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| The key to smart stretching is to move into the stretch slowly and to stop as you tickle the edge of discomfort. Then, as your muscles relax and the discomfort subsides, SLOWLY increase your stretch until you are once again tickling the edge of discomfort. |
A conversation overheard
I happened to overhear a conversation between two women who were slightly older than I am.
Brenda was having a great deal of lower-leg pain.
Diane USED to have a lot of leg pain.
Diane shared that her doctor diagnosed issues with her sciatic nerve. She considered that a great stroke of diagnostic work because sciatic nerve issues can present and several different ways.
The doctor prescribed a regimen of stretching exercises as well as modest amounts of ibuprofen to minimize inflamation.
Diane said it worked!
I listened as Diane pried information out of Brenda. Brenda slept on her belly. Diane slept on her belly. (This is a tribute to my non-threatening demeanor. Women volunteer intimate details of what they do in bed and they pay no more attention to me than they would to a fly-on-the-wall)
Diane claimed that one of the things that helped her leg pain was to stick her feet off the end of the mattress and let them point straight down when she HAD to sleep on her belly. She claimed that splaying her feet caused some muscles to not relax and elongate when she slept, thereby putting compression on some of the nerves running down her legs.
Getting old can be tough
Memories of those accidentally overheard conversations come back as I get older and my feet hurt more...or they tingle...or they feel "funny" when they are cold.
This is not medical advice. This is educational advice. If you have foot and/or lower leg pain it might be worth your time to use your favorite search engine and look up "Exercises sciatica" or "stretches sciatica".
By all means, see your doctor, but also consider doing the stretches. I don't see how it could hurt.
They work! Stretching is the 'easiest' way to get better.
ReplyDeleteI have had agonizing sciatic nerve pain for six months now. No amount of stretching or exercise improves it. I'm up to 16 ibuprofen per day - it is now a food group. I'm starting to understand why people give up and jump off buildings.
ReplyDeleteAn old doctor told me that if I had sciatica, I should be certain never to carry anything in my back pockets, not even a business card. What was a persistent and, at times constant problem is now a mild and rare issue.
ReplyDeleteIn my mid 50s I started experiencing pain that was worrisome for sciatica. I continued exercising including running while worrying if something bad in the back was developing.
ReplyDeleteI found "Dr. Jo's" videos to be very helpful.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=piriformis+stretch+dr+jo
After watching a couple her videos, I thought I found what I was experiencing was something she described as a tensed piriformus muscle that I think runs side to side across the top of your butt. I added some of her stretches to my daily routine and I'll be darned if the problem improved and then disappeared. I did change one other habit, in that these special back stretches really need to be an everyday thing, not just on exercise days.
Whether someone you know has the same problem or something similar, her videos of stretches and exercises are worth a look.