Sciatic pain after running
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jaymijones wrote: »adamgoleafs87 wrote: »If you're getting sciatic pain you probably want to consult your doctor as well.
Mine ended up with needing an L5 - S1 decompression surgery.
My hips were out of alignment too when I was competing. After they "set me straight" my hip displaced/dislocated on the final lap in the national 3000m. Holy hell pain, it literally took my breath away. Still finished, terribly... but finished. Took me 6 weeks of PT. ick.
Youch!
Did they happen to give you recommendations for avoiding that ever happening again?
Sadly no, but it was attributed to the alignment. When they tried fixing me, it pulled on other things. It appears after they aligned me, it was pulling too hard on my SI joint, causing it to give. After that, I just learned to never do that again. But don't let me be a tale of caution - I think I'm just meant to be crooked.0 -
jpoehls9025 wrote: »adamgoleafs87 wrote: »If you're getting sciatic pain you probably want to consult your doctor as well.
Mine ended up with needing an L5 - S1 decompression surgery.
My hips were out of alignment too when I was competing. After they "set me straight" my hip displaced/dislocated on the final lap in the national 3000m. Holy hell pain, it literally took my breath away. Still finished, terribly... but finished. Took me 6 weeks of PT. ick.
Stories like yours always makes me proud of the human spirit!
I knew a warrant officer who passed his 2 mile PT test run and had a collapsed lung (was unaware). He was a beast for sure to pass a APFT with a collapsed lung speaks volumes on what one is capable of given the right mindset.
I don't deserve that much credit. I couldn't imagine functioning with a collapsed run. Oh man!
To be honest I don't think even he knew it at the time, we were all doing our APFT and he just said he felt like he couldn't breath as well during his run. After the medics evaluated him they found that his left lung had collapsed somehow. It was resolved without any long lasting effects but still blew all of our minds and will definitely go down in one of the more "epic" APFT's in 1-4 Calvary history lol.1 -
jpoehls9025 wrote: »jpoehls9025 wrote: »adamgoleafs87 wrote: »If you're getting sciatic pain you probably want to consult your doctor as well.
Mine ended up with needing an L5 - S1 decompression surgery.
My hips were out of alignment too when I was competing. After they "set me straight" my hip displaced/dislocated on the final lap in the national 3000m. Holy hell pain, it literally took my breath away. Still finished, terribly... but finished. Took me 6 weeks of PT. ick.
Stories like yours always makes me proud of the human spirit!
I knew a warrant officer who passed his 2 mile PT test run and had a collapsed lung (was unaware). He was a beast for sure to pass a APFT with a collapsed lung speaks volumes on what one is capable of given the right mindset.
I don't deserve that much credit. I couldn't imagine functioning with a collapsed run. Oh man!
To be honest I don't think even he knew it at the time, we were all doing our APFT and he just said he felt like he couldn't breath as well during his run. After the medics evaluated him they found that his left lung had collapsed somehow. It was resolved without any long lasting effects but still blew all of our minds and will definitely go down in one of the more "epic" APFT's in 1-4 Calvary history lol.
They never figured out why it happened?! Wow, I can't imagine. I have allergy induced asthma - having a collapsed lung and still finishing? No way. Asthma is bad enough.0 -
I had sciatica pain last summer. It went from my butt down to my knee. It was uncomfortable, but not overly painful. I did a lot of stretching, I bought a foam roller, I went to a chiropractor... none of it was working. I found relief from deadlifting - probably because deadlift strengthens the core. Also, rolling on a lacrosse ball worked wonders. The foam roller did nothing for me.
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jpoehls9025 wrote: »jpoehls9025 wrote: »adamgoleafs87 wrote: »If you're getting sciatic pain you probably want to consult your doctor as well.
Mine ended up with needing an L5 - S1 decompression surgery.
My hips were out of alignment too when I was competing. After they "set me straight" my hip displaced/dislocated on the final lap in the national 3000m. Holy hell pain, it literally took my breath away. Still finished, terribly... but finished. Took me 6 weeks of PT. ick.
Stories like yours always makes me proud of the human spirit!
