Symptoms of sciatica can include inflammation, irritation, pain, numbness, or tingling of the sciatic nerve. A number of places could be painful including the back, butt, or legs. In my experience, sciatic pain has ranged anywhere from light discomfort to incredibly sharp, shooting pain.
Sciatica can become debilitating in extreme cases. It happened to me once. The sciatic pain felt like a knife stuck in my back. I couldn’t walk. I was stuck in bed for almost 2 days. It hurt even to roll over in bed. I ended up going to the emergency room for it. I was out of work for about 10 days.
It’s hard to believe that sitting for long periods of time causes this extreme sciatica pain. My poor sitting position definitely contributed to my shooting pain. There were many reasons. I had an old office chair that didn’t fit me well. I never used a standing desk back then. Also, I would sit for long periods of time without taking breaks. This led to my most overused muscles and tissues lacking blood flow. My lumbar spine was not properly supported. I didn’t have an ergonomic chair that included lumbar support. I never sat with proper posture because I didn’t know how to do it.
How to Sit Comfortably with Sciatica Nerve Pain
The sciatic nerve is very complex. It begins in the lower back, inside the spinal cord. Each sciatic nerve runs downward from there, through the hip and glute on each side, into each leg. The complex location of the sciatic nerve makes it prone to impact trauma. It could happen easily when falling on the ground. It could also happen when hitting a hard bump while riding in a car. When we are sitting with sciatica, the lower portion of our spine is the base support for our entire torso. This puts our lumbar support in a very vulnerable position.
Sitting for long periods puts us at a disadvantage, both mentally and physically. The average office worker sits for 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week. This equals about 2,000 hours per year of sitting for a long period of time. A large percentage of that is spent sitting without our body properly supported. This is a huge deficit compared to the number of hours we’ve moved our bodies with proper posture.
There are ways you can help relieve sciatic nerve pain. Obviously, sciatic pain is a very complex issue that can’t be fixed over the internet. However, I’m dedicating this post to talk about the habits I’ve used to sit comfortably with sciatica.
How To Sit With Sciatic Pain
Change positions frequently
This proper posture habit applies to all of my computer posture pain, not just sciatic pain. I work in multiple sit stand positions throughout the day. I never sit in an office chair for more than 30 minutes at a time. At the 30 minute mark, I will take a quick break to walk around for a few minutes. When I return to my computer, I will raise my standing desk and stand for about 30 minutes. Other positions include sitting on a stool and working in a reclined position. When working in a reclined position, it’s super important that I have proper lumbar support. Changing positions frequently is a great way for me to improve blood flow while working at a computer.
Don’t sit for a long period of time
The actual position of sitting isn’t our only enemy. Working in the same position for a long period of time is how we get repetitive strain and overuse injuries. These injuries can happen regardless if we have poor posture or proper posture. But, the longer I maintain proper posture, the less likely I am to have shooting pain in my sciatic nerve area.
Improve hip mobility and strength
After years of sitting at a computer, my hip muscles got tighter and shorter. They became incredibly weak and deactivated. I increased my hip mobility by doing things like yoga, foam rolling, and using a massage gun. I strengthened my hips by doing deadlifts and kettlebell swings. These exercises helped me activate and increase blood flow in my hip flexors.
Support your lower body
One of my top 3 proper posture rules at a computer is to keep my feet flat on the floor at all times. We may not realize it, but we still need to support our lower body when we are sitting. If we rest our feet incorrectly on our toes, while our heels are suspended in the air, it causes overuse of our hamstrings and overextension of our calf muscles. Sitting for long periods in this position creates quite a bit of dysfunction in the ankle and knee joints. It also causes muscle confusion throughout our lower body.
These issues don’t only apply while we are sitting at a computer. Being stuck in this vulnerable position for a long period of time carries over that dysfunction into our exercise, sports, and walking. It even changed my posture during sleep. That said, it’s very important that I support my lower body, while sitting with sciatica, by keeping my feet flat on the floor.
Apply low, continuous heat
Sitting for long periods caused a lot of tension throughout my pelvic muscles. Stretching or foam rolling these muscles can be an uphill battle. I did find some advantage when I used a heating pad before stretching or foam rolling. Applying low, continuous heat to my lower back for a few minutes prior to mobility work helped increase my blood flow. This made my muscles more responsive to the mobility work. I made sure not to use too much heat, or use heat for too long. While that increased blood flow, it also tended to increase inflammation.
