Sciatica In Seniors: How to Get Relief (& Mistakes to Avoid)

If you are over 70 and have been suffering from

sciatica

in today's video I will show you how to help with the problem and why my advice is probably different from any of the other videos you have seen online. you don't know who I am, my name is will harow and I am the specialist physio for over 50s here at HT physio INF farum and today I will show older people how to fix

sciatica

. Now the reason why my advice today is to be different from the other videos you may have seen online is because the way we treat sciatica is different depending on the age of the person and I will explain that more in a minute, So if you've been looking for exercises for sciatica, I doubt you've come up with terms like bulging disc or bulging disc or herniated disc or spinal stenosis or piriformis syndrome;

You would have seen all of these things on your travels looking for the right exercises and depending on the age of the person, the likelihood of one of these problems being the cause changes dramatically, so for example people who suffer from sciatica may be almost any age and we see a lot of sciatica in the 30 to 50 age range and most often in people who are in their 20s and 30s. Between 30 and 50 years old suffer from sciatica due to a bulging or herniated disc which probably accounts for around 90% of cases within that age group. Now, the reason why people in that age group tend to suffer with bulging or herniated discs is because they are still young, they have a lot of water inside their discs, so the discs are tall and plump, and when suffer a disc injury, the internal material of the disc can come out quite far because it is well hydrated, so there is a lot of material. there to leave where it should be and that tends to aggravate the nerve now, which happens as we age, usually around age 60 to 70, the discs in our spine dry out dramatically, so they lose their weight of water and become thinner.

We call this degenerative discs, but it's not always as bad as it seems, sometimes it's just the natural aging process and people end up with a little bit of stiffness around these parts of the disc and there's not as much water, so the lump that occurs may not be as bad, so people over 70 tend not to have the same type of sciatica as people who are between 30 and 50 years old. Now this is not always the case, sometimes people still have well-hydrated discs into their 70s. but most of the time this is what happens, which means that if you try to do exercises designed for someone with a bulging disc or a herniated disc who has a well-hydrated disc, you will make the problem worse or simply not help their problems at all. symptoms, so people over 70, instead of having bulging and herniated discs causing the problem, their problem tends to be more due to degenerative discs, so a degenerative disc basically means that this area here becomes more thin, which means there are spaces. between the nerves become smaller and that can cause a nerve to become pinched more easily.

The other thing that affects people over 70 is arthritis of the spine. These are our facet joints, they are the joints that attach to the vertebrae that they have. The cartilage between them as we age we lose some of that cartilage. The joint becomes stiffer, it doesn't move as well and that can again lead to the nerves becoming trapped and then if that gets to a certain point we call it spinal stenosis and that's a completely different condition, that's when the person feels that you have to lean forward to open up those spaces inside the spine so the nerves can almost breathe a little easier.

Now the way we treat spinal stenosis and degenerative diseases is very different than how we would treat a bulging or herniated disc in someone much younger, so in this video I will show you some exercises that are better for older people with sciatica and for what you should

avoid

some of the exercises you will see for people with sciatica. bulging or herniated discs, so let's look at the exercises in a moment before I show you what they are. I just want to say that about 88% of the people who watch these videos haven't subscribed to the channel yet, so if so, please scroll down. hit the subscribe button and then you'll be the first to know about our new videos when they come out anyway, with that being said, let's take a look at some of the exercises that will be best for

seniors

with sciatica, so now I'm going to show you Some exercises that are great for sciatica for people 70 and older.

Now these exercises are not suitable for everyone, so make sure you get checked first and if they cause you any pain,

avoid

them because they are really good. It's because they don't aggravate problems like spinal stenosis or arthritis and even if you have degenerative discs they can help loosen things up and improve irritation, so the first exercises that I'm going to show you you can do. doing it from lying down and doing it in your bed is totally fine, you don't need a firm surface like mine, so what we're trying to do with these exercises is really twofold: we're trying to loosen the area around the spine, which is where sciatica originates and we're trying to get nice, healthy blood flow to any of the structures that may need it in the lower back.

It's that simple, so the first thing we're going to do is something called knee twists and This is a very nice exercise, especially for people with stenosis who prefer to be in this type of flexible position. It works really well, so you'll align your back with your knees bent like this, your head and shoulders will relax and everything. What we're going to do with both knees is turn them to one side so that both knees travel together, your feet stay where they are and then you'll go the other way like this, so you'll notice it when you see me.

