Yoga for Sciatica

A number of visitors on my blog are interested in managing their sciatica. Here is an interesting article I found. It discusses many yoga posese to help manage Sciatica. Sciatica can be caused by a variety of problems. Please see a medical doctor if it persists to rule out a herniated disc problem. Iyengar yoga is a great way to to manage Sciatic nerve pain. Please follow this link to Yoga poses for Sciatica.

Namaste

Yogi

Restart of yoga - pain relief

I went back to class at sunset yoga on Wednesday. It was a level 1 class with Julie Burris. She is an excellent teacher, very calm, pleasant and has that wonderful texan twang. I like her style. Its very relaxed. She spends a great deal of time teaching you how to do sitting postures correctly at the start of the class. She will stop and correct you and modify poses for you if you have pain. I had announced up-front about my sciatica. There is still some pain when I stretch my left hamstring especially in Uttanasana, Dog pose, or Halasana. It was a basic class, but it was a good way to ease myself back to my class practice. Julie spent a month at the Pune center last year.

Last evening on a whim I attended the level 3 class taught by Terri Peterson. But he was not there. It was being taught by Marianne as a substitute. Wonderful! Marrianne is a great teacher and her style is very therapeutic and she is very attentive to each student. Its always a fun and relaxed class. She spent a fair amount of time on Suptapadangusthasana using belts for support, and I got to show her the Nuvana approach of pushing the belt down on the hip, to relieve the sciatic pain.

She talked about the similarities between sitting, standing poses, how each pose is related and linked to another pose. She calls it "science" - there is a lot of science behind these poses, for instance she mentioned that before you enter into a complete Sarvangasan, you fold your legs down - that action and posture is similar to Virasana. Marriane spent time at the Iyengar center in Pune many years ago. She speaks fluent Japanese and is a writer. Her passion, writing and yoga. Another very attentive, skilled and dedicated student and teacher of Iyengar yoga at Sunset Yoga Center.

Journey of pain -- Sciatic, Gluteal Muscle.....Ever tried accupuncture?

My journey of bearing this gluteal muscle pain continues and it has now become sciatic. At my last massage Jeremy suggested trying accupuncture for relief. So today when the pain became more severe I called up Angelic Healing, http://www.angelichealinghands.com/ and made an appointment with Brett, their resident accupuncturist and herbalist. I was apprehensive at first, but when he started talking about doing the "pigeon pose" and "child pose" I felt immediately at home. The poking of needles was scary at first. He put needles on my right arm, right upper shouler, left and right upper hips, left hand, right foot and then 25 minutes later turned me over and put needles in the back, sacrum, both calves. Every time a needle was inserted I could feel a reaction. That was expected!

I can tell you honestly, it brought immediate relief in the thighs and hamstrings, as they had just tightened up with sciatica pain. I could do the child pose a lot easier after the treatment. I went home a lot more relaxed. I continue to use the strap, do a variety of therapy poses all day long including in my office, so I can manage this horrible pain. Tomorrow is another evening with Nuvana and I look forward to it.



So I have learnt a lot more about pain lately. Both physical and mental. I can say it is just too hard but then rather than succumb to it, I have been trying to deal with it the best I can.

Namaste

The Yogi