If you’ve ever had that sharp shooting pain from your butt extending to your thigh and legs then you probably have an understanding of what sciatica is. And yes.. IT SUCKS!
People often think that only people ages 65+ experience sciatica, well they’re wrong. Times are changing and people aren’t living an active and healthy lifestyle as our ancestors did a long time ago. Leading to even the younger population to experience this unforgiving condition.
There are tons of different opinions about sciatica nowadays. About a hundred different ways to fix it, exercises, stretches, medications and even surgery. And this might probably be overwhelming for someone who has no slight clue about what to do.
In this blog, I will share my own experiences as well as experiences from my patients as to how to deal with sciatica and the small changes you can make to reduce your pain. That's right! I've had sciatica too. And to think I’m an active guy in my late 20’s. I found myself at one point struggling to perform barbell squats and it really messed with me. The pain was just unbearable that everytime I squat a sharp shooting pinch gets me and just froze me in place. That was a year ago. Now I’m back to lifting heavy without a slight bit of pain or discomfort in my butt and leg.
You’re probably curious as to what I did. Let’s look back first a year ago about what I did wrong which led me to that in the first place.
My job required me to be on my feet for hours, lifting heavy objects, patients and whatnot. Demonstrating exercises and movements to patients everyday for 5 days a week. All that time I was unaware. That I was leaning toward one leg every time I was standing. My shoes didn't have the best arch support and cushion. And I was doing a lot of the movements repeatedly.
The takeaway from this is you need to be aware of how to position yourself. Are you favoring one side more than the other?. Another was the small things like my shoes and clothes. Are the shoes you are using designed to provide you with the best support? And are your clothes not restricting your mobility or circulation? So things like this are important for us to pick up, to find out if they are contributing to our current state.
And lastly is the things and movements we do on repeat. There is such a thing called “repetitive strain” which means that the more and more you try to repeat a certain action or movement, it will be bound to take damage or injury sooner than you think. So think about it. If you are constantly lifting objects with improper technique, you are bound to have a back strain somewhere down the road.
Keep track of the small changes. Because they could be huge when combined altogether. I hope this sheds some light as to how you can make changes in your environment, whether it's the actions you take, things you use or behaviors you change.
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