What is Sciatica and How Do I Fix It?

Do you experience radiating pain or tingling and numbness from your back side down the back of your leg and possibly all the way to your toes?  Have you been diagnosed with sciatica?  If so, you’ve no doubt come here looking for sciatic treatment and I’m so glad you did.

You’re about to learn some inside information about sciatica that you very likely have never heard before.  I’m also going to give you some very effective exercises for sciatica to give you some quick back pain relief.

Many people suffering from sciatic pain will go through today’s conventional sciatic treatments and get temporary sciatic pain relief only to be struck down with sciatic pain again sometime in the future.  Why?  Because the medical community so often focuses in on pain relief that they rarely take the time to zero in on what actually caused the problem in the first place.  I want you to become more educated about your body and what actually causes sciatic pain.  The more you know, the faster your lasting back pain relief will be.

Let’s start with the 4 primary conditions that cause sciatica. This is where the medical community usually starts and ends.  Once we know what our condition is, we need to dig down to the next level to find the root cause so we can attack it once and for all.  And this is where the magic lies.

Piriformis Syndrome is the most common cause of sciatic pain. This is when the piriformis muscle contracts in such a way as to put pressure on the sciatic nerve.  Your doctor may have diagnosed this condition in you but did he tell you how it happened?  Did you ask? 

It’s muscle imbalances. Muscle imbalances pull the hips, lower back and pelvis out of place causing the piriformis muscle to change its position which can then lead to it impinging the sciatic nerve causing your sciatic pain.  We’ll go into muscle imbalances more in a minute but for now let’s look at the remaining three conditions that can cause sciatica.

Herniated Discs are the second leading cause of sciatic pain.

A herniated or bulging disc occurs whenever the vertebrae impinge upon the spongy discs and cause them to protrude out from between the vertebrae kind of like a water balloon when you squeeze it a little. This herniation may or may not cause sciatica. When the disc protrudes and puts pressure on the sciatic nerve is when the sciatica occurs. Quite often though, a herniation can occur where the disc protrudes in the opposite direction from the sciatic nerve presenting a different kind of problem.  Herniated discs can be caused by some quick, traumatic event such as a sports injury or other accident but often times they occur over long periods of time as a result of uneven pulling on the spine due to muscle imbalances.

Spinal Stenosis is a narrowing of the spinal canal which can also put undue pressure on the sciatic nerve causing sciatic pain.  If you have spinal stenosis, there is a good chance that muscle imbalances have been at work pulling your spine into an abnormal position.

Spondylolisthesis is another condition that can cause sciatic pain. This occurs when a vertebrae slips a little out of alignment.  This condition does not normally cause sciatic pain but if the vertebrae slips just enough that it pinches the sciatic nerve then you will experience sciatic pain here as well.  Once again, there is a good chance that muscle imbalances were at play here and they were not working together to hold the spine in place.

So you’ve undoubtedly picked up on a common theme with all 4 of these conditions, right?  Yes, there is a very good chance that all of these conditions were caused by muscle imbalances.  So what are these muscle imbalances and how do I correct this problem?

Your body is a very complex machine with all of the muscles working together in a delicate balance to keep you standing upright and properly aligned.  When we work one muscle group too much and don’t work another one at all, the muscles become imbalanced and they start pulling on your spine, hips and joints unevenly causing multiple problems.

This can be caused by having to sit or stand in one position for a long period of time day after day.  Or maybe it’s a cyclist who rides long distances, crouched over in cyclist form for an extended period of time and doesn’t stretch those muscles when finished or who doesn’t work the opposite, complimentary muscles.

Can you see how this could cause a problem?

Fortunately, there is almost always an answer.  You just need to be given the tools to find it.  Play the percentages and start by identifying and correcting your muscle imbalances.  You should start to see improvement very quickly and could get relief from your sciatic pain in a few weeks or even a few days.

Learn as much as you can about your condition so you can focus your efforts on correcting it for good.

In the meantime, you may be experiencing some serious sciatic pain right now so click here for a simple but very effective sciatica stretch video that may bring you quick relief from your sciatica pain.