[wingman24]

I was diagnosed by a doctor 1 1/2 years ago with Sciatica, and over the weekend while doing some trail building I aggrivated the injery, I was wondering if anyone has any experiance with this problem and knows what I can do to keep the pain at bay. (specific stretches, yoga, Ti chi, whathaveyou.) I am not going back to the doctor so that he can tell me something I already know, that I restained my back, and I already went to the Chiropractor, so thats not the answer i'm looking for either, Thanks for any help.uch:

 

[lux]

Yoga therapy is what has helped me the most. And if you drive a stick and the sciatica is in your left leg -- trade it in for an automatic!

Did a quick search for pictors or illustrations but didn't find anything (I mean quick search -- pretty much the first thing I came to). There's a ton of stuff on the web about it. Got this off a website:

Top 7 poses for Sciatica
1. Supta Padangusthasana. Lie down on back, legs straight and together. Bend the right leg into the chest, place a yoga strap around the outside of the foot. Straighten the right leg, holding on to each end of the strap with both hands and straighten the leg. While keeping both legs straight and tight, pull down on the strap so that you start to pull the leg toward the nose. Then put the ends of the strap in the right hand and slowly drop the leg out to the right, so that it is perpendicular to the body. (It is important to keep the leg straight while doing this.) Breath and hold for 30 seconds. Repeat this on the left side.
2. Adho Mukha Savasana- Downward facing dog.
3. Parsvokanasana- Side angle stretch. Stand with feet 3.5’ apart. Turn the right toes out so that the foot is perpendicular to the left foot. Press down on the outside of the left foot and bend the right knee so that the thigh is parallel to the floor, and the knee is directly over the ankle (as in Warrior 2). Place the right elbow on the right knee and raise the left arm overhead. There should be a stretch all the way from your left fingertips down to the outside of your left foot. Breath and hold for 30 seconds. Repeat on the left.
4. Ardha Chandrasana. Half Moon Pose.
5. Setu Bhandasana. Bridge pose. Lying on your back. Bend knees and place feet on mat, hip distance apart. Lift the pelvis up into the air by rolling slightly onto each shoulder. Place a block in between the thighs and squeeze and lift the pelvis further up, pulling the sternum toward the chin. This technique really helps relieve the stress on the lower back and sciatic nerve. Breath and hold the pose for 20 seconds. Come down and repeat 2 more times.
6. Sarvangasana- Shoulder stand.
7. Svasana- Corpse pose.

 

[wingman24]

thanks lux, thats the stuff, I'll give some of those a try tonight.

 

[davep]

sciatica is a pretty broad/generic term, you might want to try to figure what and where the nerve impingment is. If you have not already, i would try to see a physiatrist, this is a non surgical dr specializing in physical and rehab medicine. The guy i saw was very helpful and was able to tell me in 2 min exactly where and what nerves were involved. He got me into p.t. and that helped quite a bit, they will teach you to stabilize the joints that are causing the impingment. If your pain is down a tolerable but anoying stage now, daily stretching, core strengthing and engagement exercises, as well as yoga or pilates can help. Believe it or not, walking can also be a big help, just keep moving. When my back was really bad, morphine was the ONLY thing that helped at all two m.s. contins a day and i could atleast get up and around and start moving again(although i was totally incoherant for those two weeks)

 

[Heath Sherratt]

What happened to the last sciatica thread?

 

[davep]

here are some exercise routines on a ball

http://thera-bandacademy.com/

go to body part then lower back then explore

 

[DHCorky]

I had problems with this a few years ago. At first the doctors told me to take physical therapy, and prescribed me Motrin. This really did not help. The Sciatica got to the point where I barely noticed it but it was still there so I just ignored it. Some of the doctors I had seen thought I had a slipped disc in my lower back.

