11/05/2023
If you have sciatica, you may be experiencing symptoms down your leg such as:
🔻Shooting pain
🔻Burning sensation
🔻Pins & needles
🔻Numbness
🔻Leg weakness
Here are some exercise ideas that can help! (all exercises assume left sided symptoms)
1️⃣Nerve mobilization aka nerve sliders
This will increase blood flow to the nerve, supplying the nerve with nutrients to help it recover ✨
Begin with a gentle mobilization, lay on your back and straighten your leg till you feel a gentle stretch. When you start, your knee may still be bent and that's ok. Do not force the straightening.
When you feel better, you may add some head movement to further mobilize the nerve
10-12 reps, 1-2 sets a day
2️⃣Knee rolls
This is a simple back opener exercise to reduce the stress on the nerve root ✨
Bend your knees and bring them down towards the opposite side of pain.
10 secs, 5-10 reps, 1-2 sets a day
3️⃣Piriformis stretch
This is a good hip opener, to reduce pressure on the nerve ✨
Begin with a gentler movement if the pain is a really acute. Lay on your back, bring your foot up to the opposite knee (looking like a figure 4), gently push your knee away
When you feel better, pull the opposite leg up to towards your chest to feel a deeper stretch in your left buttock/hip
10 secs, 5-10 reps, 1-2 sets a day
4️⃣Bridging
This is a simple movement to activate muscles and begin hip strengthening ✨
Start with 2 legs, lift your hips up
10 secs, 5-10 reps, 1-2 sets a day
When you feel better or stronger, switch to single leg bridging, do it as a movement of 10-12 reps before adding the 10 sec hold
5️⃣ Clam shell
This is another simple exercise to activate muscles and strengthen the hip rotators and stabilizers ✨
Lie on your side, keep feet together, lift top knee up
Add a resistance band around the thighs when it gets easy
10 secs, 5-10 reps, 1-2 sets a day
For sciatica, there is no single specific "best" exercise but to keep moving is key and starting with simple exercises have been proven to help with the symptoms.
Check in with our physiotherapists for more advice. 😊 Send us a DM or contact us at 82182905 / 62620970!📱
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