If you’ve had it, you know it’s quite literally a pain in the butt (hip, leg and/or foot). Sciatica is something 80% of us will experience in life. Fortunately, the majority of those cases can be relieved with simple changes in movement habits. In this article you’ll learn why sciatica happens and how to relieve it. Plus, you’ll find a free video at the end of the article to try some somatic exercises that can help.

What is sciatica?

The name of the symptoms comes from the source: the sciatic nerve. This is the largest and thickest nerve in your body. Several nerves come together from the lumbar spine, through the sacral vertebrae to create the sciatic nerve, which runs through the buttocks and all the way down each leg. The sciatic nerve is responsible for most of the sensation and motor control of your legs and feet.

As you can see from the visual above, this nerve is passing through an area of the body that deals with a lot of load and movement over the years. Compression of the sciatic nerve can occur in your spine, due to a herniated (bulging) disc, or after the nerve has exited the spine.

Symptoms of a compressed sciatic nerve include:

• Pain radiating from the lower back into the hip and down the leg
• Shooting pain or a burning sensation in the leg and foot
• Pain that becomes worse when sitting
• Tingling, numbness, or weakness in the leg and foot
• Difficulty moving the leg

It’s almost always functional

By the time you get diagnosed with sciatica, it’s most often a result of a herniated disc. It can also be caused by degenerative disc disease, spinal stenosis, spondylolisthesis, pregnancy, tumors, or infection.

That said, it almost always starts with something functional within your body. Day to day, we put our bodies through repetitive activities. Whether it’s sitting or standing for long periods of time, any kind of repetitive activity starts to take its toll. As muscles tighten in your body, misalignments start to occur. This leads to more tension, imbalances, and compression.

Tight lower back muscles are especially problematic for many people, and are a key factor in developing sciatica.

Some warning signs of sciatica to look out for include:

• Persistent lower back tightness or pain
• Mild tingling or occasional numbness in the leg, foot, or toes
• Imbalanced body mechanics or posture, such as functional uneven leg length or scoliosis

Why does lower back tension happen?

Our muscles are controlled by our nervous system, which is learning how to use our muscles more efficiently all the time. Unfortunately, that isn’t always a good thing.

The nervous system doesn’t know what’s good or bad for you. It just wants to make sure you’re able to do your regular tasks as easily as possible. Then, when you go to do something different than usual (like go skiing for a day, but you haven’t gone in months or years) you’ll ‘throw out’ your back, or worse.

Lower back tension is usually the result of years of your body being tuned for doing the same tasks. Your nervous system keeps working at keeping the muscles you need for those tasks active. That means the muscle fibres are getting tighter and tighter over time. This eventually leads to compression in your spine and hips, which can cause sciatica.

Thankfully, our nervous system is plastic, and our bodies have an amazing ability to learn and adapt if we just put a little bit of time and effort in daily.

Now that you’ve learned why sciatica happens, it’s time to learn how to relieve it.

How to use Clinical Somatics and Restorative Yoga to prevent and ease sciatica symptoms

Clinical somatics is an exercise practice that helps restore your muscles by re-educating your nervous system. Slow, gentle movements make this an ideal practice for all ages and fitness levels. Restorative Yoga compliments the practice by allowing the muscles you’ve worked on through somatics relax deeply and lengthen gently, with the support of props to avoid any straining which can trigger spasms.

This unique combination of modalities is an ideal way to prevent and recover from painful physical problems such as sciatica, therefore making all your favourite activities easier. It can increase mobility, improve balance, eliminate chronic pain, and so much more.

Many of my clients have also experienced improved mood, and feel their mind-body connection has never been better since practicing somatics and restorative yoga. By practicing somatics and restorative yoga, you’re setting yourself up for a life of joyful movement for years to come.

Experience it yourself

In this free YouTube video , I walk you through two exercises that help reduce tension in the hips and lower back, and can help ease compression that leads to sciatica. Somatics takes practice, and isn’t a quick fix. So bookmark the video and revisit it a few days a week for the next month, and see how this routine can change your body.

Watch it Now.