Exercise with pain? Don’t exercise with pain? (Sciatica, SI joint injury)

I’m trying to wrap my head around sciatic pain on my right side, most likely related to “dashboard injury” a few years ago (with mild l5s1 facet arthropathy on x-ray)

I’ve heard two sets of advice:

1. keep exercising (walking, biking, etc) even if it hurts

2. don’t do anything that causes pain or “push through” pain, you’ll make it worse. Rest.

Any thoughts about how to determine which course is right for me? My md and physio say 2; my temperament and personality say 1 (but then that’s how I ended up in this position - ignoring worsening pain over the past couple of years).

For context:

• I’ve been doing a physio regime of exercises (glute bridges, big 3, core strengthening etc) and it’s helping but very very slowly)

-the pain is significant - up to 7 or 8 on the 1-10 scale and times - so pushing through is often not physically possible