I knew a warrant officer who passed his 2 mile PT test run and had a collapsed lung (was unaware). He was a beast for sure to pass a APFT with a collapsed lung speaks volumes on what one is capable of given the right mindset.
I don't deserve that much credit. I couldn't imagine functioning with a collapsed run. Oh man!
To be honest I don't think even he knew it at the time, we were all doing our APFT and he just said he felt like he couldn't breath as well during his run. After the medics evaluated him they found that his left lung had collapsed somehow. It was resolved without any long lasting effects but still blew all of our minds and will definitely go down in one of the more "epic" APFT's in 1-4 Calvary history lol.
They never figured out why it happened?! Wow, I can't imagine. I have allergy induced asthma - having a collapsed lung and still finishing? No way. Asthma is bad enough.
To be honest maybe they did figure it out? lol just never talked to him much afterwards, being a measly PFC at the time kinda stuck with my lower ranked brotherhood haha.
Yeah Ive always been fascinated with how far we can push ourselves in the right conditions.0 -
jaymijones wrote: »Did they happen to give you recommendations for avoiding that ever happening again?
i had a rotated pelvis that was bothering me from the start of the year at least, and i only just got it chiro'd a few weeks ago. stubbornness and diy syndrome
this is really an area where mileages can vary a lot, so don't take this as a blueprint for you, but in the process i did a whole massage project first, and a ton of youtubing/reading. so fwiw:
- there is actually a fair bit of youtube content about diy pelvic settling. they mostly involve using leverage generated by your leg muscles and/or glutes to 'pull' the two halves back into line with each other. i have tried doing teh four-square one on my own but what seems to work best for me is an offset stance. i just set myself up like i'm an archer, kind of thing - feet parallel but one about a step's length in front. and then i glue the soles of my shoes to the floor and 'pull' the floor 'together'. like i'm trying to wrinkle a rug. so far, atm at least, it works. i think cycling probably threw me off to begin with, or contributed to it happening. so i try to do this little reset whenever it occurs to me during the day.
i'm not sure what caused mine but my chiro did warn me it's the kind of thing that can revert easily, so i'm doing this little management thing and generally watching my form a whole lot with lifting. the main thing for me is that my s.i. seems to be moving freely again. the relief, oh you just can't imagine.
other things that were given to me by bodywork/advanced massage interns are:
- shin box stretches and 'switches'. i don't actually like pigeon much since i think it's too advanced for my current condition. but the shinbox is great.
- QUAD STRETCHING. mine were tested by one of the massage people and they're just shamefully, shamingly tight. so i've been doing the 'couch stretch' from kelly starrett (can't stand the guy, but fair credit where due). really religiously. personally, i found that i just can't arrange the proper alignment if i do it myself by pulling my foot up behind me with my hand. the totally passive couch thing works though.
- getting my pelvis and s.i. settled did throw up a new set of symptoms for a while. i'm still kind of waiting for the dust to settle.
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canadianlbs wrote: »jaymijones wrote: »Did they happen to give you recommendations for avoiding that ever happening again?
i had a rotated pelvis that was bothering me from the start of the year at least, and i only just got it chiro'd a few weeks ago. stubbornness and diy syndrome this is really an area where mileages can vary a lot, so don't take this as a blueprint for you, but in the process i did a whole massage project first, and a ton of youtubing/reading. so fwiw:
- there is actually a fair bit of youtube content about diy pelvic settling. they mostly involve using leverage generated by your leg muscles and/or glutes to 'pull' the two halves back into line with each other. i have tried doing teh four-square one on my own but what seems to work best for me is an offset stance. i just set myself up like i'm an archer, kind of thing - feet parallel but one about a step's length in front. and then i glue the soles of my shoes to the floor and 'pull' the floor 'together'. like i'm trying to wrinkle a rug. so far, atm at least, it works. i think cycling probably threw me off to begin with, or contributed to it happening. so i try to do this little reset whenever it occurs to me during the day.
i'm not sure what caused mine but my chiro did warn me it's the kind of thing that can revert easily, so i'm doing this little management thing and generally watching my form a whole lot with lifting. the main thing for me is that my s.i. seems to be moving freely again. the relief, oh you just can't imagine.
other things that were given to me by bodywork/advanced massage interns are:
- shin box stretches and 'switches'. i don't actually like pigeon much since i think it's too advanced for my current condition. but the shinbox is great.
