Sciatica

Dealing with sciatic pain

Keep active

The evidence is clear that exercise and activity is the best treatment for sciatic pains.  

There is no set approach that has been shown to be the best so feel free to try different types of exercise and activity.  Be guided by what you enjoy and what you feel able to start.  

Consider:

• regular walks. This can be as effective, if not more effective than a strict exercise programme.  Little walks but often throughout the day is usually better than one big outing. 
• over the counter pain relief, to allow you to move normally. Consult your pharmacist or GP practice for help if needed.
• continuing with your day-to-day life as much as possible.
• exercising as much as your symptoms enable. 
• activity or exercise that will help maintain a healthy weight in the long term. 

Remember pain does not mean you are damaging your back or the nerve, it will hurt as you move back to health. If you are not starting to get better in 1-2 weeks, or your pain is severe, consider contacting your GP practice for guidance. 

Posture

There is no clear link between posture and sciatic pains. We often change our posture when in pain and this is entirely natural.  If these changes become more of a habit or we avoid moving naturally from fear of flaring the pains, we can prolong our recovery significantly. 

• Listen to your body but be aware that mild pain from getting active is the norm. 
• Try to avoid bracing yourself or changing your posture on purpose before/during movements.  
• If you are shifted to one side but forcing yourself upright flares the leg pains, you are best to listen to what your body is telling you. Try getting more upright as your leg pain settles and allows you to do this. 
• Keep changing your position and posture frequently.  Your best posture is your next posture. 

Lifting

When in moderate to severe pains, it is normal to find lifting a challenge. Lifting is entirely safe and not a cause of structural concern.  

Try to return to normal activities, including lifting, as soon as your pains allow.  

If you have to do lots of lifting at home or at work, consider if you are generally fit enough to do this or not. If you have done this work for a long time, you have likely built up the fitness to do it.  Changing the method of lifting is not the key and we know we can give people more back pain if we focus on unnatural lifting techniques. Instead, consider how to build back up to this in a gradual manner.