Sciatica Pain Relief, Prevention, Causes and Yoga Poses
For anyone that has suffered Sciatica pain, it’s a nasty experience. It’s caused when the sciatic nerve or smaller nerve roots are compressed and the pain can be anything from a mild ache to a severe debilitating intensity It can stop us from doing the most basic things like walking, sitting and bending, things we take for granted.
Firstly, it’s not something you need to put up with and there so many ways to prevent it too. Today I’m going to discuss some ways to prevent, heal and understand what it is and how it caused. The sciatic nerve is the longest nerve in the body. It’s made up of five nerve roots, two that start at lower part of spine and three that start at the sacrum. The nerve travels from the lower back, through your buttocks, down your legs and all way the way to the toes.
The brain connects with the muscles in the lower body through the sciatic nerve, controlling muscle, movement and feeling in your lower body.
The compression is caused when the discs in the vertebra bulge, herniate or burst (sequestrate). This puts direct pressure on the nerves around the spinal cord. Tight muscles through the hips and/or glutes can also irritate and put pressure on the sciatic nerve too.
Symptoms include:
- Sharp, shooting pain in the leg
- Numbness or pins and needles down the leg and foot
- Hot and cold sensation with muscle weakness
- Weakness when moving the leg or foot
- Burning or prickling sensations
- Inability to lift toes or ankle up
- Difficulty raising the heels off the ground
Sciatica pain prevention
Keeping the spine and hips functioning and mobile, along with postural corrective movements to remove tightness and imbalances in the spine.
Naturally, we recommend a few Yoga poses for both prevention and have a few distinct postures that help prevent, align and decrease the pain.
For prevention we recommend the following sciatica stretches:
- Tree Pose (Vriksasana)
- ½ lord of the fish (Ardha Matsyendrasana)
- Bound angle pose (Baddha Konasana)
- Cow face pose (Gomukhasana)
- Staff Pose (Dandasana)
- Cobra/Baby Cobra (Bhujangasana)
- Mountain Pose (Tadasana Samasthithi)
Sciatica relief
- Reclining leg, foot and toe stretch (Supta Padangusthasana)
- Seated wide angle pose (Upavista Konasana)
- Half Moon – use the wall and a block (Ardha Chandrasana)
- Intense side stretch – use the wall and a block (Utthita Parsvakonasana)
Non- surgical Sciatica treatment
Sciatica pain is most likely from a functional problem in your spine and if the pain is not diminishing with the relieving postures, often this means the spine and/or the sacroiliac is out of alignment. This leads to compression on the vertebrae.
Spinal manipulation and mobilization from a trusted mobilization expert is best delivered from a chiropractor. If you live in the Milton area of Brisbane we trust and recommend the team at Chiropractix.
Once your sciatica has completely settled, we recommend a consistent yoga practice that involves both deep fascia release and strength conditioning. Numbing the pain with pills will help short term, but of course it’s never going to get to the root cause of the problem and will continue to show up in your life.
We recommend a 14 day intro pass with a personalized 1-1 yoga session with one of our yoga teachers experts.
Namaste!
Chris Williams
Founder and Yoga Teacher
PS. If you like you can try yoga in the comforts of your own home with your own one-on-one video session with Chris. The sequence Bodhi 21 has been designed for people who sit at a desk in stressful conditions for long periods: https://bodhiyogastudio.com.au/bodhi-21