Sciatica

What is it?

The sciatic nerve, which runs from your lower back to your feet, can become irritated or compressed when there is neural irritation, muscular tension or inflammation along it’s nerve root. If you have sciatica, your: bottom, back of your leg, foot and toes may feel: painful – the pain may be stabbing, burning or shooting, tingling – like pins and needles, or numb. Your symptoms may be worse when moving, sneezing or coughing. You may also have back pain, but it’s not usually as bad as the pain in your bottom, leg or foot. People often report a pain radiating from the bottom of the back down the bottom and leg on one side.

Note:
You probably do not have sciatica if you only have back pain.

How can we help?

Physiotherapy treatment has been shown to help with pain from sciatica by reducing inflammation and relieving muscle tension. The aim is to relieve the symptoms of sciatica so that you can get back to the activities you enjoy without pain. Within Physiotherapy sessions, we will Provide symptom relief, promote healing of the underlying cause, prevent recurrences and flareups. Physiotherapists at The Physio Lounge can help to identify areas of neurological tension, reduce inflammation and elongate the nerve root to relieve symptoms.
Your first port of call would be to book a Physio Assessment with us.

What does a Physio Assessment Involve?

A Physio Assessment is a session with one of our highly trained and skilled Physiotherapists. The session will consist of a full and detailed delve into your history, including medical, lifestyle and details of the issue you are currently experiencing. The Physiotherapist will often perform some physical tests, such as range of movement tests and analyse your movement patterns, mobility and restrictions amongst other things. A plan for your recovery will then be put in place.
Physio treatment will then follow. Treatment can consist of many different treatments, including manual Physiotherapy treatment, Sports Massage, Acupuncture, along with other cutting edge technology and equipment we have within clinics. Finally you are provided your very own personalised video rehabilitation program via our online app.

Do I need a Physio Assessment OR a Sports Massage?

We get asked this A LOT! Sports Massage Therapy and Physiotherapy Treatment both have a valued place in helping muscle tightness and imbalances. Lets explain all the differences and benefits to prevent you wasting money on a service that isn’t right for you!
A sports massage is a hands on treatment and a form of massage therapy, involving the manipulation of soft tissue in order to relieve tension in muscles and connective tissue.
All our sports massages are performed by highly qualified Chartered Physiotherapists, rather than Massage Therapists, meaning you get a much more in depth service. Prior to a massage, our Therapists conduct an initial screening to make sure that sports massage is the best option for you. They will screen for any red flag symptoms and rule out any contraindications. They will also ask about the reasons you have chosen a sports massage and what you’d like to get out of the session. Sports massage can be used to prevent soft tissue injury, reduce pain and swelling, enhance recovery, improve circulation, movement and performance.

Pre-event Sports Massage

If you have a sporting event such as a rugby match, 10km run, marathon training sessions or a triathlon coming up then sports massages can help to prepare your body by ensuring that your muscles and soft tissues are supple and ready for activity.

Post-event Sports Massage

Sports massage can help to accelerate recovery following activity enabling you to get back to training.

Maintenance Sports Massage

Some people will use sports massage to keep them fresh during training for large events but also when managing a long-term issue that has already been assessed and diagnosed. It can also help when you are working on posture improvements.

So at what point do I require more than a massage?

Some people think a Sports Massage is the answer to their problem, when the problem may be deeper rooted, or stemming from a totally different location on their body. If you have neurological symptoms (like pins and needles or numbness) or we suspect that there may be an underlying cause for your aches and pains then we’d often recommend a deeper investigation with a physiotherapy assessment.
Our bodies are cleverly made up of so many different parts which are designed to work perfectly and efficiently in sync with each other. If a cog in our wheel becomes imbalanced, weak, tight, injured or dysfunctional, we run into issues, and here’s the interesting part – you may experience pain in completely different parts of your body! Weird right? Some common examples of this are, back issues stemming from a weakness and imbalance in the hip or even feet!
Most of us are also sitting more and moving less, which can lead to muscle imbalances and weaknesses that have a knock-on effect to the way you move. When left untreated these imbalances can eventually result in pain and dysfunction. With non-traumatic injuries, pain is often the last thing to be felt and there’s usually stiffness or weakness well before pain comes on. In professional sport players are screened regularly to identify these imbalances so Physio’s can intervene before pain.
So, when you’re faced with the decision of whether you need a sports massage or physio assessment remember….

Want to hear what our patients who have received treatment for sciatica say?

Want to hear what our patients who have received treatment for sciatica say?

Want to know more about sciatica?

Accepted Insurance

We accept all major healthcare insurers, if you don’t see yours listed don’t worry, we may still be able to help, just get in touch and we’ll do what we can to help!

Take a look at our cost saving Sports Massage Packages to get the most out of your treatment with us

Leave Us A Review

We’re so sorry to hear that you aren’t happy with our service. Your feedback is really important to us and we do all we can to make sure we are constantly improving. Please leave your feedback for us below and we’ll get back to you to see what we can do to resolve any issues you may have.

Leave Us A Review

We’re so sorry to hear that you aren’t happy with our service. Your feedback is really important to us and we do all we can to make sure we are constantly improving. Please leave your feedback for us below and we’ll get back to you to see what we can do to resolve any issues you may have.

Leave Us A Review

We’re so sorry to hear that you aren’t happy with our service. Your feedback is really important to us and we do all we can to make sure we are constantly improving. Please leave your feedback for us below and we’ll get back to you to see what we can do to resolve any issues you may have.