Hopefully the last blog post cleared up some confusion as to what sciatica actually is! Here are my top 4 exercises to help relieve some of your sciatic pain. Keep in mind that these exercises are to be used as a guide only and if your CAUSE of sciatica is undiagnosed, it is important that you determine the reason you are experiencing sciatica before attempting!
1. McKenzie’s Extension Exercise
- Start by lying on your stomach like you are about to do a push up, with your hands near your shoulders.
- Gently straighten out your arms to lift the chest off the floor, making sure you keep your hips on the floor.
- Only extend as far as you are comfortable and hold for 5 seconds.
- Repeat 3-5x.
- This exercise is used to CENTRALIZE your leg/sciatic pain, so you may feel and increase in lower back pain while performing this.
- If this exercise INCREASES your leg pain – STOP.
- Please consult your practioner BEFORE trying this as it is NOT indicated for all sciatic issues!
2. Sciatic Nerve Glide
3. Piriformis Trigger Point release
- Place a lacrosse/spikey ball under your butt (on the painful side).
- Bring your knees up to the chest (hip flexion) and spread your feet apart (hip internal rotation).
- Roll around, attempting to find tight/painful points in the back of the hip/piriformis region.
- Can do contract/relax – tighten up the muscles in the hip – hold for 5 seconds, then relax.
- If this INCREASES your pain – STOP!
4. Quadratus lumborum stretch
- Place a rolled up towel under the OPPOSITE side to where you have the pain and lie down on your side.
- Bend up the bottom leg and straighten out the top leg.
- Reach up over your head with the top arm.
- You should feel a stretch along the side of your back, between the bottom of the ribs and your pelvis.
- If this INCREASES your pain – STOP!
These are by no means a one-fits-all guide and definately isn’t meant to diagnose an injury. Get yourself to a good physio, osteo, chiro – and figure out what’s wrong before you try and treat yourself!
Keep in mind that things such as prolonged postures (especially sitting/driving), bending forwards and sudden twisting movements will increase sciatica pain so try and avoid these if you can. Remember that with any lower back/pelvic injury that improving your core strength will be vital (read more about this here: Core stability and Crossfit).