This is the second part of our article on sciatica. Please can I re-iterate that if you do get the symptoms of sciatica you MUST get checked out by a medical professional before embarking on any kind of exercise.
The symptoms of sciatica are as follows:

Pain in the lower back that radiates down the back of the leg.
A feeling of numbness below the knee; there may be tingling or numbness in the toes.
Pain down the back of the leg accompanied with a feeling of unsteadiness or bowel/bladder incontinence.
Sciatic pain can vary from infrequent and just annoying to severe and debilitating.

Okay, that’s the lowdown. So we assume that you’ve been cleared to exercise. What can you do to relieve your symptoms? Well, here are some ideas:

• Try heat and / or ice packs (remember ice must NOT come into direct contact with skin). This can be applied for around 15 minutes at a time three to four times a day.
• Don’t lie around in bed unless ordered to. Inactivity can make sciatica worse. Get up and get moving, Soldier!
• Walking is marvellous exercise. Stride out there!
• Try some Aqua Aerobic classes. Most public pools hold them, or you could join a gym that has a pool. Even walking in the water is good exercise. Borrow a small child and chase it across the pool pretending to be a crocodile. If you catch said child, eat it!! Kids never, never get tired of this game…you’ll be exhausted and have burned zillions of calories by the time they’ve had enough…
• Go to Pilates classes (well, I was bound to put that one in somewhere!). Pilates focuses on strengthening your core muscles in your stomach and back…I’ve known people in my own classes who no longer get sciatic pain. Exercises lying on your back and stomach are the most effective and least likely to set the pain off. You have to go to class regularly, though and also exercise at home…there is no quick fix!
• Stretching exercises can also be very effective in relieving the pain. It is well worth paying for a few sessions with a properly qualified Personal Trainer or a Pilates Instructor with a one-to-one qualification.

In short, siatica can be miserably painful, but the good news is that permanent nerve damage is rare, and in most cases there are ways to help yourself. So remember my Three Esses (!)

STRIDE out and have a brisk walk every day. So it’s raining? You ain ’t gonna melt!

STRETCH those muscles…

STRENGTHEN that core…

All the best,

Carol J Bartram
(Pilates Instructor, Personal Trainer & Sports Therapist)

Technorati Tags: siatica, sciatica pain, sciatica relief, pilates, sciatica, piriformis, fitness, posture, exercise

Siatica Relief

Lots of people come to me with sciatica pain, and so I’ve been doing some research on the subject. It was really interesting, so I thought I’d write an brief article about it. I’ve missed out all the long Latin words that describe it in Doctorspeak as I could neither spell nor pronounce them!

Just about everyone knows what the term “sciatica” means. Mention the word and people start grimacing and rubbing the backs of their legs…most of us have felt that awful, stabbing pain at one time or another. Like a bolt of lightning, sciatica makes you yelp and stop whatever you’re doing!
Luckily for me , the only times I ever experienced it was during pregnancy, but I know people who are plagued by it, and it’s no joke. Actually, neither’s pregnancy. Nothing natural about childbirth is what I say!

Sciatica is actually a set of symptoms, rather than a diagnosis in itself, and can be caused by several things…some not serious and some very serious indeed. This is why, if you get sciatica, you MUST get it checked out by a health professional (doctor, physiotherapist or chiropractor) before you try and self-treat. The cause could be anything from a tight muscle in your bottom to a slipped disk or even, at worst case scenario, a tumour. That last is rare, by the way. Thankfully.

When people ring me to book a place in any of my Pilates classes, I always ask them about back and leg pain on the phone…any mention of sciatica-type problems and my ears prick up like a hound’s and I insist they get medical clearance before I accept them. I’ve lost a few potential clients that way, but nothing’s worse than someone turning up for their first class and gaily announcing that they sometimes get “a bit of leg pain” which causes numbness in their toes…At which point I lose the will to live!

The sciatic nerve is the longest in the entire body and runs roughly from the middle of your spine down through your buttock and right down the back of your leg. Any pressure on it anywhere down its length can cause the stabbing ache of sciatica. Without getting too technical (because we’re into medical territory here) there are four main causes of sciatic pain:

Slipped Disc

When you have a herniated (slipped) disc in your lumbar spine – your lower back – this causes pressure in the sciatic nerve, which is close to the spinal cord. So you have the double misery of lower back pain and sciatica too. A similar thing can happen with age-related wear and tear to the spine. Maybe there’s something to be said for being a Borg. Or a Cyberman. Then again, maybe not!

Stenosis

This is a narrowing of the spinal canal, often associated with age (though sometimes pregnancy can cause it). Again, pressure is put on the sciatic nerve, resulting in pain being felt in the back and/or leg.

Piriformis syndrome

The piriformis is a muscle in your buttock which helps to turn your thigh outwards. It can get very tight in people who sit a lot…long distance drivers and people who are desk bound for long periods. The sciatic nerve runs under this muscle – in some people it goes through the muscle – and can get irritated. This is not true sciatica, but certainly feels like it!

Sacroiliac joint problems

The sacroiliac joint is the roughly triangular bit at the base of the spine where the backbone meets the pelvis. This joint has to stand up to a lot of wear and tear during your lifetime (once again pregnancy rears it’s head!) and can become damaged and inflamed, thus pressing on that pesky nerve!

The good news is that these last two can be significantly helped by doing Pilates. I’ll give you more info on this next time!

All the best,

Carol J Bartram
(Pilates Instructor, Personal Trainer & Sports Therapist)

Technorati Tags: sciatica pain, pilates sciatica, trapped nerve, piriformis

Sciatica Pain