text: Now these stretches certainly aren’t a magic bullet, nor do I want to suggest that they will work for all sciatic cases and that every body should do them. Its definitely important that you treat sciatica with care, but understand that prevention is the best medicine and keeping your hips mobile and active will help and you may find these stretches are useful to do before and after a ride to really help prevent any flareups happening from being in the saddle.
  In the video I demonstrate each of the exercises, do it along side with me and look at for the adjustments to suit. Then try and do this series as a circuit as often as you can as a great prevention.
  Start by kneeling on the floor and slide your knees wide while drawing your feet together. Then fold your upper body down over your thighs and let the head rest on the floor. Let your hands rest down by your thighs on the floor and breath here for 30 – 60 seconds.
  Lying on your back, slide you feet in close to your bottom and lift up your hips by engaging your glutes. Let your hands rest on the floor and lengthen the back of your neck. Aim to hold this for 30 seconds.
  This helps alleviate tightness and pinching of the sciatic nerve through the release of the lower back, glutes, and hips.
  Come around into a pigeon pose, with both legs bent at 90 degrees. Position one leg bent in front and the other leg straight behind you. Turn your body around to face the ground and lower yourself down over your front leg onto your forearms. If the stretch is too deep, you can bend or straighten your back leg. Rather than lower yourself to the ground, you can bring yourself up higher with your arms straight.
  Lying on your back with your legs straight, bring one knee into your chest. Taking hold of your ankle, pull your leg towards to the opposite side. As you do so, you’ll feel a stretch in through your bottom. If the stretch is too deep, bending your straight leg may help make the stretch more comfortable for you. If you wish to intensify the stretch, bend your straight leg and place your heel on this thigh. Holding this knee, pull your legs toward you, deepening the stretch.