Sciatica Pain Relief - How I Fixed YEARS of Sciatica Pain | David O Yoga

Sciatic

pain

is one of the worst types of chronic

pain

that I think I have ever had to deal with on a recurring basis. I used to have a lot of sciatic pain for

years

and

years

on and off and when it came up I remember feeling helpless like there. There was nothing I could do, there was no position I could put myself in that would help me figure out what there are things you can do to find

relief

. I have made other videos on this topic because I think it is very important and in this video I show it.

You the stretches and exercises that have personally helped me overcome my own sciatic pain and I am excited to share them with you. I think it's very important to understand what the sciatic nerve is and where it is, what sciatic pain feels like, and if I'm watching this video, I probably don't have to explain much and what are some of the common causes of sciatic pain and this is really important because what is causing it will determine what type of stretching and exercise is most effective in relieving it. So the sciatic nerve is actually three nerves that run through the spine and are grouped at the base of the spine.

They come through the pelvis and pass under a muscle called the piriformis. Now this is very important. Let's get back to that. the piriformis is up the buttock after the sciatic nerve passes under the piriformis and runs to the back of the leg, what does sciatic pain feel like? I'm sure you know that it feels like pain originating in the lower back or hips or butt that radiates down one or both legs, what are some common causes? Now this is really important. Two of the most common causes are a bulging disc or something called piriformis syndrome.

Remember that muscle I talked about, so I'm. I'm going to explain both and the exercises and stretches I'll show you today are most effective when one or both are the problem causing your sciatic pain. Now there are other things that can also cause sciatic pain and if you have never had your problem examined by a medical professional, it's probably a good idea because that will determine what exercise and stretching is most appropriate, so let's talk about bulging discs as the cause first. of sciatic pain. Now, with bulging discs there is a suitable spectrum. On one side of the spectrum there is a chronic situation where over time, due to poor posture, due to slouching due to sitting at a desk all day, you have compressed or pinched the front of the disc and the back of the disk has weakened. and it bulged pressing on some of the nerves that run up the spine and if those are the sciatic nerves that bunch up and run down the leg, guess where you're going to feel the pain even though the problem is up here in one. of the discs now on the other end of that spectrum is an acute injury situation where I've bent over maybe to lift something that's too heavy and now I've ruptured or herniated a disc and that's an acute injury situation, Look friends, if that's it, you need to see a doctor.

I'm addressing chronic issues, so just use common sense. Okay, first I will show you some of the remedies for sciatic pain due to a bulging disc and guess what if the problem was caused? When slouching for long periods of time, what do you think is the solution? Ah, backbends, gentle backbends, three of my favorites here and I think you'll find a lot of

relief

here. Okay, if your sciatic pain is due to a bulging disc, then. Here are three variations of a gentle backbend that should give you some relief. Now each of them increases in intensity, so choose the one that is most appropriate for you and I will show you the gentlest one first.

It's called sphinx posture. You reach into your belly, push down with your pubic bone and gently push down through the tops of your feet, stacking your elbows under your shoulders. Now, with all these people, it's very important that you reach out and open, we're not just pushing back and pinching. the lower back is what will actually make the problem worse. What we want to do is grab the mat, push down through your elbows, forearms and fingertips and then pull towards you as if you were gripping the mat, pulling the entire mat towards you. By pushing your heart forward as you do this, you will feel more space, you will feel decompression in the spine, you will feel the heart move forward, the shoulders move back and then it is a push back, but with that moment you have more room in the vertebrae to accept that doing this takes about three breaths here and then after your three breaths you go down, rest for a moment and come back and grab the mat again, pull your heart out or pull the mat towards you. push your heart forward, draw your shoulders back and push back gently, doing this reverses all that slouching when sitting and moves the disc material back in the middle of the vertebrae over time, which is where you want it.

Do three to five of these three. breathe each one and yes, that's version number one, version number two, increasing the intensity just a little bit is the cobra pose, so now we slide our hands back, where the palms of the hands, the palms of The hands are close to the lower ribs, keeping the elbows close. to the sides, push into the mat and again we're going to grab the mat and pull the mat towards you, push the heart forward, pull the shoulders back to open the upper back and then we can go up a little bit higher here a bit. rather a backbend, which is more effective but more intense, so if this is too painful for you, go back to the first version, go down three breaths, take a moment and then come back and do another three breaths, from three to five of these actually. open your upper back here by pulling your hands towards you pushing your heart forward okay the next one is from king cobra or seal pose so from here again you will start straightening your arms but keep pulling the mat towards you.

Pushing the heart forward, pulling the shoulders back now, even with the arms stretched out here, I can still pull the mat towards me, pull the shoulders back and open the heart, so again, if this is available to you, It really is great and effective if it's too much. Go back to one of the others and the same thing here uh three breaths for three to five reps and then when you're done, come down, rest a little bit, bend your knees, wash your feet back and forth to give your lower back a sweet relief here. If a bulging disc is your sciatic pain problem, then I really feel like these will help you over time.

