Sciatica is more than just back pain. It's the burning, numbness, or shooting sensation that travels into your hip, leg, or foot. At our Burlington clinic, we work to understand what's driving your symptoms and help you find a path toward feeling like yourself again.

Sciatica

What Is Sciatica, Really?

Most people use the word “sciatica” to describe any pain that travels down the leg. And while that’s not wrong, there’s a bit more to it. Sciatica refers to symptoms that follow the path of the sciatic nerve, which runs from the lower back through the buttock and down the back of the leg. Those symptoms can include sharp or shooting pain, numbness, tingling, or even weakness in the leg or foot.

What surprises a lot of people is that sciatica isn’t actually a diagnosis on its own. It’s a description of where your symptoms are showing up. The real question is: what’s irritating the nerve in the first place?

Sometimes it’s a disc issue in the lower back. Sometimes it’s tightness or compression deeper in the hip, like what we see with deep gluteal syndrome or piriformis-related irritation. And in some cases, the nerve becomes sensitized without any obvious structural cause at all.

It’s also worth knowing that the sciatic nerve doesn’t always behave the way textbooks suggest. Pain might stop at the knee, or only show up in the calf. You might feel it mostly in the glute. Where you feel it and how it behaves can tell us a lot about what’s going on, which is why a thorough clinical assessment matters more than jumping straight to imaging.

The good news is that most cases of sciatica respond well to the right combination of movement, strengthening, and guided care. It can feel overwhelming when the pain is at its worst, but understanding what you’re dealing with is always the first step.

Why Does Sciatica Develop?

Sciatica rarely comes out of nowhere, even when it feels like it does. In most cases, symptoms build when the sciatic nerve becomes irritated or compressed, whether that’s from changes in the spine, tension in the surrounding muscles, or a combination of factors that have been developing over time.

Common contributors may include:

Disc bulges or herniations in the lower back that press on a nerve root
Tightness or spasm in the piriformis or deep gluteal muscles
Prolonged sitting, especially in positions that load the lower back or compress the buttock
A sudden increase in physical activity after a period of relative inactivity

Previous lower back injuries or recurring episodes of back pain
Reduced hip or lower back mobility that shifts load onto the nerve
Age-related changes in the spine such as stenosis or joint degeneration
Repetitive bending, lifting, or twisting movements at work or in sport

How Sciatica Is Assessed

The first step is understanding your story. When the symptoms started, where exactly you feel them, what makes them better or worse, and how they’re affecting your day-to-day. Details like whether sitting aggravates the pain, whether it travels past the knee, or whether you notice numbness or tingling in the foot all help paint a clearer picture of what’s going on.

From there, we look at how your body is actually moving. This typically includes testing the mobility of the lower back and hips, assessing nerve sensitivity through specific clinical tests, and evaluating the strength and control of the muscles that support the spine and pelvis.

We also pay close attention to how the nerve itself responds to movement and positioning. Where your symptoms show up along the leg, and how they change with certain movements, can tell us a lot about what’s contributing to the irritation and where it may be coming from.

The goal isn’t to chase a single structure on a scan. It’s to understand how your body is handling load right now and what needs to change. Imaging may be considered if the clinical picture suggests it would meaningfully shift the direction of care, but in many cases a hands-on assessment provides the most useful information early on.

Practitioner performing a seated nerve assessment for sciatica symptoms at Burlington Sports Therapy in Burlington Ontario

Sciatica Treatment in Burlington

Beyond Waiting It Out

Treatment starts with your goals. Whether that’s getting back to running, sitting through a workday without pain, or just being able to tie your shoes in the morning, everything we do is built around what matters most to you.

Because sciatica is often linked to how the nerve is being loaded or irritated, treatment typically focuses on reducing that sensitivity while gradually rebuilding the capacity of the muscles that support your spine and hips. This may involve targeted strengthening of the core, glutes, and deep hip stabilizers, improving mobility where it’s restricted, and carefully reintroducing the movements that have been aggravating your symptoms.

Rather than resting and hoping it settles on its own, the goal is to find the right starting point and build from there in a structured way. Exercises are progressed based on how your symptoms respond, not on a rigid timeline.

Hands-on treatment can help calm things down in the short term, easing nerve tension and improving how the lower back and hip move. But lasting change usually comes from building strength, restoring confident movement, and learning how to manage load going forward. Adjustments to sitting habits, training volume, or movement patterns at work may also play a role.

