Sports Massage for Sciatica

How Sports Massage Can Be An Effective Pain Management Tool For Sciatica

Hip-opening “pin & stretches” for sciatic discomfort.

No one should feel the need to ‘just live with’ sciatica pain. If you’re suffering with it and are looking for a massage for sciatica pain, please do book in for a session with me, or feel free to give me a call for a quick consultation to see if I can help.

Out of all the injuries or pain reported by my clients, sciatica pain (most especially felt as tightness in the hips) is definitely one of the most common. If you do suffer from sciatica pain, you’re not alone — according to a Harvard Medical School Study, around 40% of Americans will experience it at some point throughout their life.

What is it exactly though, and what causes it? 

Sciatica refers to the sciatic nerve that starts in your glutes and extends up through the hips, through the buttocks and down the leg stopping at the knee.

There’s a sciatic nerve on both sides of the body, and so this pain can be felt on either side, but typically a person only feels it on one side.

Actual damage sustained to the nerve is rare, but people can experience irritation or inflammation at the various areas where the nerve extends (i.e. in the hip, the back, the buttocks), which in turn causes pain and discomfort which can feel like a jolt, stabbing, or burning. 

What causes sciatica pain?

There are quite a few things that doctors consider to be causes of sciatic nerve pain, like leading a very active lifestyle or having sustained a previous injury somewhere in that area. However it’s understood that it also tends to be a general side effect of aging.

Is there a treatment for sciatica pain?

Unfortunately there’s no official treatment as such to ‘cure’ sciatica, so managing symptoms as best as possible is the way to go. Massage therapy is one of the top recommendations to minimize sciatica flare-ups, and my clients have reported a great reduction in pain immediately following and in the days and weeks after a sports massage session with me.

As a massage therapist, I can't diagnose a pinched nerve or prescribe any medications.

How I achieve pain relief for clients with sciatica is to tailor my sports massage to focus on the affected areas, as well as starting the session out with techniques that include doing hip opening stretches that help loosen up tension in the gluteus medius, piriformis, and hamstrings, as well as doing some stretches particularly for the hamstrings.

No one should feel the need to ‘just live with’ sciatica pain. If you’re suffering with it and are looking for a massage for sciatica pain, please do book in for a session with me, or feel free to give me a call for a quick consultation to see if I can help.

Sources:

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/12792-sciatica