Video

Transcript

today we’re going to talk about how to

fix sciatica i’ve done quite a few

videos on sciatica this is an updated

video

because there’s one

stretch

that i think is going to help you the

most so i’m constantly trying to find

faster ways to fix things and less

complexities and this one’s very very

simple okay so the first question is

what is sciatica well it’s pain that can

come from your lower back that radiates

down legs usually in the back part of

the leg the sciatic nerve is the longest

and widest nerve of the body okay

and it usually

originates

from

l4 to s3 which i’m going to show you

right here here you have five lumbar

vertebras right

one two three four five okay so the

sciatic nerve starts at l4 okay this

nerve right through in here and includes

l5 and then some nerves from this lower

part called the sacrum so all these

nerves form the sciatic nerve that goes

right down to the back of the leg what

you need to know is that 90

the great majority of sciatic nerve pain

involves a disc okay it can also involve

degeneration of the disc where the

vertebra start to become collapsed and

you get these thinner

discs okay and this is why as people get

older they might have more sciatica type

pain now the interesting thing about

disc problems is that when you look on

an x-ray or an mri

and you see a problem with the disc it

nearly always comes with a loss of the

lumbar curve that’s called the loss of

lordosis where you have this natural

curve in your lower back so if you have

sciatic pain chances are you’ve lost the

normal curve in your lower back

so normally it should look like this

and you look like this when you lose the

curve of your lower back you decrease

the space in the spinal column so now

the question is how do we get this curve

back

what you’re going to do is you’re going

to do a stretch that involves

a foam

support a low back support you can call

it like a foam block or a low back

support but it needs to be firm enough

so when you lay on your back with this

support it gives you significant

pressure

in this direction

to start putting this curve back now you

can use various things this is like

something i found i think at target um

it’s a low back

cushion you can use something like that

you can

use something like this i used to sell

these i don’t sell them anymore because

you can very easily

buy one of those circular foam

object and then cut it in half okay so

this could be your support you can even

leave the whole thing intact and lay

with your lower back in this area right

here okay or there’s other foam devices

you can get that are more corrective for

the lower spine

so you can see this shape right here

okay

so if you were to lay on this

you would lay so your feet going this

way okay and your head going this way

right here and you’d want to lay so the

peak right here

is right at this center point

about l

three or l two

and so when you lay on this cushion

what you’re doing

is you’re creating this constant

stretching of these ligaments muscles

and tendons now here’s the secret are

you ready for this when you lay on this

device

i’d say the first 10 to 15 minutes even

will go so far where it will make you

feel

really good you’ll get relief

but it’s not going to correct the curve

okay it’s kind of like you’re just

tapping into the elastic part of your

lower back where it’s like a rubber band

and it just gradually comes back

however there is some fantastic research

that talks about increasing the time

laying on the support so if you were to

lay on this support for let’s say 20

minutes every day or even a little bit

longer what you’re going to find is it’s

going to start to correct

this curve because it works on the

deeper ligaments to create like a

remodeling

reshaping of your lower back so what you

want to do every night is lay on this

for about 20 minutes now the problem is

that when you lay on this cushion

your butt probably is going to be raised

up and it’s going to be very

uncomfortable at first so maybe you

start with 10 minutes and you gradually

work up to 15 and then maybe 16 minutes

but do it gradually because when you

stand up you’re going to feel really

stiff and sore but realize what you’re

doing is you’re putting this curve back

in slowly over time so you might want to

gradually do it maybe with a pillow

underneath your butt but just keep

working at it every day until you can

hit like 20 minutes and feel comfortable

on the support so even though your

sciatic nerve pain is gone

continue to do this because ideally you

want to correct this curve so it doesn’t

come back especially since the number

one killer and the thing that

reverses this lower back curve is

sitting which a lot of people do on

their desk all day and then they watch

tv and they’re slouching down and they

lose this curve so this is a way to put

it back now if you haven’t seen my video

on low back pain

you should probably check that out i’ll

put it up right here check it out