Education is a big part of what we do at Burlington Sports Therapy. Understanding why your nerve is irritated, what positions to modify, and how to pace your return to activity can make a real difference in preventing flare-ups and building long-term resilience. When it’s helpful, a collaborative approach across our chiropractic, physiotherapy, and massage therapy team can further support your recovery.

Your Sciatica Care Team in Burlington

Sciatica often benefits from more than one approach. Depending on what’s contributing to your symptoms, care may involve a combination of hands-on treatment, movement-based rehabilitation, and soft-tissue work, all aimed at reducing nerve irritation and helping you get back to the activities that matter to you.

Chiropractic Treatment

When stiffness or restricted movement in the lower back or pelvis is contributing to nerve irritation, chiropractic care may focus on restoring mobility through the spine and surrounding joints. Attention is often given to how the lumbar spine, sacroiliac joint, and hips are working together.

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Physiotherapy

Building back the strength and control around the spine and hips is often a key part of sciatica recovery. Physiotherapy may include progressive core and glute strengthening, nerve mobility work, and a structured return to the movements and activities your symptoms have been limiting.

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Massage Therapy

When the muscles along the lower back, glutes, or piriformis become tight or overactive, soft-tissue treatment may help ease tension and reduce pressure around the sciatic nerve. This can be especially useful alongside an active rehabilitation plan, particularly when muscle guarding or spasm is limiting progress.

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Your Path Through Sciatica Recovery

Recovery from sciatica isn’t always linear, but it does tend to follow a general progression. How quickly things move depends on how your body responds, and the plan adapts along the way as your symptoms change.

Initial Focus

Calming nerve irritation and finding positions and movements that provide relief, while identifying the specific activities or habits that may be aggravating your symptoms.

Progressive Care

Gradually building strength and stability through the core, glutes, and hips to better support the lower back and reduce load on the sciatic nerve.

Active Involvement

Taking part in targeted exercises and movement strategies designed to improve nerve tolerance, restore confidence with daily tasks, and support long-term function.

Ongoing Reassessment

Tracking how your symptoms respond as activity levels increase and adjusting the plan to keep progress moving in the right direction.

Sciatica Questions We Get Asked a Lot

These are some of the most common questions we hear from people dealing with sciatic pain.

Helping Burlington patients move better since 2005.

How long does sciatica usually last?

It varies quite a bit from person to person. Some people see meaningful improvement within a few weeks, while others take longer depending on what’s driving the irritation, how long symptoms have been present, and how the body responds to care. The important thing is that most cases of sciatica do improve with the right approach. Staying active in a way that your body can tolerate tends to support a smoother recovery than rest alone.

Can sciatica go away on its own?

Sometimes, yes. Mild episodes may settle without treatment. But if symptoms are persistent, worsening, or affecting your ability to work, sleep, or move comfortably, it’s worth having it assessed. Understanding what’s contributing to the irritation early on can help prevent it from becoming a recurring problem.

Do I need imaging for sciatica?

Not necessarily, and not right away. A thorough hands-on assessment can often tell us more about what’s going on than a scan. Many findings on imaging, like disc bulges, are common even in people with no pain at all. We may recommend imaging if your symptoms aren’t responding as expected or if the clinical picture suggests it would meaningfully change the direction of care.

Is it safe to exercise with sciatica?

In most cases, yes, and it’s often encouraged. The key is finding the right type and level of activity that your body can handle without flaring things up. Completely avoiding movement can actually slow recovery by reducing the strength and resilience of the muscles that support your spine. We help you figure out what to keep doing, what to modify, and what to temporarily set aside.

What's the difference between sciatica and piriformis syndrome?

They can feel very similar, which is why they’re often confused. Sciatica is a broad term for symptoms that travel along the sciatic nerve, usually originating from the lower back. Piriformis syndrome involves irritation of the nerve deeper in the buttock, often caused by tightness or spasm in the piriformis muscle. The distinction matters because the approach to managing each one can differ. A proper assessment helps sort out where the irritation is coming from.

Can sciatica come back after it's resolved?

It can, particularly if the underlying factors that contributed to it in the first place haven’t been addressed. That’s why building and maintaining strength through the core, glutes, and hips is such an important part of long-term management. Think of it like maintenance: consistent work to keep the area resilient goes a long way in reducing the chances of a flare-up down the road.