I have been bothered by some mild sciatica for the past week, probably brought about by two days of long-distance driving during a recent family vacation.
I have sore spot on my right side close to the spine that sometimes sends jolts of pain when I walk. I’ve had it before and seen a doctor about it who confirmed it to be harmless although annoying.
Do anyone have some good examples of good stretches to do in this situation? Most of what I could find online targets the muscles slightly below where my pain is located and doesn’t seen to reach the spot that hurts.
And now for the rant:
When using Google to find information, the results were full of SEO optimised links to physical therapists and chiropractors trying to sell me stuff. Among all the bullshit I managed to find a page about it on a public healthcare site where very little effort had been made to make the text pop up in search engines.
The text was written by a named specialist and cited sources. It said that there’s little to do about mild sciatica besides keeping active, improving workplace ergonomics, taking OTC painkillers and waiting for it to go away by itself. It was honest about that most of the time it was impossible to explain exactly what mechanism causes the pain. It said that there’s no documentated effect of heat or cold and explicitly advised against lumbar support bandages.
I then visited one of the commercial sites, hoping to find some stretches to do. And what was the first thing I saw? Without giving any sources they claimed that cold packs and lumbar support bandages are effective and tried selling them to me.
The individual private physiotherapist might be good at their job and able to help people but the profit motive incentives them to upsell people snake oil and quackery. This in turn makes everything they say less trustworthy. It might very well be that you can benefit from some product they are selling in some situations but you can never be sure whether they’re advising you to use it because they want your money or because it is actually going to do you any good.
Meanwhile medical doctors, who almost all operate within a single payer public healthcare system around here are one of the most trusted professions since you know that the likelihood of them having ulterior motives is very low. (Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of problems with classism, racism, sexism and God-complexes in the medical profession but at least your GP is not trying to inspect your wallet)
(bulging disk between the L3/L4 here)
Stretches might be useful but you’ll probably need to do some light core body workouts to strengthen the muscles around the offending nerves.
(Cold packs can help reduce inflammation, which reduces pressure on the nerves, so that’s not nothing.)
Leg lifts, flutter kicks, crunches, toe touches, pushups. You don’t need to do a ton at any one time or anything. Adjust the exercises so that you’re working the muscles close to where you’re feeling discomfort.
Probably make an effort to adjust your posture if you aren’t already. Adjust your car seat, if the seat has a lumbar adjustment fiddle with it, maybe roll up a large bath/beach towel to help keep your back in a comfortable position when you’re driving or sitting in an office chair for long periods.
content warning, its the US’s veterans administration medical website…
Link to the VA’s list of resources for stretches, exercises, etc about sciatica.