- QUAD STRETCHING. mine were tested by one of the massage people and they're just shamefully, shamingly tight. so i've been doing the 'couch stretch' from kelly starrett (can't stand the guy, but fair credit where due). really religiously. personally, i found that i just can't arrange the proper alignment if i do it myself by pulling my foot up behind me with my hand. the totally passive couch thing works though.
- getting my pelvis and s.i. settled did throw up a new set of symptoms for a while. i'm still kind of waiting for the dust to settle.
Thanks for this. Most of those are what was recommended. I'm starting to think my hip has been rotated forward and out for a very very long time, I doubt it's going to want to go back and stay there without a lot of help. I was warned they would need to put it back in a few times before it stuck. The Dr actually couldn't get it to go back in at all yesterday, he didn't try to force it though. He said he wanted to make sure he was doing it right before he forced it, so he's gong to do his homework and then I go back in next week, and then likely every few days for awhile.
Once he pointed it out I can totally see that it's crooked, I pointed it out to my husband and he agreed that it's pretty obvious. I'm not sure how I never noticed it before. Although now that I think about it, it was probably hiding under all the extra weight that I've lost.
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I started suffering from sciatica from 2014, although I'm not fully recovered. I will tell you to rest. Inflammation can also cause it. Have meds and rest if you can. Walk. That is why I don't run.0
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jaymijones wrote: »Once he pointed it out I can totally see that it's crooked, I pointed it out to my husband and he agreed that it's pretty obvious.
mine seems to be a bit prone to it too. i'm pretty right-legged, and once the rotation happens and that side of my s.i. can't adjust i develop a 'functional' leg difference too. that probably just makes me even more prone to favouring it in the things that i do. i'm making a back-burner project out of equalizing as much as i can, just in my general life.
i could work on it in the gym, and i'm not saying i don't. but in terms of doing it properly, i figure the strength imbalance probably grew up out of the tiny incremental influence of perfectly ordinary-life types of actions. so now i'm trying to be functionally left-sided for a couple of months just to see what it does. i'm trying to retrain my central nervous system to 'lead' with my left, most of the time. or at least to be a little more ambiverted.
you should have seen me trying to learn how to be a left-sided cyclist, if that seems sort of silly to you neurologically, it was completely a Thing. i fell over just trying to put my other foot on the ground. and re-starting by making that first pedalstroke with the left foot from a dead stop . . . i actually pulled a teres muscle somewhere in my left armpit, trying to arrange enough leverage to do that. my brain absolutely could not organize my lower body so as to produce the leverage from lower down.
and in the meantime i'm monitoring the state of my hips all the time. now that i know what the symptoms of a real locked s.i. feel like, i'm hopefully better at catching it early if it's starting to creep back towards that off-kilter shape. so the little resets through the day are for that.
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canadianlbs wrote: »jaymijones wrote: »Once he pointed it out I can totally see that it's crooked, I pointed it out to my husband and he agreed that it's pretty obvious.
you should have seen me trying to learn how to be a left-sided cyclist, if that seems sort of silly to you neurologically, it was completely a Thing. i fell over just trying to put my other foot on the ground. and re-starting by making that first pedalstroke with the left foot from a dead stop . . . i actually pulled a teres muscle somewhere in my left armpit, trying to arrange enough leverage to do that. my brain absolutely could not organize my lower body so as to produce the leverage from lower down.
I totally get what you mean. After someone upthread mentioned something about carrying children on the hip causing misalignment. I realized I totally do that. I always carry my toddler on one side only, the side that's out. I've been trying not to do it. But carrying him on the other side just feels wrong. I have to fight the urge to shift him back the whole time. It's not even that I don't have as much muscle on that side. While there is some of that, it mostly just seems awkward and wrong.
