The following are five goals to keep in mind while doing exercises in the
treatment of sciatica:
To reshape deformities (especially disc deformities)
To strengthen the muscles and improve the endurance of the back and core
To stretch the body parts (especially the hips) that will allow us to be in proper positions with spine stability when doing lifts, carries, bends, etc.
To floss nerves to allow them to move freely
To decompress the spine through spinal traction. Spinal traction causes the vertebra (the bones that form the back) to separate and relieve pressure off the spinal nerves.
IMPORTANT: Be sure to ask yourself: is this exercise helping? The goal in performing exercises is to have pain levels improve and shrink. If you are having pain in your back and your leg, we would like to see the leg pain begin to lessen first. Please recall that the more the sciatica nerve is irritated, the further down the leg the symptoms of pain, numbness, tingling, weakness, and/or burning occur. The reverse is also true. As the nerve becomes less irritated, the symptoms generally improve in an ascending fashion. That translates to less pain, numbness, tingling, weakness and/or burning in the foot or lower leg. This can help you gauge whether your self-treatments are helping
This video is a part of a series of videos on how to treat Sciatica/Back Pain on your own. Check out the full series of videos along with downloadable guide sheets for each video on our website here: http://bobandbrad.com/programs