lifting_heavy_things | Squats + sciatica = owie

Squats + sciatica = owie

As some of you know, I've been building up my capacity again after almost a year off from lifting heavy things, due to a rotator cuff impingement. I'm nowhere near my pre-injury maximum, but I am starting to heave around fairly respectable amounts. Just in the past couple of weeks, I began squatting with 20 lbs. And the sciatic pain began.

I have had sciatica (the helpfully-named "unknown etiology" kind) for about 15 years. Most of the time it's in good control with minimal discomfort, due to a sit/stand workstation at my job, exercise, constant work on my posture, and limited time sitting. It hasn't really bothered me in a while. Needless to say, I am chagrined to have, apparently, irritated my sciatic nerve again even though I'm squatting only about 3/4 what I was up to before I hurt my shoulder.

So far, Mr. Google suggests that people with sciatica not to squats at all ever. Or deadlifts. Or leg presses. I did find a couple of suggestions to go down to a lower weight/more reps until the pain stops, and while that's not as discouraging as just giving up my lower body workouts, it still kinda sucks. So I thought I'd ask here if any of you have experience with sciatica, and what you do to build lower body strength.

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I had my first sciatica flare-up about 6 years ago. After I recovered there were occasional twinges.

Since I started lifting weights, I've had a twinge a couple of times (in a two week period of doing the same workouts) and it was from weighted lunges, not squats. I stopped doing lunges, did step-ups instead, because those didn't seem to irritate the sciatic nerve for some reason. I started doing stretches that are supposed to help, and I haven't been bothered since then, and I even went back to doing the weighted lunges.

Yesterday I did three sets of eight (okay, the last set only had six) reps of 60% of my bodyweight on squat with nary a twinge, so I think Mr. Google is a little over-cautious. It's possible that your sciatica is worse than mine, but it hasn't stopped me from doing lower body workouts since I started doing stretches. So I'm hoping that the combination of building up muscle and flexibility is helping the sciatica.

You can Google sciatica stretches and come up with a few things -- after reading a bit about sciatica I thought that my problem is with the Piriformis Stretch Lie down on your back with your knees up. Cross left ankle over the right knee. Pull right knee towards your chest. Repeat on other side.

2. (I can't find the link to this, so I hope the description is clear.) Lie down flat on your back. Bring left knee to chest and feel that stretch for a while. Lift up your head/upper back (i.e. do a crunch to that knee) and feel that stretch. Bring up your right knee and straighten your left leg, pulling it so it's perpendicular to the rest of your body. (or higher/closer to your upper body if you can) Hold that stretch for a while, then put your right leg back down so you're making a T. Hold that, then take your left leg and let it fall to your left side so you're stretching your inner thigh. Being your left leg back and pull your knee to your chest, but with your foot raised in the air. Bring your right leg up so it's doing the same thing. I like to flex my feet and push them against my hands to push my legs against my chest, but don't remember if this is a suggested part of the exercise or not. Repeat on other side.

3. Sometimes I do pigeon pose.

I've been following the workouts in New Rules of Lifting for Women, so I've done squats, lunges, step-ups, deadlifts, etc. So I guess I'd suggest doing stretches, and if squatting aggravates the sciatica, try something with a similar motion and if that doesn't hurt, do that instead and every once in a while try (carefully) squatting again to see if the problem has gone away.

First link should go here: http://www.spinal-health-care.com/tips-a-advice/piriformis-stretch-2/

Thanks so much for these suggestions! I do the first and third stretches you mention already; I suppose I should try doing stretch #2. The piriformis is all! I understand the popular wisdom is to stretch after a workout and not before, but let me know if you do it differently.

Step-ups are a good idea. I've been varying those with the squats, and they don't seem to hurt. Maybe I should just take the squats out of the rotation for a while and focus on step-ups and stretching.

I am really happy to know that you're squatting away without sciatic pain these days -- that gives me hope for the future. 60% of your bodyweight! I can dream...

Thanks again.

More recently I've been doing the dynamic warm-up from New Rules of Lifting for Abs and throwing in ab work on my non-lifting days, and haven't been doing the sciatica stretches as much. When I do, I usually put them first, and that's been working okay for me. I usually work out in the mornings, but I'll do the sciatica stretches in the evenings if I'm feeling stiff. I guess I don't do the stretches after the workout because I'm generally feeling fine -- I found some shoulder stretches after waking up really sore the day after I did an intense upper body workout, but I only do those after the workout sometimes and mostly do them the next day if I need to.