I'll have to pay attention to see what else I do that favors one side.1 -
yeah, i was a right-sided mother as well. at the time all i thought of was how it was making me better at using my left hand for stuff, but that was long before barbells came into my life.
the shin-box position i mentioned up thread has been great for me because it gives me a very objective perspective on any differences between my left side and my right. with the right leg in 'front' and the left behind me, i can sit straight upright without problems, and also get my left sitz bone right down to the ground. switch that to the opposite side, and it's really obvious that there is less room.
first-world projects, for sure.0 -
jaymijones wrote: »I just started running again after not really running since high school gym class. I've been at it for about a month. At first I just ran for short bursts in between walking, and didn't go very far, a little less than a mile. The biggest reason I haven't run before is that I get terrible shin splints and usually give up after less than a week. This time I went to a running store and bought the recommended running shoes and haven't had a problem with shin splints at all. Today I finished week 1 of the C25K program. Everything seemed like it was going well, it even seemed too easy but a few days ago my sciatic nerve started giving me trouble, I didn't think anything of it at first, I just figured I slept on it wrong, but it's gotten worse and I realize it's probably because of the running. It's bad enough that I'm thinking about ditching running again and going back to my bike and elliptical. I'm already doing yoga daily and I do strength training daily as well, I've been doing both for well over a year. I've had sciatica in the past but it's never been this bad and was always during pregnancy.
I don't want to quit runnng, my neighborhood isn't really bike friendly and taking it elsewhere isn't feasible, and I don't want to go back to the elliptical because I want to be outside. But this pain is only getting worse.
Anyone have a solutions?
WHAT exactly has caused your sciatic pain in the past? Disc issue, etc? Mine is muscular and from poor posture etc... if you're like me and it's a muscular issue- try to get a deep tissue massage, my sciatic bothers me at times, especially now that I'm new to running, literally only been a week into it and my sciatic is acting up... ibu does take down swelling, but if it's muscular, holy cow does my muscle relaxer help wonders!!!
If it is muscular see ur dr about getting an as needed muscle relaxer prescription0 -
Also--- you sound like me! I didn't know what sciatica was until I was prego, and ever since then I get times where it acts up- also a physical therapist would help, I have seen chiropractors but I tend to find that a physical therapist works best- your ligaments get relaxed during pregnancy causing sciatic pain and it can take up to 2 years for them to go back, also pregnancy screws up your posture and moves everything around, so seeing a PT to help get your body aligned is always a good idea! If you're out of alignment, then strain put on your body from running etc can cause pressure on nerves and muscles etc basically a domino effect. I hope you find relief! It's a pain in the butt! (Pun intended!)0
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I never comment but had to share my experiences and things that have helped me. I used to run a lot, and I had sciatica secondary to piriformis syndrome 3 years ago. At first, I thought I pulled a muscle, and then it progressed strikingly quickly, to the point that I could not walk without crutches. I like to think I am relatively pain tolerant, as a runner, but this was unlike anything I've ever felt. Nervy pain that I couldn't localize, hives from the pain (I didn't even know that was a thing!) and at the beginning, crying on my way to use the bathroom or move at all. Things that helped me were:
- I STOPPED RUNNING FOR A LONG TIME. First of all, if you're anything like I was, your running form will be terrible if you're in sciatic pain, and the pain compounded with the muscle tightness will make running even worse for you than it already was. Second, you need to fix the problems that are causing the problem before you get back to running.
- Saw an orthopedist/sports doctor to make sure nothing related to bones/tendons was going on.
- Saw a PT for months and months and months.
- Worked with a "movement specialist" for a couple sessions and learned how to activate my glutes to strengthen them. What we realized was my quads and hamstrings were overworking and my glutes were underworking and weak. I learned how to cognitively "tell" my glutes and core to engage before my legs, using a lot of exercises.
- Foam rolling helps "de-activate" the quads and hamstrings (and also reduces pain and makes EVERYTHING better). I use a regular foam roller, a spiky foam roller, and also one of the electronic "back" massagers on my glutes and quads. Also, golf balls, tennis balls, etc.
- Focused more attention on my core and back strengthening.
- Stretch. A lot. Glute stretches were really important for me. Learn new ones.
- When I got back to running, I ran A LOT LESS: From 40-50+ miles/week to about 15. On varied surfaces. And when pain/tightness creeps back in, I try to swim/bike more and run less.
This pain is real and it is very hard to describe but pretty terrible. The benefit for me was that I was able to nip my exercise addiction in the bud, which was helpful.0
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