Stop Piriformis & Sciatica Pain with These Stretches

This article is a transcribed, edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in February 2025. For the original video, go to https://youtu.be/pWgHTk_dX-s

Brad: If you're experiencing low back pain or that pain that's here and goes down your leg, known as sciatica, you'll want to read this.

Mike: So we have two options we're going to go through, and they have a high probability of decreasing the pain you are experiencing.

Brad: All right.

Mike: So we're actually going to go take a trip back in time and look at an old popular video with Bob in it because we know people miss Bob. And what is this treatment about?

Brad: Well, actually, this has been so popular. We got hundreds, maybe thousands, of positive comments. This treatment's very simple. It's known as...

Mike: Strain, counter-strain. What's the other word for it?

Brad: Positional relief. In other words, you get your body in a very comfortable position, hold it for 90 seconds. But it's not that simple. You do need to watch it in detail.

Mike: And make sure to stay tuned because when we come back, we have option number two for you.

Brad: That's right.

Mike: We're time-traveling. Do you want to do your fun sound effects?

Brad: Woo, woo, woo, woo!

Bob: To see if that's going to take away your pain.

Brad: Right now, I'm going to show this exercise. Is that okay, Bob? I've looked at some studies on this, and actually, they show about 15% of sciatica comes from piriformis. Usually it's from a disc or something else. But that's okay because this series is going to show you how that transitions very efficiently.

Bob: Yeah. So basically, what Brad's going to do here, if this is, if you actually have sciatica from your back, this may be good for that too.

Brad: Yep. This is a win-win.

Bob: So this is a win-win, yeah. We're going to kind of show you, if you have piriformis or sciatica, not sure, try this, and see if it helps. It may help in both cases.

Brad: So you can do this on your bed. If it's a really soft bed, that's probably not going to work so well.

Bob: Yeah, if you're sinking in too much.

Brad: Right, then you can use a carpeted floor, and you know, that's always fine. If you want to try your bed, that's fine too. And now you're going to lie prone or on your stomach. You'll probably want a pillow. I'm not going to use it because it's throwing my mic off. Now let's say it's on the left leg. So I've got that sciatica pain, numbness, tingling, going down that leg. You're going to take the left leg like you're crawling. But all you're going to do is bring the leg up.

Brad: Okay? Now, you'll find that you need it to give a little time, see if it feels comfortable like this, if the leg pain starts to go away, if things start to feel better, then you know you're on the right path. Now you can adjust your hips right to left a little bit. You may want to take a towel roll or a pillow. You want to grab that for me, Bob?

Bob: Are you, Brad, up on your elbows or not?

Brad: I mean, if it feels better down here, stay here.

Brad: If you go up like this and it clearly feels better, then do this, and then take a pillow, so you can relax.

Bob: Gotcha.

Brad: The idea is that once you find the position of maximum comfort with the pain in the leg, you may want to put something like this here.

Bob: Under the knee. Or you can put a pillow underneath the knee.

Brad: Right. So the exercise is 90 seconds, but it does take a little bit of time to figure out the position of maximum comfort.

Bob: We're really trying to put that muscle, that piriformis muscle, on slack.

Brad: Exactly.

Bob: And that's an optimal slack position.

Brad: Perfect. So let's say I find it right here. I'm feeling pretty good. Then you get your cell phone out or your stopwatch, and then you hit the timer, and you're just completely relaxed. Think about your breathing. Nice, relaxed breathing. Take some deeper breaths, and you must stay for 90 seconds, no less. 90 to 120 seconds. They've studied this scientifically.

Bob: And generally by getting in this position, Brad, right, the pain has already gotten better.

Brad: Right? Yep, so as things continue to get better, then after 90 seconds or a little bit longer, you're done. When you're done, then you're going to take your position, you know, you're going to remove the towel roll. If you're using one. And then you're going to slowly get back to a position where you can get off the bed or off the floor if you're doing it on the floor, and take your time. Everything is done slowly and relaxed. It's not a hurry thing.

Brad: And then, at that point, you know, you can move around a little bit, and then we're going to recommend going for a short walk, a relaxed walk on an even surface, not up and down a hill or out on a lawn where it may be an uneven surface. And then you can go on with your day.

Bob: Again, win-win. These things could all be good for sciatica, too, if you have it coming from your back.

