My top 3 sitting tips to reduce your sciatica

Ever suffer with that terrible back pain that goes down your leg? Struggle to find a comfortable sitting position that doesn’t annoy you? Confused whether how to sit and get a little relief?

“Most cases of sciatica result from an inflammatory condition leading to an irritation of the sciatic nerve” ¹

So, what is sciatica? Quite simply, sciatica is the name given to pain caused by irritation of the main nerve that runs down your leg called the sciatic nerve.

The sciatic nerve happens to be the longest nerve in the body that comes from your low back, runs across your buttock and down the back of your leg all the way to your foot. This means sciatica can be a real pain in the backside or a pain anywhere down the back of your whole leg.

One real nuisance with sciatica is the type of pain that you get.  Most commonly it comes as a sharp shooting pain anywhere along the sciatic nerve, which really wears you down. It can also present as pins or needles or numbness or worse still as a combination of all three.

The other big frustration with sciatica is that simply sitting can be so difficult – it can be really hard to find a comfortable sitting position. If by chance you do find a comfortable position it may only last for a short period of time before it becomes uncomfortable again and you must shift again.

The really critical thing is sciatica is not a diagnosis. It’s a label given to the pain caused by irritation to the nerve, and this may be anywhere along its path. The challenge is finding it and correcting it.

Sitting is one of the most significant causes of this dysfunction that I see.

Sitting seems such a simple thing to do but we continue to find new ways to complicate it and cause irritation to our bodies. So how can sitting be the cause of your sciatica?

Here are a couple of commons ways that I see commonly people sitting that can lead to sciatica:

1. People slide their bottoms forward on their chairs and then slouch back, this is further worsened by people leaning to one side. This inadvertently cause ligaments that stabilise the low back and pelvis to become dysfunctional leading to irritation of the sciatic nerve.
2. People sit with their seat flat or even slightly tilted backwards. This puts a lot of pressure on the sit bones and local muscles where the sciatic nerve passes irritating it!

Sciatica is nasty business if it happens to you and the pain it causes you don’t quickly forget. This makes it all the more frustrating that a lot of people do this to themselves by the way they sit.

Are you sick and tired of your sciatic pain and want to speed up your recovery? Do you want to know my best tips for sitting? The secrets I use to help my sciatic patients sit comfortably every day?

Here are my three best sitting tips for you that I’ve seen so many of my patients use with tremendous success.:

1. Seat angle – make sure you have slight forward tilt on the base of your chair. This will take the pressure of your sit bones  
2. Back rest forward
3. Keep your pockets empty – make sure there is nothing in your back pockets. Items in your back pockets can increase the pressure on your sit bones and the sciatic nerve causing irritation

I see so many patients every day suffer with this debilitating condition. But don’t stress, there’s plenty that can be done. Try the sitting technique for 2 weeks and if nothing changes, send me a message and I’ll give you the next steps.