Sciatica Why Stretching Makes It Worse

Are you suffering from sciatica? Have you been trying stretches to stretch out that Sciatica nerve from your butt all the way into the back of the leg, the back of the knee, maybe even into the calf, the ankle on the foot?

Well, very few people don’t really know, even in the medical field, they don’t know that stretching is actually the worst thing that you can do for sciatica problems. I’m going to tell you the reasons why stretching is bad for your sciatica problem. And I’m also going to give you some tips on what you can do instead of stretching for your sciatica problem. Let me tell you why stretching specifically is not good for a sciatica problem.

The number one thing that you need to understand is that nerves, like your sciatic nerve has the ability to stretch out and to shorten. And whenever they become irritated, like, if you have Sciatica, right now, you probably have a very irritated sciatic nerve. That nerve comes off your low back, goes all the way down into the butt into the hamstring, the back of the thigh, the back of the knee, through the calf, down into the ankle into the foot all the way to the tips of your toes, that nerve actually shortens just a bit.

So if you go stretch, you’re going to be stretching an irritated nerve, which nerves do not like. The problem is that it kind of feels good to stretch it. So people will begin stretching and immediately the feeling they get is, Oh, that feels good. And as they stretch harder, it kind of feels good and hurts at the same time.

Well, the reason why that is, is because the nerve that runs down, that I just described, attaches to muscles on its way down into the foot. And those muscles will react by contracting or shortening just a bit if the nerve is irritated. So inadvertently, you’re stretching out the muscles along the pathway of the Sciatica nerve. So that’s why you get the feel-good sensation, because you’re letting go of a tight muscle, but also the hurt sensation because you’re stretching an aggravated nerve.

You got to be very careful when doing this, I just usually recommend clients avoid stretching altogether whenever they’ve got a sciatica problem. And the worse the sciatica problem is, even more important it is for you to avoid stretching, because you’re just over stretching an already shortened Sciatica nerve.

It’s going to keep it irritated, it’s going to keep the problem there for longer. And it’s not going to allow you to on irritate that nerve to calm the nerves down so that you can begin to get over this sciatica problem for the long term.

As I mentioned, the muscles get tight along the pathway of the nerve. So stretching out those muscles actually kind of feels good. In very rare circumstances, a little bit of stretching is okay, but you cannot get aggressive because you’re just going to overstretch that nerve. And really, it’s just a short-term benefit that you’re getting if you’re stretching out the muscles.

There needs to be some sort of thought about how those muscles got tight, was it truly just the nerve or was there some other factors at play like a stuck joints, muscle imbalance, some something else going on, that is causing that muscle to tighten up right along the pathway of the nerve? The common places that muscles tighten up are in the hip and the butt muscles essentially where the sciatic nerve comes out of the hamstring muscles in the back of the thighs, the other one, the calf muscles as well and in the back of the lower leg, and then the arc of the foot the muscles that are in the foot that make up the arc those can hurt and tighten up as well.

All of these muscles that I just described can often cramp. If you’ve got cramping in your butt muscle and your hamstring, back of the knee, the calf and the arc of the foot, you bet this is a sciatica problem. More often than not it is a sciatica problem. And stretching out that cramp in the short term is okay to just get over the cramp. But you have to ask yourself, how do I stop the cramping altogether, so that I’m not having to stretch this out because I’m kind of irritating my nerves more we tend to go to stretch it out.

So just realize that you’re just doing short term relief whenever you do stretch. And what I tell my patients is you have to pit medication against stretching. Or if I take pain medication to help out with sciatica you might get some relief, but you’re injuring your organs, you’re potentially irritating your stomach lining or when your kidneys, your brain, your liver all those things. Is it worth it to you right now? Is it okay? Versus if you stretch and you further irritate the nerves? Is that okay with you too?

You have to kind of find a balance if you’re just caught in the short-term situation. In the long term, you want to be doing the right things to not have those muscles shortened and not have to take those pain medications and fix the problem naturally.

And the third thing to note about the Sciatica problem is that it’s rarely ever just the short nerve, that is the root of the issue. Nine times out of 10 there’s also a lower back problem a pelvis problem, like the bones that are at the bottom of the spine, they make up the hip bones around the hips and waist. Those bones are the pelvis, they can get shifted and move around, and also pin Sciatica nerve, the joints themselves all the way down into the knee, there might be a knee problem that’s sitting off the Sciatica issue.

The way that somebody is moving can also set off a sciatica problem, all those factors need to be considered. And if you just go stretch in order to if you’re stretching with the intent of fixing the problem, but you’ve got a low back issue, a disc issue in your spine, for instance, or a pinched nerve coming out of the side of your spine, it’s not going to fix it, you’re not going to fix that disc issue just by stretching out.

