Have you ever moved wrong and felt a shooting pain down your leg from your lower back. Or maybe you didn’t even feel pain at first and an hour later you had terrible pain in your lower back and numbness down your leg. There is a good chance you hurt your sciatic nerve. There are ways you can heal this injury and strengthen your body to avoid further injury and pain.
| Can exercising help sciatica? Yes. If you do certain exercises that strengthen your core, you can help your sciatic nerve and sciatica to heal. Core exercises are exercises that strengthen the stomach, lower back, thighs, and buttocks. By strengthening these areas, your back will become stronger helping your posture, balance and sciatic nerve. |
What is Sciatica
Your lower back supports your upper back, your buttocks, and your legs. The sciatic nerve starts in the lower back and runs down your legs. It is the longest and widest single nerve in the body. This nerve supplies almost the whole skin of the leg, the muscles of the back of the thigh, and those of the leg, ankle, and foot.
Sciatica is a set of symptoms, not a diagnosis, which means it does not explain the cause of the pain. If this happens to you, you need to get a specific reason for this problem from a doctor or chiropractor.
I’ve heard of baseball players hurting their back and they can’t play, just because they sneezed. I wondered about that until at age 30 I hurt mine to the point I couldn’t even walk just because I sneezed while sitting in an awkward position. The pain was terrible, all of the muscles of that leg had atrophied and I had no feeling whatsoever in the back of my leg, completely numb.
How to Feel Better if You Hurt Your Sciatic Nerve
When I hurt my sciatic nerve, the pain was right at the left side of my lower back, where the back meets the hip. For a couple of days, I just lay on the couch using a heating pad and aspirin.
Thankfully, someone I knew gave me the name of her chiropractor and when I called him, he told me not to use the heating pad but to use ice instead. That helped ease the pain a great deal along with the swelling.
I went to the chiropractor and he checked my alignment and explained everything that happened to me and how I ended up this way.
Injury to the sciatic nerve can start by being out of alignment, to begin with and that sneeze in the awkward position finally did it. Lifting wrong, turning wrong or doing about any normal activity wrong that involves the lower back could have done the same thing.
The chiropractor would not give me any pain medication and told me not to take aspirin unless the pain became unbearable, aspirin just masks the pain and can prolong the healing. So for the next couple of days, I relaxed using ice packs, it’s also a good idea to switch between heat and ice.
After that, I went back to the chiropractor for more treatment and I had to slowly learn to do core strengthening exercises plus I had to practice walking the right way again, without dragging my foot.
Since the sciatic nerve controls the leg, ankle, and foot, your foot might have a tendency to not work right and you literally have to focus on walking properly.
Exercises for the Lower Back
You should of course check with your doctor if this happens, or before exercising. These exercises will help you heal your back and the muscles of your back and leg if you’ve injured your sciatic nerve. If you haven’t then these will strengthen that area possibly preventing an injury to your lower back.
Sciatic Nerve and Lower Back Stretching
You need to loosen up and warm up. While stretching, it is important to never bounce when you stretch. Just slowly stretch and hold it. Nothing about stretching should be fast, and remember to breathe in and out slowly. I will try and explain these as simply as I can so that it doesn’t sound like a game of Twister.
Piriformis Stretch: The piriformis muscle is located in the buttocks near the top of the hip joint. When this muscle is tight, it can put pressure on the sciatic nerve and cause pain. Hold for 15-30 seconds for each leg.
Piriformis Stretch - EmergeOrtho
Glute Foam Roller: Using a foam roller on your glutes can relax the area including the sciatic nerve.
Using a foam roller - Mayo Clinic
Dead Bug: This stretch is a dynamic or moving stretch. While doing this, make sure your core muscles like your abdomen are tight and do not raise your legs past your hip sockets. This stretch is a dynamic or moving stretch. While doing this, make sure your core muscles like your abdomen are tight and do not raise your legs past your hip sockets.
Dead Bug - Jeffrey S. O'Guin DC
Hamstring and Calf Stretch: Hands against the wall, with one leg behind and that foot flat on the ground, stretching the hamstring and calf; keep the other knee bent with no stretching on it and don't bounce. This is a static stretch. You see runners doing this all the time.
Cross Legged Stretch: This is not easy. While standing up, cross your right foot in front the left foot. Then slowly bend down trying to touch your toes and hold for a 5-30 count, depending on your condition. Repeat with the left foot over the right foot. This not only helps stretch the sciatic nerve but also helps balance.
Don't worry if you can't touch your toes, I still can't after three years. But I have gone from touching my knees to my ankles. This really does help with balance. At first you will probably be off balance, so have something to either side you can hold onto if needed.
The Bridge or Glute Bridge: Lie on your back, knees bent and feet flat on the floor hip-width apart. Your hands can be folded across your chest or straight out. But don’t use your hands to help lift you up. Using your legs, slowly lift your buttocks up to a comfortable level, hold, back down and repeat.
Reverse crunch - LivestrongLower Back and Sciatic Exercises
The Bridge or Glute Bridge: Lie on your back, knees bent and feet flat on the floor hip-width apart. Your hands can be folded across your chest or straight out. But don’t use your hands to help lift you up. Using your legs, slowly lift your buttocks up to a comfortable level, hold, back down and repeat.
Glute Bridge - Kayla Itsines
Reverse Crunches: Lay on your back, knees bent, feet flat on the floor. Bring your knees up towards your chest and back down again, and repeat. If it hurts your lower back to lift your buttocks or hips off of the floor, don't do that at this point. Work up to it.Single Leg Glute Bridge: These will strengthen your glutes and your upper legs, plus this will also lengthen your hip flexors. Lay on your back, knees bent, and feet flat on the floor, hip-width apart. Lift your left leg off the floor so only your right foot is on the ground. Lift up using your right leg, back down, and repeat.
Single leg glut bridge - Orillia Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation
The Bird Dog: This exercise will take some practice until you get used to doing it. They are good for building the paraspinal muscles that run down your back. The best way to explain this exercise is to actually watch a Video below so you can do the Bird Dog properly. This exercise will not only strengthen core muscles but also help your balance.
Calves: Stand at an angle, both hands on a wall. Lift up on the balls of your feet and back down. Repeat as many times as you comfortably can. This will strengthen the calf muscles that might have diminished after a sciatic nerve injury.
As you progress and start to heal the sciatic nerve from the injury, you can do other core building exercises like squats and lunges. I started with just 3 sets of 5 reps of each exercise. As you feel better you can increase the reps and the sets.
More Lower Back Tips
- If you are overweight, that can hurt your lower back. Losing weight can help relieve sciatica.
- Walking is great to tone the leg muscles and get the circulation going.
- If you go to a chiropractor, when you get home, lie down and relax for a while, this gives the back a chance to rest after having your spine aligned again.
- When you first hurt your sciatic nerve or when you feel it start hurting, using an ice pack is preferable over a heating pad. Ice will get the swelling down and lessen the pain.
Conclusion
Using these exercises to strengthen the sciatic nerve area and lower back will really help you heal and to avoid further injuries.
The exercises will help to stabilize and strengthen the lower back and core muscles to limit further injuries in the entire area. You can read more about core strengthening exercises that will help your posture, they way you walk, your balance and your health and fitness.
About the Author
Sam Montana is a certified Food Over Medicine instructor from the Wellness Forum Health Center and certified in optimal nutrition from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Copyright © 2010-2018 Sam Montana
