I had four herniated discs and sciatica years ago, all thankfully resolved non-surgically since. To me, it seems reasonable to not do anything that causes or triggers pain as, well, isn't that one of the body's ways of letting us know that something is making something worse?

I avoided the strongly recommended surgery by doing a lot of PT and other things like acupuncture and paying close attention to the results, tweaking the therapies in line with what seemed to work. It was a pro footballer who reminded me of this intelligence when he, at the insistence of his coach, 'powered through' an injury instead of working with his body to heal. The 'powering through' left him far worse off and ended his career of course. I found the books by Dr. Sarno helpful in separating, in a sense, pain that merited my attention and stress-related "pain" that I could safely work around. But the important thing is to work with your body's own intelligence and feedback loop.