Sciatic Nerve Pain and Massage

Let’s talk about the dreaded sciatica. Did you know that 40% of the population will experience sciatic pain at some point in their life? Yuck. Did you also know that most of the time, massage can help?

Whether caused by a disc, muscle or joint issue, the pain starts when there is compression of the sciatic nerve.

Once that happens, muscles get tighter to try and protect from that pain, then the tight muscles create even more compression on the nerve. Then your posture might start changing because it hurts to stand up straight… and this can lead to more compression on the nerve. Then the muscles get tighter… and more compression. It is easy to fall into this cycle that just keeps getting worse and more painful. And it is very easy to start feeling helpless and hopeless.

Here is where massage comes in. 1- by loosening the muscles to reduce that nerve compression and 2- by helping to restore proper body mechanics that can help your body naturally combat the original source of sciatic nerve compression.

Doing both of these things can help get you back to a pain free life.

During a massage focused on the sciatic nerve, I work all the muscles in the gluteal region with some specific love on the piriformis muscle, as well as the other deep rotator muscles.

Here is key to getting results though- not just to work the obviously affected muscles. The adjacent muscles often contract and overwork in an attempt to protect the area of pain. So I ALSO spend significant focus in the quadratus lumborum (low back), illio psoas (hip flexors), and other muscles which attach in the area. The hamstrings, IT band and calf can also get some attention.

Although caused by one dang nerve… it is actually a pretty complex area that deals with a lot of deep and dense muscles.

If you’ve been experiencing sciatic pain- let’s see if massage can help you! My approach to it is always to do the least invasive things you can before considering surgery. If massage doesn’t help, then you can consider other options.