Some of the sites I found seemed to assume you'd be doing the stretches while having a flare-up instead of as a preventative measure. Once my flare-up calmed down, I kept doing the stretches to prevent them from coming back, so that's my logic for doing them before the workout rather than after. If I feel twinge-y, I'll do the stretches. I only had the sort of flare-up that made me unable to move all day the once, but that was enough.

This is all good to know. I hadn't thought of these sorts of stretches as regular maintenance (though I do some yoga stretches that way). Sounds like I should just add them into my yoga routine.

Just wanted to let you know that I've stepped up my stretching and reduced the depth of my squats a bit, and have enjoyed successful workouts this week with no sciatic pain. Thanks again for your suggestions -- they really helped.

Glad to hear it!

I had sciatic pain coming from a slipped disk, and it has returned occationally, plus some nerve damage has accumulated.

I actually started weight training to stabilize my back enough to keep my disks from causing further damage to the nerve. So, for me if there's flare-up, it's
- a whole lot of back training exercises given by a physiotherapist (I do 3 sets of 15 back hyperextensions with a 40 pound dumbbell. That's why.)
- keeping warm, applying heat packs as needed
- fighting every flare with high doses of ibuprofen to get the nerve calmed down and keep the muscles from cramping
- consciously activate my abs
- go to a chiropractor or physiotherapist to have my spine checked if a flare-up lasts for more than a week.

I had a bad one last autumn, was in tears during Capoeira training because of the pain. I lifted below my maximum in that time, and did a lot of gentle stretching. It got better on its own.

Thanks for these thoughts. Heat will be a good thing, as the weather cools down. Mmm, baths. And it's a good reminder about paying more attention to my abs.

I already take ibuprofen in wee fistfuls for my regular headaches, so I'm reluctant to add more of that, but it's good to have some other things to do when it hurts.

Glad you're feeling better!

I get sciatic pain too. However, I've managed to... more or less stop it (i Need to go back to the gym) and I do leg presses.

Pilates really, really helps me. It doesn't LOOK like much of a workout, but it really works your core muscles. Besides that, I've found that activating my core, SPECIFICALLY doing lower abs work (If you can build up the strength of those muscles and consciously keep them engaged during movement, quite often it will ward off an imminent attack.) (My gym instructor told me that mostly, if people are weak in the core it's in the back and lower ab muscles--just about everyone does situps, so the upper ab muscles are usually fine.)

The other thing that really helps is anything that exercises erector spinae. I do back extensions for this. That pretty much makes my sciatica go away, if I do them regularly. When I'm not at the gym, I concentrate on keeping an elongated and upright body, imagining a string suspended from the top of my head.

Thanks for your recommendations! I've thought about Pilates for a long time, but my gym doesn't offer it. I'm gonna see if I can do some of that core work on my own.

Interesting about the back extensions -- the working theory is that they are what caused my sciatica in the first place. Possibly that's wrong.

Well, sure--sciatica is caused by a pinched sciatic nerve, and I can see how performing a contraction of the muscles could potentially lead to pinching a nerve that's already pinched more. But if you're not actively HAVING an attack, why would back extensions cause one? They're the muscles that hold your spine straight and elongated--exercising them so that they're MORE able to hold the distance between vertebrae steady seems to make sense to me.

I don't think back extenseions that make you arch yourself backwards/hyperextend are a good idea. If your gym has one, one of those... upside down chairs. AHAH! Google informs me they're called roman chairs! this is the right kind of exercise to do. Good form, too--avoid hyper extension at all costs and concentrate on lengthening your spine throughout.

(Tip that actually works, but will make you look like a dork: I find that tucking a ruler down the back of my pants will stop me hyper-extending. I know that when I touch the ruler, I don't go any further. Or you could get a workout buddy to hold a hand above you as you extend and help you with your form)

::nodnod:: All makes sense. We have a couple of roman chair-like things that I have used in the past. I'm pretty sensitive to when I've fully extended vs. hyperextended, but I may try your ruler test with my iPod touch or something. (:

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