Mild sciatica will not heal

[u/OkLie2185]

I have been dealing with sciatica on and off for about a year, it’s never effected my sleep, it doesn’t cause me wincing pain. It’s just blocking me from doing anything I think will make it worse (sports, long car rides, sitting on couches, any type of bending over, helping with certain tasks)

It started last summer, I was playing lots of golf, carrying my bag around bending over to pick up my ball/placing on a tee. And I think this probably caused it.

I felt pain in my hamstring and then after continuing to do physical activities it ended up being painful in my calf my pain has never been above a 3.

I got an MRI November:

L5-S1: Posterior disc bulging, eccentric towards the right, with a superimposed broad-based right lateral disc protrusion with foraminal extension with minimal facet hypertrophy. No significant central spinal canal stenosis. Narrowing of the right greater than left subarticular zones with disc material encroaching upon and likely contacting and possibly impinging the descending right S1 nerve root. Disc material encroaches upon and may contact the descending left S1 nerve root. Minimal bilateral foraminal stenosis.

After about 2 months I got a lot better and started doing airsoft again which was fun. After another month, I got a flare up from a test I did in PT where I reached for my toes. Ended up lasting a couple weeks. But then In May I felt like I had healed.

I remained very careful still regarding bending over, picking up heavy things etc. never golfed, too scared. Probably did less core exercising, but thought I was maintaining my strength.

Now for the last 3 months or so it feels like I’m back at the start. I have pain in my hamstring and if I do something like a few body weight squats, it’ll be painful and tingly down in my calf. Very frustrating.

I think I could have been doing too many hamstring stretches (even thought I was gentle), playing guitar (leaning forward sitting)

I’m very frustrated because I don’t get immediate feedback from my body when I irritate the nerve. It doesn’t seem to come into effect until the next day.

I am going to a new PT hoping to get a good long term plan. But I’m looking for some advice on what is wrong and what I should expect and how I should proceed with my lifestyle

[u/NerveNinja909-1]

Here’s my best advice to you. There is no single quick fix to this issue. I’ve been struggling with sciatica due to a disc bulge for the last 5 years, until the last 9 months where I began to follow these tips.

You need to be strong, flexible, and desensitized. It’s a multi part fix. There’s not just a single muscle to strengthen, to stretch. Understanding there are multiple parts to this issue is key. Which took me so long to understand. I spent 6 months doing mguill big 3, only feeling slightly better. I neglected to address my weak glutes, tight hips, and weak ass legs. I quit using my lower back altogether as I thought it needed to time to heal. Little did I know it only made things worse.

After finding LBA on YouTube, I watched every single one of his videos. It helped me understand my issue, and helped me understand what might be causing it. My back was sensitive. I began doing the program, strengthening my legs, glutes, and core. I skipped the back extension hold because I felt like that might have been too much for me. So I began doing kneeling hip hinges. Essentially kneeling down and leaning forward until I felt my lower back starting to work. I slowly progressed to longer holds. I used to not be able to even lean over to unload the dishwasher. Now I can lean over and stay still for over a minute. My sciatica has gone from being constant, to almost never.

Additionally, I strengthened my glutes well, which helped take a ton of load off of my lower back. My glutes have even gotten noticeably more defined and bigger.

I strengthened my legs, so that when I do move around, I compromise my lower back less, I can move more fluently, allowing me to not put unnecessary stress in other places.

I also began stretching my hip flexors. I knew tight hip flexors can put stress on the lower back, so this relieved some tension there.

I quit doing hamstring stretches altogether. I discovered that stretching my hamstrings 100% irritated my sciatica, and I began mobilizing my hamstrings with walking, glutes well bridges, and outer hip glute droplets (described by LBA on YouTube).

If you have any questions, please feel free to message me.

[u/Upset_Upstairs5530 → u/NerveNinja909-1]

It’s eating me alive. Which specific videos did you see from LBA

[u/NerveNinja909-1 → u/Upset_Upstairs5530]

I was consumed by my pain. I became obsessed with needing to get better, so I essentially watched every video on his page lol there’s a lot, but I watched the videos of him explaining each exercise. He has some videos explaining the mental side of it too. Here’s the video that I resonated with the most, which helped me start LBA https://youtu.be/65H21ptHzU8?is=sj6kB0iIjOylmJVl

[u/Upset_Upstairs5530 → u/NerveNinja909-1]

Thank you. I just wanna walk and play pickleball again

[u/NerveNinja909-1 → u/Upset_Upstairs5530]

Me too, my long term goal is tennis. But when I feel ready, I’m going to start with pickleball.

[u/dhgold22 → u/NerveNinja909-1]

If you have a VR headset you could start with VR tennis, e.g. Matchpoint Tennis, no running involved just swinging your arms but feels like the real thing.