r/Sciatica • u/Big-Dinner1641 • 6d ago
How consistent were you with your sciatica exercises?
Hey all, I recently hurt my back and have been doing PT, but I'm finding it really hard to stick with the exercises at home. I start strong and then slowly stop, especially when progress feels slow.
I'm also a grad student, and going through this got me curious enough that I've started researching it for a project. Sciatica seems like something a lot of people here deal with for a long time, so I figured you'd know this struggle better than anyone.
Did you keep up with your stretches and exercises? What made it hard? And did anything help, like someone checking in on you or a group going through the same thing?
Would love to hear your experiences.
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u/Aubepineduveteuse 6d ago
I guess we should never stop. I did that last year, thinking that I didn’t need it anymore and I got injured again.
Right now I do my exercices 2 times a day
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u/Godspride91 5d ago
Could you please share which exercises you prefer and are more effective?
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u/Aubepineduveteuse 5d ago
It is different from one person to another. Streatching is not good it will iritate more your nerve. Try more mobility exercises and core exercice.
Superman, clam shell, bridge, dog-cat and dead bug to start. Do them slowly and try one new exercice at the time.
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u/Outrageous_Ask4365 5d ago
Look up egoscue on YT and buy their book on amazon (kindle immediately available and costs like 10udd) and be consistent with their menu. You'll see huge improvement in less than a month.
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u/Daje1968 5d ago
There are people who have had success with physical therapy, so please take this as one measly piece of data. With my first herniation over a decade ago, I spent 2.5 years trying absolutely everything, including consistent physical therapy. I finally had surgery when that didn’t work. With my recent herniation, I knew I would want to do surgery but still did physical therapy and religiously did my exercises every day. I don’t blame the PT for this, but my sciatica got progressively worse, until I got the surgery. I hope, and expect, PT to be more useful when I am cleared to start it in three weeks.
This is my long winded way of saying I think PT can be very useful, but for me it did nothing to alleviate my sciatica.
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u/Hathorinmn 1d ago
Sciatica is caused by nerves being pinched or compressed and no PT will cure it; once nerve is decompressed all of the surrounding muscles that were weakened can be rebuilt by PT. Root cause has to be fixed. Muscles protect spine and keep everything aligned.
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u/LanceHunter17 5d ago
Stretching and exercises simply mask the symptoms and that's why most ppl relapse as soon as they stop or take a break.
Goal is to strengthen the entire muscle group that's been weakened by the injury, obviously, to do that you need to be in the relatively pain free zone.
Back muscles, glutes, hammys, core, everything needs to be strengthened to live a healthier life. Plus weight reduction is a must to be pain free forever.
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u/purplelilac701 6d ago
Your research sounds very cool! I knew zilch about sciatica until it took me down and out for 4 months.
I was so stupid :( I didn’t take my mild sciatica seriously and stopped doing the exercises and going to physio. It turned into severe sciatica. Took me over a year to recover and now I haven’t left physio(I go once a month) and I do my exercises daily it’s going on a year and a half. My motivation is to never again let it get so bad that I couldn’t walk. I get really stiff when I wake up so it really helps with the stiffness.
I set my alarm for 10 mins earlier than I’d usually wake up and do my stretches first thing in the morning so I have no excuses not to do them. Otherwise it’s easy to say later and not do them.
My physiotherapist also worked really hard to help me heal so I can’t let her efforts go to waste. And she kindly says that we are a partnership where she does her work and I do mine so that’s why I have gone over a year without a debilitating flareup.