Sciatica is a medical condition characterized by pain going down the leg from the lower back. If you suffer from this painful condition, you may experience a feeling of weakness, numbness, a burning sensation, or tingling in your leg. If sciatica is not treated on time, can cause another health issues such as imbalance and poor movement.
Here are 8 effective ways to treat sciatica and ease the pain at home.
1. The cat-cow exercise
This exercise improves your spine’s flexibility and strengthens your core.
How to do it: Stand on all fours on the floor with your hands directly under your shoulders and your knees directly under your hips. Inhale and lift your head up to the ceiling while pushing your belly toward the floor. Then, exhale and lower your head looking at your hips while rounding your back toward the ceiling. Repeat this 15-20 times.
2. Hamstring stretching
This stretch targets the hamstring muscles and help you ease the sciatica pain.
How to do it: Sit on the floor and stretch your right leg out in front of you. Bend your left leg at the knee while the sole of your left foot is placed against your right inner thigh. Extend your arms toward your right foot, while keeping your right knee straight, and bend at the waist as far as possible. Hold on 15-30 seconds.
3. The bird-dog exercise
This exercise relaxes your lower back and strengthens your glutes.
How to do it: Stand on all fours with your hands directly under your shoulders and your knees directly under your hips. Extend your right arm forward and left leg back, while keeping your back still. Hold for a few seconds, then return to the starting position.Repeat on the other side. Perform this exercise for 10-15 times.
4. The butterfly stretch
This pose stretches out the muscles of your butt and the piriformis muscle.
How to do it: Seat up right with your knees bent so that the bottoms of your feet touch each other.Place your palms where your knees bend and gently press them down toward the ground.As you press, bend forward at the hips so that your chest is closer to your legs.Hold for 10-20 seconds.
5. Vinegar foot bath
In a small bucket add some warm water, 500 ml of apple cider vinegar and cup of salt and mix everything well. Soak your feet in this foot bath for 15 minutes before going to bed. Repeat this 4 times a week to ease the sciatica pain.
6. Acupuncture
Acupuncture is one of the most effective ways for treating sciatica. It helps you relieve lower back pain and the pain in the affected leg. Acupuncture is an ancient Chinese practice, relatively safe and it can be used without any risk.
7. Trigger point massage
By applying pressure to the affected areas of sciatica, such as the trigger points and piriformis muscles can ease the pain quickly.
8. Physical activity
To prevent sciatica pain, you should avoid sitting for many hours. Watching TV or working at the desk for many hours can increase the pain. So, it is very important to be active through the day as much as you can. The physical activity can increase blood flow to the nerve and will reduce the inflammation around it.