Speaker:	Time:	Transcription:
Speaker 1:	00:02	Hi everybody. This is Alejandra Rodriguez registered physiotherapists. And today I want to talk to you guys about something that I see a lot in my practice. And that is Sciatica or sciatic pain. Sciatica is caused by compression of the sciatic nerve, which is formed by the nerves in your lower back that come together and they formed this thick bundle of nerves that then runs down into the back of your glutes, your the back of your legs, your calf muscles, all the way into the plantar side of both feet. Now when this nerve is being impinged, it can cause tingling, numbness and shooting pain down the back of either one or both legs. So today I’m going to show you my top three best exercises to help to alleviate this kind of pain. Are you ready? Here we go.
Speaker 1:	01:02	So the first exercise that we’re going to do is call flossing off the nerve. And the purpose of this exercise is so that your nerve is able to glide smoothly around the muscles of your legs, your body, and your lower spine. So to do this exercise start by sitting up straight. Take a deep breath and round up your lower back, and at the same time you’re going to extend one of your knees. Then as you breath out, you are going to bring the foot down and come back into a sitting position. So this motion looks like this. So you want to do this exercise back and forth for about 15 times on each leg. If it increases your symptoms of numbness, pain or tingling down the back of your legs. Then try it without bringing your foot just by rounding up the spine and coming up into a sitting position. The second exercise we’re going to do, this is actually a stretch for the piriformis muscle. So the Piriformis muscle is a muscle that runs right in the middle of your back and when he gets really tired, it compresses the sciatic nerve. So to stretch this muscle you are going to lie down on your back with your knees bent, your feet flat. Then bring the left ankle to the knee.



Speaker 1:	03:14	And as I’m doing that, I can feel a stretch on my right piriformis muscle.

Speaker 1:	03:30	You’ll want to hold this stretch for about 30 seconds at the very least or longer if possible. And you want to do this on each side. And as you do it, compare for yourself which side feels easier and which side allows you to bring the knee closer to your chest because it means that that side generally has more flexibility than the other side. So the last exercise we’re going to do today is a back bent. And Back bents are great because they help to open up the joints of your lower back and create more space in the nerve root level. So if there’s been a compression happening on the nerve root because of prolonged sitting or repetitive forward bending, then this is really going to help to offset some of that compression. So when you do this exercise, the first thing you want to do is to lie down flat on your stomach like this. And then we’re gonna bring your chest up by propping yourself up on your forearms. If this feels comfortable and you want a deeper back, then you are going to place your hands on the mat, extend your elbows, and come into a deeper back bent. I also suggest that when you do this, you push yourself up from the heel of your hand. That way you’re going to avoid collapsing into the joints of your lower back, which can then lead to pain.

	05:22	Now, when you first started to do back men, be gentle with yourself and just do whatever you can handle it. 10 seconds is all you can do comfortably, then that’s fine. Increase the tolerance of this exercise by doing it daily. A few times a day, three times a day would be optimum. Then eventually you want to get to 30 seconds a minute, and then increase the intensity of the back bent.
Speaker 1:	05:57	So with Sciatica, it’s important to realize that if you are experiencing tingling, numbness or shooting pain down the back of either one or both legs, the problem is not actually in your leg. The problem is in the nerve roots, either at the disc level, the joint of your lower back, or your SI or pelvis region. This is why putting heat, ice, or massages on your legs, it’s really not going to help. See, it’s like having a water hose and if you put pressure on one edge of the water hose, you’re going to get decrease pressure on the other side. The same thing happens with Sciatica. If there’s compression or pinching of that sciatic nerve on one edge, then you’re going to get tingling, numbness, or shooting pain down the back of your legs. So this solution is to relieve the pressure or the compression of that nerve.
Speaker 1:	06:59	And this is why working with a good physiotherapists who will help through testing to determine where is the compression coming from and then relieve it so that you can permanently experience relief of your symptoms. At stay active rehabilitation, we have helped hundreds of people overcome their lower back pain. So if you have any questions or would like to find out more, then please contact us directly, either through email or through phone. And please stay posted for more informative videos on Sciatica and lower back pain. Until then, have a great day today. Bye everybody.

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