At a glance
What this guide can help you understand
Understand leg pain related to the lower back, what a physiotherapist checks, and how treatment is progressed safely.
What should you bring to a consultation?
Share your main concern, when it started, what affects it, current medicines, and any reports or precautions you have been given.
See our clinical assessment approachWhen should you pause and seek medical advice?
Pause routine exercise and seek medical advice for sudden severe change, new neurological symptoms, breathing difficulty, chest pain, major injury, or feeling acutely unwell.
This guide is educational and does not replace diagnosis or urgent care.
Sciatica describes pain or altered sensation travelling from the lower back or buttock into the leg, commonly along the distribution of a lumbar nerve root. Not every leg pain is sciatica, so an accurate examination is important before choosing exercises.
What Your Physiotherapist Checks
Assessment may include the pattern of pain, pins and needles or numbness, muscle strength, reflexes, sensation, walking, spinal movement, and nerve sensitivity tests. The physiotherapist also checks whether symptoms are improving, stable, or becoming more neurologically concerning.
Treatment Goals
The early goals are to reduce irritability, maintain safe movement, protect strength, and help you return to ordinary activities. Depending on the findings, treatment can include education, comfortable positions, repeated movements, walking, trunk and hip conditioning, neural mobility, and gradual functional loading. Exercises are adjusted according to your response rather than prescribed as a fixed list.
What It Cannot Do
Physiotherapy cannot promise that every disc change will disappear or that pain will stop immediately. It can help many people improve movement, function, confidence, and symptom control, but persistent or worsening neurological signs need medical review.
Urgent assessment is needed for new bladder or bowel difficulty, saddle numbness, severe or progressive weakness, or symptoms in both legs. Do not delay care while trying online exercises.
Textbook basis: Principles are synthesised from O’Sullivan’s Physical Rehabilitation, Magee’s Orthopedic Physical Assessment, and Goodman & Fuller’s Pathology for the Physical Therapist.
Clinical sources & further reading
These public resources provide general clinical guidance. They do not replace an assessment or an individual treatment plan.
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