Sciatica symptoms involve leg pain and possibly tingling, numbness or weakness that originates in the lower back. The pain travels through the backside via the large sciatic nerve into the leg. Lower back problems associated with these symptoms include a lumbar herniated disc, degenerative disc disease, spondlylolisthesis or spinal stenosis.

Unless specifically diagnosed, trigger points or ‘muscle knots could easily be mistaken to be Sciatica. It has been found that trigger points of the gluteus minimus can cause pain to arise in the backside, hamstring, down to the calves and radiate to the outer parts of the legs. In another muscle, trigger points on the gluteus medius radiate pain out from the hamstring. This information of trigger points will help in differentiate between sciatica and the influence of trigger points.

For trigger points (muscle knots), metabolic wastes can gather in the contracted portions of muscle fibers, by rubbing on the general area, you can force a flow of the metabolic waste to begin releasing the knot. A similar condition is Piriformis Syndrome, a condition in which the piriformis muscle spasms or causes buttock pain. This condition however, can equally cause pain, tingling, numbness or weakness that originates in the lower back, travels down through the backside via the large sciatic nerve in the leg.

Clearly, all these conditions have different remedies and are caused for different reasons. This confirms the need to know about different causes that bring about the same symptom of pain in and the areas of the large sciatic nerve. Only then can we truly distinguish between someone showing symptoms of sciatica and someone having a muscle ‘knot’ needing relaxation.