Sciatica Exercises: 8 Gentle Moves That Actually Help

Sciatica is a symptom rather than a diagnosis. Something is irritating or compressing the sciatic nerve, usually where its roots leave the lower spine, and the result is pain that travels from your lower back or buttock down the back of one leg, sometimes with pins and needles, numbness or weakness alongside it. A bulging disc causes most cases. Occasionally the culprit is the piriformis muscle in the buttock, or simple spinal narrowing that comes with age.

The instinct when it flares is to lie down and wait. That instinct is wrong, and the NHS is unusually direct about it: carry on with your normal activities as much as possible, and start gentle exercise as soon as you can (NHS sciatica guidance). Bed rest beyond a day or two makes most people worse, not better.

The rule that governs all of these

Pain moving up towards your spine and away from your foot is a good sign, even if the back itself feels no better. Pain travelling further down the leg is a bad sign, and whatever caused it should be dropped for now. Physiotherapists call this centralisation, and it's the most useful thing you can learn about managing your own sciatica.

8 exercises for sciatica

1. Knee to chest

Lie on your back, knees bent, feet flat. Bring one knee up and hug it towards your chest with both hands until you feel a gentle pull in the buttock and lower back. Hold 20 to 30 seconds, then swap. Three rounds each side.

This is usually the first thing that gives relief, because it opens the space where the nerve roots exit. If single knee feels fine, try both knees together, which is stronger.

2. Piriformis stretch

Lying on your back with knees bent, cross the ankle of the painful side over the opposite thigh so your legs form a figure four. Reach through and pull the supporting thigh towards you. You should feel a deep stretch through the buttock of the crossed leg.

Hold 30 seconds, three times per side. The piriformis sits directly over the sciatic nerve and in some people the nerve runs straight through it, which is why a tight one produces symptoms that mimic disc pain exactly. More options in our glute stretches guide.

3. Sciatic nerve glide

Sit on a chair with good posture, hands resting on your thighs. Straighten one leg out in front of you while pulling your toes back towards your shin, and at the same time tip your head back. Then bend the knee back down and drop your chin to your chest. Slow and rhythmic, about two seconds each way.

Ten to fifteen repetitions, two or three times a day. This isn't a stretch, and treating it like one is the classic error. You're sliding the nerve gently through its sheath, so it should feel like movement rather than a strong pull. If it produces sharp shooting pain, reduce the range until it doesn't.

4. Pelvic tilt

Knees bent, feet flat, gently flatten your lower back into the floor by tightening your abdominals and squeezing your glutes. Hold five seconds, release. Ten to fifteen repetitions.

Small, unglamorous and genuinely effective at restoring control to a lower back that has spent a fortnight guarding itself. Full technique in the pelvic tilt guide.

5. Standing hamstring stretch

Put one heel on a low step with your leg straight, keep your back flat, and hinge forward from the hips until you feel a stretch behind the thigh. Hold 30 seconds each side.

Keep the stretch mild. Aggressive hamstring stretching pulls directly on an already irritated nerve and is a common way people make sciatica worse while believing they're helping. Gentle only, and back off if you feel any tingling into the calf or foot. See our hamstring stretches guide for alternatives.

6. Glute bridge

Feet flat, knees bent, press through your heels and lift your hips until your body forms a straight line from knee to shoulder. Squeeze your glutes at the top, lower slowly. Two sets of 10.

Strong glutes take load off the lower back and reduce how hard the piriformis has to work. This is the point where you shift from calming symptoms to fixing the underlying weakness. Details in the glute bridge guide.

7. Bird dog

On hands and knees, extend one arm forward and the opposite leg back until both are level with your torso. Hold three to five seconds, return, swap sides. Two sets of 8 per side.

It trains the deep trunk muscles to stabilise your spine while your limbs move, which is exactly what your lower back needs to relearn. Keep your hips level; if they rotate, extend the leg only and leave the arm down. See the bird dog guide.

8. Prone press-up

Lie face down, hands under your shoulders, and push your upper body up while keeping your hips on the floor. Only go as high as feels comfortable, hold two seconds, lower. Ten repetitions.

Extension-based movement helps a good proportion of disc-related sciatica, and it's the classic McKenzie approach. It also makes a minority of people worse, so judge it strictly by whether the leg pain retreats towards your back or spreads further down it.

How often, and for how long

Little and often works better than one long session. Run through the stretches two or three times a day and the strengthening exercises every other day. Most people notice something within a week or two, and most cases resolve within six weeks.

Walking underpins all of it. Aim for several ten to fifteen minute walks a day rather than one long one; it keeps the tissues moving without loading the spine in any one position for long. Standing up every 30 minutes if you work at a desk matters as much as the exercises do.

The evidence for exercise here is decent rather than dazzling. Reviews of exercise for neuropathic pain, including nerve-root pain of this kind, find that strengthening, stretching and aerobic programmes can improve pain and function, and that exercise is a reasonable alternative or addition to standard care (systematic review and expert consensus). For the low back pain that usually accompanies sciatica, the case is stronger still (umbrella review of exercise therapy).

What to avoid while it settles

Heavy hip hinging under load, deep loaded squats, sit-ups and crunches, and rounded forward folds to touch your toes all belong on the shelf until the leg pain has gone. Running on pavements aggravates plenty of people; a treadmill or grass is kinder if you can't bear to stop entirely.

Sitting is the underrated aggravator. It puts more pressure through the lumbar discs than standing does, and a soft sofa is worse than a firm chair. If you must sit for long stretches, a rolled towel in the small of your back helps more than it has any right to.

A foam roller used gently on the glutes and outer thigh can take the edge off, though roll the muscle rather than the nerve path down the back of the leg, and keep pressure moderate. A basic exercise mat makes floor work bearable.

Recommended reads

1. The pelvic tilt exercise
2. Glute stretches
3. Hamstring stretches
4. The best foam roller in the UK
5. All workout and exercise guides