Do this every day. Listen to your body. This is the most important. You never want to exceed the pain threshold. Some of these are going to work. feel uncomfortable, especially if you are in the middle of a lot of sciatic pain right now, take it easy, take it easy, listen to your body and over time you will find some relief. And what if your sciatic pain is not due? to a bulging disc, but it is due to something called piriformis syndrome, what is piriformis syndrome? Well, remember that muscle I told you about, the piriformis, which runs from the sacrum around the outside of the hip to the top of the femur bone. the sciatic nerve runs right underneath that and when the piriformis gets tight and aggravated and weak, it puts pressure on that sciatic nerve and causes you all kinds of misery, so what causes piriformis syndrome?

You're not going to like this, it's a lot of sitting that causes the piriformis to contract a lot, become tight and weak and in turn puts pressure on the sciatic nerve, so if you sit a lot at a desk in front of a computer in a car, which describes almost everyone, then you are prone. to piriformis syndrome, which is why it is so common, so the remedy for sciatic pain from piriformis syndrome is threefold: one is specific self-massage on the pressure point using a foam roller and a tennis ball, Secondly, you want to stretch that piriformis and I have some stretches to show you and thirdly, you want to strengthen the piriformis, so all three things go together.

Strengthening is really important because that relieves tension, makes the muscle stronger and less likely to contract and tighten when we sit. I'm going to sit well so the stronger your piriformis is the more resistant it will become to this syndrome when we said okay first foam roller so the foam roller is a little bit less intense than the tennis ball obviously. The tennis ball is small, so it really goes in. there and go deeper there, first I'll show you the foam roller, a note on self-massage. If you're suffering from really painful sciatic pain right now, then self-massage may be too intense because think about it if your piriformis is already tight and you're putting good pressure on the sciatic nerve to be able to get the knots out and release the tension from that piriformis, let's get in there and press even harder, which will put pressure on your sciatic nerve so you can feel this. uh, increase the symptoms a little bit, now you need to listen to your body, if it's too much, skip this part and go straight to stretching, go straight to strengthening and then after the pain reduces to an acceptable level you can go back to self-massage, okay, listen to your body, it's very important, okay, so a foam roller, now you can get a foam roller pretty much anywhere you want it to be firm, not soft, something that will support your body weight with just a little flexibility.

Okay, now assuming the problem is on your right side, let's lie down on the foam roller and I like to start with the right leg straight and the left leg bent and go down to the right elbow. Roll around there, find those trigger points, find those knots, find the sensation and then once I find it, I can just close my eyes, roll from side to side, really get in there and then let the weight of the body and the pressure point do their job. Work over time, you'll feel a little release again if it's too intense, skip this whole self-massage idea for now and get to the stretching.

Do this for a couple of minutes every once in a while if you can and you're really moving. I'll have to look for the right points, so roll from side to side, roll back and forth and find those feel points. If you can, you can increase the intensity a little by bringing your right ankle to your left thigh. Oh, I immediately feel that because we are now stretching the piriformis, we are externally rotating the hip, so from here we again start to rotate, the intensity becomes a little bit more. I can feel the piriformis is now stretching and we are putting pressure on it.

Come in, let's roll, find those pressure points once you find a good spot, stay close, breathe, relax and let those points release, okay, and again you can get close to your hands as well and roll from side to side. . find your own spots here, they will all be a little different, that's the foam roller if you want to increase the intensity, a tennis ball or a lacrosse ball or even a softball, the softball is a a little bit bigger, so it's a little less intense and I'm going to start with the tennis ball. I like to get up on my hands first here and roll a little bit with both legs bent, maybe this right leg a little bit straighter, find the spot and then I like to come down. my right elbow breathe, relax, let the pill let the sensation and trigger point release.

Listen to your body if it's too much, ease the pressure or get out and then after you twist around here with your leg straight again you can do the same thing. here, as you come to an all fours position with your right ankle up to your left thigh and then twist around here, this is pretty intense, right, you're really going to feel this even if you're not dealing with active sciatic pain, this is intense, there's a lot. of sensation here, so breathe through it, relax, but it's super effective for working out knots in the piriformis, getting in there with those trigger points and releasing tension in that muscle.

