Hi, I’m Dr. Steph, your chiropractor for sciatica in Sun Prairie, WI.
And today we’re gonna go over three exercises you can do at home to help relieve your sciatica, or your sciatic pain. So, before we talk about exercises, I just wanna make sure you know what sciatica is.
Sciatica Symptoms Sun Prairie, WI
So, a lot of times people come into our office with low back pain, not knowing that they have sciatica. So, one of the details that they’ll tell us, when we do our consultation, is that they’re having not only some low back pain, but they noticed that the pain travels or radiates into their butt, maybe down back the legs and hamstrings, sometimes even all the way down to the calf, into the foot.
That is sciatica.
Chiropractic Exercises for Sciatica Sun Prairie, WI
So, the muscle that I’m going to talk about for our first exercise is called the piriformis muscle. It’s just this tiny little muscle, kind of right in the center of your butt cheek. So, we’ll work on that right away.
The first stretch that I’ll have my model, Dr. Jonathan, do is actually a seated one.
So, you can do this if you’re on a conference call, can’t get away, but you know, you need to get your stretches in.
So, what I’ll have him do is, he’s going to take his left leg, bring his left ankle up, rest it on top of his right knee. He might feel a stretch just like this. If he doesn’t, I’ll encourage him to take his hand, just give a tiny little bit of push.
You don’t want to push too hard and, you know, over exert your knee joints, but just enough to feel a little stretch on the left side of his butt there.
So, that’s one option, seated. You can do the same thing standing as well. Just repeat that.
When you’re doing stretches in general, you want to hold them for 20 to 30 seconds or so.
One on each side. And then I would repeat that three times a day. So, three different sets throughout the day.
Another modification for that piriformis stretch is actually on your back.
So, I’ll have him lay down. And if you have a little bit more flexibility, you might want to try this.
Same concept, although he’s going to bring his right foot up, bent like that. He’s going to take his left leg again, ankle crossing right over this knee here. He could feel a stretch just like this.
If you want us to do a little bit extra, again, just a little bit of press right there to feel that stretch on the left side of his butt.
If he, again, is really flexible, what I will have him do now is loop his hands around his right thigh and then just give a little pull. And he’ll really feel that to his butt and then open up his hips as well.
Same thing, hold it 20 or 30 seconds. One on each side and repeat that three times. Okay. So, that’s exercise number one.
The second one that we’re going to do is called knee to chest. So, you can do this with
double knee, double… No, double knee, one chest. Or one knee at a time.
So, go ahead and we’ll have you do both at the same time. So, he’s gonna, perfect, just like this.
Bring his knees up to his chest and then hold his shins and just draw his knees right into his chest, breathing in and out throughout the stretch.
He’ll feel this in his low back, it’s a good kind of hip-opener exercise.
If he’s doing this and he notices, maybe he’s got one side that’s tighter than the other, then I’ll have him drop one of his knees.
So, why don’t you straighten that leg out and then just grab one and really try to just isolate that side. Just like the other stretches, 20, 30 seconds. Hold it one on each side, three times a day.
So, that’s a good alternative. And that’s kind of like a general low back exercise.
The third one, the last one that we’ll do today is for hamstrings. So, I’ll have you stand up. If you have a couch, are even a bed or like a coffee table you’re okay putting your foot on.
What you’ll do is you’ll bring your foot right up. He’s at an angle. What I would like you to do is
make sure that you’re square to the table. But he’s gonna put his toes up, heel right on there.
And then really, you probably have done this in high school or anytime you’re stretching your hamstrings, but you’re going to make sure that you’re just bringing your upper body over towards that foot. And if you want to, you can put your hands.
I care less about the hands as I do, making sure you’re actually using the upper body as a lever. And he’ll feel a nice hamstring stretch there. Same thing as before; 20, 30 seconds, hold.
And then he’ll do the other side. I’m impressed with how flexible he is actually. I didn’t know his
capabilities until just now.
All right, so there you have it, three simple exercises to help with your sciatica pain.
If you have any questions, let us know. We are looking forward to meeting you and seeing you soon.
Thanks.
