Sciatica - let's kick its ass

6 min read.

Ah the mighty sciatica, that lovely pain that can come on for seemingly no reason.

I'm not going to do one of those "rest, painkillers and chiropractor" articles. When I was badly suffering from Sciatica I remember reading each and every one of them thinking "and this f***ing helps me how!?". I'm a proactive kind of person and if I can be actively doing something to fix a problem, I will.

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There are many levels of sciatica, from a constant annoyance that ruins your life because you can't think about anything but how sore your back or butt is, right up to not even being able to put one foot to the floor without screaming in agonizing pain. In some rare cases, both legs can have the symptoms, I can't comprehend how painful that would be.

Before we get started, I am not a medical professional, and if this is your first experience with sciatica then getting a Doctor's or Physiotherapist's opinion is a good idea to make sure there is nothing structurally wrong, but, chances are if you are reading this you are a long term challenger of the mighty sciatica and you're getting pretty fed up with it! So this is my advice, created out of personal experience and experience helping others overcome the pain.

What causes Sciatica?

A lot of terms like 'degenerative disc disease', 'compressed nerves', 'protrusions' and 'slips' are thrown about and they sound scary, but you need to constantly remind yourself that pain goes away eventually. The body heals and adapts all the time. One major realisation I had when I was studying was: if someone can be in a car accident, have their spine smashed to bits, recover, and be fine, then why would a "bit of nerve pain" be permanent?

Super Secret Sciatica Tip 1: Belittling pain is a good place to start, attitude and the way you think about your pain is your first step.

So how about these less scary sounding reasons:

Reason 1: You're hips are subtly not aligned, so your spine or nerves are being pissed off on one side because of compression.

Reason 2: Your muscles are dominant on one side, so that side is either too tight or the other side feels weak and unsafe.

There may be something further wrong with your structure, or you may have internal damage - but you can't change that. If you focus on what you can control and work on Reasons 1 and 2 you may get rid of the symptoms anyway, so why worry?

Super Secret Sciatica Tip 2: Getting stressed about things you can't change just makes pain worse.

Try this simple awareness drill to see if you notice anything:

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Try doing it by feel, then try videoing yourself and reviewing. If you find all your weight to one side or even visually notice that one hip is higher than the other then that could be the cause.

You may not notice anything, but that doesn't necessarily mean nothing is shifted - it might just be quite subtle. If you do notice something, don't freak out! This is changeable. You can use the drill below to get working on your hip mobility!

Shouldn't I just go and see a Physio / Chiropractor?

A Chrio-Click can provide relief temporarily and if it is a recent injury and something's just been knocked out of position that could be all you need. However, if you have been suffering for a long time then your muscles are overriding your skeleton, any realignment could be redundant by the time you get back to your car.

A good physiotherapist will look at your entire body and not just your back or where the pain is, they will be able to do a good job of getting the symptoms to ease of so that (and this is the key thing) you can get back to moving! The issue with getting external help is you only have maybe 30 minutes to 1 hour with this person, at the most once a week... what about the other 167 hours?

What should I do instead?

You need to check how your hips feel yourself. In the video at the start of the blog, with show you a position called the 90/90. In it, you have 1 hip in external rotation (the front leg) and one in internal rotation (the back leg). Being able to hold this position, freely move around in it, and switch sides without needing assitance from your hands shows you have great hip function.

Chances are, if you're suffering from sciatica one side will be much, much harder for you than the other.

Super Secret Sciatica Tip 3: Get excited when you find an imbalance or a "problem" - this means you can actively work on fixing it

You don't need to know the names of muscles or any fancy terms to be able to do this, just sit on the floor and see if you can replicate it. While in this position sit up as tall as you can and see if you can take your hands off the ground and rotate your body side to side unsupported. We give you a few options you can try if you're struggling to get into the full position!

Here's a video of me going through some different variations of the 90/90:

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You'll probably notice I was doing quite a few different things in the video, quite literally I am moving and testing what different things feel like side to side:

I was seeing how far I could get my legs apart in the position
Squeezing my butt as hard as possible for 15-20 seconds in each position then relaxing as much as possible
Lifting the legs up and trying to maintain the torso position
Bending and straightening the legs to see how my hips react
Putting pressure into the floor with either my knee or foot to create tension

I was playing, I was testing, I was getting curious. I was educating myself.

Super Secret Sciatica Tip 4: The more you know about your pain and its triggers the more power you have

My advice: explore in the 90/90 position for 30 minutes!

Not 5 minutes and say, "that's quite hard". Not a few reps each side and say, "I don't notice any difference". Sit in that position changing sides for... *ahem* ... 30 full minutes while paying attention to what you are doing. See how many cramps you can get, notice what is different from side to side, and keep doing big deep relaxed breaths the entire time.

That might seem like a lot, but your body has been in pain for days, weeks, months or even years. The bad habits it's picked up have built up over a long period of time. Put into that perspective, half an hour spent working on a fix doesn't seem too much at all.

See how you feel after that time and take a note of what you noticed, do you feel like you can move better now? You may feel like you are aggravating things at the start, and if that's the case don't push things too far, but from personal experience getting past that and getting moving always brings me relief, even if I had to cry for a few minutes at the start in pain.

If you need to take a few breaks within that 30 minutes that is absolutely fine! Just don’t brush over it thinking it won’t work - your brain will try and get you with all kinds of thoughts when you are sore.

Super Secret Sciatica Tip 5: Video yourself and take notes. Sometimes progress seems slow, or nonexistent - you need to constantly remind yourself of your improvements

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Don't let back pain rule your life. If you want to make a lasting change in your hips, do it every damn day! When your symptoms start to ease you won't need to do it as often or for as long, but don't forget to continue to do it to keep symptoms at bay.

If you think this blog would help anyone you know please share it with them! Or if you want a more structured program which has helped hundreds of people reduce their sciatica pain, check out The Simplistic Mobility Method here!

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