What do you do to help clients with sciatica?
For years I was taking lot of medications for getting rid of sciatica pain. However, it pain was returning again and again. Then at the advice of one of my friend I started practicing gentle yoga exercises. It took me close to 3 weeks to find any difference. With passing days I found the sciatica yoga poses quite effective.
Hey Linda…
Sciatica is a tough one. A lot of times when clients have discomforts or pains they can be managed with exercise or simply avoided, while a referral (manual therapist, etc) does their work. With sciatica that really isn’t possible. The pain associated with sciatica or a bulging disc is pretty immobilizing.
With that being said, you can try Mackenzie pushups, when tolerable. Basically, with this condition the vertebrae aren’t bent the wrong direction and end up pinching a disc. The Mackenzie pushups are done such, that the vertebrae are bent back the other way to create room for the disc to slide back in.
If I were you, I would focus on their training and lifestyle when they recover. The thing with sciatica is that IT MAY OR MAY BE DIRECTLY RELATED TO AN ANTERIOR TILT OF THE PELVIS, but it sure will not hurt to have a body in better alignment. Knowing that, I would take hard look at my clients structural alignment when are ready to return to exercise.
With that being said, I follow McGill’s five stage approach to back fitness.
Corrective exercise and motor pattern, whole body stability, increase endurance, strength and speed, power, and agility.
hope this helps,
Jeremy
If adequate rest, ice, and anti-inflammatory’s do not work, I’ve had great success with clients by having them foam roll the area prior to training and incorporate dynamic stretches that open the hips. We avoid running and and jumps anything that may cause impact on the hip/SI area. I always finish with static stretches for the SI but be careful not to over stretch the area and lastly stretch using runners lunge because often times the SI can tighten as a result of the iliopsoas muscle being tight.
It’s a tricky situation in that sciatica tends to “move around” thus it can sometimes become frustrating as a trainer to implement a workout plan around the nerve pain
I tend to send my clients to a PT after a complete assessment by a qualified physician.
There are many things that can be done to alleviate the pain yet they can also make the pain worse thus I tend to follow the prescription given by a Physical Therapist.
Also, sometimes people think they know how they got it, but upon prodding questions it sometimes has nothing to do with exercising too hard!