Weeks 1–2
Pain
Calm the nerve down.
Hands-on techniques calm the irritated nerve and take the edge off your leg pain, starting your very first visit.
What We Treat
Sciatica treatment in Louisville.
Burning, shooting pain down one leg that starts before you’re out of the car. It starts in your back, not your leg, and so does the plan.
Sound Familiar?
Does this sound like you?
- Burning, shooting pain down one leg that starts before you’re even out of the car
- Numbness or tingling that runs all the way down into your foot
- Sitting hurts worse than standing, every single time
- Lying awake trying to find one position that doesn’t hurt
- A sharp jolt down the leg just from bending to tie your shoe
- Your leg feeling weak or unsteady partway up the stairs
Two or more? Keep reading.
Why It Happens
Sciatica is a symptom. Something causes it.
That shooting pain down your leg doesn’t mean you’re broken. It means a nerve root in your low back is irritated or compressed, often by a disc bulge or spinal joints that have gotten stiff, and it’s referring pain, numbness, or tingling all the way down the sciatic nerve into your leg.
Chasing the leg pain on its own rarely fixes anything, because the leg isn’t where the problem started. It takes a real, cause-first evaluation to find exactly what’s pressing on that nerve. Find the real cause, and the fix gets obvious.
The Honest Truth
Waiting on a pinched nerve doesn’t make it wait on you.
If you keep waiting
- The irritated nerve gets more sensitive, and it takes less to set it off
- The numbness spreads further down your leg instead of staying put
- You start avoiding sitting and driving altogether just to get through the day
If you start this week
- You know exactly what’s pressing on the nerve by the end of visit one
- Hands-on relief for the nerve starts the same visit
- You get a plan with an endpoint, a real one, not an open tab of visits
Nobody regrets starting too early. Every week, someone in our clinic says they regret waiting.
How We Fix It
The same four phases. Built for the nerve.
Every plan has an endpoint. Here’s what the four phases look like for sciatica.
Weeks 2–6
Prime
Take the pressure off.
Targeted mobility work restores motion in the spine, easing the pressure that’s been irritating the nerve.
Weeks 6–10
Perform
Make it strong enough to trust.
Progressive core and hip strengthening rebuilds the stability that protects the nerve from getting irritated again.
Weeks 10+
Prevent
Return better than before.
You’ll leave with real movement habits, for sitting, bending, and lifting, so the nerve doesn’t flare up again. That’s the endpoint, not just another appointment.
I will continue to recommend Focus physical therapy to my friends and family. Brad has helped me heal, so quickly, from several injuries. I suffered from hip pain for over a year before a friend recommended that I go see Brad for a consult. After 5 sessions I was 100% pain free. I am a very active person and I continue to see Brad anytime an injury occurs at the gym. He has helped me with back pain, hip pain, shoulder pain and even just to loosen up tight quads from an intense workout, to prevent injury.
Shared by Jennifer T. · Back & hip pain
Before: hip and back pain that had lasted over a year
After: 100% pain free in 5 sessions
Back & hip pain
5 sessions
Questions, Answered
What people ask before booking for sciatica.
Usually not, and it’s rarely the first step. Most sciatica improves without imaging, and studies consistently find disc bulges and other “abnormal” findings on MRIs of people who have zero leg pain at all, so a scan doesn’t always explain what you’re feeling. We start with a hands-on, cause-first evaluation to find what’s actually irritating the nerve, and if imaging ever becomes genuinely necessary, we’ll help you get it. You don’t have to wait on a scan to start feeling better.
Yes, in most cases movement helps more than rest does. Hurt doesn’t always mean harm, and total rest tends to make an irritated nerve stiffer and more sensitive, which sets up the next flare-up. The key is dosing the right movement for your specific nerve, which is exactly what a Doctor of PT sorts out at your evaluation, then progresses safely as you improve.
Most patients feel meaningful change within 4–6 visits. A full plan for sciatica runs through all four phases, Pain, Prime, Perform, and Prevent, typically over 8–10 weeks, depending on how long the nerve’s been irritated. Either way, you get a plan with an endpoint: you’ll always know which phase you’re in and what’s left, not an open-ended string of appointments.
Book Your Visit
Ready when you are.
Request a time and a real person calls you back, usually within two business hours. No phone tree. No ‘someone will reach out.’ Just a plan.
- Hours Monday–Friday, 8:00am–6:00pm
- (502) 509-3136 Prefer to talk now? Call us.
- Same-week appointments available
5.0 · 213 Google reviews
Typical response: under 2 business hours
Step 1 of 5
Request sent.
That’s the hard part done. We’ll call during business hours to lock in your time. Most people are on the schedule same week.
Visit Us
Care this good, this close.
Focus Physical Therapy
- 3010 Eastpoint Pkwy, Louisville, KY 40223 (opens in a new tab)
- (502) 509-3136
- info@physicaltherapylouisville.com
- Monday–Friday, 8:00am–6:00pm