Some co-workers, recommended a specific Chiropractor to me Dr. Grady. I was skeptical because I had been to a chiropractor and it did nothing. Dr. Grady also practiced applied Kinesiology, this helped a lot. My problem started when I was skiing in the half pipe and strained my back doing spins. By using applied Kinesiology Dr Grady found the muscles that were strained even a year later, and was able to relieve them. This was the first Chiropractor I have ever left with my body hurting more than when I went in. He would find the strained muscles and massage them (sometimes not very gently) to loosen them up. When he did crack my back it took almost no effort after he had massaged the right muscles.

I went to him once a week for a month then once the following month, this was over a year ago and I have not had problems since. Unlike normal chiropractors he did not say I needed to come back every month. He said most chiropractors do not fix the problems with peoples backs by cracking them; they are just treating the symptoms of a larger problem. I will not go to just a normal chiropractor again after this.

 

[wingman24]

What happened to the last sciatica thread?

it's not that I didn't want to hear what everyone had to say, but it was 2 pages of people telling me to go to the doctor and get checked out, which I already did, or to go to the chiro, which I already did, then poeple started getting on this tangent of which way was better doc or chiro, which was of no help at all, so instead of reading through all that B.s. I junked that one and reworded the tread to get posts that where more in line with the info I was after.

 

[sikocycles]

rest,ice,advil

 

[Smelly]

Go to a different doctor. Specifically, look for someone in sports medicine. Don't ever base a decision on the words on one doctor. Doctors are like bikes. There's some crappy ones, some good ones, but even of the good ones, you've got to take the effort to find one that is most compatible with you.

I've been dealing with sciatic nerve problems for seven years now. It goes away from time to time, but I also go through periods where I can't sit still for more than 15 minutes because of leg pain. The key is to find a good doctor who knows your body and history well (I've been very fortunate in this regard and have two, both of whom ride mountain bikes), and listen to your own common sense and pay attention to what seems to work for you.

kinesiology worked better for me than a chiropractor, but a lot of kinesiology also didn't seem to be terribly beneficial. Keep and open mind, and just remember that it's something you have to work on all the time, even when you don't feel any symptoms.

As I said in my post in the last thread, the thing that helps me the most is stretching a few times every day. Sorry, I don't know names of the stretches I do. I've found a few that really seem to help loosen me up, so I focus on those. I've gotten to the point where it just takes 30 seconds to a minute of stretching my lower body to help me feel better for a couple hours. I have to stop every 45-60 minutes when I'm riding to stretch. Sounds like Lux has some good stretches, try those out.

P.S.- Ice, rest, advil, ain't gonna do sh*t in the long run. not with sciatic problems, that's for sure.

 

[Biscuit]

I've never had this, but a friend of mine would do a basic stretch all the time:

Sitting down, cross your legs (man-style ankle over the knee), and use your hands to press down/stretch your crossed leg.

Good thing about this, she said, was she could do it in meetings and in public and nobody would notice.

 

[ChrisRobin]

Here are my 0.02:

I did something to my back a couple months ago. I don't think it was sciatica since I don't feel any pain in my legs or hips. The pain I felt, a dull pain just above my tailbone, turned into a sharp stabbing pain right in the center of the spine whenever I'd move in no particular way (It was only that sharp pain for one day though). After resting I was given a back care book that explained yoga stretches. I stopped going to the gym and decided to rest and do some stretches (one of the stretches actually seperates the discs in your back to let more fluid go through to heal irrated areas). Soon after I started running and began doing A LOT of crunches and side crunches as well as additional lower back strengthening excercizes. I know now the 'core' of my body is a lot stronger and stable and that dull back pain is almost gone (although sometimes I feel it slightly). I still have to go see a doctor to see what they say or some sort of sports doctor/chiropractor.

The point of the story, I agree with the people saying strengthening your mid-section is key as well as good stretches and physio-excercises.

 

[OlgaDuncan]

Try to do some sciatica exercises. It had worked in my friend who does have same situation as yours. Even though that it takes time to heal it but you should not lose hope to overcome it.

sciatica causes

 

[mushik]

Here's my story:

- back in spring i followed my better trained / younger boarder buddies in the snow park and tried to keep up with them on the bigger kickers. Left the mountain after a week of daily park runs and powder runs /with the inevitable tomahawks..The last couple of days had some weird (to me) muscle pain (or at least was felling like) but only on the right leg. Said then it should be good as i really worked my muscles (and it's only one leg because of the stance on the board).

