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If you experience symptoms of sciatica, stretches may be able to offer some relief. Below, Kelsea DeVries, a physical therapist and CEO of What Moves You, a physical therapy, yoga and wellness studio in Chesapeake Beach, Maryland, offers stretches to help improve mobility and strengthen your core to ease sciatic pain.
Static Hamstring Flexibility Activities
Very tight hamstrings can often be the source of sciatic pain, causing a posterior tilt in the pelvis, which reverses the normal lumbar curve causing stress to the disks and subsequently the nerves. This stretch helps relieve tight hamstrings and improve flexibility.
Repetitions: 3
- Begin lying on your back.
- Place a flexible exercise strap under the bottom of your foot, and hold the ends of the straps in your hands.
- Pull the foot up as high as you can without letting the knee bend until you feel a stretch behind your thigh.
- Hold this position for 20 to 30 seconds, until you feel a stretch in the back of your thighs, then release.
- Repeat three times.
Static Dynamic Hamstring Flexibility Activities
Another type of stretching is also referred to as sciatic flossing. These flossing movements mobilize the sciatic nerve within the soft tissue if there is a soft tissue restriction on the nerve along its path, according to Devries.
There are two ways to complete this stretch, depending on what’s best for your needs.
Repetitions: 15 to 20
- Begin laying on the ground with your legs flat against the floor.
- Raise one leg straight up to the ceiling with the knee straight
- When the leg is straight above you, point and flex the foot. You should feel tension in the back of the thigh and through the calf.
- When repetitions are complete, repeat with the other leg.
- Modification: Use a strap or edge of bed or couch to support the leg if needed.
Or
- Lay flat on the ground with your legs flat against the floor. Bending one knee, pull one knee to the chest with the foot flexed
- Extend and bend the knee towards the ceiling, keeping the thigh close to the chest.
- Modification: It’s normal for the leg to not straighten completely when extending the leg towards the ceiling. If your leg feels tight, only straighten the leg as much as it feels comfortable without causing pain.
Static and Dynamic Hip Rotation Mobility
Hip muscles can become tight from excessive sitting or exercise that requires hip stability. To help relieve tightness in the hips, DeVries recommends stretching for hip mobility.
Repetitions: 3
- Begin in a seated position, lying on your back, or in a figure-four stretch. If choosing a figure four position, place one foot flat on the ground with the knee bent and cross the opposite ankle over the knee. This should form the shape of a four.
- Press the bent knee away from you to work into hip external rotation. You should feel a stretch in your glute muscles.
- Pull the knee toward the opposite shoulder for internal hip rotation. You should feel this stretch in your glute muscles as well.
- Alternate between these two positions for a dynamic option, or hold the stretch in each position for 20 to 30 seconds.
- Alternate to the opposite leg.
Press Ups
This exercise is specifically used to help people with bulging or herniated disks.
Repetitions: 10 to 20
- Lie on your belly with your elbows bent and your hands underneath your shoulders.
- Gently press your chest up off the floor in a pain-free range of motion into a “cobra” position. It is important you only push the chest as high as you can without pain, which may mean some ribs remain down on the floor.
- Hold for 5 seconds, then lower back down all the way.
- Repeat this stretch two to three times per day, as needed.
Seated Trunk Movement
If you have increased sciatic pain while standing, which is usually due to a stenosis problem of the joints in the spine, DeVries recommends working in the opposite direction and reversing the lumbar curve to allow the spinal extensor muscles (responsible for standing and lifting objects) to elongate and decrease compression in the lower back.
Repetitions: 10 to 20
- Begin sitting in a chair or on a hard surface
- With your hands on an exercise ball or rolling stool, plant your feet flat on the floor, slightly wider than hip-width distance apart
- Roll the ball or stool away from you while keeping your sitting bones grounded.
- Hold for 5 seconds.
- Perform this stretch two to three times per week, as needed.
Core Strengthening
While not a stretch, DeVries recommends strengthening core muscles to help stabilize the spine and promote healing from sciatica. This exercise will strengthen the transverse abdominis—the muscle that wraps around the body and connects your back to your front. For an added challenge, combine limb movement, such as holding a plank position, with any of these positions to further engage the core.
Repetitions: 10 to 15
- Begin sitting, standing or while holding a plank position (arms straight with hands under the shoulders and legs hips width distance apart in back of you.)
- Take a deep inhale.
- While holding the breath, draw the belly button toward the spine.
- On the exhale hold for two to four seconds.
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