Category Archives: Sciatica

Poor Posture Is A Common Cause Of Lower Back Pain

Are you suspicious that your poor posture or slouching might be causing your lower back pain?

You may be right!

Your spine is supposed to be shaped like this skeleton on the left.

Do you see the nice curves?

That’s how your spine is supposed to look.

But if you sit on your tailbone–if you are a ‘sacrum sitter’–instead of sitting flat on your ‘sit bones’, then you are almost guaranteed to have low back pain. Probably upper back, neck or head pain, too.

Now look at the skeleton below.

She has lost the curve in the lower back. This person is quite likely a sacrum sitter–she slouches and slumps instead of sitting on the sit bones.

When you were a little child you could get away with variations of posture. That’s because children use all of their muscles all of the time. Their muscles are balanced. 🙂

But when we grow up most people only use some of their muscles, some of the time. You got out of muscular balance. 🙁

But that’s okay because bodies heal all the time. Bodies are capable of changing.

Do you have to take action? You surely do; there is no way around it.

But you can do it! There is a lot of good information here at Simple Back Pain Relief to help you learn how to correct your posture and stop Continue reading Poor Posture Is A Common Cause Of Lower Back Pain →

Lower Back Pain, Natural Back Pain Relief, Sciatica

How To Massage Gluteal Muscles For Back Pain Relief

June 6 Kathryn Merrow 4 Comments

Your gluteal muscles (your powerful buttock muscles) can cause pain in your hips, sacroiliac joints, your legs, lower back and feet.

You can massage your own gluteals (or glutes, for short) and it’s pretty easy.

A tennis ball or similar ball that is quite firm is a good tool you can use. This ball will cause pressure on the muscles and that will cause them to relax. Directions are below.

You could also use something larger like a small piece of carpet rolled into a tight tube, oh, maybe 2 feet long. Or, you can make your own “tennis ball” by rolling a face cloth into a relatively round ball shape and tying it with rubber bands.

Here’s how to use your pain-relieving pressure tool:

You will lie on the firm carpet roll or ball. Yes, it is as simple as that. 🙂

Lay on your back (preferably on the floor–if you lay on the bed, a lot of the ball gets lost in the mattress but if you have to be on the bed, then look for a larger firm ball) and place the tube or ball in the center of your glute on one side.

Look for the most uncomfortable place on your glute and place it there or roll onto it. Just move thoughtfully around until you find the place that hurts most and leave it on the ball. (You’re aiming for soft tissue/muscle. You don’t want to press on bones although sometimes really tight gluteal muscles might make you think of bones.)

And then just lay there. No moving is necessary.

Let gravity work for you.

In about 5 minutes, you will notice that you really don’t feel the ball much anymore in that spot. That means your gluteal muscles are relaxing. So move a little bit to find the Continue reading How To Massage Gluteal Muscles For Back Pain Relief →

Lower Back Pain, Sciatica

Which Muscles In Your Lower Back Can Cause Sciatic Pain

February 10 Kathryn Merrow Leave a comment

Are you having pain in your lower back that radiates down into your hip or leg? It might be sciatica or pseudosciatica.

True sciatica involves pressure on the sciatic nerve as it leaves the spine.

Pseudosciatica or ‘false sciatica’ is caused by pressure on the sciatic nerve by muscles next to your spine called QL. Pressure can also be caused by the gluteal muscles (buttocks) as it starts the journey to your leg.

The QL or quadratus lumborum muscles are often the cause of nervy pain called sciatica that runs down your leg. They are also the cause of lower back aches.

Sometimes they are called the four-sided devils. (They do have 4 sides.)

These muscles on each side of your waist are called QL’s for short. The quadratus lumborum muscles are used for twisting and tilting.

Golfing can aggravate them as can any twisting or tilting to the side. Twisting while Continue reading Which Muscles In Your Lower Back Can Cause Sciatic Pain →

Sciatica

Sciatica and Piriformis Syndrome

June 20 Kathryn Merrow 2 Comments

You probably already know that there are far fewer back surgeries performed today than there used to be.

The reason is because too many times after surgery folks still had the same pain. It didn’t go away. That’s because the diagnosis for the cause of the pain was incorrect.

Muscles are the most common cause for pain and they are also the most commonly overlooked or ignored cause.

So sometimes a person truly does need surgery. But surgery should always be a last resort. Once something is removed or fused it’s changed forever.

And if it doesn’t cure your problem it makes it harder for natural methods to succeed. Maybe not impossible, just harder.

Probably the biggest problem with surgery for sciatica is that it’s only addressing the immediate symptom. It’s not addressing the muscle imbalances that probably caused the problem in the first place.

When your muscles are “out of balance” you get into pain.

That’s why you didn’t have pain when you were an active child; you were using ALL of your muscles then. And that’s why you have pain now; you aren’t using them all anymore.

You might not move much these days, right? 🙁

You see, when your muscles are out of balance they pull your spine out of the position it is supposed to be in.

Did you realize that just about everything that happens in your body has a cause? If you fall, you get a cut or bruise or broken bone. The reason was because you fell. Cause and effect.

Get rid of the cause and you can change the effect.

So if you really want to get lasting relief from sciatica, the very first thing you must do is figure out which muscles are out of balance and causing your pain. The second thing is to treat them and get them back to neutral.

I remember years ago when I was a new massage therapist. An elderly woman came in complaining of “sciatica.” As soon as I placed my hand on the gluteal (buttock) muscles on the side she complained about, I could Continue reading Sciatica and Piriformis Syndrome →

Sciatica

What Causes Sciatica And What Is Sciatica, Anyway

June 17 Kathryn Merrow Leave a comment

What is the best treatment for sciatica? And what IS sciatica, anyway?

You have a very large nerve that runs through your hip. There is one on each side of your body. This nerve is about the size of your finger in diameter.

When you have sciatic pain or nervy pain in your hip (buttock or gluteal muscle) or leg it’s caused by pressure on the sciatic nerve.

Nerves hate pressure! If another part of your body–a bone or muscle–presses on your sciatic nerve it will complain by giving you nervy pain.

Disks in your spine that are “bulging” can press on the sciatic nerve. (But what caused the disks to bulge?)

So can bone sometimes press. And so can the muscle in your hip (butt) called the piriformis.

But why?

When the pressure comes from the piriformis muscle, it is often Continue reading What Causes Sciatica And What Is Sciatica, Anyway →

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