By Dr. Emil Tompkins, Tucson Chiropractor with a passion for family health and wellness.
We’re going to show you three exercises that help with sciatic pain. Sciatic pain is a pretty big deal and it has to do with the nerves that travel out of the lower part of the back, between L1 and L4. It they get pinched in any way, they can start putting pressure on the nerves that travel down your leg. So the way to take care of that is by addressing the various causes of the pressure on those nerves. So we’re gonna talk about some exercises that you can do to help with that.
Mckenzie Extension
One of the first exercises we’re going to do, we’re going to do because the disks in the lower part of the spine between L1 and L4 can compress those nerve roots, that put pressure on the sciatic nerve. Those disks generally open up this way and so if we close that space, in between the vertebra that will actually push those disks slightly out of the way, relieving pressure off of that sciatic nerve, helping you to do better. Mckenzie Extension exercises will relieve the pressure from your sciatic nerve. I’m going to show you one real simple one, you just lie face down. You’re lying face down on the floor and the goal with this exrcise is really just to push up, that creates some extension in the lower back, and it should take some pressure off of those nerve roots.
Hip Flexors
Now, if the problem is that kind of compression then when you do that exrcise you actually will feel some relief but if for some reason it bothers you, then your issue is coming from somewhere else and so you don’t want to do that particular exrcise. One of the other reasons why you have sciatic pain is because the pelvis is shifting out of position and you have muscles that connect the lower back into the pelvis, they’re called your hip flexors or your psoas muscle or your iliopsoas, there are a number of different terms for the way those muscles connect into the pelvis, and there are a lot of ways you can stretch it, but here’s an easy one.
Stand and stretch as if you were stretching your quadriceps here. You’ll bring the leg behind you and you’ll stand in this position, so that’s stretching the front of the leg, but to really get the hip flexors, what you have to do is push your hips forward. When you push your hips forward your going to get the hip flexor a little bit better and it’s really important to actually stretch those hip flexors because that will help your spine to remain in the right position, so very important to stretch those hip flexors.
Piriformis
We’ve done McKenzie extension exrcises, we’ve stretched the hip flexors and the next exercise we’re going to do is a piriformis stretch. The reason why we do that, the piriformis, a muscle in your rear that connects your hip into the pelvis, when that piriformis muscle gets really tight for people that sit a lot or do a lot of driving, it puts pressure on that sciatic nerve and again, lots of pian down the legs.
To stretch that piriformis muscle you can do it in a couple of ways, an easy way to do it is sitting and all you have to do is cross your leg and then you lean forward. As you lean forward, you’ll start feeling it stretch that piriformis muscle on the side that you’ve crossed. Other people, and actually for that exercise you lean forward, you’ll hold that position for about 10 seconds and you’ll repeat that 10 times.
Another way you can do it is you can lie on your back and when you lie on your back, you cross that leg over, and then you pull the legs toward you. Same thing, it’s going to catch that piriformis muscle, give it a good stretch and have you on your way to feeling better. One thing we’re committed to her at Tompkins Family Chiropractic is making sure that not only are we coming up with ways to get your body feeling better, but also to help keep it that way.
How we can help
Along with your adjustments to get the spine and the pelvis in the right position, we’re going to teach you very specific exercises, kind of like these or others depending on what you need to help strengthen the muscles to completely stabilize your spine. I hope you never have to deal with this, but if you do here are a couple of things that can help. Click below for our special offer that we have here at our office at the end of the year and for the new year for anyone that’s interested. Hope you guys have a great day, and we’ll see you soon.
Tompkins Family Chiropractic Marana and Northwest Tucson, Call 520.572.2596 http://www.tompkinschiropractic.com From back pain to sciatica, neck pain to headaches, ADHD to Autism, Dr. Tompkins creates an individualized health program to suit your specific needs. Come see why we were voted Best in the Northwest 3 years in a row. Whether you have pain with pregnancy, headaches, sports injuries or ADHD, migraines, or just want to be healthier, Dr. Tompkins has a program that will work for you and your family. Call us at 520.572.2596 and we’ll be happy to help your family grow healthier.