Brad: Right.

Bob: The thing is, here, a lot of times, you think about it, the piriformis muscle, it gets fired up, and once it gets fired up, it kind of stays cyclical. The fire up causes pain. And the pain causes the fire to flare up even more.

Brad: Sure.

Bob: This knocks it out of its cycle. The pain cycle.

Brad: So you may want to, you know, let's say halfway through the day, four or you know, six to eight hours later, it's tightening up again. You're getting similar symptoms. Repeat this. And so you can repeat this a few times a day. However, Bob, I mentioned before that typically pure sciatica is not from the piriformis. It can be. Let's say you did this and you're trying to position maximum comfort, and it's just not working. The leg pain is still there; it still hurts. No matter what I do, I position, I put a towel roll here, a pillow there, shift around. It may be from your disc.

Bob: Right.

Brad: All right, if you did not have success with that positional release we just went through, it's probably not a piriformis problem, but more of a disc problem, which we're going to show you this exercise, which we get from Rick Olderman. And there's going to be two options. So if you have a doorframe, Mike will show you that. Or you can simply use a stick four to five feet long. Mike, do you have anything else? Did I miss anything with that?

Mike: I would say you can also use a pull-up bar, whatever you have that's high enough, and you can kind of stretch from it. So what this is going to actually do is decompress your spine, taking any pressure off of your discs, which can help with sciatica. So what I'm going to do if I'm stretching my left side here, say my back pain's on my left, I'm going to reach with my hand facing away from me. And then I'm going to slowly bend my knees, and hopefully your door doesn't rock like this one. And then just go into it and stretch out here and feel a nice, good stretch in an opening. And if you're having sciatic pain and you do this, you might get some immediate relief from it and just hold it for 15, 30 seconds or so. You could do it a couple of times. You can even stretch the other side if you want to, for fun, because sometimes both sides are tight.

Brad: That's right. Again, probably the side, if it's your left-sided back pain and going down the left leg, you'll use the left arm to stretch. There you go.

Mike: Now, if people are more advanced and you're on an actual pull-up bar, you can just hang and dangle your feet. But you have to be fairly strong for that. Stick with this version.

Brad: Exactly. Take your time with it. There you go.

Mike: Some people are shorter and can't reach their door frame. So, Brett has the next option.

Brad: That's right. Plus, if you have a door frame that is a little unstable up there, and the trim falls off. We had that happen once. Okay, so with a stick, we are using the Booyah Stik. It's nice to have something about an inch or an inch and a half in diameter that you can grab. It's sturdy. And if it doesn't have a rubber tip and you're doing this on a chair or a tabletop, simply take your shoe off or grab a shoe from somewhere and put it in there because it cannot slip. It needs to be stable and handy. So you're looking at the back of your palm, and then you grab it. And it's the same concept as what Mike demonstrated. I'm going to reach up as far as I can. Grab so that the hand does not slip. And I'm going to lean, I feel the stretch here. Pain is on the left side, again, slightly bending the knee, and I feel a nice stretch. You can see that my clothing is stretching. The muscles inside are gonna do the same thing. The vertebra will separate, allowing that disc to actually reduce and go back where it should. I like to hold this for no more than 30 seconds, but it's up to you. You have to go by response. You may start out with just on and off for a few seconds there.

Brad: Now you can actually do this in a seated position in a chair. Again, if you don't have a rubber tip, put a shoe in and then do it like this. Same thing.

Mike: You know, I've asked people in a clinic sometimes what they use at home. And I've heard golf clubs, pool cues, and mop handles!

Brad: Hey, there you go.

Mike: All those are some options if you've got them lying around.

Brad: That's right. All right. So what else do we have to talk about, Mike?

Mike: Now, these are some good options to help relieve your pain from either sciatica or piriformis syndrome, but they don't necessarily fix the root cause. So if you want to check out more videos with other options, we have another video, "Sciatica Pain Relief In 4 Minutes."

Brad: This video is going to show about three or four tricks that Bob and I have used over the years for those tough cases where these have not been successful for whatever reason. It happens sometimes. So, look at those. Take your time with them. You should find something to get some relief. And I'm going to quit babbling.

Mike: Please do.

Brad: All right, have a good day, and good luck with the back pain.