What Exercises Should I Avoid if I Have Sciatic Pain?

Dealing with sciatica can be a painful and uncomfortable experience. If what your doctors are saying isn’t working, or you simply can’t deal with the side effects anymore, you may feel tempted to turn to Google. However, while you can find many helpful things, it’s important to know what sciatica exercises to avoid.  

The internet is full of information on stretching and exercising, and there are many blogs and articles that discuss what kind of stretching you can do to improve sciatica. Unfortunately, while much of this information is helpful, there could be some misleading tips floating around. 

If you follow some of these misleading tips, you could end up making your pain worse. The stretches could even cause some new pain, especially if you’re unknowingly doing something wrong. 

At Stretch Zone, we want what’s best for your health, which is why we offer quality services of assisted stretching. Today, you can finally feel relief from sciatica.

What is Sciatica? 

Sciatica is a pain that will usually affect only one side of your body. It gets its name due to the position of the pain, which runs along the sciatic nerve. This nerve begins in the lower back and travels through your hips and buttocks, as well as down each leg. However, while the nerve itself travels down both legs, the pain is usually only felt in one. 

Furthermore, some cases of sciatica can be severe and potentially lead to surgery, but it will often go away after just a few weeks.  

What Causes Sciatica?  

The sciatic nerve can sometimes become pinched due to a range of factors. One of these is a herniated disk in the spine. This can be the result of either an injury or the body simply wearing down from age.  

Another cause is an overgrowth of the bone, which is called a bone spur. Bone spurs are typically a result of inflammation from osteoarthritis or tendinitis.  

As you can see, sciatica is something that usually happens because of issues in other parts of your body. So, it is important to recognize the signs and give your body the treatment it needs before the discomfort gets worse.  Knowing which sciatica exercises to avoid is a crucial step toward recovery.

Common Sciatica Symptoms 

While the pain of sciatica is felt along the nerve, the exact location can vary. It could be noticed along the entirety of the nerve or just in one specific location. The degree of pain can also be different, ranging from some slight discomfort to something much more sharp and severe.  

Some people might even experience a burning sensation or something similar to an electric shock. Other common symptoms include: 

• Tingling 
• Muscle weakness 
• Numbness 

More extreme symptoms may mean that sciatica exercises aren’t going to be enough and you need to see a doctor. These include: 

• Sudden severe pain 
• Difficulty controlling bowels or bladder 

Sciatica Risk Factors 

 Like many issues with the body, some people are more at risk of developing sciatica than others. If you find yourself fitting into a few of these categories, you may be someone who’s at a higher risk. 

Age

As we grow older, we naturally get a lot of new aches and tingles popping up everywhere. It’s simply part of the aging process. Changes in the spine due to our age give us a higher chance of herniated discs, a major cause of sciatica.  

Diabetes

Diabetes is a disease that can cause nerve damage in response to how your body handles its blood sugar. Since sciatica is caused by issues with the sciatic nerve, diabetes can put you at a higher risk.  

Obesity 

Due to the sciatic nerve’s relationship with your spine, the more pressure on the spine, the higher chance of sciatica pain. Those who are obese are putting much more weight on their spine than those who are physically fit. 

Sitting

If you have an office job or find yourself sitting all day, you could also be at a higher risk for sciatica. This is partly from the stress placed on the spine, as well as the possibility of poor posture.  

What Exercises to Avoid With Sciatica

Now that you know a little bit more about sciatica, it’s important to know how to stretch out a sciatic nerve. But this also means looking at some of the stretches and exercises you should avoid. You might initially think these stretches could benefit your body, especially if you find a seemingly useful article, but they could actually make everything worse. 

Leg Circles 

Leg circles are fairly simple. You just swing your leg around in a circular motion; however, this could lead to irritation in your sciatic nerve. When you’re completing these leg circles, you’re continually stretching your hamstring in a quick, and sometimes inconsistent, manner.  

This could create new issues if you’re not careful, and if you already have sciatic nerve pain, it could increase the pain you’re feeling. Similarly, any exercise where you’re stretching or moving your legs in this manner could lead to more issues.  

Therefore, sports like football and soccer, as well as yoga and Pilates, should be avoided or at least limited until your pain has subsided. 

Bent-Over Row

The bent-over row exercise is a method that can be greatly beneficial to your sciatic nerve. The problem with this one, however, is that it can very easily go wrong. Whenever you do a stretch or exercise in poor form, you have a chance of straining your muscles and injuring yourself.  

This exercise can make your life a lot more difficult if you complete it improperly because it can cause a herniated disc. Whether a herniated disc was the cause of your sciatica in the first place or not, getting one when you already have pain from your sciatic nerve will be extremely uncomfortable.  The risk involved for multiple areas of the body make this stretch among the major sciatica exercises to avoid. 

