Treament and stretches for sciatica pain

Even fit people suffer from low back pain. If you are a runner you may still have the muscular problems associated with the pain of sciatica, Especially if you run to counterbalance a fairly sedentary working life.

Many people consider they are doing everything right because they are at least exercising regularly but if I ask patients who come to my practice in Ely Cambs for massage whether they stretch regularly and effectively the response is usually a wry grin.

It’s great to put in place massage to help with the recovery of your muscles, at least monthly but more if time and money allows. Without stretching too you are doing yourself a disservice. The hip rotator muscles work very hard whilst you are pounding the streets,this can lead to problems with the piriformis and commonly the tensor fascia lata. tightness in both these muscles leads to deep hip pain. Trigger points in the piriformis are very common and problems with this muscle are very often associated with sciatic pain.

Even if you don’t run, using the legs uses these same muscles so walking a distance which is unusual for you and then returning to sitting for long periods can also cause sciatic pain. I would also add here that it is beneficial to keep your weight within a healthy range. Extra stresses and strains placed on muscles by carrying more load than they are meant to will eventually cause problems even when doing normal day to day activities.

A good set of stretches for runners can be found at www.runnersworld.co.uk/quicklinks/stretching