How To Treat Sciatic Nerve Pain At Home - Stenosis

hey what's up guys Jared Beck strand here doctor of physical therapy tone and tighten calm talking today all about low back pain and sciatica nerve pain specifically one of the reasons why you get it and some simple stretches and exercises that you can do to hopefully feel better coming at you right now [Music] all right you guys hey thanks so much for joining me today I'm excited to talk to you guys about sciatica about degenerative discs about stenosis I hope this helps a lot of you guys out I'm stoked that you're here a quick plug for my channel if you haven't done so already I hope you hit the subscribe button down below I try to share a lot of great tips like this I hope I can help you guys out now before we get too far into this it's important that I mentioned to you that not all low back pain is created the same not low back pain comes from the same sources depending on what the source is I'm going to treat it differently as a physical therapist and so today I'm actually shooting this video in response to a video that I shot a couple of weeks ago this video today is going to be specifically about degenerative disc disease stenosis and sciatica due to those issues now if you're looking for help with a bulged disc or a herniated disc sciatica due to those symptoms I would actually treat it completely differently than what I'm going to show you today and so what I'm going to do I shot a video for those things again if it's a herniated disc or a bulged disc what I want you to do is click on this link right up here there's a little link that'll take you to that video I'm also going to leave the link in the description down below this video those are the things that I want you guys to do for a bulged disc or a herniated disc today we're going to talk a little bit more about a degenerative disc condition again treated completely different so I click those links depending on what you need now okay so let's get into it I've brought my spine model out to help you guys to visualize this one so our heard break column is a series of bones that are stacked one on top of the other and they're separated by these vertebral discs now the discs the purpose of the discs is to create some mobility so we can bend you know forward and backwards we can bend side-to-side and we can also rotate our spine is super mobile it's also a way that it's going to add some shock absorption you know while we're you know running jumping walking it's just a way to create a little bit more of again just a shock absorption for those forces now the discs are very aqueous in nature that means that they're water-based and when we're younger we have 100% of disk height meaning that those vertebrae are there's a good separation to those vertebrae and you can see that the important thing to mention there is that these yellow parts right here these yellow plastic parts on this model those are all spine nerves now those spine nerves exit out each of your vertebrae it's actually a joint between two vertebrae that kind of create a hold in the site and we refer to that hole as a diamond or a vertebral foramen now the space on that foramen is directly related to the height of your disk meaning the higher the disk the bigger the hole that that nerve can exit out of now in the case of degenerative disc disease or DDD what happens is basically as we get older our discs lose their ability to retain fluid and so they kind of dry out if you will when they dry out they flatten out and so we're we're used to having you know 100% disk height now maybe we had 80 percent or 70 or six or even 50 percent discount some of them you know really bad cases there's no disc height there whatsoever the problem that that generates is now all of a sudden where we only have you know 50 60 percent disc height now we only have 50 60 percent of that hole diameter through which that nerve can pass and so with the shrinking discs comes the shrinking hole that shrinking hole that's the condition that we refer to as stenosis and that's where as soon as that nerve starts getting bugged as soon as that hole starts to pitch on that nerve that's what causes that numbness those tingling symptoms down your leg even that pain that we refer to as sciatica all right so how does this Anatomy relate to function so typically anything that closes down those holes meaning if I bend over backwards that's actually going to decrease the diameter of that vertebral foramen and that pinches on that nerve so anything bending back in this position even standing walking things like that are going to be aggravating if you have this condition now conversely anything going forward if I were to bend this spine forward that opens up those holes that creates more space for that vertebrae and so those are the positions that these people typically prefer now that we have a little bit better understanding of the anatomy let's show you guys some of my favorite exercises I've got about eight or nine stretches and exercises but I want to run you guys through that you can do right now today that are hopefully going to alleviate some of these DDD and stenosis conditions and help that sciatica to feel a little