It may be hard to believe, but almost 40% of Americans will experience sciatic pain at some point in their life. Sciatic pain is caused by compression or entrapment of a major nerve in your body called the sciatic nerve. It services the tissues running along the back of the hip, thigh, and leg, and has been associated with hip pain, thigh pain, leg pain, numbness and tingling in the lower extremity, and shooting pain from the low back into the lateral ankle. The pain can vary from annoying to debilitating, sometimes making simple tasks such as walking or standing up difficult. For many, relief using traditional approaches does not solve the problem. One of the main reasons might be that sciatic pain is sometimes misdiagnosed, confused with a often misunderstood trigger point in a major muscle of the hip: gluteus minimums.
n
Of the many reasons that this muscle may be irritated, leg length deviations, tight hips, low back injuries, poor posture, and lack of healthy spinal movement come to mind first. As you can see above, this trigger point referral essentially mimics sciatic pain and can be a major source of sciatic pains people are experiencing. If you are experiencing sciatic issues, leg and ankle pain, or hip pain shooting down the leg and have not found relief, treatment on these muscles may offer the relief you are looking for!
