If you are suffering with sciatica or lower back pain, believe it or not the best thing that you can do to get relief is to start some gentle stretching of the tight muscles that are contributing to your pain. Now I know that the last thing that you think that you would want to do is exercise, especially if you are suffering with intense sciatica pain. But resting or lying in bed is actually more likely to make the problem worse rather than better.
Sometimes getting out of bed itself is difficult; let alone starting an exercise regime. In that case start your stretching in bed. I always found that bringing my knees up to my chest and holding them there for a steady count of 10 or 20 seconds starts to loosen things up. I would repeat this 2 or 3 times. If you can not manage both knees at once, start with one at a time. This should loosen you up enough to get out of bed and start some more adventurous stretching.
Getting out of bed can also be difficult to negotiate. So put your feet and legs over the side of the bed before trying to sit up. The weight of your legs will help pull you up and put less strain on your lower back.
When you first get a flare up of sciatica the pain can be excruciating and your instinct is to rest in bed or flat out on the floor. Older remedies have included the advice to lie on a board. But all of these suggestions of inactivity were actually not the best. Initially some rest may help to reduce the inflammation of the sciatic nerve and surrounding muscles and tendons that are taking the strain because of some underlying spine problem. But this rest should be coupled with some proactive action to reduce the swelling. Cold packs or ice packs will help and will numb the area to reduce the pain. Hot packs will increase the blood flow around the problem area and this in turn aids recovery as well as relieving the pain.
At this stage pain killers and analgesics are largely ineffective. Even the strongest pain killers are only likely to reduce the pain, not completely alleviate it. And don’t forget that strong pain killers do have side effects, like drowsiness and even possible addiction, if taken for long periods. Of course you also need to be careful if taking pain killers when you are pregnant or if you are taking any other medications.
So once you can move begin with your bed exercises, then get up and get into a routine that concentrates on loosening the Hamstrings and Piriformis muscles. The Hamstring muscles run down the back of each thigh and the Piriformis runs through the buttocks.
The most suitable exercises are sourced from Yoga and can be provided to you by your doctor, physiotherapist or chiropractor. There are also numerous sites and videos online that describe and illustrate these exercises.