Today Ina and I will show you what you can do if you suffer from sciatica. I have selected my favorite 4 exercises for you, with which you have a good chance of getting your pain under control. Have fun practicing!
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🧑🤝🧑 We are fortunate enough to help millions of chronic pain sufferers to ease their pain by providing online content on YouTube. If you suffer from chronic or severe physical pain, please perform the exercises as described in the videos to ease your suffering.
We start with the simplest exercise. You sit on a chair like Ina, slide forward enough for you to have a little freedom with your leg, but don't slide too far forward otherwise you'll fall off.
You must still be securely seated, your full buttocks should still be on the chair.
And now you're going to place the leg of the affected side, let's say the right leg in your case, onto the left leg.
It may be that it doesn't work for you.
If that doesn't work, do the following, please take it down again, Ina, stretch your left leg and now place your right leg over the left knee.
If that doesn't work either because it causes too much stretching, then go further down.
At some point it will work.
And then you take one hand and lift the leg higher.
Every day while practicing, you go a little higher and a little higher and a little higher, until you are eventually above the knee.
And when you are above the knee, the next thing you must do is to push down your right knee.
Then you place your right hand on your right knee, left hand on your left ankle.
The left hand holds the foot in the position where it should be.
And the right hand presses the knee down.
Then you will notice that it already stretches the hip completely.
And when you are ready, you slide your left foot closer to you and then the left knee lifts more and more.
And eventually you are at the point where the leg is vertical and you are where you couldn't reach at the beginning.
This is stretching process, it gets more and more efficient when you do it regularly.
You just have to practice it daily, like all other stretches.
And when you're sitting like this or in another exercise position that doesn't go further yet, once you've reached that point, then you focus on your torso.
And you do the following.
You make sure that you are as far in the hollow back as possible.
Now we are going to do something that we usually try to avoid.
We usually say, don't arch your lower back like that.
But in this exercise, it is very important to arch your back as much as possible.
And when you go into maximum lordosis, then you already notice that the stretching here in the buttocks, where you have a sciatic problem, is already more noticeable and intense.
And then you focus on your navel and push the navel forward.
That means, you now bend the entire trunk, including the pelvis, forward as far as you can until you reach your full intensity.
Usually, during these exercises, you'll notice that it pulls right there, the stretch, the intense stretch pulls exactly with its stretching pain where you have your sciatic problem.
Because your sciatic problem is a problem, in our experience, due to high tension in the muscles and fascia.
Please locate where your pain is.
And now don't be afraid of it.
Do not think, oh, now the pain is being triggered, but I actually want to get rid of it.
Then I must not do this exercise.
You must think the opposite.
You have to think, now I am exactly at the strand of muscles and fascia that are pinching, irritating my sciatic nerve, causing me this whole problem.
And if I pull on it, I will logically trigger this pain again.
But when I leave the exercise and everything is more stretched, then I am further away from this pain until it no longer appears.
What you can still do in this position, you can see, when you walk straight ahead, if you feel like, oh, if I would go a little to the left or a little to the right, then it pulls more inside.
Then always choose this small angle change where it pulls more, because that means you can work even better on those muscles and fascia that are involved.
The next exercise builds a bit on the one we just did.
You make them on the ground, sit down, put both legs down and now go with the right lower leg under the left knee, place the lower leg so that it lies straight and parallel to the front edge of the mat.
Now lift yourself up with your buttocks facing outwards, with the buttocks here, so that you have a 90-degree angle in your right knee and try to bring your left leg backwards.
Dodge to the right and take the leg back and stay nice and upright.
Ina can do it. It may be that it doesn't work for you.
What do you do next? Take a step forward again with the left leg, then you go more into an angle with the right leg, practically bringing the foot closer to the other leg, and now step back with the other leg.
And you'll notice, you have to stay on top, you'll notice it's easier, and then you can work your way up from this angle here until you eventually reach 90 degrees.
No matter what leg position you are in right now, you will probably feel the pain in your sciatic nerve again, oh, there is exactly the pain that I want to get rid of and that always shows you are focusing on the right area.
And when you are in the position, whether at 45 degrees, an intermediate angle, or at 90 degrees, now it's about straightening the body.
And now it gets exciting, because with this exercise you have a double effect.
So you're addressing the acute constriction at the sciatic nerve in the right buttock and simultaneously addressing the root cause because the cause of most sciatic complaints comes from the front, as everything in the front is too short, especially the hip flexor.
And now, in addition to this acute treatment, as I will call it for now, you have the stretching of the hip flexor in the other leg.
This means you are doing two things at once, of course you have to practice once on the right front, once on the left front, but you will be thrilled because it makes the hip so flexible, you won't want to miss it anymore, regardless of your sciatica complaints.
So when you are in the position, try to sit up straight and then you feel the stretch in the right buttock, where your sciatic nerve hurts, and you feel it in the left groin, in the front of the left thigh, pulling up, in this area mostly.
It could also be that it pulls into the back, then you'll immediately know, oh, my back pain wasn't far off either.
And now we will show you a variation of the last exercise.
And you should only do this once you have reached 90 degrees with your right leg.
And you stay exactly in this position, here right angle, the other leg back and now you lift yourself out, so that you come up with the pelvis.
And you can now use gravity, important here, the pelvis must be horizontal and must not tilt to one side or the other.
So the pelvis completely horizontal and gravity is now pulling you in.
You see, your right leg is a little higher now, and gravity is acting exactly on the same stretches again, but in a very, very intense way.
You will notice it when you do the exercise.
But think a little about the order, start on the chair, then do this exercise sitting on the floor, then floating.
With the fourth exercise, we once again fully address the cause of this sciatic pain, which torments many, many people.
And as we mentioned earlier, the cause comes from the front, from shortening in the front.
And now we are going to look at a muscle that also has a hip related function and is heavily involved in the fact that the back always has to be counteracted.
Lie on your stomach, as you are doing right now, and then try to bring your right heel to your buttocks while keeping your knees together, so the knees should not splay out, then you will notice, you can't reach it.
And for many, it usually stops here.
And that needs to be stretched out and you will be amazed at how your hip feels and also your sciatic nerve pain decreases directly when this is stretched out.
Because most people can't reach here right now, it's best to use a belt or loop, reach back, and then practically pull on the loop.
That is rather uncomfortable, what Ina is doing right now, because you have to use a lot of arm strength, at an awkward angle.
It is better if you go into the loop with your thumb, have it next to you, and can continue to walk forward with your hand and pull your foot closer, stretching as usual.
When you notice that the stretching decreases, always do the same thing, go a little further into the stretch until you eventually reach the buttocks.
What you must pay total attention to in the whole exercise is that from about here you must ensure that your pelvis really rests, that your groin rests or the hip bone, which is this bone that is noticeable here, which is usually where the coin pocket is on jeans.
This area must be resting, the hip must not be bent, and then this exercise has the greatest efficiency.
If you click up here, you will find more of our videos.
Take a look. Goodbye, until next time.