exercise with sciatic pain

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nkelly1020
nkelly1020 Posts: 11 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hey all! Struggling with finding workouts because of sciatic pain. I've always LOVED walking, but I've recently been having such severe sciatic pain by the evening that I can barely stand up to make dinner. I'm a nurse, on my feet most hours of the day, I want to be able to do cardio or something on my days off but I'm so relieved to be mostly pain free on those days that I just don't exercise. Anybody have suggestions???

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  • maroonmango211
    maroonmango211 Posts: 908 Member
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    First I would suggest discussing with a physiotherapist who specializes in sciatic pain. I know when mine flared up the help I got was great and much better than just seeing my doctor who gave medication and recommended 'rest and wait'. We ended up working on many movements, light stretches and strengthening routines to help fix the underlying cause of the pain. I went from barely able to walk more than a block or two to having relatively little pain (usually around "that" time of the month).
  • bologna111
    bologna111 Posts: 57 Member
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    Make sure you see your doctor and figure out the cause of your sciatica pain. Mine is from mild scoliosis so my experience may be different from yours, but strength training has been the best thing I have ever done for my body. I very rarely get pain anymore. I would do a full body weight training routine but make sure you focus on strengthening your core! It makes a huge difference. Good luck!
  • SonyaCele
    SonyaCele Posts: 2,841 Member
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    exercise will only aggravate it. you have to let it rest and heal, and then slowly work on strengthening your core . I used to get it bad where i couldn't even walk, once i started heavy weight lifting and learned how to lift and move properly, i haven't had a problem since.
  • eep223
    eep223 Posts: 624 Member
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    Yoga's really helped me with mine. I like the RaviAna videos, and they have some suggestions for particular workouts to try. Of the ones listed here, I've only done the rag doll, but it does feel good: https://www.raviana.com/content/sciatica
  • ew_david
    ew_david Posts: 3,473 Member
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    Invest in a lacrosse ball and learn how to use it to help alleviate the pain. As others have said, exercise will only aggravate it until you address the cause.
  • nkelly1020
    nkelly1020 Posts: 11 Member
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    Thank you everyone! I appreciate your help. I'm pretty sure my pain is originating from periformis syndrome rather than my spine so that eases my mind a bit. I will check out your videos and suggestions for sure!
  • mbaker566
    mbaker566 Posts: 11,233 Member
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    7 poses

    poses and foam roller video
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,150 Member
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    Stretching and time is the only thing that helps me with mine, when I have an episode.

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