WillowPT_Understanding Your Sciatica and Back Pain

BRACE MARCHING While lying on your back with your knees bent, slowly raise up one foot a few inches and then set it back down. Next, perform on your other leg. Use your stomach muscles to keep your spine from moving. Try to keep your back still. Repeat 10 times. Strengthens Your Core www.simpleset.net Try this movement if you are experiencing pain. EXERCISE OF THE MONTH

Find Out if You Have Sciatica with a 30-Second Self-Test Do you have back pain or leg pain with standing or walking?

Do you have a shooting pain in your leg when you stand up?

Do you need to sit down for a minute for the pain to go away?

Take This 30-Second Self-Test to See If You Might Have Sciatica:

1. Sit on a chair and keep good posture. 2. Straighten one of your legs out in front of you, while pointing your toes to the sky. Pay attention to how high your leg can go and if you have any pain, numbness, or tingling. 3. Place your leg back down to resting position, and repeat the same movement with the opposite leg.

Staff Spotlight

What Your Self-Test Results Could Mean:

If the leg with pain, numbness or tingling does not go up as high as the other leg, you likely have Sciatica. Your next step is to see what is causing the pressure on your sciatic nerve. Call us today at 907-456-5990 to schedule an appointment. Willow Physical Therapy can help you relieve your Sciatica pain. We can teach you strengthening, stretching, and low impact aerobic conditioning exercises that will help you find sciatica back pain relief. Strengthening exercises help provide pain relief by building up the muscles that give support to the spine, helping keep the spine in alignment and facilitating movements that extend or twist the spine with less chance of injury or damage. Stretches for sciatica are designed to target muscles that cause pain when they are tight and inflexible. Walking and swimming are both great aerobic activities that encourage the exchange of fluids and nutrients to help create a better healing environment.

Rhonda has worked with Willow PhysicalTherapy as one of our traveling physical therapists for almost two years and fell in love with Alaska and decided to become a resident. Rhonda’s home state is Wisconsin, she has been a PT for 19 years. She is trained in outpatient orthopedic, balance, hand therapies, vestibular, and BPPV treatments. Willow Physical Therapy would like to officially welcome Rhonda Pearson to our team!!

Congratulations Rhonda! We are so happy to have you on our team!

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