bit better alright so like with the other videos that I've done I had to go get my professional model / physical therapist exercise demonstrator / they on the one who will help you that's the other one right now my wife Camille is going to help demonstrate these exercises for you guys I'm gonna walk you through how to do them again we're gonna share about eight of my favorite exercises to help treat your sciatic nerve pain due to this the generative disc or the stenosis condition that we've talked about and so the first one she's going to do is lay down on her back begin the goal with all of these is to just create a little more space in that vertebral foramen that we mentioned to open that hole up a little bit wider so anything that we're going to do to promote flexion to promote you know that spine flexion position is going to help to open up those nerves or open up those holes for those nerves and so the first exercise she's going to get into is just a simple lumbar rotation stretch she's laying on her back with her knees bent she's gonna drop both of her knees over to her left side just until she feels a comfortable stretch through the right side she's gonna get that through her right hip and up into her right lower back again keep it comfortable shouldn't be painful hold it there for about 10 seconds and then she's gonna drop both of her knees back this way dropping to the right should feel a stretch through the left and up into the left lower back again ten seconds to each side so she's gonna hold for about ten there and then repeat that three to five times our next exercise is going to be a single knee to chest stretch and so I'm gonna have her kick her right leg out straight and then all she's gonna do is give this left leg a big hug she's gonna pull that knee right up into her chest hands on the hamstring her hands on the shin either way is going to be effective the goal here again is to create that flexion in your hip to create a little more space in that lower back if you've got that tightness that goes up through your upper glue this is going to be a great stretch to help alleviate that she will hold this for 20 seconds and then she would repeat that on the right side for 20 seconds three times the next stretch we're just gonna jump right into the next she's like walk around in circles the next stretch is gonna be a double knee to chest so now she's gonna hug both of her knees into her chest this is kind of a progression to that single knees stretch we're gonna open up even a little bit more flexion you're gonna fill this a little bit more in your lower back some people kind of prefer one to the other that's why I like to demonstrate both find which one works for you again a 20 second hold here about three times is what she's going to do okay go ahead and bring your feet down the next one's going to be a pair of formas to stretch you've got a muscle that sits deep deep to your glute it's called your piriformis i'd say nine people out of ten who walk into my clinic with low back pain have some tightness in this piriformis muscle this is a great exercise not only to stretch that piriformis but to also introduce that lumbar flexion and that kind of that hip rotation that we need so both knees are bent she's gonna cross her left leg over her right and then with her head she's gonna kind of SH reach down into this gap hook her right leg right behind her thigh and then pull her right knee up into her right shoulder now the goal here is to feel a stretch on that left side again kind of deep in that glue as where she's gonna feel that 20 seconds three times is a good number to shoot for for the piriformis stretch now what we're going to do is flip her over into a kind of a crawl position a kneeling position and we're gonna get into a great yoga pose is a child's pose and so she gets down and you know hands are way out in front and then she's just gonna basically sit down on her heels kind of tuck your chin down into your chest and you feel this stretch again we're just trying to round out that spine we're trying to create space in those intervertebral foramina and so in this position she's got this nice open rounded spine she's gonna hang out here for 20 seconds she's gonna do that three times now this one's a little bit more aggressive especially if you do have knee pain to kind of sit down into this position so just keep that in mind if this is too aggressive though single knee to chest and those Meeta chest exercises are good alternatives for this way okay I'm gonna flip her back onto her back and so now again the idea is that we want to create space for those nerves to exit out of those holes in your spinal cord and then what we want to do is try to strengthen in that position that's one thing to kind of stretch to that spot but what we want to do now is strengthen and stabilize in that position so that it gives you more relief even after the stretch is done stretch does feel good while you're doing them strengthening is what's going to help you to feel good kind of throughout the rest of the day and hopefully throughout the rest of your life and so to do that what we're going to do first is going to be just a simple posterior pelvic tilt she's