By doing this I'm not really holding the movement, there isn't a huge benefit to holding it in one position, the main benefit in my opinion is through movement, so every time you move like this you get some effective lubrication on the bottom. back, which just helps things relax, so when people do this, what I recommend is that you can do it whenever you want, it doesn't really cause problems for most people as long as it's painless. I would do 15 in each direction, so 30 in total and try to do it several times a day to loosen the area that is stiff and sore, so once you have done the knee twists, you can move directly to another type of exercise of flexion and I call this unilateral or simple knee hug.

Leg and knee hug, so again in the same position, now we are going to lift one leg. You can start with the leg that hurts. You can hold it above the top of your knee like this or below your thigh, depending on what is easier for you. to go here and then, your job now is to simply pull that knee towards your chest, allowing your pelvis to rotate underneath you, okay, what this does is pull you into a gentle flex of the wood and again we're not holding . If we don't lift it up for pain, we just go up as far as our hips will allow and then back away, you might get a little stiff and then come back down like that, so this is a lovely exercise just to loosen things up. after you've done one side again, 15 reps is good, you can switch and do the other and if this loosens you up that's great, but if you feel like you're not getting enough of this you can progress.

To do it with both legs, for this one you can hold under the thighs and pull both at the same time. Remember that we are trying to keep the head and shoulders relaxed so they don't come off the pillow, but what we need to find is the pelvis. roll under Neath and you feel your lower back move slightly as a result, this is a really good exercise just to get that bend back in your spine, so these are really good exercises for

seniors

with sciatica, they help you relax, but the other thing I want to do is develop some strength, so one of the key areas to develop strength is the glutes, so I'm going to show you an exercise that's also good for older people.

You can do it lying on your side and what I would do is I would get as close as you can to your side with one hand there just to hold you up again, we're going to keep our feet together and all we're going to do is lift the top knee without going back. not at all to make it Actually, it's a pretty small movement for most people and when we do it correctly after a few repetitions we should start to feel this area, the top of the hip starts to activate and it starts to hurt again.

Don't do this exercise if it hurts. but if you feel pain free it can really relieve Sasa symptoms and back pain too when done over time, when you have had saska for a while your leg muscles become weaker, the muscles around your core and his back do the same. Well, and the hip, this area here is really important to support those areas, so if we can strengthen those areas, then it will help the injury heal and it will help the symptoms reduce, so I would go right to the point of fatigue. and then twist to the other side, that's a great way to start building some strength.

Let's take a look at one more exercise that will help sciatica in seniors. Then the final exercise that I'm going to show you that is great for older people with sciatica is Chair Bend and I love this exercise for people with spinal stenosis that is causing their symptoms or if you have arthritis, this can be pretty good and even with degenerative discs is good, so it would not be good for young people. who have sciatica if they have a large bulge on the disc this could make things worse if you are older this exercise tends to be better so what you are going to do is start sitting in a nice firm chair, the dining room chair works great Feet flat on the floor and you'll have two hands on the top of your knees like this and all we're going to do is start gently from the top of your spine and start rolling forward running your hands along the inside of your legs. trying to stand up now it doesn't matter if you can't go as far as I can, you might be able to go further, you might be able to go all the way to the ground, but what we're looking for here is a little bit of a stretch at the bottom. of the back, we'll hold it for a couple of seconds and then we'll slowly get back up and just get to a straight position, so the job of this exercise is to open up those spaces in the lower back where the nerves live and basically just give them a little bit more room to slide and slide in, so I'm going to show you again, so we're going to go like this slowly, slowly, slowly, we're using our hands. and our arms almost break to slow down the downward movement, so as much as you can, you can breathe deeply at the bottom and on the exhale you get a little bit more and then you go back up.

We don't have to hold that for long, it can be two or three seconds, that's fine and again, we don't have to do too many of these, we can do two or three in a row, maybe even five a few times a day and For many older people, This is a great exercise to relieve sciatica. Again, avoid it if it causes pain, but if it improves your symptoms, it might be a good exercise for you. This is how to solve sciatica in older people. I hope this was a useful video for you. Please leave a comment below, like the video and subscribe to the channel and then if you want more from me you can get a copy of my book, it's called thriving Beyond 50 and it has a lot of tips on sciaa inside .

So if you scroll down, you can get it on Amazon using the link below anyway. Thanks so much for looking. I really appreciate your time and look forward to speaking with you next.