight. it will take time for them to
release. it won't happen overnight but it will happen if you practice these
exercises regularly. and release that leg back down to the floor. so these
exercises are very targeted to the piriformis muscle and to the gluteals and
will therefore be very effective at releasing sciatica that is as a result
of tension through those muscles if you find that these exercises don't relieve
your pain even a little bit then I recommend that you go and see a manual
therapist and you get a proper diagnosis and make sure that you really do know
what you're dealing with