The 2 Best & 2 Worst Sciatica Nerve Stretches

Sciatica can be one of the most annoying and frustrating nerve problems to deal with in the entire body. And because that nerve, the sciatica nerve connects to a bunch of muscles as it leaves the back, and goes down into the leg and foot, it can cause all those muscles along the pathway to tighten up and spasm, that will leave people with a sensation that they need to stretch it out to get some relief.

Here at our clinic, we have seen all kinds of different stretches that people have shown us over the years. I’m going to cover with you today, the top two best and the top two worst sciatic nerve stretches.

My name is Dr. David, I’m a specialist physical therapist over at El Paso Manual Physical Therapy. I’ve helped tons of people with static problems. And because I’ve seen so many different variations of sciatic nerve stretches, somewhere you are lying down, standing up, sitting down, on your stomach, on your back, with tools, without tools. I’ve seen it all. I’m going to whittle it down for you to the top two best ones and the top two worst ones.

The best ones truly do help out a static problem. But they really are an indirect stretch, I wouldn’t directly stretch a sciatic nerve. It’s not a healthy thing to stretch the sciatic nerve. The two worst ones put a direct stretch on that sciatica nerve. Let me show these to you.

The first stretch that I highly recommend is called a squat stretch. The way you do this is you find a solid place to hang on like a door jamb. Also a sink in the kitchen or a bathroom can work really well. And what you want to do is get into a squat position holding on to something and see how my legs are angled out. You are going to widen your knees as you come down and drop into a squat position, and then just come right back up. You can hang out down there and stretch. This puts slack on the sciatic nerve and allows you to alleviate the tension in your lower back and take some pressure off for the sciatic nerve as well.

The second stretch that’s useful for a static nerve problem is what I call a superhero. Plant both feet down, make sure that your weight is even between both feet. Then what you do is squeeze your butt muscles, tighten up the glutes and holding that tight. Stretch your arms up overhead, and shrug. Hold it like that for 10, 15, 20 seconds or more if you can, and stretch.

Then relax everything slowly and come down. You can repeat that for three, four, or five times. I would go for about two minutes at a time. That can put some stress to your sciatic nerve in a very gentle and controlled way, and it will take some pressure off the spine. It’s important to do the part where you clench your butt muscles to get the right pressures taken off the hips and the low back.

The first worst stretch that could be done for a static nerve problem is the figure four stretch. Let me show you what I mean by that. It puts a big stretch right on the glutes. You lie down and cross one leg over, and then usually grabbing through here and pulling the knee in. This puts a massive stretch through the butt area, right where the sciatica nerve passes, and effectively over stretches a shortened nerve to make the problem last longer than it should.

The problem with this stretch is that it feels good in the short term, but it keeps the problem there for the long term. That’s why I think it’s not a good stretch to do. If it’s something that you’re doing right now, stop right away. Try one of the other stretches that are recommended here that you can get the right kind of relief.

The second stretch that I recommend you avoid, it’s one of the worst ones is a toe touching stretch. This could be done sitting down or standing. Basically, you have your legs straight and then you reach towards your toes, and you’ll feel stretches all through your back of the hamstrings and the calf area, even into the feet. That kind of a stretch can be very aggravating for a sciatic nerve problem. And again, it’s deceiving because it feels good in the moment. But in the long term, it just makes a static problem worse.

I hope this video was helpful for you. If you are looking to hire us to help you with your sciatic nerve problem, hit the cost and availability button above and you’ll get taken to a page where you can leave all your details. We will call you back as fast as possible to discuss your sciatica problem. We want to hear all the details about your problem, so that we can find out if we are the best people to help you out. Then we’ll let you know what the next steps are. I hope that we can be a part of your success story. Talk soon.