Exercises for Your Sciatica Pain

Sciatic nerve pain can be so excruciating and debilitating that you don’t even want to get off the couch. Common causes of sciatica can include a ruptured disk, a narrowing of the spine canal (called spinal stenosis), and injury.

The specific sciatica exercises serve two main purposes: reduce the sciatic pain in the near term and provide conditioning to help prevent future recurrences of the pain.

While it may seem counterintuitive, exercise is usually better for relieving sciatic pain than bed rest. Patients may rest for a couple of days after sciatic pain flares up, but after that time period, inactivity will usually make the pain worse. Therefore, we recommend these exercises for you to practice, please remember this have to be done under medical supervision and approval: 

Foam-Roller Exercises

• Sit on the floor and place a foam roller under your thighs
• Move your body so your legs and buttocks roll back and forth over the roller
• Lie on your side with the roller underneath you (perpendicular to your body) and “roll out” your outer thigh and calf muscles
• Lie on your stomach with the roller under your thighs and roll from the top of your hip to the top of your knee
• Roll each section for one minute

Stretch

• Lie on your back with your knees bent
• Lift right foot and cross right ankle over the left knee
• Pull left leg toward your chest with the right foot still over the left knee
• Hold 30 seconds
• Do two repetitions

There are several types of exercises to help you relieve your sciatic pain, which can be found online. However, please take into account what a good sciatica exercise program should focus on: 

Core muscle strength. Many sciatica exercises serve to strengthen the abdominal and back muscles in order to provide more support for the back. Stretching exercises for sciatica target muscles that cause pain when they are tight and inflexible. 

Hamstring Stretching

Regardless of the diagnosis, most types of sciatica will benefit from a regular routine of hamstring stretching. The hamstrings are muscles located in the back of the thigh. Overly tight hamstrings increase the stress on the low back and often aggravate or even cause some of the conditions that result in sciatica.

Aerobic Exercises

Aerobic conditioning may also be encouraged for general fitness. Walking is an excellent form of exercise for the low back because it is a relatively low impact but can provide all the benefits of an aerobic workout. If possible, it is best to gradually progress to doing up to 3 miles of exercise walking at a brisk pace each day.

In addition to an exercise routine, patients with sciatica should minimize everyday stress on the lower back, including using appropriate ergonomics while lifting, maintaining good posture, making sure the lower back is supported while sitting and avoiding sitting or standing for long periods of time.

Orthopedic Corner | Leon Mead MD Orthopedic Doctor | 730 Goodlette Road North, Suite 201  Naples Florida 34102 | Phone: (239) 262-1119