I’ve had many friends, family members and clients complain of sciatica lately, so I wanted to write a post for them. I wanted to start out by showing you the anatomy of the piriformis muscle and sciatic nerve. You can see how a tight piriformis would agrivate the sciatic nerve. It’s relatively rare, but in some people, the nerve actually goes RIGHT THROUGH THE MIDDLE of the muscle. You can see the variations in anatomy in the images below.
Then I realized that Physical Therapist and fellow Restorative Exercise™ Specialist, Susan McLaughlin, wrote an excellent blog on this recently. So I decided to stop writing and direct you there rather than “reinvent the wheel”. Read how to get rid of Sciatica here.
The Piriformis Stretch (aka Number Four Stretch) might look familiar to you if you read my last blog. I showed you how to do this same stretch standing. I love the standing version; however, I recommend practicing it laying down (as Susan teaches) too. Doing it this way will allow you to focus more closely on the alignment.
Enjoy!
Anthology Wellness 