Sciatica pain & exercise

reesegrace1

Anyone else struggle with sciatica pain & trying to exercise? How do you handle it?

jhanleybrown

I had sciatica 15 yrs ago.

Swimming helped me a lot. Both in terms of being pain free exercise and reducing pain after. So much that I would go swim if pain got bad.

I also went to a chiropractor and they taught me to stretch using a countertop. Standing straight on one leg I put my calf horizontally on the countertop (knee bent and leg about 90 degrees - and thigh then parallel to you on the counter) then increased the stretch gradually by leaning into the bent leg on the countertop. I dont know if this will work for you or not as part of mine was caused by very tight hip and glutes.

Hope that's helpful.

mbaker566

a few of my students have sciatica.
there are a few yoga series that we do to help
legs up the wall being one of their favorites
example

fittocycle

I had sciatica several years ago. As the previous posted stated, yoga can do wonders for the pain. A great deal of the my pain was caused by disc issues and tightening muscles in reaction to it. Yoga and stretching can really help the pain. I love the legs up the wall pose!
Also, walking is great and riding a bike (indoors, little tension). Just make sure you ride more upright and not leaning forward.
I hope the pain subsides for you soon. I know it can be miserable!

kshama2001

Another vote for yoga. I googled "yoga for sciatica" and this was one of the first results I got:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5h0jkoBFbI

I've never done any Yoga With Adriene myself, let alone watched this video, so am not 100% comfortable with this recommendation (since I am a certified yoga teacher I would prefer to be fully knowledgeable about what I recommend), but in yoga threads here lots of people recommend her.

Theoldguy1

Sciatica is a symptom, not an injury, illness or disease. Please work with a doctor or physical therapist to find the root cause and then work on treatment.

Good luck