Redding Massage For Sciatic Pain
Searching for relief from sciatica and sciatic nerve pain? If you are in Redding, Ca and want to learn how massage helps with sciatic nerve pain then read below or call me for a consultation for massage and how it helps. I also encourage you to read below, to further educate yourself. Another Therapeutic Massage Article personally written from the heart by Cheri Davis-Redding Massage Therapist.
530-917-0123
If you found this therapetic massage article for sciatic nerve pain article then you are probably dealing with sciatic nerve pain in your low back, hip, butt(gluteal) region and even down the back of your leg, or a combination there of.
The sciatic nerve runs from the spine in your lower back through your butt(underneath the muscles) and down the back of your leg. In the illustration above if you peeled away the muscles you would see the sciatic nerve.
As you know when you have sciatic nerve pain it can deeply affect your quality of life from sitting, walking, driving, sleep or just any movement in general. I have seen people in my massage practice who are barely able to move from the pain and watched how skilled massage therapy gives their body renewed freedom and range of motion.
If you have had therapeutic massage for sciatica before then you understand how massage can help with the sciatic nerve pain. I have extensive experience helping treat sciatic nerve pain with massage therapy. This will be a shorter article about how massage therapy helps with sciatic nerve pain, if you have questions please feel free to call me and we can talk about your unique situation.
I truly love educating people about how the body works and how massage is great for healing and relaxation.
If you haven’t had therapeutic massage for sciatic nerve pain, read below.
First I am going to start with how massage helps with sciatic pain then further below you can find out what situations can cause sciatic nerve pain, if you do not already know and understand this for yourself.
How does massage therapy help with sciatic nerve pain? Massage helps loosen up tight, bound up muscles that may be compressing(or impinging) the sciatic nerve. Over time muscles get tense and tight and can create very bound up tissue for the sciatic nerve to be able to move and breath in. I work to unwind and open your muscular structure with several different types of massage techniques, all based on what your muscles are telling my hands.
Some techniques of massage therapy(this can be deep tissue massage and/or myofascial release) help to lengthen the (butt)gluteal muscles and the lovely piriformis muscle(ask me about this one) that have become contracted and shortened over time, thus relaxing the these muscles and giving the sciatic nerve space and breathing room. Another way massage therapy helps is to break up adhesions(tight hardened nodules) in the muscles that cause them to get bound up and thick like a rope. Imagine running your fingers over a tight bound up ropey part of the muscles or tight little hardened nodules, and feeling them loosen up.
There are times when tight hip flexor muscles mimic a sciatic nerve pain problem, we can find this about by a client answering a few questions and also me feeling what the hip flexors are doing.
Much of the time a ‘general’ relaxation massage can help with sciatic pain, however specific focused work in opening and releasing the tight, bound up muscles and tissues will give the sciatic nerve more room to open, decompress and breath.
Massage therapy for sciatic nerve pain from disc trauma is a bit different. This section is for people that have sciatic pain from bulging discs, herniated discs, disc trauma and degenerative disc disease. This is pain that is coming from the disc or vertebrae in the spine impinging or compressing the nerve. My massage work here is generally to simply lesson the uncomfortable feeling and help sometimes(depending on the situation) to decompress the discs. These are a total case by case basis and done through extensive communication with myself and my client and also a medical doctor or chiropractor or surgeon.
We can ease general pain because massage helps release feel good hormones into the body and lesson the strain of tight muscles in the surrounding areas to the spine.
**There are some sciatic nerve situations where deep tissue massage is not advised for sciatic pain and like I said, these are through communication with me, you and your doctor, chiropractor or surgeon.**
Read on if you are interested in what situations can cause sciatic nerve pain. The Medical Arts Library puts it this way “Sciatica refers to the symptoms of pain, numbness, tingling, burning sensation or weakness that originate in the lower back, radiate through the buttock, and continue down the back of the thigh, leg and foot. Sciatica occurs when there is compression, inflammation or injury to the sciatic nerve or to its (spinal nerve) roots. This type of pain that radiates along the course of a particular nerve root is called radicular pain. Depending on which nerve root is affected, different areas of the leg may exhibit symptoms.
The most common cause of sciatica is impingement or compression of a nerve root by a herniated disc. A lumbar disc can bulge or herniate causing narrowing of the spinal canal or intervertebral foramen, the hole through which the spinal nerve exits the vertebral column. Likewise, osteoarthritis can cause overgrowth of bone which narrows the spinal canal or foramen. “
Like the Medical Arts Library states above, there are many situations that can cause sciatic nerve pain.
- One of the many causes is tight muscles and connective tissue called fascia that pinch(impinge) or compress on the sciatic nerve.
- Improper body mechanics or body alignment can cause sciatic nerve pain, as the muscles in the body become imbalanced and can cause vertebrae in the spine to become misaligned, thus causing sciatic pain. Improper body mechanics can also cause imbalance in muscles by making some area of muscles work harder than other muscles, and those muscles end up becoming tighter over time. Like someone who stands more on the right leg or hip may develop right side sciatic nerve pain due to the right butt muscles and hip muscles working harder and becoming tighter over time.
- Another cause of sciatic nerve pain is from disc or vertebrae trauma. The sciatic nerve runs between the vertebrae in the spine and are protected by spongy discs. These discs can become injured and that trauma can impinge the sciatic nerve. This happens because the protective cartilage in the spine gets weakened or the boney vertebrae can press on the nerve itself.
I cannot diagnose any disc problems for anyone, those are left to medical doctors, chiropractor and sometime neurosurgeons and the treatment for these situations takes good communication on all parts.
- Sometimes pregnancy can cause sciatic nerve pain as well, as the baby can be pressing into the spine and causing misalignment of the vertebrae thereby causing the sciatic nerve to become agitated, compressed or impinged. Also as women move into their later trimester the hip and gluteal muscles tend to become more tight and this can compress the sciatic nerve too.
Thank you for reading this and feel free to call me for a call for a consultation or a even better…a massage.
Blessings,
Cheri
Massage Therapist and Yoga Teacher in Redding, Ca 2305 Court St. Redding, Ca 96001
530-917-0123