Being able to turn to someone who has experience in stretching techniques is particularly important because the goal is obviously to make yourself feel better, rather than worse. With the assistance of a stretch practitioner, you won’t need to worry about stretching improperly. 

Double Leg Lift

At the surface level, the double leg lift is another stretch that you should simply avoid due to the possibility of aggravating your sciatic nerve. However, if you look beyond that, you can also walk the line into potentially overstretching–leading to even more problems.   

When doing a double leg lift, you’ll be lying on your back while slowly lifting both of your legs toward the ceiling. This is a great exercise for both the back and abdominal muscles, but you could be straining yourself if you’re not careful. 

Many times, people will want to do more than what their body is capable of. If you have weaker abdominal muscles and you attempt to do a double leg lift, you may end up hurting yourself. Your body may not be ready for that level of intensity, so you’ll need to build up to that point.   

So, how do you build up to that point? Stick to only a single leg lift instead. When completed with a stretch practitioner, their specialized training will help you judge your body’s capability.

Common Activities That Can Make Sciatica Worse

Cracking Your Back

Let’s be honest – many of us like the feeling of cracking the bones of the back to feel less tired after all the hours we spend working, but this habit can cause a lot of damage to your vertebrae and it can be dangerous if you do it too often.

Carrying Too Much Weight

Carrying more weight in the gym than your body can handle not only leaves you prone to hernias but can also build up a lot of pressure on your spine and make your sciatica worse. If you’re feeling discomfort, it’s better to switch that routine and start looking for the best exercises for sciatica pain.

Exercising Without Warming Up

You might be doing the best exercises for sciatica pain relief, but if you’re not warming up, then you are causing more harm than good. Not warming up makes the body unprepared for movement, causing contractures.

Before doing any type of exercise, the best thing you can do is to stretch for at least 3 minutes so as not to feel the ravages afterwards. Even better, consult a stretch practitioner who can guide you in the right direction.

High Heels and Uncomfortable Shoes

If you have sciatica and can’t seem to get rid of the discomfort, your high heels might be to blame. When you wear high heels, your body weight is distributed differently, putting pressure on your front foot and forcing your hips forward.

Shoes that are uncomfortable and lack cushioning can also be taxing on your hamstrings and feet. Avoid non-supportive shoes like flip-flops, and at the very least, aim to wear shoes with built-in support. Additionally, you can buy shoe insoles made expressly for those with sciatica.

Sleeping On Your Stomach Or Your Side

When sleeping on your stomach, the pelvis rolls forward and flattens the spine’s natural curve. This causes the lower back to overextend and is the quickest way to trigger the sciatic nerve. If you’re used to sleeping on your stomach, it’s time to change your sleeping position. 

If you can’t fall asleep without the prone position, place a pillow under your hips. This brings the spine closer to a neutral position and should help relieve discomfort.

If you sleep on the side that has sciatica problems, the weight can aggravate the nerve root and make things worse. If you lie on the unaffected side, this can cause the affected side to elevate too much and pinch the nerve.

Find out more about how a sedentary lifestyle can negatively impact your body in our blog: A Guide To Stretching for Sedentary Lifestyles.

Does Stretching Help Sciatica Pain?

Stretching makes your muscles become stronger and your joints become more durable, two things that can quickly deteriorate if you have sciatica. You should always include stretching as a part of your exercises for sciatica discomfort. Here you have a couple of reasons why:

Enhancing Joint Function

Regardless of whether you suffer from sciatica or other type of discomfort, it’s likely that your joints aren’t getting the activity they require to function at their best. Stretching increases your range of motion by releasing tight muscles and other joint tissue. That’s why it is one of the best exercises for sciatica.

Improved Coordination

A more flexible physique enables you to move your body as it was meant to be moved, which improves coordination. Usually, this means having better dexterity and balance.

Are you looking to find stretching exercises that can help relieve sciatica pain? Our blog ‘The Best Sciatica Pain Stretches: Sciatica Relief Exercises’ covers everything you need to know to get you started.

How Stretch Zone Can Help Relieve Your Sciatic Pain 

Instead of worrying about which exercises and stretches to do, visit the stretching experts at Stretch Zone! We know how to move your body and recognize the signs for optimum benefit. We go beyond what’s expected to get you on the right track to feeling great. Our stretch practitioners genuinely care about your health and how it affects your comfort levels daily. 

With the help of our stretch practitioners, you should see a noticeable decrease in your sciatica pain. Contact us today to get started! Try a free 30-minute stretch!