Fighting my way back – BionicOldGuy

After my recent sciatica flare-up, I took a week off from driving or other exercise. It was painful to walk for a few days, then I tried using a walker I had with me from a previous injury and it helped a lot. Conventional walkers work less well outdoors, although I replaced the tips on the back legs with Teflon “ski tips” which slide better. So I treated myself to a “rollator” style walker with four wheels to roll better and brake for greater safety. These products are surprisingly inexpensive these days. I also like that it has a folding seat. So I do much better in situations like shopping because I can take a break whenever I want.

After a week I slowly got back into cycling, but on my recumbent bike only, I’m not sure the sore side is ready for a saddle yet. I started with 30 minutes and have now progressed to over an hour. Easy, high cadence, low resistance only. Turns out my upper body workout doesn’t bother the sciatic side at all, so I can do that too. And I spin for about 5 minutes on my indoor bike several times a day to keep the muscles warm. I also stretch the piriformis muscle on the sciatic side several times a day, and every night I do the physiotherapy exercise prescribed to me for piriformis syndrome. At first I only did stretching, but have now started adding strengthening.

With all this, it’s starting to happen. The muscle itself is still sore and stiff when I first wake up in the morning, but it feels better when I warm it up. And there is much less referred pain in the leg, so I think the piriformis is relaxing and not pressing on the muscle. sciatic nerve as much.

I’m not ready to do longer rides with my group yet, but the ride to where they’re going for lunch afterwards is short, so I’ll join them and meet them there, which I’ll do more late this morning.