Pilates, Nerve Flossing and Sciatic Pain: Why Movement Matters

When we think about flexibility, we tend to think about muscles.

“My hamstrings are tight.”

“My back needs stretching.”

“My hips just don’t move very well.”

But sometimes that feeling of tightness isn’t coming entirely from the muscle. Our nervous system also has to move.

Your nerves need to move too

Nerves aren’t static wires running through the body. As we bend, straighten, twist and reach, our nerves need to glide and move relative to the tissues surrounding them.

This is sometimes described as neural mobility.

Physiotherapists and other clinicians may use a technique called nerve gliding or nerve flossing. Rather than placing a nerve under a prolonged stretch, different parts of the body move in sequence so that tension increases at one end while decreasing at another.

Imagine gently pulling a piece of thread backwards and forwards through fabric. That’s where the term “flossing” comes from.

So where does Pilates come in?

One of the things we love about Pilates is that the body rarely moves as a collection of isolated parts.

During a Pilates session, we continually combine movements of the spine, pelvis, hips, knees, ankles, shoulders and neck.

A movement might involve flexing the spine while bending the knees, followed by extending the legs as the spine and head change position.

Those coordinated movements can create the same type of changing mechanical load and excursion of the nervous system that forms the basis of neural mobilisation.

And importantly, Pilates allows us to explore that movement gradually and under control rather than simply pulling harder on something that feels “tight”.

What about sciatica?

The sciatic nerve runs from the lower back, through the buttock and down the back of the leg.

When the nerve or its nerve roots are irritated, people can experience pain, tingling, burning, altered sensation or other symptoms travelling into the buttock or leg.

This is also why endlessly stretching the hamstrings isn’t necessarily the answer.

What feels like a tight hamstring can sometimes have a neural component. Aggressively stretching into symptoms may simply place more tension on an already sensitive nervous system.

Instead, appropriately selected movement can sometimes help restore comfortable movement and improve someone’s tolerance to loading.

Pilates gives us an enormous toolbox for doing this.

Exercises can be modified by changing the position of the spine, knee, ankle or head. On the reformer, resistance and range can also be adjusted very precisely.

Rather than asking:

“How far can you stretch?”

we’re much more interested in:

“How well can your body move?”

And it’s not just the sciatic nerve

The same principle applies throughout the body.

Our peripheral nerves travel from the spinal cord into the arms and legs and must accommodate movement at multiple joints. Depending on the individual, carefully chosen movement may form part of rehabilitation for some nerve-related presentations.

However, nerve pain is not something to simply push through.

Pins and needles, numbness, burning, weakness or persistent radiating pain should be properly assessed, particularly if symptoms are new, worsening or accompanied by loss of strength.

Pilates isn’t a treatment for every nerve condition, and it cannot be claimed to repair a damaged nerve. But appropriately prescribed exercise can play an important role in rehabilitation, maintaining movement and gradually rebuilding someone’s capacity to move.

Why the person teaching you matters

This is also where experience and education become incredibly important.

At movement & co, we’re not interested in simply putting bodies through a sequence of exercises.

Our instructors have backgrounds in exercise physiology and extensive movement education. We want to understand why someone moves the way they do, what might be limiting them and how we can modify an exercise appropriately.

Two people can perform what appears to be exactly the same Pilates exercise but require completely different ranges, resistance or positioning.

Sometimes the answer is strengthening.

Sometimes it’s mobility.

Sometimes it’s reducing load.

And sometimes what appears to be muscular tightness may involve the nervous system too.

That’s the difference between simply doing Pilates exercises and understanding the body you’re teaching.

Fewer bodies. Better results. A more tailored approach.