The sciatic nerve, also known as the ischiatic nerve, is the longest, widest single nerve in the body. It’s the yellow nerve in the diagram on the left. At its largest point, it’s as big around as an index finger. Take a moment to look at your index finger. It’s pretty incredible to have a nerve this large moving through us. It deserves respect.
The nerve roots that will form the sciatic nerve begin in the lower back, coming out of the right and left hand side of the lower spine. The lumbar spine includes five vertebrae (L1 – L5). Below the lumbar spine is the sacrum. The nerves that make up the sciatic nerve come out of the bottom two lumbar vertebrae (L4 and L5 and the top three sacral vertebrae S1, S2, and S3).
These five nerves come together out of L4, L5, S1, S2, and S3 to make the sciatic nerve. They come together right on the front of the piriformis muscle. First two nerves are formed, the tibial and the peroneal. Then those nerves are encased in the sheath that will be referred to as the sciatic nerve. Basically the sciatic nerve is born at the piriformis muscle. But things can get even closer between the sciatic nerve and the piriformis. In about 15% of the population the two nerves – tibial and peroneal – that live in one sheath until they split at the back of the knee, don’t join up until lower than the piriformis.
If this is the case the peroneal nerve segment will pass through the piriformis muscle while the tibial nerve runs in front of it, and then they will join up together to form the sciatic nerve. For some, this will never be an issue. But if the piriformis goes into spasm, then those individuals will feel sciatic pain. Because the peroneal segment is going through that muscle, there’s no real “cure” for that, only a management of the pain by calming down the piriformis. There is a surgery available but it doesn’t often work.
As soon as I started teaching I began to come across people who didn’t seem to be served by stretching. They would come to class regularly, but their hips orhamstrings or whatever, never seemed to change. It took a while but I came to realize that stretching isn’t always the answer. In certain cases we must learn to release the tension and/or trauma from a muscle in order to get to the point where we can stretch it.
If I had to guess, if you have had these issues, you have tried to stretch your way out of whatever problem you are having for a long time. There is a point where you look at your system, situation and condition and say that stretching is not the answer. Unfortunately, for the most part, when you go to doctors with sciatica and piriformis syndrome, they first tell you to stretch and then tell you to have surgery. We need to figure out a way out of that.
For the human nervous system to work at its peak the bones have to be well aligned. And the bones can only be well aligned if the muscles are properly toned—we need toned muscles to allow for the nervous energy to flow.
One solution is to have a more educated look at your muscles. A lot of muscles are tight and a lot of muscles are full of tension. And you can be both; you can be tight and full of tension. A muscle that is tight can very often be stretched open. However, a muscle that is full of tension (carrying physical and emotional tension) must be released out of that tension before it can be healed and repaired.
This is why we emphasize release work – the idea of letting go, the idea of changing conditioned patterns, not by doing more but by doing less and letting go.
Especially when you’re talking about a muscle in spasm like the piriformis or an overly tight or tense muscle like the psoas—stretching is often meaningless because the muscle is in spasm or stuck in contraction. In these cases, a focus on release will be much more productive.
What is the best approach to a muscle – is it best to stretch a muscle to bring it relief from its tension or is the best approach to release a muscle? Stretching the piriformis is about making a muscle longer. Releasing the piriformis is taking a muscle that is over worked and letting it not work; you change its relationship to life.
It is not that you will never want to stretch your muscles but you have to explore for yourself. See what brings you relief but also check in to see if you have ever had the experience of stretching and stretching, but nothing will change. Maybe there is an alternative approach.
2 minute fix from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFKwNffX8zw sciatic flossing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLdUHiJhvGM sukie baxter lateral rotator stretch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oPHrX_oALk askdrjo.com piriformis stretch
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