Do frequent stretching exercises
When sitting with sciatica, I practiced 2 stretches I learned in yoga. Those were child’s pose and pigeon. Child’s pose mainly stretched my hips and my quadriceps. When doing pigeon, I focused on stretching my hip flexors, as well as my IT bands.
Get back support for your chair
The most common issue that caused my sciatic pain was the lack of lumbar support on my office chair. Once I switched to a more ergonomic chair with better lumbar support, my symptoms of sciatica decreased within the first couple of days. It was pretty eye opening how one small change like that allowed me to sit comfortably with sciatica.
Seek medical help
Nothing on my website is medical advice. It’s for informational purposes only. It’s not my goal to replace physical therapy with an article. I simply share my experience, what has worked for me, and what hasn’t. I talk about the poor posture mistakes I used to make and the good postural habits I’ve learned. Consult a medical professional for advice before considering anything mentioned in this article.
What Is The Best Sitting Position For Sciatica
Neutral Chair Sitting (Standard)
This is the old, classic sitting posture. I commonly refer to it as a balanced, neutral sitting position.
It may not relieve sciatica pain completely, but it’s good posture under normal circumstances. So my goal is that this posture compresses the sciatic nerve less than poor posture would. Because poor posture is much more likely to increase pressure more quickly.
Here’s how I describe a neutral chair sitting position:
- sitting in a comfortable, yet supportive desk chair
- I maintain a neutral spine, with its natural curves intact
- my elbow height is about 2 to 3 inches height than my desk height
- my hips are 2 to 3 inches higher than my knee level
- I keep my knees bent at a 90 degree angle minimum (preferably slightly more)
- my feet are always flat on the ground, I’m never sitting cross legged
- if my correct chair height doesn’t leave my feet touching the floor, I use a footrest
- I keep my eye level even with the top of my monitor screen
The pros of this position are:
- it may reduce pressure on the sciatic nerve
- it’s the most socially accepted, this sounds silly, but comedians at work can have a very negative effect on productivity
The con of this position is:
- prolonged sitting, in any position, regardless of posture quality, may not provide relief from sciatica
- Although it is reducing pressure on the sciatic nerve, there’s no real way to avoid sciatica pain completely
Reclined Torso Sitting
I know what you’re thinking…”Reclined sitting?” Sounds counterproductive, right?
I don’t think so. I’m a fan of sitting with my torso partially reclined. Because it alleviates some of my body weight, by taking advantage of the back rest on my desk chair. This gives my postural muscles a break for constantly supporting my torso (which is a fast track recipe for problems like spinal disc degeneration or a herniated disc).
The more pressure I take off my overused postural muscles by reclining, the more energy I have (both physical and mental). This increases my work productivity.
The below image is an example of how I sit with a reclined torso. Her spine is neutral, with its natural curves intact. Her head is supported well. And her eye level is consistent with her monitor height. She’s not looking down at her monitor.
The only problem I have with her posture is she is sitting with crossed legs. I never sit with my legs crossed, regardless of what position I’m in. Because that is a good possible cause for creating sciatic pain over time.
How To Sit To Relieve Sciatica
I know you’re probably looking for a magic position that completely alleviates sciatica. To be honest, I don’t think there is one. Sciatica is a very complex issue. The location of the pain is easy to find. The location of the pain’s cause, on the other hand, is not easy to find. It could be coming from multiple different directions.
I take 3 different approaches with I’m trying to relieve my sciatica:
- I either sit in a neutral chair sitting position
- Or I use a reclined torso sitting position
- But finally, I zoom out from my pain. And I look for the cause of the pain in locations away from the sciatic nerve. Because everything in our body is connected. Muscles, tendons, ligaments, bones, fascia, etc. Where do I feel excessive muscle tension? What joint(s) of mine are not working properly? Because those problems areas could very well be contributing to my sciatica. Regardless if it’s coming from my torso, or my legs.
If you’ve read this far, congratulations! You’re taking valuable steps that will decrease the risk of sciatica pain. That’s something to be proud of.
If this article was helpful, check out my book titled “45 Ways to Improve Computer Posture.” It’s available in both digital and paperback versions.
>>> Click here to pick up your copy
This book explains how to improve your posture through different variables of health and wellness. These include sitting posture, standing posture, sleep, hydration, and breathing. Poor posture is not just how we sit at a computer. The health habits we practice, 24 hours a day, are directly related to how good (or bad) our computer posture is.
Go to SittingPosture.com/book to learn more.
Thanks for your interest in computer posture.
Todd Bowen – Computer Posture Correction and Pain-Free Ergonomics: For Office Workers Who Want to Delete Their Sitting Pain
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🙏 Thank you for supporting my work. -Todd