Sciatic nerve pain can be so excruciating and debilitating that you don’t even want to get off the couch. You probably know more than one person with this condition, as it’s relatively common, with a lifetime incidence of 10-40 %.
The sciatic nerve begins at your lower back and then moves through your hips, buttocks, and down each of your legs. Sciatic pain will usually follow the path of the sciatic nerve in the affected leg. It happens when there’s a compression or irritation of a nerve anywhere along this pathway.
Common causes of sciatica can include:
a ruptured disknarrowing of the spine canal (called spinal stenosis) injurySciatic pain can also happen due to a condition called piriformis syndrome. Your piriformis muscle extends from your buttocks at the edge of your spine all the way to the top of your thigh at the back. Sometimes this muscle can spasm and trap the sciatic nerve, which is located nearby. This can result in sciatic pain.
Licensed physical therapist Mindy Marantz says that sciatica pain can occur for a variety of reasons. “Identifying what doesn’t move is the first step toward solving the problem,” she explains. Often, the most problematic body parts are the lower back and hips.
Dr. Mark Kovacs, a certified strength and conditioning specialist, adds that the best way to alleviate most sciatica pain is to do “any stretch that can externally rotate the hip to provide some relief.”
Here are 9 exercises that do just that:
sitting glute stretchsitting spinal stretchbasic seated stretchFigure 4 stretchknee to opposite shoulderforward pigeon posestanding hamstring stretchstanding piriformis stretchscissor hamstring stretch