- got back home, got used to the pain which was lowering in intensity. Went on the local trail for the spring maintenance. A lot of trees were down after the winter so, together with a buddy, began removing them from the trail. Really bad idea. After a couple of days intense pain reched from the lower back into the right upper leg.

- went for 2 weeks of chiropractice at one of the best local guys (said to do wonders). After 10 sessions only felt more intense pain in the upper right leg.

- decided it's time to give modern medicine a try so I went to a highly recommended spine surgeon. He recommended an IRM which I did; the result: disc protrusion (bulging disc). Not yet herniated, not yet operable. His advice: no jumping, no carrying any loads, keep a good eye on body weight...aaand: go swimming. my first question - for how long? ...the answer: for some 10 years from now on.

- what does this mean for me: no loading on the spine (no running for example) and no downhill biking (this really made my season the worst ever). Only swimming and walking. Also had to go back to wearing running shoes with the softest outsole i could find.

- my subconscious said if the spine had been compressed, i should de-compress it. So went and bought an inversion table. While some of the times I feel better after 10 minutes of bat-like posture, I found that the inversion table doesn't really do much.

- the best way to remove the pain for me has been working on my abs. One boxing coach recommended this to me, as he had some issues a while ago with back pain and he was reaching over 1000 belly crunches a day, which for him has been the way to relieve from back pain.
This really makes sense, as I think the imbalance between the front muscles/abs and the back muscles is what causes the spine to move one way or the other pressing unevenly on the discs.
I even got an iphone app with several different exercices that really work on my abs.

- now, after almost 6 months, I still have pain in my leg sometimes, i still don't ride my bike anywhere on rough terrain, and i still cannot carry anything without feeling more intense pain in the leg afterwards.

- my question is: is there anybody that did anything else that worked better and could help me recover enough to be able to ride my downhill bike?

 

[ebarker9]

I've been down a similar road (except I got to the point of herniation etc) and it's definitely not something that should stop you from riding downhill in the future, although you want to be sure that you haven't had symptoms for a while before you start back with it.

Core strength and flexibility in the right areas are key. Crunches are generally not advisable for someone with a back problem such as yours. A good start would be Stuart McGill's work, which is generally considered to be the best reference on back health and performance. The following article is a good guide to start with:

http://www.yourbetterback.com/CoreStabilizationHealthyLowerBack.pdf

He also has a book "Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance", which is excellent.

Another good source (though I'm sure some will disagree), which is bike-specific, is bikejames.com. I don't agree with him on everything, but his take on core strength back health/performance are spot on with the latest thinking and I've found it to be very effective. I think he had something recently on "injury-proofing" your back.

However, before you start into any kind of exercise program, follow the light stretching guidelines, don't sit for extended periods, avoid bending (spinal flexion) movements, and generally take it easy. You don't want to aggravate your symptoms by starting too fast, which is easy to do.

 

[ScarredOne]

DaveP is right, you have to figure out what problem is causing your symptom. You might have a herniated disc in your lumbar spine impinging on your spinal cord, have impingement of your sciatic nerve as it passes through your greater sciatic notch/or even through your piriformis muscle, etc.

The guys above are right in recommending stretching AND strengthening exercises. The strengthening should be balanced though, since muscle imbalances (all ab [rectus abdominis] strength and no back or oblique strength) will cause skeletal misalignment. So choose your exercises carefully.

*If you do have a herniated disc in your low back, flexing while turning are contraindicated. Oftentimes, this is how the aged "throw out" their back in the first place, bent/hunched over and twisting their torso to get into a cupboard.

Stretches I know of that can help with low back pain/muscle imbalances/sciatica:
-piriformis stretch (basically external rotation of the hip)
-hamstring/glute stretch
-calf stretch
-trunk twist
-hip flexor/abdominal stretch

YMMV.

 

[Kntr]

Get a core ball. It works for me.