How to Deal With Sciatic Pain

I was asked a few days ago how to deal with sciatic pain. Before talking about how to deal with it, I think it is important to know what sciatic pain is and what can cause it.

The sciatic nerve comes out of the lower spine and as you can see in this picture, it passes through the pelvis beneath the piriformus muscle. Sciatic pain is caused when the sciatic nerve gets pinched, usually by inflammation or adhesions in the piriformus muscle.

The person who asked me about sciatic pain said her pain usually comes when she has been running hard, so her discomfort is probably caused by a tight piriformus muscle and can probably be handled with better stretching before and after her run. I found a great video of how to properly stretch out the piriformus on YouTube.

I believe that this stretch will also greatly benefit people who have chronic sciatic pain. If this is you, please keep in mind that your discomfort wasn’t created in just one day, so it will probably take more than five or ten minutes of stretching to get rid of it.

If I was having to deal with this sciatic pain on a continuing basis then I would have to find something else to help me get through. For me, that would be a weekly massage to work on the piriformus and some magnets to get me through the days in between. Probably the easiest form of magnet to use would be a magnetic chair pad for when you are sitting and a magnetic mattress pad for when you are laying down.

I hope that helps.

Wayne Woodworth

Disclaimer: I am a massage therapist, not a doctor. These are my opinions of how to work with sciatic pain based on my training as a massage therapist. If you believe that you may have a medical condition then I strongly encourage you to see a trained medical professional.