Sciatica/trapped nerve

[Samhyslop]

Hi,

Last Monday i had a slight muscle pain before playing football. I put deep heat on, played football and after I couldn't get out of bed for four days.
When i managed to get to hospital i was prescribed a few different painkillers and a muscle relaxant and told to move around on it as much as possible. As he thought it was a trapped nerve. He gave me the advice of no exercise 2 weeks after its released.

It feels completely fine now and I was wondering if i can exercise sooner? Maybe with a warm up, stretching etc? Obviously i do not want the risk of it relapsing, but it has felt completely back to normal for a few days now.

Can a trapped nerve relapse? Can i start to exercise again? Advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks

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[nmarman]

Hi Sam,

Be careful with the 'trapped nerve' diagnosis as it is a weak one. There are two thing that cause a 'trapped nerve pain' and neither of them are muscular

1. You had facet joint or capsule irritation.
2. You had a disc lesion that put pressure on you nerve roots. Sciatica, common in 20's

Both can cause pain from that dimple at your lower back and radiate into buttock but often feel different.

1. Feels sharp when moving and often revert back to a stiff achy pain when still.
2. Feels like you hit your funny bone with a tingling sensation going down the back of buttock and possible even further.

The likely reason this started was bad posture leading to weakness in the very small intersegmental muscles of the back.

much like a sore foot, if a vertebra has a pain your body will start to use another vertebra, similar to a limp. The pain often feels like its gone but actually is merely be guarded by you restraining movement.

This will put more pressure on other vertebra - This can lead to another worse pain developing.

As another consequence: A habit can form of not moving from the injured vertebra segment - This means the disc which also could be a source of pain will not get as much movement and wont suck as much nutrition from vertebra marrow. this leads to disc degeneration

long and short you have had a minor episode but you should get a few sessions of professional advice to identify poor movement patterns post injury, identify the weaknesses that caused complaint and get some ergonomic advice about sleeping/work postures.

The investment now will safe guard you for future occurrence.

Hope that helps,

Niall Marshall-Manifold
Wimbledon Chiropractic & Sports Injury Clinic

[Samhyslop]

Thanks for the detailed reply!

Much appreciated.