First Sciatic Stretch

Dr. Ben Boudreau: Great. This first stretch is called the scissor stretch for the sciatic nerve. As we know, it exits through the buttock and down into the hamstrings to supply the toes with sensation.

Dr. Clayton Roach: We’re not using scissors to cut the nerve. But it’s called the scissor stretch.

Dr. Ben Boudreau: What you do is you stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, just like so, and you’re going to place the irritated leg half a foot in front. Then what you’ll do is let your glutes fall back and reach forward for your toes. Just reaching ahead in this position. Make sure that the back stays flat.

My core is nice and braced right now. I can feel that stretch acting through the back of my leg, stretching that sciatic nerve, and then you reach right back up. You can do the same thing and alternate with the other foot. And reaching down for that toe. A great stretch too, even at home.

Dr. Clayton Roach: Yes. And the key to that is holding the stretch for at least 10 seconds and doing it 2 to 3 times a day. Some of you might want to flow through that stretch, go down, and come back up, especially if you’ve got that bad raging sciatic nerve pain where you can’t sustain holding it for 10 seconds. You can get out of it sooner and do it multiple times daily. So, a great sciatic stretch is called the scissor stretch. This is a stretch performance standing.

Another good sciatic stretch we’ll do is sitting.

Second Sciatic Stretch

Dr. Ben Boudreau: This great stretch in a seated position is called sciatic nerve floss. And so, in a nice, seated position here, feet are shoulder-width apart. As you can see, you’re going to point the irritated leg forward in a relaxed position. You let the toe.

Dr. Ben Boudreau: Point towards the floor in a stretch position. You’ll take the toe and slowly point it towards your nose.

Dr. Clayton Roach: It’s automatically by doing this. If you recall, that nerve is being tethered one way because the sciatic nerve extends right underneath the foot.

Dr. Ben Boudreau: Again, to decrease the tension on that nerve, you’ll point the toe. To get a deeper stretch, performing the sciatic nerve floss, you’ll point the toe toward your nose and bend your neck forward.

Dr. Clayton Roach: Now you’re stretching the nerve at both ends, starting from the mid-lower back. You can feel the stretch. The sciatic nerve doesn’t come from the mid back, but you are stretching it at both ends, increasing your stress on that sciatic nerve. Some of you might need help to start with that, so definitely only start with that dorsiflexion being the foot coming towards you.

Dr. Ben Boudreau: This stretch can be performed safely on both sides. It can be performed 2 to 3 times a day. And every time you’re performing this stretch, you want to hold it for at least 10 seconds to feel the full effect of that stretch.

Third Sciatic Stretch

Dr. Clayton Roach: Yes, a great side stretch. Now, moving into another stretch that you can do for your sciatic nerve, another great sciatic stretch is still sitting, and we’re going to do the opposite knee to shoulder. Right. So, Ben is going to demonstrate how this works.

Dr. Ben Boudreau: You take the symptomatic or the painful leg and bring it towards the opposite side, stretching through the leg. So, as you can see, you can even bring the heel up and over the opposite knee and pull through, allowing the stretch to be performed through the glute area here.

Dr. Clayton Roach: Now, some of you might notice this stretch through the hamstring in the back of the thigh. Some of you might notice it right in the buttock area. So, depending on where that nerve is being caught is where you’re probably going to feel that again here; you’re going to hold it for at least 10 seconds, doing it 2 to 3 times a day, 2 to 3 times per side.

Dr. Ben Boudreau: Right. Another great sciatic stretch.

Fourth Sciatic Stretch

Dr. Clayton Roach: Absolutely. So now we’re going to go on our back. So, we’re going to get rid of this chair here, and we’re going to talk about another sciatic stretch That’s, you know, sometimes the sciatic nerve can be a stretch a little bit better sitting versus laying down. It depends on you, and it depends on your symptoms. So, we’ll talk about the knee to opposite shoulder sciatic stretch performed, laying down slowly.

Dr. Ben Boudreau: So, take the symptomatic leg, say it’s my left leg here, and take the knee, bring it up, grab behind the knee or on top of it. Either way is fine, and you’ll bring that knee toward the opposite shoulder. So, say I have a symptomatic left leg. I want to bring this knee towards my right shoulder.

Dr. Clayton Roach: And here again, you may feel the stretch, and through your hamstring, the back of the thigh or you may feel it in that area, that buttock area, depending on where the sciatic nerve is being caught. And again, here, you’re going to do it 2 to 3 times per side if you want to do it on the other side if you want to. And you’re going to do it 2 to 3 times per day, maintaining this stretch, at least 10 seconds if you can even longer. If you feel that the stretch is giving you some relief.

A great sciatic stretch specifically for that glute area performance area. Now we’re heading into our fifth sciatic stretch. The pelvic tilts.

Fifth Sciatic Stretch

Dr. Ben Boudreau: Another great stretch that you can do lying down on the floor. I often tell my patients to do this stretch in bed. So, this is something that you can do first thing in the morning. So, what you’ll do is you’ll bring your heels up so you can see that I’m creating a nice arch, a like pattern with my knee. Cracks at the knees. And what I’m going to do here is I’m going to exhale. Letting my belly button fall to the floor. I’m tilting my pelvis backwards. This allows for a nice deep stretch through my lower back. It’s also activating my abdominal area, which is the cylinder for your lower back. I’m going to breathe out here and let my pelvis relax forward.

Dr. Clayton Roach: Now, imagine when Ben is tilting the pelvis. Standing is going to look like this. So, the pelvis is coming back, and you’re creating that stretch along the lower back here. So, the back of the shirt and the muscles are stretching in this fashion. This should be a five-second hold in the back here when your posterior pelvic is tilting, five seconds, hold 2 to 3 times a day. You can do this about ten times every time.

We understand that this might not be convenient for you at work, so we’ve shown multiple ways of stretching the sciatic nerve. But definitely, the pelvic tilt is a great sciatic stretch. Absolutely. Thanks. So here we have the fifth sciatic nerve stretch, a great sciatic stretch we discussed. Five of them. And again, many people are suffering from sciatic nerve issues, which is why it’s such an important topic, especially for us as chiropractors, because it’s what we see in our clinic so often.

Dr. Ben Boudreau: If you like this content, please follow and like us on YouTube, and you can give us a follow on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter to find more great content. This has been an awesome episode. I’m Dr. Ben Boudreau.

Dr. Clayton Roach: I’m Dr. Clayton Roach, and we’ll see you next time.