How Can I Tell If My Pain Is Sciatica?
Sciatica is a trapped nerve in the base of the spine that can refer pain down the leg, we talked about it in a previous blog which you can look at here. We had a lot of feedback from this blog and wanted to dive into more about the condition, what not to do and how you can get relief quickly.
It is easy to confuse sciatica with piriformis syndrome, the latter is defined as a tight or loose muscle that puts pressure on the sciatic nerve and can cause pain in the leg. In true sciatica the nerve is compressed at the root in the base of the spine by a disc, inflammation, or bone.
If this is the case and it is true sciatica, releasing the piriformis muscle doesn’t cause any long-term relief, so it is important to get a root cause diagnosis.
Sciatica can often be confused with peripheral neuropathy. Neuropathy is tingling or pins and needles in the legs that can be from other neurological conditions or diabetes. This will need to be addressed by a GP who can refer you on to a neurologist to get more of an understanding as to why this is happening.
Can too much sitting cause sciatica?
This can be true, the reason is that we are not designed to be sitting for long periods of time, which is why I advocate a standing desk (more on this later). Sitting causes the lumbar spine to move into flexion and this compresses the lower discs particularly the lowest one L5/S1 which is where the sciatic nerve exits.
Picture the disc as a jam doughnut and you put pressure on the doughnut for a prolonged period of time, it will cause the jam to start to disperse to the sides. The same thing happens with a disc and the jam moves out the back of the doughnut or at least puts pressure on the back of it.
If you do have a desk based job or sit for long periods during the day, I would always advise getting up and moving around every 15 minutes to relieve the pressure on the disc and this will reset the disc. When you go back to sitting it will then start to load again.
You can get kneeling chairs and ergonomic chairs and they can be good, but nothing will substitute a standing desk, activate the glutes and use the posterior chain muscles to get stronger around the base of the spine long term.
The more you read of my blogs you will understand that I’m not a fan of quick fix, don’t get me wrong if you are desperate then go for it, but there needs to be an awareness that this is what It is, a quick fix and that a long term solution needs to be sought out.
Sciatica pain stretches while sitting
Often sciatic pain can be excruciating, believe me I have been there as I suffer from a L5/S1 disc issue. When sciatic pain is bad it can be difficult to get upright and sitting exercises can be helpful if that is the only position you can be comfortable in.
The best one to stretch the low back and glute is the cross over stretch, you can watch it here. Ideally this would be laying down on your back first thing in the morning, but it can be done sitting as well.
You cross the involved leg over the other and gently pull the leg across and up the body, this stretches the low back and also the glute and can give some relief to the sciatic nerve, hold for 30 seconds and repeat 3 times.
If it causes anymore pain then stop and call me, I can recommend some other exercises.
Is a hot bath good for sciatica?
In short no.
But let me explain, one-word answers don’t make for great reading. A hot bath will relax the muscles and will feel good at the time.
You have to imagine if the nerve is causing pain, it will be inflamed around the area, it will be hot in other words. Applying heat to a hot area will feel good at the time but will cause issues long term as it won’t bring the inflammation down.
You want to be applying ice to the inflammation to bring it down. If you really want to have a hot bath then ok, but ensure that you use an ice pack for 15 minutes afterwards.
If you do know someone who wants more advice, please send them our details. You can send them this blog and they can request a free copy of our book which has posture related exercises in it as well. Click here for FREE book.
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