Sciatic Stretch for a Pinched Nerve | Chiropractor in Philadelphia, PA
Hey everybody, my name is Dr. Roger Saias. I’m the clinical director here at PA Pain & Rehab in Philadelphia, we take care of a lot of people that are injured in car accidents or work related accidents. And as a result of some of these injuries that they’ve sustained, they’ve now have a pinched nerve.
What Exactly is a “Pinched Nerve”?
Now a pinched nerve is kind of not the greatest terminology for the actual problem. But it’s a very common term that people use the basically signified nerve irritation that’s causing pain down the extremity, whether it’s your arm into the fingers, or down from the low back into the leg and down to the foot. People call it a pinched nerve, a slipped disc, but something’s irritating the nerve. And as a result, those nerves get all fired up and they hurt. People will talk about they their fingers are on fire, they’re painful numbness, tingling. There’s so many different symptoms associated with with this condition. But we see it a lot of times after a car accident, we’re gonna start with the low back.
The Piriformis Stretch for Sciatic Nerve Pain Relief
So in this video, I’m going to show you a really easy way if you’re experiencing low back pain that radiates into the hip and down the leg, it could be because of what’s called the piriformis muscle. So this is the piriformis muscle stretch, it’s also going to stretch out a little bit the sciatic nerve, again, the sciatic nerve passes right by the piriformis muscle. So if you’re having any nerve irritation in your low back, that can fire up the piriformis muscle, which then can irritate the sciatic nerve. At the same time you get a pinched nerve or nerve irritation in your low back that’s irritating the sciatic nerve. And again, this is one way to stretch that out.
Piriformis Stretch from the Seated Position
So you can do this in a seated position or lying down, I’m gonna show you both versions of this. It’s one of my favorite stretches, I teach it to every single patient, whether they have nerve irritation, or a pinched nerve or not, because it’s just a great stretch in general. So you want to find like a flat like firm surface, it could be a chair could be what I’m sitting on right now just a flat surface, let’s say the pain is in your left leg is left hip down into the left leg, you just feel this, this really this burning in your thigh, you’re going to cross the leg over, that hurts the most. Sit up nice and straight. And again, just being in this position kind of forces you to have good posture.
So you’re going to grab the knee, and you’re going to grab the ankle, and you’re just going to pull towards you a little bit. So for some people this is enough of a stretch. But some people can’t even get into this position because they’re not flexible at all, which can also be contributing to their pinched nerve. So being in this position like this, you’re going to sit up nice and straight. And then if you don’t feel the stretch, what you want to do is start to just lean forward a little bit, until you feel that stretch back through here you’re going to feel through the buttock, you’re gonna feel it into the hip goes down to the thigh. And sometimes if you’re having that pain, you may get relief as you release that muscle down into your foot as well. So again, the affected leg goes over the other leg, you’re going to pull towards you, you’re going to sit up nice and straight. And again, for some, this will be the stretch. And if you don’t feel it stretching, you’re gonna just lean forward a little bit. And as you lean forward, you can also kind of rock back and forth and move around.
So you feel that sweet spot. Soon as I move around. Again, I feel that stretching right in through here. So again, if you’re having that nerve irritation, and it’s going down your leg, this is a really easy way to try to stretch that out. And truth be told, a lot of people have nerve irritation, because they simply aren’t flexible, and they never stretch. So if you’re not very flexible, and you don’t stretch, this is certainly the time to get into that start slow, it shouldn’t hurt. So if I’m doing this stretch, if it’s increasing the pain or it’s really hard to do, don’t do the stretch, it’s not worth it. Now, a lot of people ask how many repetitions of these stretches should you do. Now, for me, I can hold this for a while. So I’d rather do just a couple reps and hold it for as long as I can. But for some, they can only hold this for about five seconds or 10 seconds. So if that’s the case, hold it for five to ten seconds, and just relax. Alright, you can keep repeating it, or you can switch sides, and you want to make sure that you’re bout so it doesn’t hurt to stretch the side that doesn’t hurt as well.
So again, this is the piriformis stretch. It’s really good if you’re having a sciatica like symptom, but you can also do this on your back. A lot of people do this on their back, you can do this on the floor. I prefer not to do it in the back, you’re like you lose some of the stretch on a really like soft surface. But what you do is again, if the right leg is the side, that hurts, you’re going to cross the right leg over the left leg, you’re going to grab your knee. Again, some people cannot do this. So that’s why I recommend doing the seated one, you can grab the knee or you can grab your thought you’re going to just pull towards you and as you pull towards you, you’re going to feel that stretch right in through here. Again, if you’re having nerve irritation that’s resulting in sciatic like symptoms. It’s always good to get that checked out by your healthcare provider, especially a chiropractor. It’s a great reason to give us a call. But this is these are great stretches to do if you’re experiencing these problems.
We’re Here to Help
So if you’ve been injured in a car accident, a work related accident, you fell and now you’ve got nerve irritation, and you’ve got pain in your arm pain down your leg. Again, give us a call. This is what we do. We help people every single day with these type of symptoms. Not only do we teach them this these types of stretches and show them other types of rehabilitative exercises, we also do chiropractic adjustments which really helps to reset the spine, reset the desk and take the pressure off the nerve. And I hope this message finds you well I hope you liked this video. If you do, send us a comment, tell us how we’re doing. Share it with someone else or give us a call. Find out how we can help you again, thank you for watching. Have a great day. This is Dr. Rogers Saias from PA Pain & Rehab, be well!
