Are you suffering from lower back pain? There’s a good chance it could be related to sciatica. Up to 5% of adults experience sciatica symptoms every year, which may include:
- Sharp pain that radiates from your lower back.
- Pain on one side of your body.
- Tingling or burning that radiates from the lower back.
- Muscle weakness.
Sciatica occurs when the long and wide sciatic nerve in your lower back becomes compressed, often by a herniated disc rubbing against the nerve’s root. The sciatic nerve provides important sensory and motor information to your brain, and when it is compromised, it can become inflamed and painful. Your pain can even feel worse during certain movements, which can limit your daily routine. Physical therapy can help you regain your mobility and your comfort so that you can do regular movements with less pain.
5 things that can make your sciatica worse
Your sciatica may be radiating into other areas of your body and holding you back from making normal, everyday movements like bending down and lifting objects. As a result, it can be easy to feel frustrated by sciatica. While your sciatica can be treated through a variety of techniques, you should avoid the things that make your sciatica worse in the meantime. By avoiding them, you can temporarily relieve pressure from your sciatica nerve and give your body a chance to heal over time. Here are five things that can make your sciatica worse:
- Bending forward — Since the sciatic nerve runs over each of the buttocks on its way into the leg, bending forward can trigger an increase in sciatica. Bending forward engages the buttock muscle and causes it to rub against the already-inflamed sciatic nerve. Bending down can therefore lead to pain that radiates down your leg. It can be helpful to avoid this movement as much as possible to reduce the intensity of sciatic pain.
- Sitting for too long — Sitting for too long has also been known to make sciatica worse; the reason for this is that sitting can compress the sciatic nerve where it runs over the buttocks. In fact, many doctors recommend that standing up with good posture can help relieve sciatica. If you do need to rest, lying down flat on your back is better than sitting. When lying down, pressure is spread across the entire back of your body and not focused on the buttocks.
- Lifting objects — Not only does lifting a heavy object typically require bending forward, it can also place additional stress and weight on your spine. The added stress can squash the disc that’s already pinching your sciatic nerve and further inflame the nerve. For this reason, lifting heavy objects can make sciatica worse.
- Coughing — Coughing doesn’t seem like something that can affect sciatica, but it actually can make your sciatic pain feel much worse. When you cough, your body suddenly hunches forward, placing added stress on the lower back. Like lifting, this added stress can increase the pinching of the sciatic nerve, and in turn, this can cause your symptoms to get worse. If you are sick while experiencing sciatica, you should ask your doctor about taking a cough suppressant so that you can minimize your coughing as well as your sciatic pain.
- Sleeping on your side — When you sleep on your side, you can increase your risk of misaligning your spine, as it can curve outward awkwardly. Misalignment can put additional strain on your lower back. Many side sleepers also draw their knees up slightly to form the fetal position, which engages the buttock muscles and can cause even more sciatic nerve irritation. If possible, you should sleep on your back if you have sciatica.
How can physical therapy help keep sciatica from getting worse?
While you avoid movements that make your sciatica worse, you can also take active steps to treat your symptoms. Physical therapists can help you develop an effective treatment plan specific to your symptoms and medical history. They can use a combination of several therapies, including the following:
- Stretches — Gentle stretches can release built-up tension in your back and help ease the pressure of tissue against your sciatic nerve. Stretches can also help encourage your spine into a comfortable, natural position and improve your posture. This way, your weight can be evenly distributed across your spine while standing and walking, reducing feelings of sharp pain.
- Strengthening exercises — Your physical therapist will guide you through strengthening exercises that support your spine and increase your range of motion. By engaging weakened muscles, you can improve your ability to move your back with less pain.
- Manual therapy — Physical therapists can use hands-on techniques like soft tissue mobilization to help relax your tense back muscles surrounding your sciatic nerve. Manual therapy also helps increase blood flow to your tissue area.
Your physical therapist can combine these therapies with other modalities to promote your lower back health and make daily activities easier. While going to physical therapy and avoiding movements that can worsen your sciatic symptoms, you can encourage your back into healing.
Find treatments that don’t make sciatica worse at Panther Physical Therapy
At Panther Physical Therapy, our team is proud to help people treat painful back issues like sciatica. One of our free screenings can help us determine what symptoms you have. We can then build you a treatment plan designed to target your symptoms and the root cause of your sciatica using therapy methods such as:
Take the next step toward reducing your sciatica pain. Contact our team today for more information or to schedule an initial appointment.