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Does Stretching Cure Sciatica
- chelsie462
- 1 day ago
- 8 min read
This article is a transcribed, edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in October 2024. For the original video, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvCW38Nmii0
Mike: So today we're looking at the myth, is stretching good for sciatica? So before we get into it, we have to talk about what sciatica actually is. Right, Brad?
Brad: Right, but we're also going to eventually address how to take care of it with some good solutions.
Mike: So the majority of people who have sciatica, typically what happens is you have a disc, which is right here in red, that lies in between two vertebrae, and typically there is some damage done, causing it to protrude backwards, and it can hit your nerves, causing pain, referred to in your back and even down your leg.
Mike: Now we're going to show a little more zoomed-in model here.
Brad: Right, this is a model that really demonstrates it well, but I want to correct, the bulge can actually come anywhere around, but most of the time, yes, in that back corner where it actually hits a peripheral nerve, causing those problems and numbness, and pain that everyone knows if you've had a herniated disc. L5, L4, those are the vertebrae, and the red ball represents a disc. Now, a disc does have fluid in the middle of it, a nice, tough outer lining. And what happens is the lining can loosen and actually bulge out, just like this is a really good representation. Now, what you can do, and actually you can see what happened, was I pushed down, compressed it. There was a weak spot in the bulging area of the disc wall. Out it comes, if we take the pressure off and it allows the disc to go back in, they call that reducing the disc back into its normal area, taking the pressure off the nerve. Therefore, the problem is solved.
Mike: So you can think of this like the disc is a jelly donut, and when you squish it down, the jelly's going out. So we want the jelly to go back in, essentially.
Brad: Back in, back in. Very good. Try not to make fun of it. But sometimes it's an interesting model to do that. But yeah, that's a very good analogy.
Mike: So we're going to show you a couple of things you can do to help your sciatica pain, and then we'll get into the myth-busting component. So the first thing we want to do is actually perform some traction to your spine to let that jelly go back in the donut, like we talked about. So you can either do this at a door frame, or you can use a stick if you cannot reach your door frame. Brad will show that in a second. I'm going to reach up, palm facing away. The left side would be my painful side, where I'm feeling sciatica, either in my lower back or down my leg. You're going to grab onto the top of the doorframe. If you have a pull-up bar at home and want to do that instead, you certainly can. And I'm slowly going to bend my knees. This is going to open up that space where the disc is, separating the vertebrae. Brad will show up in a second. You're going to hold this for three to five breaths. Try to relax. If you prefer time, you can try 15 to 30 seconds, and then go out and repeat that five different times. You're not going to fully hang and lift your feet in the air, especially in a doorframe like this, but it's just going to give some nice separation in your spine.
Brad: Right, so just a little more clarification on how this works. This is simply traction. They've been using traction; therapists have been in the medical field for decades. This is a simple way to do it, and it works quite well, many times. So if you look at the bulge here, all that's going on is it pulls and separates. There's the red disc bulge right there when we separate it, just like the cup model I showed, which allows that bulge to go back in and reduce.
Brad: So, another option is simply to take a good, solid stick of some sort. So you can use a broomstick, a dowel, a PVC pipe, we're using the Booyah Stik, and you'll put it, you can do this actually standing or sitting. It's the same thing. You'll understand in just a second. I'll do it standing. You could put this on top of a cupboard or a chair, or a table, and grab it with your palm away. And then I'm simply leaning and I'm stretching and actually separating the facet joints and the vertebra so that the disc can reduce or go back in.
Brad: Now the only thing you have to be careful of is that your stick does not slip around. So you simply take your shoe off if you don't have a rubber knob on there, and put it in there, and then you have a nice, steady stick base. You can do it seated. I'll do the other side just for, so I'm even. And we're going to do it just like this. Again, the shoe could be in there. And lean, whoa, actually, it feels good. This is one of those things; if you don't have a problem with your disc, it's good for a good general stretch as well. Alright, Mike, what else do we have?
Mike: We're going to get into the next exercise, but I have to move this door first.
Brad: Yeah, close that. Close that. Alright, another method that has been around for decades, from Therapist McKenzie, Robin McKenzie, is the prone press-up. I've used it myself many times with patients, with success. Go ahead and show them what it is.
Mike: I feel like I'm eating my microphone. Anyway, so start by lying on your stomach. This may be how you begin, and this is enough for you, depending upon how bad your sciatica pain is.
MIke: If you can tolerate this fine lying here for a few minutes, you can try progressing up to the elbows, see how your back feels, and see if it's bothering you or not. If this feels easy, the next progression would be to actually do a press-up. So what I'm doing is I'm pressing up as high as I comfortably can while keeping my pelvis on the mat; it's not lifting up. So go up as far as you comfortably can and then back down. You're going to do repetitions with this exercise once you can progress to doing the full range of motion, like I am.
Brad: Right, and again with this, the key thing is if you have sciatica with symptoms going down the leg, as you do these, you're not going to do more than 10 of them. The symptoms will go away in the leg. And if that's the case, you know you are right on, you need to continue doing 10 of these every one to two hours until the leg symptom goes away. And then it will eventually go away in the back.
Mike: So, the question is stretching good for sciatica?
Brad: The answer... No. Now, you might be questioning this because the exercises we just showed look like stretches. Yes, they are, the one in the door and the stick is stretching muscles on the side of the back and down there. However, what's really correcting the problem and getting rid of the sciatica, the back pain, and the pain going down the leg, whether it be numbness, tingling, etc., is that the bulge is being allowed to reduce. In other words, go back in where it needs to go, taking the pressure off the nerve.
Brad: That is the source of the pain, not the tight muscles. Muscles are being stretched, but this is creating the relief of sciatica, not the stretches. Did I make that clear?
Mike: I think you made it pretty clear.
Brad: Yeah.
Mike: Now, what we do want to say is if your sciatica is old or scar tissue from when you had it before, stretching may be a good option, but that's much further down the line. If you have acute back pain or sciatica, you want to let the disc heal, get that separation with those two exercises we showed to allow it to heal up first.
Brad: That's right. And this is one of those things where you may want to go to a professional therapist like us, or you know, that you can go to and make sure you get it in the right, correct order and be healthy, fit, and pain-free, living your life normally.
Mike: If you would like to check out more videos, check out the video, what's it called, Brad?
Brad: "Only 1 in 5000 Know This About Sciatica," so it's one of those tricks that not many people know about that Bob found, and we're sharing it with other people as well.
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