Sciatica and lower back pain

One of the most common problems I come across in the people I work with is lower back pain.

This is also a personal topic for me as i suffered from low back pain for many years before I started to incorporate Yoga and mobility training into my life.

There are numerous reasons as to why someone would be having lower back pain but in this post I will focus on Sciatica.

Sciatica is referred pain due to compression of the scatic nerve. The sciatic nerve is formed in the lower spine by the combination of motor and sensory fibers from spinal nerves L4 to S3. These spinal nerves belong to a larger group of nerves in the lower spine called the lumbosacral plexus. This long, thick, and bulky nerve runs down through the lumbar region, through the buttocks, along the back of the thigh and leg and terminates in the foot.

A common reason of lower back pain is compression of the sciatic nerve.

If you have ever experienced the kind of pain related to sciatic nerve compression you will know it is an awfully debilitating pain. Often is it on one side of the body, resulting in pain radiating down from the lower back, bum, leg and foot which can often feel numb. Usually the low back will have muscle spasms relating to this. You’ll struggle to bend forward, backwards, walk, and most likely relief will come from lying down only.

The nerve can become ‘pinched’ due to a potential herniation of a disc in the lubar region or a compression of the nerve in the gluteal region. Tightness in the piriformis area can cause this.

A herniated (slipped or bulging) disk occurs when the soft, jelly-like center of a disk in your spine pushes against and leaks out of its outer ring. In this case compressing the sciatic nerve.

Compressed nerve.

You will only know if you have a herniated disc from some kind of imaging such as an MRI, which in my opinion can be very misleading. MRI’s don’t show you how old something is ( when it occured ) and aren’t necessaryily related. I have worked with many people with all sorts of things that come up on MRI’s that have no back pain and never had back pain, and those that have no herniations showing on MRI’s that have chronic back pain. Take MRI’s with a pinch of salt.

Reasons for this happening vary and usually have been building in people’s body for some time before the body is ready to ‘experience it.’ Whether it is sitting for too long without adequete movement, lifting an heavy object with improper technique, muscular imbalances and tightness in the low back, not warm enough before going into a specific movement, too much force applied to a joint. Etc…

My father once blamed sneezing for his back ‘going out’ which was actually the trigger for the spasm in his low back but it was already borderline.

What I reccomend for anyone suffering with this kind of pain is to start moving as soon as you can in an intelligent way. When rehabbing an injury we want to start with the most basic movements first. I have developed The Suppine Sequence spefically for this in The Better Mobility Guide as a way to start moving the body to relieve pressure on nerves, muscles and joints.

You can start with some basic suppine gentle twists on the floor and moving onto the hands and knees for some basic Cat / Cows. Spinal extension / flexion.

This will start to send the right signals to your body that you would like to start moving and exploring small movements that are safe. Remember, your body is mostly focused on safety and stability. The muscles are in spasm as a way to protect the joints, especially near the spine. Your body is smart and is doing what it needs to do to stabilise everything. You just need to listen and move slowly in the beginning.

Start walking

For most inuries I would always reccomend walking in some way. Even if it is ‘painful’. Some pain is ok and necessary in the healing process to get everything moving. After some initial rest you want to move and walking is the most natural thing we can do. Go slow, little by little and progressively work towards small walks. Gentle swimming can also help if you are able.

Once we are able to start to feel some relief and are able to move more we can start to do some basic stretches. If the tension is coming from the gluetal area then I would reccomend variations of Agnistambhasana. This is an excellent opener that hits the right spot in the gluetal region and specifically the periformis. Go slow and ease into this. Maybe try and sit in this for 3 to 5 minutes per day which should help relieve the tension.

Firelog pose. You can use blocks or blankets under the knee to support yourself if it is too intense.

As I stated above there are many reason as to why these things happen in the body but what we are always looking for in yoga and mobility training is balance. Muscular imbalances, sitting too much and not moving enough are some of the most common reasons people suffer from low back.

What you need is some kind of deicated movement practice that focuses on realigning the whole body so we are in less pain and have better mobility. These specific stretches will help and can alleviate the pain but we need to address these imbalances as a whole. More often than not, pain in one area of the body actually stems from a compltely different place as the body is a complex system that we can’t reduce to one thing, muscle or joint.

If you are interested in finding a movement practice that can work for you please check out The Better Mobility Guide link below and The Element Series. Start now so you are always working towards better mobility.