Okay, so, part two of our three-part remedy for sciatic pain due to piriformis syndrome. It's stretching and why am I in my dining room? Well, we are going to use the dining room table as a stretching prop, so I think the height of the dining room table is almost perfect for this and this stretch is super effective. to stretch the piriformis and I feel like it's also accessible for most people so you'll want a cushion or a blanket to give your ankle and shin some cushion on top of the table so place it on top of the table and then , whichever side your sciatic pain is bothering you, that's the leg that's going to come up on the table and sweep it up there in this figure-four type position, so it's an external rotation of the hip to to do that. stretches the piriformis we are placing the shin the outside of the shin down on the table the side of the foot is on the table and the foot is flexed here okay now the ideahere is we're going to bend forward but we're not going to round the upper back, rounding the upper back doesn't really do anything, remember we're trying to stretch the piriformis here, so do it from the hip will, so we need to keep a long, straight spine, so lift up. up through the heart lift up through the crown of the head lean with your hands on the table and then lead with the heart keeping a long spine start to lean forward and you can walk a little with your hands forward here breathe relax right away You'll feel it good, a good stretch on the outside of your left hip, which is your piriformis stretch, so breathe through it, find a place of sensation, maybe stay there, relax and such Maybe that's where you stay or maybe you can keep finding it. the space continues and then just bend until you feel the appropriate level of sensation here, once you're there for maybe 30 seconds, maybe a minute even longer, I think this feels like this. well, it's intense, you feel the sensation , but for me it's a good kind of feeling, okay, of course, it depends on how bad your

sciatica

is and then when you're done, go up gently and then support your leg with your hand.

As you lower it down and that's it, that's a stretch. I'm going to show you one more that I think is just as effective. Okay, this last stretch is another version of that all fours shape where you're externally rotating. the hip, but this time we're going to use the wall as the problem, this is super effective and again, I think it's pretty accessible for most people, so you're going to want to place your sit bones against the wall, I think that's best. The way to do this is to sit on your side, place your sides of your hips comfortably against the wall, and then sweep your legs up from here.

You can move a little closer until you feel your butt and sit bones pressing against the wall. Here with your legs against the wall and your lower back pressing against the ground it is really a great relief. I've found it when I have those

sciatica

attacks when I had them, so being here with my legs against the wall breathing. Relaxing can be a great relief, so if you want to stretch the side where you feel sciatic pain, let's say the left side is the leg we are going to bend, so place your left ankle on top. that right thigh flexes the left foot which helps protect the knee here and then we're going to start bending this right knee which draws the left shin towards the chest which stretches the piriformis but the most important thing here is to keep the lower back. pressing into the floor you'll find your butt wants to lift up you're going to use the wall to press this foot against the wall and push your lower back down okay so I'm going to start bending this right knee right now. far away you see my lower back coming out of the wall I'm going to press my right foot against the wall push my lower back down ooh and now I immediately feel that stretch in the piriformis hang here you can support and stabilize the legs and the shin with your arms and hands and then continue to bend your right knee little by little every time you feel your lower back lift.

Push your right foot against the wall. Push your lower back toward the floor. Breathe and relax. Take a good minute two. minutes here, really absorb, this is such a good piriformis stretch and then once you're done, straighten this leg, bring both legs up towards the wall and just to balance things out, you want to do the other side as well, same thing on the last table Stretch, you want to do both sides, stay balanced and the same on this right side, start to bend your left knee, press your left foot into the floor to push your lower back down, stay there for a couple of minutes and then swing your legs. legs. down and done, those are the stretches that I have found really super effective for lengthening, opening and releasing piriformis tension, relieving sciatica pain due to piriformis syndrome, one more thing we're going to talk about here, strengthening, so than the last part.

One of our three-part remedy for sciatic pain due to piriformis syndrome is strengthening. Now strengthening is a super important part of this equation because when you strengthen your piriformis it becomes more flexible, less tight and more resilient, so when you sit for long periods of time and let's face it, you're going to sit, the muscle is more resilient and won't react in the same tense and aggravated way, it will allow you to function and won't give you sciatic pain all the time, wouldn't it? Well, this exercise is a great way to strengthen your piriformis. Now the piriformis is an external rotator muscle of the hip.

So how do we strengthen it by externally rotating the hip? This is a great way to do it. There are fancy names for this. exercise, but I like the fire hydrant because, well, you'll see why it's called a fire hydrant, we come to a tabletop position with our wrists under our shoulders, our knees under our hips, and then we maintain the integrity of the curve. 90 degree bend at the hip and the 90 degree bend at the knee we're just going to open that hip all the way up to bring the knee to 90 degrees and then back up and down and let's go to ten, so that's three moving nice and slow. . with control four and five and you're starting to get a feel for it good if you've never done this before it's amazing how weak the damn piriformis is that's seven three nice and slow that's eight nine actually lift your knee all the way to the 90 degree position and then one more, raise it and lower it and again to balance, do the other side that will keep the muscles and everything balanced.

Really a great way again to strengthen the piriformis and keep it happy and maintain it. to give you trouble if you enjoyed this video if you enjoy my teaching then subscribe to my channel and visit my Patreon site. The link is below in the video description. It's a way to support the making of these videos, which I really appreciate. and gives you access to special live streaming events. We just had one of these last Sunday morning. It was tea time with David, so we were able to hang out together virtually, have some tea, talk about health and wellness, and answer your questions.

It is fun. I hope to see you next time if you want a nice sweet flow practice right now you feel a little more agile then go ahead and click flow practice by my side I love you thank you very much