RUN PAIN- FREE FOR LIFE

Test your sciatic nerve mobility to ensure you run free from pain, tension and tightness

THE SCIATIC NERVE is the longest nerve in the body, branching from your lower back through your hips and buttocks and down each leg into the foot. The nerve passes between the muscles, joints, ligaments, tendons and other structures. This passage can be tortuous, and tightness and restriction can affect the nerve and thus its function. Think of it as a hosepipe – the tap (the brain) sends the message but a kink in the pipe can impede its flow. Issues with the sciatic nerve can cause weakness and lack of activation in the glutes, hamstrings, calf and foot. It’s a niggly tightness – you know you are not firing fully when running but can’t get rid of the problem.

Sometimes the result is sharp pain, when the bones or discs in the spine press on the nerve. But subtler restrictions can cause weakness and inactivity in specific muscles or muscle groups, and might occur only when the muscles are working hard, such as when you run. You might feel it as a recurrent weakness or imbalance further down the leg.

TEST YOUR SCIATIC NERVE MOBILITY

This is called the slump test. Sit with your head on your chest and your arms behind your back. Next, slump forward through your trunk as low as you can. (A) Pull the foot and toes of one leg up towards you and slowly straighten your leg. (B) You will feel the tightness build – don’t force this pull but note where the tightness is located. You will probably feel the pull in the back of your knee and your lower hamstring. However, we are all different. Do the move on both legs and note the differences:

This can be location – for example, you might feel tightness more in the glute than the hamstring, or even the lower back or calf.

It might be that you feel the pull begins at an earlier part of the knee extension.

Once you identify the location of the restriction and the point at which it starts, take the leg to this point and then lift just your head up toward the ceiling. This should release the tension almost completely. Again, compare left and right.