It’s important to just look at this problem and see the bigger picture and not just stretch in the moment, so that you’re not keeping the problem there for longer. That’s the key is when I see somebody here in the clinic, and they’ve been stretching. Usually they’re stretching very aggressively. They’ve been doing it on a schedule throughout the day, they wake up first thing in the morning and are stretching, they’re stretching again a couple hours later, they’re stretching several times throughout the day, doing little exercises that involve stretching the nerve. And they feel better in the moment when they’re stretching. But shortly after the symptoms come back and they’re having more symptoms as the weeks go on.

That’s because they’re overstretching that nerve. So it’s important to look to see if there’s a back issue, a hip issue, or any issue or even down in the foot occasionally, that can contribute to a sciatica a problem.

I think I’ve driven the point home that stretching is bad for a sciatica a problem. If you have sciatica, stop stretching! Please keep it to an absolute minimum. And let’s talk about what to do instead of stretching.

Number one, start moving if you aren’t already. A lot of people with sciatica problems just want to rest and find some comfort in the best position they can either lie down or sit in. But you’ve got to be moving. Now this is relative to what you’re able to do. If you’re just really fired up, you can’t even stand up straight as some set of problems set of people to have some times, do what you can move in and what you can tolerate.

If you’re bedridden, or you just can’t get up and move very well in the bed or in the chair and the recliner, wherever you’re sitting, wiggle your legs around, move your hips, tighten up your muscles in a way that doesn’t make them hurt. That frees up the nerves and moves the joints around and begins to loosen things up so that that nerve can begin to calm down.

One of the most positive things you can do for nerves is put them through motions that are tolerable. Nerves need motion, they love motion, they can’t move into motions that they’re short on. So if you’ve got an irritated sciatic nerve, and it shortens and you go to stretch it out, you’re forcing it to move in a way that it’s not ready to move.

But the reality is whenever your nerves are healthy, every time you go walking, every time you go do chores around your house, every time you go to the gym to exercise or you go outside and do active stuff outside, you’re moving your nerves in your body. When you take a step your nerve, your sciatic nerve has to lengthen within your leg all the way down to your foot in order for you to do that normally, if you’re irritated right now, just move somehow, some way find something that works for you.

If you’re not that bad, and you can actually get in some exercise, where you can focus is on exercising your butt muscles and your ab muscles, those two muscle groups, and 9 out of 10 cases are weak and need to be strengthened so that this sciatica problem can get under control. The reason is if you strengthen those two muscle groups, you’ll usually gain a lot more stability in the lower back where the nerve roots come out the makeup the sciatic nerve, the pelvis, bones will also normalize and they’ll stabilize as well so that you can take pressures off the sciatic nerve as it comes out of the pelvis.

And then you tend to put more normal pressures that your hips into your knees by strengthening the glutes in the abs. So that can also help out with setting up the sciatic nerve to move better. So if you aren’t already doing some sort of exercise for your butt muscles and for your abdominal muscles, your core muscles, start doing that right away. And you might find that your sciatica problem begins to gradually diminish.

That’s a good thing. That means you’re headed towards curing the problem for the long term. Now if you try these things, you’ve tried exercising, you try wiggling around and you’re still having problems and you’re realizing that stretching has probably been not a good thing that you’ve been doing lately. Then please go see an expert get in touch with somebody who can help you out with a sciatica problem so that you’re not miserable for too long.

You want to make sure to solve this Attica issue so that it doesn’t become something worse. If you’re not moving very comfortably eventually arthritis begins to worsen. Muscle spasming for the long term can cause serious problems on joints. It can hurt a disc can pinch other nerves. irritated nerve problem in the leg can spread into the other side or up into arms or legs.

We’ve seen some severe cases that have eventually formed into fibromyalgia and chronic pain. syndrome. You don’t want that nerves need to be healthy, you need to address the problem with nerves as fast as possible so that they are healthy.

If you thought this video was helpful for you, and you’re thinking that you might want some professional help from us specifically here at El Paso, manual physical therapy, we’d be happy to help you out. Just go to the top of the website here and find the cost and availability tab. Hit that and then a formal pop up where you can leave us for details about your sciatica problem, want to hear all about it, so leave as much as you can.

As soon as you submit that form, our staff will receive it and we’ll call you back first chance we get to discuss about your sciatica or problem and make sure it’s a type of sciatica problem that we can see here that we can see for here in the clinic. And you can also call us directly at 915-503-1314. And just begin to tell us about your sciatica problem there as well. My staff will take time to talk with you and discuss and make sure that we can help you out properly so that we’re not wasting any of your time.

After we have that conversation, we’ll be able to tell you what next steps need to be taken so that you can get help for your sciatica problem. I hope that we can be a part of your success story real soon. Have a wonderful day. Bye