How To Sit with Sciatica? Home Physical Therapy in New York City, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens

How To Sit with Sciatica? Home Physical Therapy in New York City, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens

Quick tips that help our private clients, patients, and busy executives in the New York City area:

#1. Do NOT stretch your painful side (avoid stretching the leg that has Sciatica)!
When your sciatica is "flared up" then your sciatic nerve is inflamed, tense, and already irritated, so if you stretch it, you will increase the tension of the nerve. And, therefore, you will almost immediately feel more and worsening symptoms if you try to "stretch it out." 

#2. Avoid crossing your legs, especially the painful leg that has the Sciatica.
This will put more twisting and rotational forces and pressure on the hip joint and sciatic nerve. When your sciatica is "flared up" then your sciatic nerve is inflamed and already irritated. So, if you cross it over your other leg, then you will likely feel symptoms worsening almost immediately. 

#3. Avoid YouTube videos from physical therapists, chiropractors, or trainers who are telling you to stretch the painful sciatic leg. 
See #1 and #2 for more. It's just flat out wrong, and stretching the painful sciatica leg always makes people feel worse. Imagine this, you take a rubber with each of your left and right hands, you pull your hands away from each other to put stretch and tension on the rubber band. Now, the rubber band is under tension. How do you relieve the tension?  Well, if you stretch it more, then aren't you putting the rubber band under more tension? Yes. So, you relieve the tension of the rubber band by easing up your hand tension on the band. It's a similar example with sciatica. If the sciatic nerve is irritated and is tense, then more tension will make things worse, not better! 

#4. Perform standard sciatica, hamstring, piriformis stretches only on your "good" side and not on your "sciatica leg."
So, yes, continue gently moving and testing out your mobility by stretching out your good leg only. Stretching your painful sciatica leg will make your symptoms worse.

#5. When sitting, try to keep both feet flat on the ground or floor and try a McKenzie lumbar roll for any prolonged sitting (about $30 on Amazon)
This prevents any further imbalance of pressure in your lower back, hips, or pelvis. The original McKenzie lumbar roll is to give you support in the normal low back curvature of what is called the lumbar lordosis. The lumbar roll is great for prolonged sitting at your computer/office chair, as well as being light and portable to bring into your car during any prolonged driving. 

#6. Try seated twists only to the "good" side or the "loose" side. 
If you sit on a chair or the edge of your couch, and you twist your trunk/abdomen to the left and then to the right, you'll likely feel one side feel better or has more range of motion or flexibility. If so, then that's your "good" side. Again, avoid repeated trunk twists to the painful side or tighter side (see #1 and #2 on how and why to avoid movements that re-create your pain).  To perform the seated trunk rotation to your "good" side, it MUST be completely pain-free and should feel good.  

If it gives you any pain or symptoms, then seek a doctor of physical therapy who specialize in helping clients overcome sciatica naturally (like us). If you have a "good" side trunk twist and the other side is a painful trunk twist, then perform 2 sets of 30 repetitions to the "good" side ONLY.  Then walk around, bend over, see if it helped at all.  If so, do it again by performing another 2 sets of 30 reps. Stop if it gives you any pain, numbness, or tingling. If it loosens you up and feels good, then perform the 2-4 sets of 30 reps at least once per day if not 2 or 3 times per day. Again, it must feel good. 

#7. Seated trunk twist must be focused on the end-range of your motion
If you try #6 seated trunk rotation to your "good" side, you must gently and repeatedly twist into the very end of your range of motion. It needs to feel comfortable and "good" but the end of the motion is where the magic happens. If you don't perform the reps into the very end of your twisting range of motion, then it won't ease your sciatica. 

#8. Now, after dozens of twisting reps, see how you feel.
After you've try 2-4 sets of 30 reps, stand up, walk around, bend over, and explore your body and put your focus and awareness back on your "sciatica leg." Is it any better?  Was it a level 7 pain and now it's a level 5?  If so, then it already is working.  Again, do NOT stretch into your painful sciatica side (leg). Stretching the painful sciatica leg seems like it would help, right? I know, I understand. But, stretching the sciatica leg is exactly what NOT to do, and it's exactly what irritates the sciatic nerve even more!

If this initial approach doesn't work for you or doesn't take the edge off of your pain, then you likely should see a healthcare provider. You can see a physician but they'll want to give you pain killers or a steroid injection - both of which do nothing to target the root cause of your pain... so your pain will return soon... or, the pain meds or injection make no effect at all. You could see a chiropractor, but they literally do the same spinal adjustments on every single patient every single visit. It's cookie-cutter and not specific to your unique pain and situation.

Which is why our doctors of physical therapy at Concierge Pain Relief - Home Physical Therapy spend 60 minutes with each client so that we can:

1.) Find the root cause of your sciatica, piriformis syndrome, SI joint, or back issue,
2.) Fix the root cause of your issue, then,
3.) Teach you how to prevent it from ever returning again!

Contact us today to learn more...

>> Call us 24/7 at (646)-781-8884​