I used to have Sciatica

Boy, I never expected to say that.  I never expected to get sciatica. I mean, come on! Me???

However last year, after dropping out my regular consistent workouts because I was ‘too busy’ and ‘too much admin to do’ and ‘too much whatever’, I started getting that pain.

At first, a sharp pain in my big toe would yank me out of a deep sleep in the middle of the night.  I found that if I adjusted my pelvis the pain would disappear.

Later, I got a burning sensation running down my leg while teaching.  It became more and more consistent despite stretching, regular pilates workouts, massaging with a tennis ball in the glute, or the sciatica release exercise I have used successfully on other clients.

If you’ve ever experienced it, you know it’s more than just back or hip pain. It can feel like a sharp, burning sensation that travels from your lower back and hip and down your leg. Some days it was a dull ache. Some days it felt like a shock when I stood up, sat down, or moved the wrong way. 

The sciatic nerve is the largest nerve in the body.  It originates in the lower spine, travels through the inside of the pelvis, by the sitz bones (the two bones in your butt that you sit on) and down the back of the leg to the foot.

So, after a few weeks of trying the usual suspects of exercise my instructor (yes, I always hire my own instructors) and I went into full on ATTACK!  Intention went up, Attention went up and Decision to Handle Zeroed In!

I always hire my own superb instructors at the studio to train me.  They are each excellent, they have their own specialties and it is good have another set of eyes and brilliant mind assess me and work me in ways I don’t train myself. That is the beauty of different instructors: each one sees and focuses on different details.  And Pilates is ALL ABOUT DETAILS!

Olga and I went into hyper-attack on my hips and glutes.  We already knew that one glute was overtight and grabbing. The other glute was in Bolivia on vacation looking for the Sundance Kid. That is what it felt like. Now, this wasn’t new news, and we had been addressing this, but it had escalated with my lack of consistent workout.

With the added attack into my hips and glutes – releasing the tight right and heavily activating the lazy left repeatedly in a zillion different ways, correcting the rotation in my hips which caused a short right leg and sitting on a tennis ball under that tight hamstring, the sciatica started to calm down.  It was a little less and a little less.  We kept up the full-frontal attack twice a week and I kept up daily exercises on my own.   

Then one day, I realized that I used to have sciatica.  Now I haven’t had it once for months and months.  Whew! That was hairy.  But, as usual, we handled it!   Sometimes it just takes that extra effort to fully confront and handle the situation.  I didn’t give up, I didn’t give in to it, I made sure I continued until it was fully handled.  I believe you can do this with just about anything – persist to fully handle it!!!

I make sure that I do pilates with my instructors 2 x per week and at least once or twice training myself.   Someone once asked me what I would do with a million dollars.  My first answer, “hire my pilates instructors 5 days/week!” 

And that is why I coined the term: Better Body. Better Life.