laying on her back right now and you can see that I can slide my hands underneath her back that means that her back has that arch in it a little bit that's closing down those holes what we want to do is open up those holes by introducing a posterior pelvic tilt so she's gonna rock her hips backwards and flatten her back down into the mat you'll see that now I can't get my hand underneath there because what she has done is actually rocked her hips in this posterior direction to flatten her back down into that spine now what she's going to do is activate those muscles in her stomach and so she's gonna contract her abdomen and she's gonna hold that for about a five-second count so flatten your back tighten your tummy hold that for a five-second count and then relax and then she's gonna do it again she's gonna flatten her back again rocking her hips backwards flatten her tummy so tighten those muscles in your stomach hold for a five-second count again what we're doing is we're putting that spine in a more neutral position so we're opening up those holes and then we want to train it and stabilize it in that position the progression to this would be to add some marches to it oh so on this the three sets of ten so you do about 10 of these contractions hold it for about five seconds and then you'll repeat that three times the next progression to this is going to be a posterior pelvic tilt with a March and so we're going to get into that same position she's gonna rock her hips backwards she's gonna flatten her back she's gonna tighten her tummy now what I want her to do is hold that position while we lift this left knee up to my hand and then right back down then the right knee up to my head and then back down and then she's going to relax and so I like to kind of relax and reset the system if you will if you will between each rep flatten your back tighten your tummy up so I can't get my hand under here her backs nice and flat to the table stomach is nice and tight March left up to my hand March right up to my hand and then relax now as you get stronger and as you are more capable of holding that contraction we're gonna add more and more marches to us so now she's gonna flatten her back tighten her tummy hold that contraction left right left right and now she can relax um I don't want you to hold your breath while you do this remember just try to keep breathing she's in the Turia's keep breathing while you're doing this and shoot for about ten marches on each side three times our last exercise that I want to show you guys our last strengthening stabilization exercise is going to be crunch know those marches that we just did are great for the lower abs if we want to work on the upper abs as well again just trying to strengthen and stabilize that whole system we're gonna do some crunches for that so what she's gonna do is reach both hands down towards her thighs and then we're gonna get into that posterior pelvic tilt position rock your pelvis back tighten your tummy up and then what she's going to do is lift her shoulder blades up off of the table slide her fingertips to her kneecaps and then right back down and so again we're in this nice neutral spine position we've got that posterior pelvic tilt and then she's just gonna lift her shoulder blades up off of the spine sliding those fingertips to her kneecaps that's how I like to teach crunches a lot of people will do it with their hands back here behind their head you have a tendency to kind of crank on your neck a little bit more while you're doing that you'll see that she's maintaining what we call a nice open neck so I want her face looking straight up at the ceiling it's not crewing forward creating tension in her neck and so that's what the crunches look like nice good and so that's it you guys about again eight of my favorite exercises and stretches that are gonna help you in the treatment and management of that degenerative disk condition that stenosis condition and the sciatica that those things can cause and so I hope you guys enjoyed this video if you did go ahead and do me a huge ever hit that thumbs up button down below and thank you so much for those likes in advance also if you have any questions about anything that I've discussed in this video please leave those down below and I'll get to those comments just as soon as I can also it's a great chance to subscribe to Toto Titan if you haven't done so already love to see you guys back here for more future videos and in the meantime you guys we'll see you right back here on tone and tighten [Music]

Channel: Tone and Tighten

Views: 321,867

Rating: 4.9383636 out of 5

Keywords: How to treat sciatic nerve pain at home, how to treat low back pain, Degenerative disc disease, sciatic nerve pain, exercises for degenerative disc disease, exercises for sciatica, exercises for stenosis, how to treat sciatica, how to treat degenerative disc disease, spine stenosis, how to treat stenosis, what is stenosis, what is sciatica, disc degeneration and stenosis, physical therapy for back pain, physical therapy for sciatica, sciatica, DDD, stenosis, low back pain

Id: bgY7uWPOlRA

Length: 14min 1sec (841 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 28 2019