Sciatic Nerve Glide – Sitting

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Caution:

When doing nerve glides or nerve flossing, it is very important that the work is pain-free.

It is possible to overdo this work, so go slow and do the nerve flossing just six times, followed by gentle tensioning of the nerve.

First tension the nerve, exploring how much range of motion your client has before they experience pain. Then glide the nerves in both proximal and distal directions six times. After that, you can tension the nerve again and note the increase in a pain-free range of motion.

Sciatic Nerve

The sciatic nerve is the longest nerve in the body. It originates with nerve roots L4 to S3 and passes through the greater sciatic notch. It goes under the piriformis muscle, and in some people, part or all of the sciatic nerve may go through the piriformis muscle. It passes over the other deep six muscles in the hip and goes down between the Adductor Magnus and the Biceps Femoris. It splits in two at the popliteal fossa to become the Tibial nerve and the Common Peroneal nerve.

Sensory Distribution

Calf – except for the medial side

The skin of the foot – except for the medial side

Tibial Nerve – The skin of the lower half of the back of the calf and the lateral border of the foot to the tip of the little toe

Peroneal Nerve – The skin of the upper third of the lateral aspect of the calf

Motor Distribution

Hamstrings

Adductor Magnus (partial)

Tibial n. – muscles in the posterior compartment of leg and sole of the foot

Common Peroneal n. – muscles in the anterior and lateral compartments of the calf

The Sciatic Nerve may be impinged at any of these places:

Foramen – L4 to S3

Piriformis

Quadratus femoris

Long head of Biceps femoris

Nerve Stretch

Hip and knee flexed

Slowly extend the knee and dorsiflex the ankle.

Client tucks chin

Nerve Glides

Proximal

The client tucks their chin and slumps forward.

The therapist allows the knee to flex and the ankle to plantarflex.

Distal

The client releases their chin tuck and straightens up.

The therapist extends the knee and dorsiflexes the ankle

Note: Sometimes, clients experience less pain with the neck flexed and more pain with the neck extended. In that case, the nerve glide must be adapted to flex the neck when the ankle is dorsiflexed. The reason for this is explained in a video with Stuart McGill.

Tibial and Peroneal Nerve Glides

Perform the nerve glides as for the Sciatic nerve, but with the following variations.

Tibial Nerve

Stretch with eversion and pronation of the ankle.

Peroneal Nerve

Stretch with inversion and supination of the ankle.

Related Techniques

Nerve Glide Techniques

Sciatic Nerve Glide with Cups

Median Nerve Glide

Radial Nerve Glide

Ulnar Nerve Glide