Can Stretching Help Sciatica? Try This Easy Piriformis Stretch For Hip And Low Back Pain.

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Piriformis Stretch For Hip And Low Back Pain

Have you ever had sciatic nerve pain in your glute or running down your leg?

Well, today I’m going to show you an easy at-home exercise to do to help relieve you of those symptoms. I’m Dr. Kara Penson, and I’m a chiropractor here at HealthWorks: A Family Wellness Center in Plano, Texas.

Sciatic nerve pain can be caused by a lot of things, and it can have a lot of different symptoms. The most common symptom we see is glute pain or low back pain that starts at the glute and travels down the back of the leg, either to the calf or all the way down to the foot. Now, it can be caused by many things, but one of the things that it can be caused by the most is called your piriformis muscle. Now, that’s a teeny tiny little muscle that lays underneath your glute and can connect with that sciatic nerve. When it’s tight, it becomes uncomfortable and causes that sciatic nerve pain to cause those radiating symptoms down the back of your leg.

Today I’m going to show you a stretch that is easy to do at home to help stretch the piriformis muscle.

For this stretch, you want to be laying down and have your knees bent at about a 45-degree angle. Now, for whatever affected side you may be feeling, for this example, I’m going to say I’m feeling the radiating symptoms down the back of my left leg. I’m going to take my left foot, put it across my knee on my right but still raised up, and I’m going to let it rest. Now, sometimes this may be enough to feel the stretch in this back area, but for me, I’m going to lift my leg so I can really feel the stretch down the back of my leg. To increase the stretch, you can also bring your arms through and pull your leg back even farther to get it at about a 90-degree angle to your hip and feel that stretch all right here and down into your glute muscles. And you just want to hold the stretch for about 20 seconds.

Watch Dr. Kara demonstrate the video here.

 

HealthWorks: A Family Wellness Center is a chiropractic and wellness center located in Plano, Texas. Our founding chiropractors, Dr. Christy Flick and Dr. Jennifer Taylor have been helping patients function better since starting private practice in 2005. Dr. Kara joined the team in 2020. For information about this article or other chiropractic questions, please contact our office at 972-612-1800, visit our website at https://www.healthworkstx.com/, or stop by our office at 2317 Coit Rd., Ste B, Plano, TX 75075.