Sciatic nerve pain can be a mild, daily nuisance. And when it flares up, sciatica can cause severe pain that will derail your whole day. That’s why it’s important to learn sciatica stretches that can keep pain at bay and even reduce those flare-ups when they happen.
Nerves need three things to stay healthy and function properly: movement, space and blood supply, Colleen Louw, physical therapist and program director at Evidence In Motion and spokesperson for the American Physical Therapy Association, tells TODAY.com.
Anti-inflammatory medications might help relieve nerve-related pain to some degree, “but then you have to start moving that nerve,” Louw says. “And you’ve got to create space so that we can get blood flow back in and around the nerve itself.”
That’s why regularly performing gentle stretches can reduce pain related to a nerve and relieve tension in the muscles around the nerve. And when it comes to sciatica, there are some specific stretches and exercises that are highly effective.
What is sciatica?
Sciatica is a type of pain that can occur anywhere along the sciatic nerve, which travels from the lower back all the way down the leg.
The two most common causes of sciatica are a herniated disc in the lower spine and lumbar stenosis, Trevor Delaney, physical therapist and certified primary spine practitioner at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, tells TODAY.com.
The discs between your spinal vertebrae contain a gel-like center that helps to cushion them. But when the disc is herniated, that means the gel has started to leak and “is pushing on one of the nerve roots in the spine,” Delaney explains. A herniated or bulging disc in the lower back area can directly cause sciatica.
Lumbar spinal stenosis, on the other hand, is a degenerative condition that causes a “narrowing of the openings where the spinal nerves are,” Delaney says. The condition is most common among adults over the age of 60. But people who are born with certain spinal conditions may…
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