Which I think is accurate, but I guess that also depends on your (and my) personal opinion of what ‘not super common’ means. I truly just meant this as in it happens, but not as commonly to fit folks… so at least 51% of those with sciatic nerve symptoms are not fit. I’d imagine we can both agree to that, but maybe I’m wrong.
Wasn’t trying to get into a debate over the subject, just pointing out that un-fit folks seem to have this issue more commonly than fit folks. Didn’t think that was a debatable position, really.
Anyways, I’m pretty sure you deal with this on a level I do not so I’ll defer to your experience.
Youre right mate, I was being needlessly combative
FWIW, sciatica does seem less common in unhealthy folk. Some of that may be related to obesity (higher bf% could mean higher inflammation, which could mean worse sciatica symptoms), but there are many complicated contextual factors that muddy up the association, such as:
Lower mood associated with obesity may reduce individuals feelings of control related to sciatica symptoms
Lighter people are more likely to be realtively wealthy and educated. Poorer, less-educated people tend to experience worse outcomes related to chronic pain
Exercise has general analgesic effects which may alleviate low back pain symptoms. Obese people are less likely to exercise, and thus less likely to experience these benefits
Lumbar discs are adaptive tissues which are thicker and stronger in active people. Therefore, active people may be protected from lumbsr disc injuries, and by extension sciatica. However,
Asympyomatic rates of lumbar disc pathology are higher in active people, without increases in pain or disability
Well thank you. I’m none of those things, but that’s going on my résumé.
First, it really is important to note I’m not a doctor. Anything I say is just the ramblings of a guy on the Internet.
That said, my umbrella thought would be: “why not lose weight?” It’s likely to help with the sciatica, and certainly won’t hurt, losing weight tends to treat all joint pain, it will typically be in your surgeon’s recommendations if you get to that point, and it is hard to argue it wouldn’t be good for your health.
The sciatica, in this case, likely stems from nerve root compression (the discs bulge and touch nerve branches from your spinal cord). The fact that your ortho didn’t refer you out leads me to believe he didn’t see disc ruptures on on your MRI, although I don’t know that for sure and imagery is known to not be absolutely reliable in symptomatic disc pathology. Excess weight is, potentially, a three-part problem in the picture I’m painting above:
You’re not getting a ton of blood to the lumbar region, through inactivity or the relatively avascular nature of fat. Blood is an agent of healing, and bulging but unruptured (think a jelly donut that’s squished but all the filling is still inside) can recover.
The fat takes up space. Our bulging disc is a geography problem, and more fat gives it less room to bulge and not hit something that hurts. This makes a lot of sense to me because you are running into issues after exercising. Our logic train could see the exercise creating some local inflammation that’s pushing on our disc, which then finds that pesky nerve, and our leg hurts.
The weight itself is an insult, both to the injured tissue and in the additional load bearing it forces. You’re potentially always in a heightened state of muscular fatigue because you’re having to support more load, all the time, than you otherwise would. As our muscles get tired, they stop doing all they can do; in this case, maybe they let some of that supporting structure in your lumbar region slouch - boom to the nerve again.
Again, I’m a layperson. This does come down to the baseline question, though:
If losing weight won’t hurt your sciatica, might help it, and will almost certainly improve your overall health, why not lose weight?
I continued to workout right up until the day of my surgery. I just couldn’t walk more than a few yards before the sciatica got so bad I had to lay down. I can’t express how painful it was. I would literally sweat just walking around because it hurt so much. So long as I avoided hinging, and spinal loading I could continue to workout. No squats, deads, OHP etc.
Hello man,I consulted a chiro,and he said that my mri was half a year ago and he said it already healed.Then he did some test on me and said my left side of lowerbody is weaker then my right side.”Muscle imbalance”,that’s what he told me that got me to feel pain instead of herniated disc.I went back and googled and found out that the only way my left back/lower back is imbalanced might be anterior pelvic tilt.
A few days later I gave him a text saying would my lowerback pain be because of ATP,he said atp only causes lower back tightness and not pain.I have already signed a plan with him,my next visit is a week later.I would love some input and opinion of members here
Note:Would also like to add that,if I stop lifting weight for 2 days or even one day,the pain will not be there.Could it be my problem is not herniated disc?
I don’t want to sound like I don’t want to help, but I think your best bet is to totally commit to the plan you’ve already signed onto with a professional, vs Frankenstein our advice over the top of it. Multiple approaches may work, but not simultaneously. You’re already paying for someone that specializes in this area: definitely give him/ you a chance.
You’ve got to remember as well there are several factors that can cause you disc issues and then factors caused by your disc issues. Getting those mixed up is an easy mistake and can lead to the incorrect treatment.
An example of me would be:
Fractured hip caused hips out of alignment
Out of alignment hips cussed ruptured discs
Discs caused lots and lots of pain
Pain caused muscle tightness all over
Tightness caused pelvic tilt, tight hip muscles, tight hamstrings, also weak hip on injured side, also caused shoulder on one side to be un-level due out of wack hips.
So treating the symptoms all helps me feel better but won’t stop the cause and until that’s dealt with I’ll constantly get issues.
So from that I’d listen and follow a professionals advice as they probably/ should know what they are doing to solve the main cause and not the side effects.
Guys,would like to know why do my pain comes 5-6hrs after lifting weight???Could this actually prove that it’s sciatica??Why it’s not an hour after I lifted weight
Different people will have different timing patterns for their pain, and symptoms worsening 5-6 hours after exercise is well within “normal” ranges for various types of lower back pain
Good chiros are well trained to be able to help you, but studies have shown that the most important factor to determine success with any health professional is trusting them
This is why I agree with @TrainForPain and politely recommend that you follow your chiro’s advice 100%, and take everything you see on the forum with a grain of salt
I saw an amazing chiro for years when living in NYC; his office was a floor down from mine, lol, easiest doctor visits I ever made. He fixed a bad herniated disc I had from deadlifts (fucking 50% of 1RM, too, just heard a pop and could barely walk). I was seeing him 3x a week for a month, when I went back to lifting it took me 3 weeks to work my way back up to previous strength and I did. He also told me to just go in my apartment’s gym daily and do dead hangs like 5x30 seconds daily, which I did. I don’t know if all chiropractors are like that but if not, this guy was just damn good and very knowledgeable.
I have also been dead hanging for exactly the same
as what your chiro suggested to you which is 30secX5.But do you think the adjustment he made helps,or the dead hang helps more??
I am not so confident about him because he said that my herniated disc had healed even though the mri which was taken six months ago showed my herniated disc touched the nerve.He told me to wear belt on all my lift,and also stop icing my back
The changes I made recently is stop putting my wallet on my back pocket(which I have been doing for over 10 years),I also been stretching my hip(anterior pelvic tilt) and lastly I also been dead hanging.Been doing these changes myself for two weeks,it’s not suggested by my chiro though,I researched and did them myself.
The chiro suggested I put my lifting belt on for all my lift and stand up every hour on my deskjob
Adjustments helped way more, and was seeing him 3x a week for the first month after the injury, even when it felt all better. Past couple years I use a reverse hyper in my home gym 2x a week, (knock on wood) I have not had any disc issues since and my squat/deadlifts have increased meaningfully. You can buy one of those tiny ones that folds up like from Rogue; I bought it for my dad who has disc problems, after he used it for 3 weeks he said he couldn’t believe how much his pain went down…
