sciatica

Hi all,

was just wondering if anyone else suffered from sciatica...and if so, how do you cope when you want to exercise?

I used to run a lot, which probably contributed to my complaint in the first place.

I no longer run outside, i.e. on pavements very often, mostly treadmills for lower impact...

Ive discovered one stretch that kinda makes it feel better.  Lying on my back and bring my knees up to my chest and hold it, pushing my hips back.  Are there any other stretches good for sciatica?

I also suffer from sciatica. Have you tried yoga? I've found that many of the the stretches in yoga help. Also, stretching out your hamstrings and lower back area will be beneficial. For example, the cobra pose in yoga is excellent for stretching your lower back area.

Another stretch that i like is to cross one ankle over the other knee, then pull that knee up to my chest and push the crossed leg away at the same time.

Good luck!

My mum has sciatica and she does yoga too for theraputic reasons. Swimming is low impact as well, something her GP recommended - the only reason my mum doesn't do that is because she's afraid of water.

Thanks guys! yeah I heard it's a lower back thing, as the discs can trap the Sciatic nerve.

The leg cross is also good yeah Etoile_rg .
Im actually nowhere near as stiff as I expected to be this morning after a run yesterday : ) Stretching rocks

Yup! Thought I'd pulled a muscle for weeks before I went to the doc. They gave me a very gentle muscle relaxer for times when the nerve is good and pinched up, and stretching doesn't help. I find hatha yoga is good - I just run through the whole class, and by the end I've relaxed my grip on the sciatic nerve a bit. People have recommended swimming as cardio exercise durring a flare-up, but I find that it exacerbates it for me. Like you, I've stopped running on pavement, and run on a treadmill now (less stress on the legs in general.) Dunno if this helps, but I hope you feel better soon!

I have sciatica also. When it first started bothering me I was able to pop somthing in my lower back (probably not a good thing) when Id stretch my leg out standing up and it would instantly relieve it but now if it bothers me I either lay on my for a while or i will lay on my back and swing my right leg over my left and pull my knee to the floor to stretch it. Also the knees to the chest is another good stretch.

I had sciatica pain for years. In December I started taking Bikram Yoga (hot yoga) classes 3 x a week. It was difficult at first but my sciatic pain is completely gone; along with many other back pain issues. The stretch you are doing is perfect, it is also one of the 26 poses in Bikram, which is also a true Hatha yoga as suggested above.  

I had sciatica but I have had back surgery to fix it.

I would have prefered not to have had the surgery but I was begioning to lose sensation in my foot and leg, so we decide to fix it.

Anyways story over. I would do swimming (for the first time in my life, that I really swam, I have a problem of not being able to float), I also had stretches that I did every day. I tried yoga it just made the rest of me hurt too.