Is walking good for sciatica

[johnmichael1]

Hii if any person know is walking good for sciatica pless give me answer

[sassy59]

Any gentle careful exercise would help but do speak to your healthcare provider first. I’ve had sciatica many years ago and it was so painful. Xx

[Yoga2011]

massage is supposed to help and colon hydrotherapy as well believe it or not! I have two friends that have had it, one quite badly for a few months but walking her dog didn’t help. The other friend had physio which helped a bit.

[peege]

My back therapist always departs with the words "keep walking" and she knows her physiology. Sitting gas always been my worst enemy, I use a wedge cushion to ensure knees are lower than my hips, anything else puts too much strain on lower back making sciatica pain worse. Also holding in core muscles helps.

[Ern007]

I have a spine that has no curve anymore, it hurts sat down but slow walking seems to help. My wife Anne has sciatica and she is better walking than sitting at times, not everyone is the same, see what your GP says is the best and safest. way

[hypercat54]

In a simple answer yes. But start off very slowly and I mean like you are 90 to give the nerve time to get a bit less stiff. Otherwise it will start jangling with awful pain.

Do this until it feels not too bad. Once it starts really hurting again slow down and stop if you need too. Give it an hour or 2 of sporadic gentle massaging to keep the nerve from stiffening up again. Then rinse and repeat.

This works for me.

[Maricopa]

I have too get the pressure off the nerve. So I sit in a chair and gently do the stretches described on google. For me it works. Walking doesn’t work for me.

[BronchyBronwen]

Usually v gentle start to walking good, as others have said. But do check about massage with your health provider. My neurosurgeon has said "no" to back massage, to my great disappointment. Everyone's a bit different depending on your exact complaint so best to check first. My thing is spondyliothesis (amazed I can spell that!), with some severe spinal stenosis. Maricopa's exercise works for me; but again check with your dr. Good luck. xx

[Shirazmataz]

I have had sciatica - very painful - commiserations. Once you are over the acute stage i recall that you are not meant to sit for too long. I think you are meant to get up and have short walks on a regular basis. One thing i found very helpful is a chair support called BACK FRIEND. If you have a chair that already provides good support that is great, but the Back Friend can just be placed in the chair that you are using, and actually holds your spine in the right position and is a great help. If you look on the internet you should find a company that sell them. I still use mine when my back is playing up. They were about £80, maybe price has gone up more recently. anyway take a look! All the best Sally

[Biker88]

Not unless you know the exact cause of your sciatica, if it’s a disc pressing against your spinal cord and sciatic nerve standing can make it a lot worse. There are gentle exercises designed to help manipulate the spine so it reduces the pressure of the disc on the spinal cord but under the supervision of a suitably trained person. In my case the disc burst and impacted on the spinal cord, I could not stand or sit without extreme pain. I ended up with major surgery to fix it, if your pain gets worse when standing then avoid walking, ideally talk to a back consultant. I don’t know if the NHS still do it but after my surgery I went to “back school” and had a series of lectures on back care which was very informative

[Ergendl]

I do gentle stretching exercises every morning that I've gathered from physios and osteopaths over the years. These help my body get going in the morning, so that I can manage to walk a lot despite sciatica. The winter months are always worse. Things are getting a bit easier now as spring is edging forward.

Without the exercises, I shuffle and am bent over when I stand and move. After the exercises get things going and in the right place, I can easily walk 9k to 15k steps in a day.

So consider asking for a physio appointment to get some exercises to help you move each morning.

[Izb1]

I suffer this and find that when it comes on I can hardly walk . I do stretching exercises and find this helps. I had a good osteopath that really helped but he moved . Hope you find a way round this and get some relief its so painful x

[Germantara]

Yes walking is good for that issue in moderation but don't over do it