Thai Massage for Sciatica Relief: Hip & Glute Release

Learn a Thai Massage sequence specifically designed to relieve sciatic
pain and release tension in the hip flexors, glutes, and psoas. These
techniques use gentle traction and targeted stretching to create space
in the hip joint — especially effective for piriformis syndrome, tight
psoas, and recurring sciatica.

Whether you're a massage therapist looking to expand your toolkit or
a practitioner working with clients who have hip pain, this tutorial
demonstrates effortless techniques that work both on a mat and a table.

Transcript

Hi, Friends. Hello, Keir. I'm happy to share this sequence that will help people who have hip pain, Sciatica, Any tightness in the psoas or hip flexor. This is a great way to help release tension there. And it is a fairly intermediate sequence using your knees, But I'll walk you through it and show you how you can do this in a fairly effortless way. So first, You're supporting under the knee and grabbing the ankle. Joints. Both directions. And then just pushing the knee toward the chest getting a nice stretch opening up that glute and then stepping your foot across just bring their leg to rest on yours you can roll out the calf here this is a great method to get the whole calf you can even bring your thumbs into the anterior tibialis muscle while you do that And then we'll move to bring the back of their knee to your thighs. So you want to get it so their foot goes below the knee. So you might need to straighten your leg out in order to get there. Make sure you're in the right position that when you push the foot down and away, There's this tractioning happening. So see how that's lifting the hip off. If you want to ground down the shoulder, You can provide a little more traction and then shake. So really feeling that fascial energy opening here in the whole front and back of the hip. You can also use your fingers underneath and do some lifting as I lunge. So I can let go of the foot now, Bring my forearm to this thigh. And with a straight arm just lunging and lifting. Opening up the lumbar spine here and you can walk along the ridge of the pelvis getting those attachment points the QL Then I'll use my knuckles to get underneath and I sit down on my heel here and I hook around the opposite hip and lift that hip as I roll their hip onto my knuckles. Doing little circles here like that can get into the TFL. Help to release and just shake out both sides of the hips. Nice and loosen that up. From here, We can go into that pigeon stretch. So I place my forearm here, Press the knee towards. Do a little shaking little movement of circles both directions You can also bring the knee towards you depending on their flexibility and get a little stretch here. Opening up this area Then place their foot on the outside of their opposite leg. You can ground down their toes with your foot. And then ground this hip bone with your hand here. As I push down with this hand, I'm pushing their knee away. So coming into a twist, It's getting right into that TFL. So you can even use your body here. To do that. And then you can also use your form if that's easier. And I'm directing the energy down away from the head as I do this little rocking. Nice. So this can really help open up that hip flexor and get a stretch. Then we'll step back and bring the foot onto the same side. Again, Same thing. You can ground down with your foot, And then we'll bring the knee into what we call the water pump. So I start at the top of the thigh, Press down away from the head, And then just push the knee away, And then slowly bring the knee towards you. So they're getting a tractioning and a nice pressure on the top of that thigh. Each time I press the knee away, My knee is sliding around the greater trochanter just below the hip bone. So as I slowly pump the leg back and forth. I'm getting into different areas of the hip you can always pause and breathe. You can also circle the knee once you get talented at this. Again this can be fairly intermediate if you're not used to using your knees but just finding this Effortless action once you're good at it Eventually your knee comes down to the mat. Can use that to open And then as I push the knee away, I can even lift the knee and see how my knee is now like a pressure point underneath just using gravity is so effortless And then keep pushing the knee away. Sliding my knee deeper underneath. And even here you can use your fingers in the bottom of the foot. I'm all about. . . Getting more. Action two things at once. The last big stretch I'll show is you really slide your knee under almost to the sacrum. Then I wind my arm under the knee, Grab my opposite forearm, And I lean back for adductor stretch with this deep pressure in the glutes. So the other hip lifts off the floor. Little shaking, Pause, And then I just slowly straighten their leg and slide my knee out from underneath. And then I work the outer leg line from here. So just finding that nice release. I hope this is a sequence that helped you. Anyone who has sciatica, This can be really beneficial. Have a great day. Enjoy.